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Interview: Creating attractive PowerPoint presentations

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Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP, designs and sells high-quality PowerPoint templates on his Internet site, Ppted.com . He also provides in-depth how-to information on his other site, Indezine.com , as well as writing the Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit . Geetesh graciously took some time to answer a few questions from the Visual Communication and Design blog.

All images in this post are taken from Ppted.com .

When you begin creating a PowerPoint presentation, do you decide upon the graphic design and visual appeal first, or do you organize the content and information first?Lyric Hums Template

One of the first steps to creating a presentation is applying a template (see my  previous post about “discovering” the right template). There’s a common factor that binds the template and the presentation. First, they are both part of a unified scheme. Then, they both have to work towards the same goal of creating simplicity and balance of design.

For most presentations, I assume that such a template is already in place. If there’s no such template available, I might have an idea about the design at the back of my head – something I would call inspiration.

In a presentation, the most significant part is content, and I don’t start looking at the visual parts consciously until I have the outline of the presentation in place. By ‘outline’, I don’t just mean the content in PowerPoint’s outline pane, but rather three related concepts:

· Actual text content, pruned and edited

· A story that evolves, and visual content that supports the story

· The flow from slide to slide – no assumptions and no flashbacks!

Would you agree with the statement that “animation distracts the audience from a presentation”? When would (or wouldn’t) you use animation?

Geometry 02To a certain extent, I would agree but I would not use that as an irrevocable mantra – a better statement would be:

“Animation that does not have a purpose is distraction. Animation that emphasizes the important is enhancement.”

 

What is your favorite, new, graphic design feature in PowerPoint 2010?

I love the new Artistic Effects in the Picture Tools – these are so amazing!

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