Giving a polished, professional presentation is key to making a good impression, whether you’re speaking to clients, colleagues, or leadership. While PowerPoint offers many features to create visually compelling slides, certain tools can be particularly useful when actually delivering your presentation.
In this article, we’ll walk through 7 must-know PowerPoint features to help you confidently and effectively present your next slide deck.
1. Presenter Coach for Practicing Your Delivery
Before showtime, take advantage of Presenter Coach to get feedback as you rehearse. This AI-powered feature listens to your presentation and provides suggestions to polish your delivery.
To use it:
- Navigate to the Slide Show tab
- Click on “Rehearse with Coach”
- Begin presenting your slideshow
As you speak, you’ll see visual indicators if you’re going too fast, need to slow down, have filler words, or should pause. Use the tips to improve your pacing, clarity, and emphasis.
Practicing with an AI coach allows you to identify areas for improvement so you can deliver your presentation skillfully.
2. Presenter View for Accessing Tools During the Show
When presenting, take advantage of robust tools available in Presenter View to engage your audience. This interface shows your slides, notes, upcoming slides, and more.
To enable it:
- Go to the Slide Show tab
- Check “Use Presenter View” in the Monitors section
Once enabled, Presenter View will display automatically when you start your slideshow. Use the intuitive layout to access a timer, laser pointer, pen, highlighter, and other handy tools while presenting.
3. Zoom for Interactive Slideshows
Make your presentations more dynamic with PowerPoint Zoom. This feature lets you create slides with different zoom levels that you can navigate during your presentation.
For example, you can have a slide zoomed out to see an overview, then zoom in on different areas to share more details. This technique brings your content to life!
4. Morph for Smooth Animated Transitions
Take your slideshow to the next level with Morph, which lets you create cinematic motion transitions between slides.
Rather than simply cutting from slide-to-slide, you can have elements seamlessly transform and move during the transition for a polished animated effect.
5. Subtitles for Accessibility
Make your presentations more inclusive by enabling subtitles. This displays text captions of what you’re saying while presenting.
It’s an excellent way to accommodate audience members who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Enabling subtitles is easy:
- Go to the Slide Show tab
- Click “Subtitle Settings”
- Choose to display subtitles and select the language
6. Slide Sorter View for Managing Slides
When building your deck, use Slide Sorter view for an efficient way to organize your slides. This displays thumbnail previews of every slide so you can easily rearrange them.
To activate it:
- Go to the View tab
- Click “Slide Sorter”
This view enables you to quickly add, delete, duplicate, hide, trim, and manage slides to perfect your presentation flow.
7. Sections for Multiple Presenters
If multiple speakers will deliver the presentation, use Sections to smoothly transition between presenters.
This groups slides into different segments that can have separate slide numbering, allowing each presenter to focus on their part.
During showtime, speakers can navigate to their section without worrying about slide numbers getting mixed up. Using Sections keeps things simple when there are multiple presenters on deck!
Conclusion
With the right techniques, PowerPoint can help captivate your audience rather than bore them. Use these 7 features to deliver memorable presentations that leave a lasting impact.
From preparing with an AI coach to adding subtitles for accessibility, PowerPoint offers robust tools to showcase your content. Practice using these features so you can present confidently, knowing how to leverage PowerPoint to effectively convey your message.
Citations:
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-powerpoint-features-you-need-learn-the-prezenter-ltd
[2] https://www.ncsl.org/legislative-staff/lscc/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentations
[3] https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/easy-powerpoint-design-tricks-ht
[4] https://libguides.hccfl.edu/powerpoint/tips
[5] https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6012/17-examples-of-great-presentation-design.aspx
[6] https://www.howtogeek.com/847344/powerpoint-features-you-should-use-during-presentations/
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8pzXjFb9hw
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcITARGg3CQ
[9] https://alum.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2018-06/POWERPOINT%20BEST%20PRACTICES_1.pdf
[10] https://slideuplift.com/blog/good-powerpoint-presentation-examples/
[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJpDELfLjeA
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[15] https://www.dickinson.edu/downloads/download/520/sample_powerpoint_slides
[16] https://www.echorivera.com/blog/powerpoint-presentation-tips
[17] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/tips-for-creating-and-delivering-an-effective-presentation-f43156b0-20d2-4c51-8345-0c337cefb88b
[18] https://www.reddit.com/r/powerpoint/comments/10tmweq/tips_and_tricks_for_powerpoint_training/?rdt=43345
[19] https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/powerpoint-best-practices/
[20] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0dn0_zzRJg
[21] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcekDHs2HoQ
[22] https://mtss.tcnj.edu/other-services/teaching-with-technology/7-tips-for-designing-and-delivering-powerpoint-presentations/
[23] https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/powerpoint-tips-and-tricks
[24] https://elearningart.com/blog/powerpoint-tips/
[25] https://slidepeak.com/blog/50-tips-on-how-to-improve-powerpoint-presentations-in-2021
