Most presentation advice is useless. It tells you things like "keep it simple" without explaining what that means. Or it shows you slides from Apple keynotes that took a design team six weeks to build.
This guide is different. It's for people who need to build a real presentation — a sales pitch, a class project, a work report — and don't have hours to spend on design theory.
Let's get into it.
Step 1: Plan Before You Open PowerPoint
This is where most people go wrong. They open PowerPoint immediately and start filling in slides. Then they wonder why the presentation feels scattered.
Spend 10 minutes with a pen and paper first. Write down:
- Who is your audience?
- What do you want them to do or believe after your talk?
- What are the three most important points?
If you can't answer those three questions, you're not ready to build slides yet.
Your audience shapes everything. A presentation for your CEO is different from one for customers, which is different from one for a college class. Same topic, completely different approach.
The One-Sentence Test
Before building anything, write one sentence that describes what your presentation is about. Like this:
"I'm going to show marketing managers why email newsletters outperform social ads for B2B companies, and give them three changes they can make this week."
If you can't write that sentence, your presentation doesn't have a clear point yet. Keep thinking.
Step 2: Use a Simple Structure
Every good presentation follows the same basic structure. It's not exciting, but it works.
Introduction (10-15% of slides)
Tell people what problem you're solving or what question you're answering. Give them a reason to pay attention. Don't start with your name and agenda — nobody cares about that yet. Start with something that grabs them.
A statistic. A question. A short story. Something unexpected.
Body (70-80% of slides)
This is your main content. Organize it into three to five main points. More than five and people can't remember anything. Fewer than three and you probably don't have enough substance.
For each main point:
- State the point clearly
- Show evidence or an example
- Connect it to what your audience cares about
Conclusion (10-15% of slides)
Summarize your main points. Tell people what you want them to do next. End with something memorable — not "thank you for listening."
The conclusion is where most presentations fall apart. People just run out of slides and say "any questions?" Don't do that. Have a real ending.
Step 3: One Idea Per Slide
This rule will improve your presentations more than anything else on this list.
One idea per slide.
When you put five ideas on one slide, your audience reads the slide instead of listening to you. They also can't remember any of the five ideas because they're all competing for attention.
When you put one idea on a slide, people can absorb it quickly and then focus on what you're saying.
Yes, this means more slides. That's fine. A 20-slide presentation with one idea per slide is better than a 10-slide presentation where every slide has eight bullet points.
The Bullet Point Problem
Stop writing bullet points that just repeat what you're going to say out loud. Bullets should be short anchors — three to five words max — not full sentences.
Bad: "Our new product has significantly improved battery life compared to the previous version"
Good: "Battery life: 3x longer"
If your slide has full sentences, people will read them and stop listening to you.
Step 4: Choose Two Fonts and Stick With Them
Font choices overwhelm people. There are thousands of fonts and most of them are fine. The mistake isn't picking the wrong font — it's using too many fonts.
Pick two. One for headings, one for body text. That's it.
Safe Font Combinations
- Montserrat + Open Sans — Modern, clean, works for almost anything
- Playfair Display + Lato — More formal, good for business or academic presentations
- Raleway + Merriweather — Slightly creative, good for design or marketing topics
- Roboto + Roboto Slab — Tech-friendly, readable at any size
If you're not sure, just use Calibri or Arial for everything. People won't remember your font choice. They will remember whether your slides were easy to read.
Font Size Rules
- Headings: 36-44pt
- Body text: 24-28pt
- Captions or small labels: 18-20pt
- Never below 18pt on a slide anyone has to read from a distance
Step 5: Pick a Color Scheme and Don't Deviate
You need four colors maximum:
- Background color (usually white or very dark)
- Primary text color
- Accent color (for headings, highlights, buttons)
- Secondary accent (optional, use sparingly)
Easy Color Scheme Shortcuts
If you're presenting for a company, use the company's brand colors. Done. No decisions needed.
If you're on your own, go to coolors.co and click the space bar until you find a palette you like. Pick one from there. It will already be color-balanced.
Contrast is Everything
Light text on dark background or dark text on light background. Never light on light or dark on dark.
If your text is hard to read, nothing else matters. Increase contrast first, style second.
Color Psychology (The Short Version)
- Blue — Trust, reliability, professionalism (finance, tech, healthcare)
- Green — Growth, health, money
- Red — Urgency, importance, warning
- Orange/Yellow — Energy, optimism, creativity
- Purple — Luxury, creativity, wisdom
- Black/White/Gray — Clean, minimal, works with anything
Don't over-think this. Pick what matches your topic and doesn't look terrible.
Step 6: Use Images That Mean Something
Stock photos of people shaking hands, or a lightbulb next to the word "ideas," don't add anything. They actually make your presentation look worse because they signal that you couldn't think of anything better.
Use images when they:
- Show something you can't easily describe in words
- Make data or concepts easier to understand
- Set a mood or tone
- Tell part of a story
Where to Find Free Images
- Unsplash.com — High-quality photos, free for any use
- Pexels.com — Similar to Unsplash, great selection
- Pixabay.com — Photos and illustrations
- Undraw.co — Free vector illustrations, great for tech topics
- Flaticon.com — Icons for almost any concept
Image Size and Quality
Use images at full slide width when they're the main point of the slide. Use smaller images as supporting visuals next to text.
Never stretch a small image to fill a large space. It will look pixelated and unprofessional. If you can't find a bigger version, use a different image.
Step 7: Embrace Whitespace
Whitespace is the empty space on your slide. Most beginners think empty space is wasted space. It's not.
Whitespace gives your content room to breathe. It directs the eye toward what's important. It makes your slides look more professional than almost any other single change you can make.
Practical rule: if your slide feels full, remove something. Keep removing things until it feels slightly sparse. That's probably about right.
Margins matter too. Don't let text or images go all the way to the edge of the slide. Leave at least an inch of margin on all sides.
Step 8: Use Slide Layouts Consistently
PowerPoint and Google Slides both have built-in layouts. Use them.
Consistency is the key to looking professional. When every slide has elements in a different position, the audience notices — even if they can't articulate what's wrong. It feels messy and rushed.
Pick a layout for:
- Title slides
- Section dividers
- Text + image slides
- Full-image slides
- Data/chart slides
Use each layout in the same way across your whole presentation. Same font position. Same margins. Same heading size.
Using Master Slides
In PowerPoint, go to View → Slide Master. This lets you set fonts, colors, and layouts once for the entire presentation. Change something in the master and it updates everywhere.
This is how you make a consistent presentation without manually fixing 30 slides when you change your mind about the heading color.
Step 9: Write Presenter Notes
Your slides should not contain everything you're going to say. They're visual support, not a script.
Put your script in the presenter notes section below each slide. Practice with them. Then try to use them less and less until you're speaking naturally.
Presenter notes are also lifesavers when someone asks for your slides later. You can send the deck with notes and they'll understand what each slide was about, even without hearing you present it.
What Goes in Notes
- The full explanation for what's on the slide
- Statistics or data sources
- Transition language ("Now that we've covered X, let's look at Y...")
- Reminders to yourself ("pause here for questions")
- Stories or examples that support the slide
Step 10: The Final Review Checklist
Before you call it done, go through these questions:
- Can you read every word from six feet away?
- Does every slide make one point?
- Do you have consistent fonts, colors, and layouts throughout?
- Have you removed every bullet point that's a full sentence?
- Does your conclusion tell people what to do next?
- Did you spell-check everything?
If you can answer yes to all of those, you have a professional presentation. Not a perfect one — those take years of practice. But a solid, credible presentation that won't embarrass you.
One More Thing: Share It Properly
Once your presentation is done, think about how you'll share it. PPTX is great for editing. PDF is better for sending — it looks the same on every device and nobody can accidentally mess up your formatting.
If you find a presentation on SlideShare that you want to reference or learn from, you can download it using SaveSlide's SlideShare downloader. It's free and takes about 30 seconds.
We also have a PPT to PDF converter if you need to convert your final presentation before sharing it, and a PPT compressor if your file is too large to email.
Good luck with your presentation. Now close this tab and go build it.