Presentation Secrets: Do What you Never Thought Possible With Your Presentations

DESIGNING ZEN SLIDES

Both PowerPoint and Keynote (pretty much any slideware) have Master Slides, which is another name for slide templates. They are used to give your presentation a uniform look. They establish fonts, colors, backgrounds, and positions for various elements of the canvas. If you choose your template wisely you increase the chance that your presentation will look decent. So, before discussing any actual slides let's have a look at some templates. I think that the choice of template is a good indicator of the general approach to design.

I have to note that a good template does not guarantee good slides; I have seen people ruin great templates with their “creativity.” However, following a bad template will definitely lead to poorly designed slides.

Slide Templates

Even if you work for a large company in which slide templates are set in stone, it's still important to understand how templates are supposed to look. I have noticed that people in large companies get tired of standard templates very quickly and start customizing them to suit their needs and personal taste. I am not saying that's a good thing. Most of the time, they end up creating something that's worse than before. But since you do have this ability, why not use it well? If there's a real need to modify the template, I doubt anyone would object.

I've seen quite a few corporate style guidelines in my life. ...