Are your slides consistent like clockwork? (c)iStockphoto/Sabrina Dei Nobili

Too frequently business presentations resemble a rough mishmash of different colors, fonts, and formats. If these slides were a meal, the variety of options on your plate would leave you with some level of indigestion. If you want to enhance the professional look and feel of your slides, you should ensure they are consistent. More…

Have you ever struggled to find just the right clip art for a particular slide in a presentation? You may have searched through PowerPoint’s extensive collection of clip art images and identified some possible options. However, the clip art weren’t exactly what you had in mind due to one of the following reasons:

• Image was okay but the colors didn’t match the rest of the images or slide background
• Image was close to what you wanted but it had a few extra details in the illustration, which were unnecessary or distracting
• Image contained a useful illustration but several background elements made the clip art unusable More…

If you have PowerPoint 2007, you may not realize that you can download a free add-in from Microsoft that allows you to export and save your business presentations as PDF files. This feature is not included in a standard installation of Office 2007. Over the years, I’ve used several third-party tools that provided this functionality; however, the translation of the PowerPoint presentations into PDF files usually exhibited some small flaws (e.g., poor conversion of images, objects with gradients, and shadows). More…

Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, written by Garr Reynolds, is an informative guide to presentation preparation, design, and delivery. If you’re not already familiar with the popular Presentation Zen blog, this book highlights many of his theories and techniques. If you’ve seen a presentation from famous presenters such as Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, or Steve Jobs, you’ll be familiar with the highly visual, stock-photo-heavy style that Reynolds advocates. Overall, I recommend this book (four of five stars) as a great resource for business presenters who want to improve their slides, not necessarily their PowerPoint skills. More…

As you build your PowerPoint slides you may wonder whether you should use clip art or pictures. Many presentation experts have touted the benefits of using stock photos to enhance your slides. Clip art doesn’t receive as much love from these experts, and some people have even suggested never using clip art. PowerPoint ninjas know that each type of presentation graphic is effective in different situations. More…