Avoiding False Advice

Hi Reader, how are things going?

Giving presentations is one of the most important skills to master - no matter which career path you choose.

The way you design your slides can make the difference between a good and a great talk.

Today, I’ll share my simple but powerful tricks to take your PowerPoint presentations to the next level - and I even made a little video for you!

Slide Design

At first, you must nail the basic design principles; otherwise, any advanced addition will just add noise. Let’s go through it super quickly:

Keep a margin
​Leave some space between your text or pictures and the edge of your slide. Without it, your slides feel cramped and overwhelming.

Create a clear visual flow
​Arrange your content so the audience’s eyes easily know exactly where to go next.If you combine items, keep them in the same relative position each time (e.g., text always below the image it explains).

Limit your fonts and sizes
​Choose a sans-serif font that matches your topic’s tone.
For example, a rounded font can feel friendly and playful, while a sleek, thin font can make your talk feel more serious or modern.

However, use no more than three font sizes across your entire presentation.

Now we can move to some spice that makes your presentation go from good to great.

Using Animations Effectively

Animations should serve one purpose: guiding the audience’s attention.

The simplest and most useful is the “Appear” effect.

Instead of showing everything at once, reveal each bullet point, image, or diagram only when you talk about it.

This keeps your audience focused on your words instead of jumping ahead and reading the entire slide. It also helps latecomers or people who briefly lose focus to quickly re-engage with the content.

Advanced animations

Fade In
Similar to “Appear,” but smoother. You can control the timing so that elements glide into view in half a second for a more polished feel.

Fly In
Ideal for sequences, like showing a stack of documents when talking about your previous publication or documents one after another.

Wipe
Perfect for showing processes or growth. For example, you can make an arrow “draw” itself onto the slide or reveal a bar in a chart from left to right, matching the direction of progress.

When using advanced animations, keep them purposeful and consistent—too much variation can feel like a slideshow of random effects.

The Hidden Key: Transitions

Slide transitions are an overlooked tool for professional presentations.

The “Morph” transition in PowerPoint detects identical elements between slides and automatically moves, resizes, or fades them to match their new position.

Here’s how you can use it effectively:

Zoom in on an image – Copy all your images from one slide to the next, move most of them off-screen, and enlarge the one you want to focus on. When you switch slides, the other images will slide away while your main image appears to zoom in naturally.

Create a visual reminder – Keep a small version of an image in the corner as you move on to a new point. This acts like a “breadcrumb” for your audience, reminding them of the bigger picture while you discuss details.

These small transitions can make your presentation feel like a seamless story rather than a disconnected set of slides.

Bonus - Sharing Experiences

These tips work best for in-person talks or recorded videos. In online presentations (e.g., Zoom), movement animations can appear laggy due to data transfer. It’s not a big issue, but too many “Fly In” effects can feel clunky for viewers.

Also, always keep a simplified version ready. Once, I gave a talk where the host’s computer had so little memory that even in-person my slides lagged - it took nearly 30 seconds just to enter presentation mode.

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