The tools that you need to create effective PowerPoint presentation slides is all located within the application itself. So your job is to figure out which tools will benefit you the most, here are some simple steps which you can follow to achieve your objective.

Keeping your power point slides to a manageable size is a good idea as you will be able to edit and run the slides smoothly during your presentation. The last thing you want is for the slides to hang in the middle of a presentation or a meeting. You can avoid such problems from occurring by using smaller sized picture, compressing large file types and using features that you can originally find in the PowerPoint applications such as charts and diagrams.

Other feature that you can benefit from is the “align or distribute” tool which can be used to arrange the items in your slides. With just a click you can achieve this and you won’t have to go through the hassle of nudging the objects until you tire your eyes. This particular tool can be selected from the “draw” menu. Besides this you can also use the ‘guides’ to space and align the objects, the guides can be utilized to measure the distance as well as maintain the position of the elements across multiple slides.

Should you desire greater accuracy in what you are seeing then you can use the zoom function. Just select the object which you intend to zoom on before changing the settings on the Standard toolbar, this step will help you eliminate the process of trial and error.

If you are sending the presentation slides through email and want the recipient of the slides to see to what you want them to see, then you can try to save it as a Slide Show. So when your recipient receives the file it will automatically open in slide show view. To do this you will need to go to “file” and click on “save as”; here click on the PowerPoint show. Another great way to save time and stress is to package your presentation slides onto a CD (a feature which can also be found on the PowerPoint application).

Here you will be able to run the presentation including all the linked files for any recipient that has a copy of the CD, besides this another great feature is that even though the recipient’s computer does not have PowerPoint it will still be able to run the slides.

Using Masters can help you save time and maintain a consistency throughout your slides. You can achieve this by placing the intended elements on the Slide Master, which will result in it being automatically appeared on the slide layouts. However if you wish to hide certain elements from certain slides you can still do so. Making your slides consistent is a great way to promoting your brand or logo as your clients or audience member will be able to recognize it after the first few slides (but make sure you have something that is worth remembering).

Picture courtesy of dantaylor

Danny Lau is a freelance writer who covers myriad topics including finance and careers. He’s currently a guest contributor for Mindshortcut.

Related posts:

1. How to Avoid Losing Your Temper When Preparing Your PowerPoint Slides If you have presentation to do for your meeting or...
2. How to Create Professional PowerPoint Presentation Slides Even If You’re a Beginner 10-Page Free Booklet Many people can create their own PowerPoint presentations but some...
3. Is It a Good Thing to Make Fun of Your Own PowerPoint Presentation? You might think that the title above was some kind...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Power Point Presentation Ideas

Related posts:

1. How to Create Professional PowerPoint Presentation Slides Even If You’re a Beginner 10-Page Free Booklet Many people can create their own PowerPoint presentations but some...
2. How to Avoid Losing Your Temper When Preparing Your PowerPoint Slides If you have presentation to do for your meeting or...
3. Is It a Good Thing to Make Fun of Your Own PowerPoint Presentation? You might think that the title above was some kind...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If you want to create simple and efficient slides – it would take longer time to complete depending how many slides you need to include in your presentation.

You can actually prepare your slides fast and avoid losing your temper – it’s all about strategy.

How do you actually do it?

Step 1: Gather all your resources and tools before you start creating slides

How could you possibly start a task if you don’t have a proper guidance or reference materials? It’s like climbing a mountain – you have to be well-equipped (i.e. bringing along tools like head gear, climbing shoes, ropes, and other climbing paraphernalia).

I have some basic tools for my slide preparation:

• Flickr’s Advance Search Tool – You can “steal” images that belong to Flickr users that are protected by Creative Commons license. By using this feature, you can find content to use commercially or modify, adapt or build upon. You have to attribute the work of the owner as specified by the licensor.

For example, I’m searching for pictures related to “presentation” by using Flick’s Advanced Search.

Then, I’ll scroll down the page and check the radio buttons as shown above.

• Multiple tabs feature (Mozilla Firefox or IE8) – At this feature, you can view multiple web pages when you’re performing content research.

  
  Limit yourself by using up to 6-8 tabs within one internet browser. By using this tab feature, you’ll be able to scheme through different articles or web pages rather than having multiple tabs at the taskbar. You can also leave those multiple tabs untouched when you turn off Mozilla Firefox browser – read more about it here.

Step 2: Increase your productivity by setting your goals in advance

You can set your goals based on this method – How to Create Your Own Four-Quadrate Weekly Goal Plan. You can change the duration into forty minutes, four hours, four day and etc (make sure it able to be divided equally into four quadrates).

Step 3: Promoting visual thinking in your slides

Promoting visual thinking is by using less text and inserting related images in your presentation slides (read this post: Visual Thinking – Create your own Drawing in your Decision Making Process). You can create images on your own – by drawing on post pads or blank paper. You can scan your drawings and save it into your computer, so that you can insert it into your slides.

Bear in mind that your drawings have to be simple and clear. You can also use additional shapes like arrows or text boxes from Microsoft PowerPoint software to enhance your drawings. You can get some ideas about drawing simple diagrams here.

Related posts:

1. Is It a Good Thing to Make Fun of Your Own PowerPoint Presentation? You might think that the title above was some kind...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

• You had set goals that are impossible to reach
• You had set goals that could take longer time to succeed

Let’s talk about basics before you proceed further. In a month, there are four weeks – one week consists of 7 days; or 30-31 days in a month. First thing, you need to have three basic things before you proceed:

• A pencil or a pen
• A piece of white paper
• A ruler

Here’s how you set your weekly goals with ease:

• Let’s put it this way, you divide four weeks into four quadrates (refer to the diagram above).
• List down your weekly goals in every quadrate. For example, I’ve set 40 goals for this month – that means 10 goals for each quadrate.
• In the lower right of the quadrate, please allocate some small space for “Target” – for example, how many goals that you’ve achieved so far.

Here’s how you use this Four-Quadrate Weekly Goal Plan:

• After a week, you need to review your goals. At the “Target”, write down total number goals that you have accomplished.
• If you couldn’t complete all your goals in the first quadrate, strike the uncompleted goals and write them down again in either second, third or fourth quadrate. You have to sort out these uncompleted goals according to your own preferences.

  

  For example, earlier, I had set 10 goals for 10 goals for the first quadrate (or for the first week) and I’ve achieved 5 goals for the first week. However, the uncompleted 5 goals, I will strike them out and write them again in the second, third and fourth quadrates. You need to arrange it properly as there are unaccomplished goals at the second, third and fourth quadrates.

• If you have uncompleted goals in different quadrates, you have to push yourself real hard to accomplish it. If you don’t hard to succeed it, your uncompleted goals will accumulate at one or all of your quadrates that can make this plan go terribly wrong.
• Once you have completed this weekly goal plan, review your work to accomplish your goals and your problems that affects your productivity. You can bring forward those uncompleted goals to the following month. Repeat to the second point on how to sort out your uncompleted goals.

Related posts:

1. Back to Basics – Providing Values as Your Main Core of Life It’s time to create values to people (no matter you’re...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.