Question: I need to create a PowerPoint presentation quickly for a presentation at the end of the week. Do you have any suggestions on how to make it look professional?
Answer: If you have just a short time to create a PowerPoint, most people are limited to using bullets. However here are a few quick tips to dress it up a bit:
- Go to https://info.unmc.edu/brandingresources.htm and select a PowerPoint template from the UNMC Branding page. Then use that template to create the presentation with bulleted items.
- After you have all of your text entered onto the bulleted pages, consider adding SmartArt for a slide that introduces, concludes or serves as the most important information in your presentation. Convert the bullets to SmartArt diagrams by right clicking your selected bullets and click Convert to SmartArt. If you don’t like the first style you select, you can select a different layout from the SmartArt Design tab.
- Add large dynamic photography — You can search Microsoft’s photos using a keyword appropriate for your presentation by going to Insert > Clipart and under Results should be, select Photographs and click Go. You also can search through UNMC photographs at the branding resources page toward the top of the page.
Often great photographs will be more memorable than a bulleted list of text. It has been suggested presenters use only photos and copy their bulleted text to the notes section of their presentation. This requires you to know or rehearse your topic well, but is often more effective.
ITS offers a hands-on PowerPoint Basics class that shows some of these features on Thursday, Dec. 13 from 1 to 4 p.m. in 8011 Wittson Hall. Register online.