Working in an agency setting, I’ve learned that PowerPoint presentations are usually being tweaked right down to the last minute. Sometimes you may have a beautiful looking slide and then less than an hour before you have to present, you realize you need to include more content and it destroys your formatting. Fortunately, right within PowerPoint, there are some quick and easy things you can do to update your slides and keep them looking great.

1)    Paste Options

Many presentations are put together in somewhat of a “Frankenstein” manner where you are copying and pasting slides from different decks. Depending on the PPT templates they originated from, this can cause a lot of issues with colors and formatting. A quick way to ensure that the slide you are copying into a new deck maintains the same look, is to use Paste Options. When you paste a new slide into an existing deck, you’ll see a little clipboard icon. This is the Paste Options button and it will give you the option to maintain the source formatting for the slide, or to bring it into the destination formatting (the current deck you’ve inserted it into).

2)    Pick up/Apply Object Style (Eye Dropper tool)

This tool isn’t a default on your toolbar but I highly recommend adding it. You can add items to the toolbar by going to the home button, selecting PowerPoint Options, then choose the item under the customize tab. The Pick up/Apply Object Style icon looks like an eyedropper. This is a useful item because you may want to add another shape to your slide that needs to look like an existing one. Simply click on the existing, already formatted shape with your Pick up/Object Style eyedropper tool, then click the Apply Object Style eyedropper and click on your new shape and it will apply all the same formatting.

3)    Theme Fonts Button (PPT versions 2007 and newer)

After completing a presentation, you may realize that you used the wrong font, or perhaps you just want a smaller font and need a quick way to update the whole presentation rather than manually adjusting all of the text. This can be achieved by clicking on the design tab in your PowerPoint menu and going to the Font option. This will give you a number of options that with one click, will update your entire presentation.

4)    Align/Distribute
Have you ever had to add or remove a category at the last minute, throwing off the spacing of your slide? You can fix this quickly by selecting all of the items you need to space out, then under the Format tab, if you click the Align dropdown menu, there are a number of format options to choose from to automatically space your items out evenly with one click. You can either align items so they are in a straight line, or you can distribute multiple items, keeping them spaced evenly horizontally or vertically across the screen.

5)    Shape/Text Effects (PPT versions 2007 and newer)

A quick way to give some style to your text or shapes without having to use an outside program like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator is by using some of the built-in options within PowerPoint. They can be found under the Format menu and will allow you to easily add things like a shadow, reflection, glow, bevel, or 3-D angle to your shapes and text.

So what PowerPoint shortcuts do you find handy?

One of the challenges to PowerPoint 2003 is/was swapping out images within an animation build. If you have a slide containing several animations such as text fly-ins, bullets appear, change of color, and a few image fades, it can take more time than anticipated to change a simple image. Utilizing PowerPoint 2007 the struggle is nearly non-existent with the “Change Picture” option.

(See the full-size image by clicking image above)

When you want to change an image/picture in your presentation, follow these simple steps (assuming you’re in PPT 2007):

• Click on the image in the slide you wish to change
• Navigate to the “Format” ribbon/tab
• At this point, you’ll see in the upper left corner (in the ribbon) the “Change Picture” option – click.
• This will prompt you to choose an image on your computer that you’d like to use instead of the selected
• Smile as you likely saved yourself time and aggravation if the image was part of animation!

If you’ve had any experience attempting to change pictures in earlier version of PowerPoint, you’ll agree this process in 2007 is much less painful. Yes, sometimes you may need to make some minor size adjustments depending on the images you’re working with, but that’s quite painless in comparison.

Whether your speaking to small, intimate groups or large audiences in a conference setting,  PowerPoint presentations are an excellent aid for sharing your message. But they should be just that, an aid. Your audience is interested in you…your ideas…your message, so let’s make sure it doesn’t get lost.

Before putting any words on your slides, take the time to draft an outline. Is it succinct while still providing room to hit each of your main message points? Does it have a clear progression through the information that supports your story? Did you edit it down, once…twice…three times? If you answered yes, then your ready to start writing.

Now the next step is very important. As you write your content keep in mind that you are the main focus of the presentation, not your PowerPoint slides. Your slides should support you without taking attention away from you. Here are some simple tips to keep in mind as you write:

1. Keep your words to a minimum by punctuating your points, not writing them as full sentences
2. When showing charts and graphs of numerical data, be clean and keep graphical effects to a minimum
3. Make sure your audience can see your content by choosing a large enough point size for your text
4. Create more impact with an image instead of defaulting to using a slide of bullets

These quick PowerPoint tips are simple for a reason. There is an overwhelming amount of guidelines online, many of which are excellent. But when your under the gun to create a presentation fast, you can easily get lost researching and lose track of “creating”. So think about your next presentation, is there a lot riding on it? If you applied the basics outlined here but feel you need more design experience to engage your audience, you may want to consult the help of a professional team.