How to Make a Presentation

Co-authored by Vikas Agrawal

Last Updated: October 4, 2023 Fact Checked

Presentations can be nerve-wracking to give. You’re far more likely to walk into a board meeting with confidence if your writing and visuals are compelling. Take time to carefully compose your story, practice and make a slideshow that will impress your audience. Thankfully, there are plenty of modern tools and programs that provide beautiful presentation templates.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Writing a Presentation

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Follow the traditional outline of introduction, evidence, insights and conclusion. Imagine you are writing a story and need to map out the plot.
Structure your report to respond to three aspects of the thing you are presenting or answer three questions, such as “what,” “why” and “how.” The human mind is set up to respond positively to three things in a list or in a presentation.

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This will help evoke a mental image and get them thinking critically about what you’re saying.
Balance that and then tell them why the data is important in each of your three sections. Remember, most of the data can be shown with visual aids, so don’t over report.
Instead of telling them the trends you see in the data, challenge them to find what the trends are telling the company. Build interaction into your presentation to avoid boring lectures.^{[1]
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Adjust your writing for each new audience you have. Research your audience so that you can better customize your presentation to their needs.
Practice it in front of a colleague or friend so that you can ask them what they’ve taken away from the presentation.
The audience may only leave with this impression.^{[2]
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A shorter presentation is likely to be memorable. If the presentation is over 30 minutes, you should consider cutting it back or breaking it up into several chapters.

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Creating Visual Aids

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If you don’t have a projection screen or you’re outside in full sunlight, a PowerPoint won’t be the best way to present your data. PowerPoint presentations are still the gold standard of the business world; however, you might be able to employ a laptop, a projector or even cell phones to ensure you are reaching your audience.
There’s very little reason to design your own template when so many slideshow programs give you compelling templates to choose from.
Consistency allows the listener to notice the information, rather than the way it’s presented. Don’t change colors, fonts or structure unnecessarily.^{[3]
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Use white space so that the audience’s attention is focused on particular data.
Your speaking will provide the insights, so give the data in the most straightforward way.
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Try using infographics. This is a chart or graph that incorporates pictures with data and words to form a coherent, and very attractive, story. You may need to use an infographic service or hire a graphic designer.
- The more you visualize the text and information available in the presentation, the better impact it is going to create on the audience's mind.
Make sure you don’t simply use stock imagery. Any way you can tie in company or emotional images will create a better response.
These things can detract from a presentation, rather than add to it. A no frills approach is usually best.
Ask someone else to proof them. Including typos or incorrect data will reflect poorly on you.^{[4]
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University of North Carolina Writing Center
UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process

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Part 3

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Using Presentation Tools

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Pick your slideshow program. PowerPoint is best if you are in a Windows-centric office and you need to share the presentation with others. Keynote is best in an Apple-centric environment.
- There are many more web-based services that you can use to develop your presentation. Some of these allow you to make and edit the presentation from a tablet or phone.
If you want to be able to pull your presentation up at any time, post it online for easy access. Use capabilities like Apple’s Airplay to push a YouTube clip to a large Apple computer.
Services like Knovio allow you to add narration so that your presentation can be posted in its entirety.
The newest presentation services allow you to use a more natural, story-like flow, so the presentation feels like navigating a website, rather than moving through slides.^{[5]
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You will reach more people and your presentation may even go viral. Make sure you have your company’s permission before doing so.
If you want a wider reach, then a good presentation can be shared using Facebook, Twitter and other outlets.

What Is The Best Way To Start a Presentation?

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Question

How can I make my PPT more attractive?

Vikas Agrawal
Visual Content Marketing Expert & Entrepreneur
Vikas Agrawal is a Visual Content Marketing Expert & Entrepreneur, as well as the Founder of Full Service Creative Agency Infobrandz. With over 10 years of experience, he specializes in designing visually engaging content, such as infographics, videos, and e-books. He’s an expert in Making content marketing strategies and has contributed to and been featured in many publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, and INC.com.

Vikas Agrawal

Visual Content Marketing Expert & Entrepreneur

Expert Answer

Try putting some motion graphics into your presentation—that'll make it look a lot more visually engaging. Videos, animated images, or LottieFiles are all great technologies you can use.

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Question

Can I use Google Slides as PowerPoint?

Vikas Agrawal
Visual Content Marketing Expert & Entrepreneur
Vikas Agrawal is a Visual Content Marketing Expert & Entrepreneur, as well as the Founder of Full Service Creative Agency Infobrandz. With over 10 years of experience, he specializes in designing visually engaging content, such as infographics, videos, and e-books. He’s an expert in Making content marketing strategies and has contributed to and been featured in many publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur.com, and INC.com.

Vikas Agrawal

Visual Content Marketing Expert & Entrepreneur

Expert Answer

Absolutely! In fact, Google Slides is kind of becoming the next step of PowerPoint. In PowerPoint, there are a few limitations—for instance, with PPT, you need to have all the fonts installed in your PC to get the best editability. However, Google Slides is a cloud-based application, so you get a similar interface to PPT that your whole team can collaborate on at a single point in time.

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