Designing PowerPoint slides

Most presentations require some visual aids, such as a PowerPoint or Prezi, to assist you with delivering the content. Well thought out visual aids can enhance your presentation and can help capture the audience's attention.

Always ensure your visual aids are relevant, easy to read/see, well conceptualised and well formatted. Visual aids should be written using academic English with correct APA (Counselling, Psychology, Social Work) or Harvard (Criminology) referencing.

Microsoft PowerPoint is the most commonly used software for creating presentation slides. There are a few steps to creating a great PowerPoint presentation:

Understand how to use the basic features of the PowerPoint software
Create slides that follow effective presentation guidelines
Reference the information and images you use in your slides

More information on these steps can be found in the Resources and Useful Links sections below.

Tips for using PowerPoint

Avoid having too many words on each slide as people will tend to read rather than listen. Use five or six lines where possible, with a maximum 10 lines of text per slide.
Use slides for key messages, quotes, examples, simple diagrams/charts and images.
Aim to use one slide for every 1-2 minutes of talk. The visuals should complement the speech.
Ensure the font is visible. Use size 32 to 36 font for headings and size 18 to 28 for the body text.
Choose a professional design and colours. The templates under the ‘Design’ tab in PowerPoint contain some good options.
Avoid animations, sound effects, flashy graphics and distracting backgrounds – this detracts from what you are saying.