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Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America

• Kristen M. Naegle

Published: December 2, 2021

• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554
• Reader Comments

Citation: Naegle KM (2021) Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides. PLoS Comput Biol 17(12): e1009554. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554

Copyright: © 2021 Kristen M. Naegle. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The author received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The author has declared no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The “presentation slide” is the building block of all academic presentations, whether they are journal clubs, thesis committee meetings, short conference talks, or hour-long seminars. A slide is a single page projected on a screen, usually built on the premise of a title, body, and figures or tables and includes both what is shown and what is spoken about that slide. Multiple slides are strung together to tell the larger story of the presentation. While there have been excellent 10 simple rules on giving entire presentations [ 1 , 2 ], there was an absence in the fine details of how to design a slide for optimal effect—such as the design elements that allow slides to convey meaningful information, to keep the audience engaged and informed, and to deliver the information intended and in the time frame allowed. As all research presentations seek to teach, effective slide design borrows from the same principles as effective teaching, including the consideration of cognitive processing your audience is relying on to organize, process, and retain information. This is written for anyone who needs to prepare slides from any length scale and for most purposes of conveying research to broad audiences. The rules are broken into 3 primary areas. Rules 1 to 5 are about optimizing the scope of each slide. Rules 6 to 8 are about principles around designing elements of the slide. Rules 9 to 10 are about preparing for your presentation, with the slides as the central focus of that preparation.

Rule 1: Include only one idea per slide

Each slide should have one central objective to deliver—the main idea or question [ 3 – 5 ]. Often, this means breaking complex ideas down into manageable pieces (see Fig 1 , where “background” information has been split into 2 key concepts). In another example, if you are presenting a complex computational approach in a large flow diagram, introduce it in smaller units, building it up until you finish with the entire diagram. The progressive buildup of complex information means that audiences are prepared to understand the whole picture, once you have dedicated time to each of the parts. You can accomplish the buildup of components in several ways—for example, using presentation software to cover/uncover information. Personally, I choose to create separate slides for each piece of information content I introduce—where the final slide has the entire diagram, and I use cropping or a cover on duplicated slides that come before to hide what I’m not yet ready to include. I use this method in order to ensure that each slide in my deck truly presents one specific idea (the new content) and the amount of the new information on that slide can be described in 1 minute (Rule 2), but it comes with the trade-off—a change to the format of one of the slides in the series often means changes to all slides.

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

Top left: A background slide that describes the background material on a project from my lab. The slide was created using a PowerPoint Design Template, which had to be modified to increase default text sizes for this figure (i.e., the default text sizes are even worse than shown here). Bottom row: The 2 new slides that break up the content into 2 explicit ideas about the background, using a central graphic. In the first slide, the graphic is an explicit example of the SH2 domain of PI3-kinase interacting with a phosphorylation site (Y754) on the PDGFR to describe the important details of what an SH2 domain and phosphotyrosine ligand are and how they interact. I use that same graphic in the second slide to generalize all binding events and include redundant text to drive home the central message (a lot of possible interactions might occur in the human proteome, more than we can currently measure). Top right highlights which rules were used to move from the original slide to the new slide. Specific changes as highlighted by Rule 7 include increasing contrast by changing the background color, increasing font size, changing to sans serif fonts, and removing all capital text and underlining (using bold to draw attention). PDGFR, platelet-derived growth factor receptor.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554.g001

Rule 2: Spend only 1 minute per slide

When you present your slide in the talk, it should take 1 minute or less to discuss. This rule is really helpful for planning purposes—a 20-minute presentation should have somewhere around 20 slides. Also, frequently giving your audience new information to feast on helps keep them engaged. During practice, if you find yourself spending more than a minute on a slide, there’s too much for that one slide—it’s time to break up the content into multiple slides or even remove information that is not wholly central to the story you are trying to tell. Reduce, reduce, reduce, until you get to a single message, clearly described, which takes less than 1 minute to present.

Rule 3: Make use of your heading

When each slide conveys only one message, use the heading of that slide to write exactly the message you are trying to deliver. Instead of titling the slide “Results,” try “CTNND1 is central to metastasis” or “False-positive rates are highly sample specific.” Use this landmark signpost to ensure that all the content on that slide is related exactly to the heading and only the heading. Think of the slide heading as the introductory or concluding sentence of a paragraph and the slide content the rest of the paragraph that supports the main point of the paragraph. An audience member should be able to follow along with you in the “paragraph” and come to the same conclusion sentence as your header at the end of the slide.

Rule 4: Include only essential points

While you are speaking, audience members’ eyes and minds will be wandering over your slide. If you have a comment, detail, or figure on a slide, have a plan to explicitly identify and talk about it. If you don’t think it’s important enough to spend time on, then don’t have it on your slide. This is especially important when faculty are present. I often tell students that thesis committee members are like cats: If you put a shiny bauble in front of them, they’ll go after it. Be sure to only put the shiny baubles on slides that you want them to focus on. Putting together a thesis meeting for only faculty is really an exercise in herding cats (if you have cats, you know this is no easy feat). Clear and concise slide design will go a long way in helping you corral those easily distracted faculty members.

Rule 5: Give credit, where credit is due

An exception to Rule 4 is to include proper citations or references to work on your slide. When adding citations, names of other researchers, or other types of credit, use a consistent style and method for adding this information to your slides. Your audience will then be able to easily partition this information from the other content. A common mistake people make is to think “I’ll add that reference later,” but I highly recommend you put the proper reference on the slide at the time you make it, before you forget where it came from. Finally, in certain kinds of presentations, credits can make it clear who did the work. For the faculty members heading labs, it is an effective way to connect your audience with the personnel in the lab who did the work, which is a great career booster for that person. For graduate students, it is an effective way to delineate your contribution to the work, especially in meetings where the goal is to establish your credentials for meeting the rigors of a PhD checkpoint.

Rule 6: Use graphics effectively

As a rule, you should almost never have slides that only contain text. Build your slides around good visualizations. It is a visual presentation after all, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, on the flip side, don’t muddy the point of the slide by putting too many complex graphics on a single slide. A multipanel figure that you might include in a manuscript should often be broken into 1 panel per slide (see Rule 1 ). One way to ensure that you use the graphics effectively is to make a point to introduce the figure and its elements to the audience verbally, especially for data figures. For example, you might say the following: “This graph here shows the measured false-positive rate for an experiment and each point is a replicate of the experiment, the graph demonstrates …” If you have put too much on one slide to present in 1 minute (see Rule 2 ), then the complexity or number of the visualizations is too much for just one slide.

Rule 7: Design to avoid cognitive overload

The type of slide elements, the number of them, and how you present them all impact the ability for the audience to intake, organize, and remember the content. For example, a frequent mistake in slide design is to include full sentences, but reading and verbal processing use the same cognitive channels—therefore, an audience member can either read the slide, listen to you, or do some part of both (each poorly), as a result of cognitive overload [ 4 ]. The visual channel is separate, allowing images/videos to be processed with auditory information without cognitive overload [ 6 ] (Rule 6). As presentations are an exercise in listening, and not reading, do what you can to optimize the ability of the audience to listen. Use words sparingly as “guide posts” to you and the audience about major points of the slide. In fact, you can add short text fragments, redundant with the verbal component of the presentation, which has been shown to improve retention [ 7 ] (see Fig 1 for an example of redundant text that avoids cognitive overload). Be careful in the selection of a slide template to minimize accidentally adding elements that the audience must process, but are unimportant. David JP Phillips argues (and effectively demonstrates in his TEDx talk [ 5 ]) that the human brain can easily interpret 6 elements and more than that requires a 500% increase in human cognition load—so keep the total number of elements on the slide to 6 or less. Finally, in addition to the use of short text, white space, and the effective use of graphics/images, you can improve ease of cognitive processing further by considering color choices and font type and size. Here are a few suggestions for improving the experience for your audience, highlighting the importance of these elements for some specific groups:

• Use high contrast colors and simple backgrounds with low to no color—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment.
• Use sans serif fonts and large font sizes (including figure legends), avoid italics, underlining (use bold font instead for emphasis), and all capital letters—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment [ 8 ].
• Use color combinations and palettes that can be understood by those with different forms of color blindness [ 9 ]. There are excellent tools available to identify colors to use and ways to simulate your presentation or figures as they might be seen by a person with color blindness (easily found by a web search).
• In this increasing world of virtual presentation tools, consider practicing your talk with a closed captioning system capture your words. Use this to identify how to improve your speaking pace, volume, and annunciation to improve understanding by all members of your audience, but especially those with a hearing impairment.

Rule 8: Design the slide so that a distracted person gets the main takeaway

It is very difficult to stay focused on a presentation, especially if it is long or if it is part of a longer series of talks at a conference. Audience members may get distracted by an important email, or they may start dreaming of lunch. So, it’s important to look at your slide and ask “If they heard nothing I said, will they understand the key concept of this slide?” The other rules are set up to help with this, including clarity of the single point of the slide (Rule 1), titling it with a major conclusion (Rule 3), and the use of figures (Rule 6) and short text redundant to your verbal description (Rule 7). However, with each slide, step back and ask whether its main conclusion is conveyed, even if someone didn’t hear your accompanying dialog. Importantly, ask if the information on the slide is at the right level of abstraction. For example, do you have too many details about the experiment, which hides the conclusion of the experiment (i.e., breaking Rule 1)? If you are worried about not having enough details, keep a slide at the end of your slide deck (after your conclusions and acknowledgments) with the more detailed information that you can refer to during a question and answer period.

Rule 9: Iteratively improve slide design through practice

Well-designed slides that follow the first 8 rules are intended to help you deliver the message you intend and in the amount of time you intend to deliver it in. The best way to ensure that you nailed slide design for your presentation is to practice, typically a lot. The most important aspects of practicing a new presentation, with an eye toward slide design, are the following 2 key points: (1) practice to ensure that you hit, each time through, the most important points (for example, the text guide posts you left yourself and the title of the slide); and (2) practice to ensure that as you conclude the end of one slide, it leads directly to the next slide. Slide transitions, what you say as you end one slide and begin the next, are important to keeping the flow of the “story.” Practice is when I discover that the order of my presentation is poor or that I left myself too few guideposts to remember what was coming next. Additionally, during practice, the most frequent things I have to improve relate to Rule 2 (the slide takes too long to present, usually because I broke Rule 1, and I’m delivering too much information for one slide), Rule 4 (I have a nonessential detail on the slide), and Rule 5 (I forgot to give a key reference). The very best type of practice is in front of an audience (for example, your lab or peers), where, with fresh perspectives, they can help you identify places for improving slide content, design, and connections across the entirety of your talk.

Rule 10: Design to mitigate the impact of technical disasters

The real presentation almost never goes as we planned in our heads or during our practice. Maybe the speaker before you went over time and now you need to adjust. Maybe the computer the organizer is having you use won’t show your video. Maybe your internet is poor on the day you are giving a virtual presentation at a conference. Technical problems are routinely part of the practice of sharing your work through presentations. Hence, you can design your slides to limit the impact certain kinds of technical disasters create and also prepare alternate approaches. Here are just a few examples of the preparation you can do that will take you a long way toward avoiding a complete fiasco:

• Save your presentation as a PDF—if the version of Keynote or PowerPoint on a host computer cause issues, you still have a functional copy that has a higher guarantee of compatibility.
• In using videos, create a backup slide with screen shots of key results. For example, if I have a video of cell migration, I’ll be sure to have a copy of the start and end of the video, in case the video doesn’t play. Even if the video worked, you can pause on this backup slide and take the time to highlight the key results in words if someone could not see or understand the video.
• Avoid animations, such as figures or text that flash/fly-in/etc. Surveys suggest that no one likes movement in presentations [ 3 , 4 ]. There is likely a cognitive underpinning to the almost universal distaste of pointless animations that relates to the idea proposed by Kosslyn and colleagues that animations are salient perceptual units that captures direct attention [ 4 ]. Although perceptual salience can be used to draw attention to and improve retention of specific points, if you use this approach for unnecessary/unimportant things (like animation of your bullet point text, fly-ins of figures, etc.), then you will distract your audience from the important content. Finally, animations cause additional processing burdens for people with visual impairments [ 10 ] and create opportunities for technical disasters if the software on the host system is not compatible with your planned animation.

Conclusions

These rules are just a start in creating more engaging presentations that increase audience retention of your material. However, there are wonderful resources on continuing on the journey of becoming an amazing public speaker, which includes understanding the psychology and neuroscience behind human perception and learning. For example, as highlighted in Rule 7, David JP Phillips has a wonderful TEDx talk on the subject [ 5 ], and “PowerPoint presentation flaws and failures: A psychological analysis,” by Kosslyn and colleagues is deeply detailed about a number of aspects of human cognition and presentation style [ 4 ]. There are many books on the topic, including the popular “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds [ 11 ]. Finally, although briefly touched on here, the visualization of data is an entire topic of its own that is worth perfecting for both written and oral presentations of work, with fantastic resources like Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” [ 12 ] or the article “Visualization of Biomedical Data” by O’Donoghue and colleagues [ 13 ].

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the countless presenters, colleagues, students, and mentors from which I have learned a great deal from on effective presentations. Also, a thank you to the wonderful resources published by organizations on how to increase inclusivity. A special thanks to Dr. Jason Papin and Dr. Michael Guertin on early feedback of this editorial.

• View Article
• PubMed/NCBI
• Google Scholar
• 3. Teaching VUC for Making Better PowerPoint Presentations. n.d. Available from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/making-better-powerpoint-presentations/#baddeley .
• 8. Creating a dyslexia friendly workplace. Dyslexia friendly style guide. nd. Available from: https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide .
• 9. Cravit R. How to Use Color Blind Friendly Palettes to Make Your Charts Accessible. 2019. Available from: https://venngage.com/blog/color-blind-friendly-palette/ .
• 10. Making your conference presentation more accessible to blind and partially sighted people. n.d. Available from: https://vocaleyes.co.uk/services/resources/guidelines-for-making-your-conference-presentation-more-accessible-to-blind-and-partially-sighted-people/ .
• 11. Reynolds G. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. 2nd ed. New Riders Pub; 2011.
• 12. Tufte ER. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd ed. Graphics Press; 2001.

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Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides

Kristen m. naegle.

Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America

Introduction

The “presentation slide” is the building block of all academic presentations, whether they are journal clubs, thesis committee meetings, short conference talks, or hour-long seminars. A slide is a single page projected on a screen, usually built on the premise of a title, body, and figures or tables and includes both what is shown and what is spoken about that slide. Multiple slides are strung together to tell the larger story of the presentation. While there have been excellent 10 simple rules on giving entire presentations [ 1 , 2 ], there was an absence in the fine details of how to design a slide for optimal effect—such as the design elements that allow slides to convey meaningful information, to keep the audience engaged and informed, and to deliver the information intended and in the time frame allowed. As all research presentations seek to teach, effective slide design borrows from the same principles as effective teaching, including the consideration of cognitive processing your audience is relying on to organize, process, and retain information. This is written for anyone who needs to prepare slides from any length scale and for most purposes of conveying research to broad audiences. The rules are broken into 3 primary areas. Rules 1 to 5 are about optimizing the scope of each slide. Rules 6 to 8 are about principles around designing elements of the slide. Rules 9 to 10 are about preparing for your presentation, with the slides as the central focus of that preparation.

Rule 1: Include only one idea per slide

Each slide should have one central objective to deliver—the main idea or question [ 3 – 5 ]. Often, this means breaking complex ideas down into manageable pieces (see Fig 1 , where “background” information has been split into 2 key concepts). In another example, if you are presenting a complex computational approach in a large flow diagram, introduce it in smaller units, building it up until you finish with the entire diagram. The progressive buildup of complex information means that audiences are prepared to understand the whole picture, once you have dedicated time to each of the parts. You can accomplish the buildup of components in several ways—for example, using presentation software to cover/uncover information. Personally, I choose to create separate slides for each piece of information content I introduce—where the final slide has the entire diagram, and I use cropping or a cover on duplicated slides that come before to hide what I’m not yet ready to include. I use this method in order to ensure that each slide in my deck truly presents one specific idea (the new content) and the amount of the new information on that slide can be described in 1 minute (Rule 2), but it comes with the trade-off—a change to the format of one of the slides in the series often means changes to all slides.

Top left: A background slide that describes the background material on a project from my lab. The slide was created using a PowerPoint Design Template, which had to be modified to increase default text sizes for this figure (i.e., the default text sizes are even worse than shown here). Bottom row: The 2 new slides that break up the content into 2 explicit ideas about the background, using a central graphic. In the first slide, the graphic is an explicit example of the SH2 domain of PI3-kinase interacting with a phosphorylation site (Y754) on the PDGFR to describe the important details of what an SH2 domain and phosphotyrosine ligand are and how they interact. I use that same graphic in the second slide to generalize all binding events and include redundant text to drive home the central message (a lot of possible interactions might occur in the human proteome, more than we can currently measure). Top right highlights which rules were used to move from the original slide to the new slide. Specific changes as highlighted by Rule 7 include increasing contrast by changing the background color, increasing font size, changing to sans serif fonts, and removing all capital text and underlining (using bold to draw attention). PDGFR, platelet-derived growth factor receptor.

Rule 2: Spend only 1 minute per slide

When you present your slide in the talk, it should take 1 minute or less to discuss. This rule is really helpful for planning purposes—a 20-minute presentation should have somewhere around 20 slides. Also, frequently giving your audience new information to feast on helps keep them engaged. During practice, if you find yourself spending more than a minute on a slide, there’s too much for that one slide—it’s time to break up the content into multiple slides or even remove information that is not wholly central to the story you are trying to tell. Reduce, reduce, reduce, until you get to a single message, clearly described, which takes less than 1 minute to present.

Rule 3: Make use of your heading

When each slide conveys only one message, use the heading of that slide to write exactly the message you are trying to deliver. Instead of titling the slide “Results,” try “CTNND1 is central to metastasis” or “False-positive rates are highly sample specific.” Use this landmark signpost to ensure that all the content on that slide is related exactly to the heading and only the heading. Think of the slide heading as the introductory or concluding sentence of a paragraph and the slide content the rest of the paragraph that supports the main point of the paragraph. An audience member should be able to follow along with you in the “paragraph” and come to the same conclusion sentence as your header at the end of the slide.

Rule 4: Include only essential points

While you are speaking, audience members’ eyes and minds will be wandering over your slide. If you have a comment, detail, or figure on a slide, have a plan to explicitly identify and talk about it. If you don’t think it’s important enough to spend time on, then don’t have it on your slide. This is especially important when faculty are present. I often tell students that thesis committee members are like cats: If you put a shiny bauble in front of them, they’ll go after it. Be sure to only put the shiny baubles on slides that you want them to focus on. Putting together a thesis meeting for only faculty is really an exercise in herding cats (if you have cats, you know this is no easy feat). Clear and concise slide design will go a long way in helping you corral those easily distracted faculty members.

Rule 5: Give credit, where credit is due

An exception to Rule 4 is to include proper citations or references to work on your slide. When adding citations, names of other researchers, or other types of credit, use a consistent style and method for adding this information to your slides. Your audience will then be able to easily partition this information from the other content. A common mistake people make is to think “I’ll add that reference later,” but I highly recommend you put the proper reference on the slide at the time you make it, before you forget where it came from. Finally, in certain kinds of presentations, credits can make it clear who did the work. For the faculty members heading labs, it is an effective way to connect your audience with the personnel in the lab who did the work, which is a great career booster for that person. For graduate students, it is an effective way to delineate your contribution to the work, especially in meetings where the goal is to establish your credentials for meeting the rigors of a PhD checkpoint.

Rule 6: Use graphics effectively

As a rule, you should almost never have slides that only contain text. Build your slides around good visualizations. It is a visual presentation after all, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, on the flip side, don’t muddy the point of the slide by putting too many complex graphics on a single slide. A multipanel figure that you might include in a manuscript should often be broken into 1 panel per slide (see Rule 1 ). One way to ensure that you use the graphics effectively is to make a point to introduce the figure and its elements to the audience verbally, especially for data figures. For example, you might say the following: “This graph here shows the measured false-positive rate for an experiment and each point is a replicate of the experiment, the graph demonstrates …” If you have put too much on one slide to present in 1 minute (see Rule 2 ), then the complexity or number of the visualizations is too much for just one slide.

Rule 7: Design to avoid cognitive overload

The type of slide elements, the number of them, and how you present them all impact the ability for the audience to intake, organize, and remember the content. For example, a frequent mistake in slide design is to include full sentences, but reading and verbal processing use the same cognitive channels—therefore, an audience member can either read the slide, listen to you, or do some part of both (each poorly), as a result of cognitive overload [ 4 ]. The visual channel is separate, allowing images/videos to be processed with auditory information without cognitive overload [ 6 ] (Rule 6). As presentations are an exercise in listening, and not reading, do what you can to optimize the ability of the audience to listen. Use words sparingly as “guide posts” to you and the audience about major points of the slide. In fact, you can add short text fragments, redundant with the verbal component of the presentation, which has been shown to improve retention [ 7 ] (see Fig 1 for an example of redundant text that avoids cognitive overload). Be careful in the selection of a slide template to minimize accidentally adding elements that the audience must process, but are unimportant. David JP Phillips argues (and effectively demonstrates in his TEDx talk [ 5 ]) that the human brain can easily interpret 6 elements and more than that requires a 500% increase in human cognition load—so keep the total number of elements on the slide to 6 or less. Finally, in addition to the use of short text, white space, and the effective use of graphics/images, you can improve ease of cognitive processing further by considering color choices and font type and size. Here are a few suggestions for improving the experience for your audience, highlighting the importance of these elements for some specific groups:

• Use high contrast colors and simple backgrounds with low to no color—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment.
• Use sans serif fonts and large font sizes (including figure legends), avoid italics, underlining (use bold font instead for emphasis), and all capital letters—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment [ 8 ].
• Use color combinations and palettes that can be understood by those with different forms of color blindness [ 9 ]. There are excellent tools available to identify colors to use and ways to simulate your presentation or figures as they might be seen by a person with color blindness (easily found by a web search).
• In this increasing world of virtual presentation tools, consider practicing your talk with a closed captioning system capture your words. Use this to identify how to improve your speaking pace, volume, and annunciation to improve understanding by all members of your audience, but especially those with a hearing impairment.

Rule 8: Design the slide so that a distracted person gets the main takeaway

It is very difficult to stay focused on a presentation, especially if it is long or if it is part of a longer series of talks at a conference. Audience members may get distracted by an important email, or they may start dreaming of lunch. So, it’s important to look at your slide and ask “If they heard nothing I said, will they understand the key concept of this slide?” The other rules are set up to help with this, including clarity of the single point of the slide (Rule 1), titling it with a major conclusion (Rule 3), and the use of figures (Rule 6) and short text redundant to your verbal description (Rule 7). However, with each slide, step back and ask whether its main conclusion is conveyed, even if someone didn’t hear your accompanying dialog. Importantly, ask if the information on the slide is at the right level of abstraction. For example, do you have too many details about the experiment, which hides the conclusion of the experiment (i.e., breaking Rule 1)? If you are worried about not having enough details, keep a slide at the end of your slide deck (after your conclusions and acknowledgments) with the more detailed information that you can refer to during a question and answer period.

Rule 9: Iteratively improve slide design through practice

Well-designed slides that follow the first 8 rules are intended to help you deliver the message you intend and in the amount of time you intend to deliver it in. The best way to ensure that you nailed slide design for your presentation is to practice, typically a lot. The most important aspects of practicing a new presentation, with an eye toward slide design, are the following 2 key points: (1) practice to ensure that you hit, each time through, the most important points (for example, the text guide posts you left yourself and the title of the slide); and (2) practice to ensure that as you conclude the end of one slide, it leads directly to the next slide. Slide transitions, what you say as you end one slide and begin the next, are important to keeping the flow of the “story.” Practice is when I discover that the order of my presentation is poor or that I left myself too few guideposts to remember what was coming next. Additionally, during practice, the most frequent things I have to improve relate to Rule 2 (the slide takes too long to present, usually because I broke Rule 1, and I’m delivering too much information for one slide), Rule 4 (I have a nonessential detail on the slide), and Rule 5 (I forgot to give a key reference). The very best type of practice is in front of an audience (for example, your lab or peers), where, with fresh perspectives, they can help you identify places for improving slide content, design, and connections across the entirety of your talk.

Rule 10: Design to mitigate the impact of technical disasters

The real presentation almost never goes as we planned in our heads or during our practice. Maybe the speaker before you went over time and now you need to adjust. Maybe the computer the organizer is having you use won’t show your video. Maybe your internet is poor on the day you are giving a virtual presentation at a conference. Technical problems are routinely part of the practice of sharing your work through presentations. Hence, you can design your slides to limit the impact certain kinds of technical disasters create and also prepare alternate approaches. Here are just a few examples of the preparation you can do that will take you a long way toward avoiding a complete fiasco:

• Save your presentation as a PDF—if the version of Keynote or PowerPoint on a host computer cause issues, you still have a functional copy that has a higher guarantee of compatibility.
• In using videos, create a backup slide with screen shots of key results. For example, if I have a video of cell migration, I’ll be sure to have a copy of the start and end of the video, in case the video doesn’t play. Even if the video worked, you can pause on this backup slide and take the time to highlight the key results in words if someone could not see or understand the video.
• Avoid animations, such as figures or text that flash/fly-in/etc. Surveys suggest that no one likes movement in presentations [ 3 , 4 ]. There is likely a cognitive underpinning to the almost universal distaste of pointless animations that relates to the idea proposed by Kosslyn and colleagues that animations are salient perceptual units that captures direct attention [ 4 ]. Although perceptual salience can be used to draw attention to and improve retention of specific points, if you use this approach for unnecessary/unimportant things (like animation of your bullet point text, fly-ins of figures, etc.), then you will distract your audience from the important content. Finally, animations cause additional processing burdens for people with visual impairments [ 10 ] and create opportunities for technical disasters if the software on the host system is not compatible with your planned animation.

Conclusions

These rules are just a start in creating more engaging presentations that increase audience retention of your material. However, there are wonderful resources on continuing on the journey of becoming an amazing public speaker, which includes understanding the psychology and neuroscience behind human perception and learning. For example, as highlighted in Rule 7, David JP Phillips has a wonderful TEDx talk on the subject [ 5 ], and “PowerPoint presentation flaws and failures: A psychological analysis,” by Kosslyn and colleagues is deeply detailed about a number of aspects of human cognition and presentation style [ 4 ]. There are many books on the topic, including the popular “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds [ 11 ]. Finally, although briefly touched on here, the visualization of data is an entire topic of its own that is worth perfecting for both written and oral presentations of work, with fantastic resources like Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” [ 12 ] or the article “Visualization of Biomedical Data” by O’Donoghue and colleagues [ 13 ].

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the countless presenters, colleagues, students, and mentors from which I have learned a great deal from on effective presentations. Also, a thank you to the wonderful resources published by organizations on how to increase inclusivity. A special thanks to Dr. Jason Papin and Dr. Michael Guertin on early feedback of this editorial.

Funding Statement

The author received no specific funding for this work.

Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

How to Make a Successful Research Presentation

Turning a research paper into a visual presentation is difficult; there are pitfalls, and navigating the path to a brief, informative presentation takes time and practice. As a TA for  GEO/WRI 201: Methods in Data Analysis & Scientific Writing this past fall, I saw how this process works from an instructor’s standpoint. I’ve presented my own research before, but helping others present theirs taught me a bit more about the process. Here are some tips I learned that may help you with your next research presentation:

More is more

In general, your presentation will always benefit from more practice, more feedback, and more revision. By practicing in front of friends, you can get comfortable with presenting your work while receiving feedback. It is hard to know how to revise your presentation if you never practice. If you are presenting to a general audience, getting feedback from someone outside of your discipline is crucial. Terms and ideas that seem intuitive to you may be completely foreign to someone else, and your well-crafted presentation could fall flat.

Less is more

Limit the scope of your presentation, the number of slides, and the text on each slide. In my experience, text works well for organizing slides, orienting the audience to key terms, and annotating important figures–not for explaining complex ideas. Having fewer slides is usually better as well. In general, about one slide per minute of presentation is an appropriate budget. Too many slides is usually a sign that your topic is too broad.

Limit the scope of your presentation

Don’t present your paper. Presentations are usually around 10 min long. You will not have time to explain all of the research you did in a semester (or a year!) in such a short span of time. Instead, focus on the highlight(s). Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

You will not have time to explain all of the research you did. Instead, focus on the highlights. Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

Craft a compelling research narrative

After identifying the focused research question, walk your audience through your research as if it were a story. Presentations with strong narrative arcs are clear, captivating, and compelling.

• Introduction (exposition — rising action)

Orient the audience and draw them in by demonstrating the relevance and importance of your research story with strong global motive. Provide them with the necessary vocabulary and background knowledge to understand the plot of your story. Introduce the key studies (characters) relevant in your story and build tension and conflict with scholarly and data motive. By the end of your introduction, your audience should clearly understand your research question and be dying to know how you resolve the tension built through motive.

• Methods (rising action)

The methods section should transition smoothly and logically from the introduction. Beware of presenting your methods in a boring, arc-killing, ‘this is what I did.’ Focus on the details that set your story apart from the stories other people have already told. Keep the audience interested by clearly motivating your decisions based on your original research question or the tension built in your introduction.

• Results (climax)

Less is usually more here. Only present results which are clearly related to the focused research question you are presenting. Make sure you explain the results clearly so that your audience understands what your research found. This is the peak of tension in your narrative arc, so don’t undercut it by quickly clicking through to your discussion.

• Discussion (falling action)

By now your audience should be dying for a satisfying resolution. Here is where you contextualize your results and begin resolving the tension between past research. Be thorough. If you have too many conflicts left unresolved, or you don’t have enough time to present all of the resolutions, you probably need to further narrow the scope of your presentation.

• Conclusion (denouement)

Return back to your initial research question and motive, resolving any final conflicts and tying up loose ends. Leave the audience with a clear resolution of your focus research question, and use unresolved tension to set up potential sequels (i.e. further research).

Use your medium to enhance the narrative

Visual presentations should be dominated by clear, intentional graphics. Subtle animation in key moments (usually during the results or discussion) can add drama to the narrative arc and make conflict resolutions more satisfying. You are narrating a story written in images, videos, cartoons, and graphs. While your paper is mostly text, with graphics to highlight crucial points, your slides should be the opposite. Adapting to the new medium may require you to create or acquire far more graphics than you included in your paper, but it is necessary to create an engaging presentation.

The most important thing you can do for your presentation is to practice and revise. Bother your friends, your roommates, TAs–anybody who will sit down and listen to your work. Beyond that, think about presentations you have found compelling and try to incorporate some of those elements into your own. Remember you want your work to be comprehensible; you aren’t creating experts in 10 minutes. Above all, try to stay passionate about what you did and why. You put the time in, so show your audience that it’s worth it.

For more insight into research presentations, check out these past PCUR posts written by Emma and Ellie .

— Alec Getraer, Natural Sciences Correspondent

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Ten smart ways to ace your next academic presentation

Using examples and practical tips, Dorsa Amir explains the techniques that ensure your presentation communicates its message effectively – from slide design to structuring your talk

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As a presenter, your main job is to guide the audience through your argument in the clearest, most engaging, most efficient way possible. You must respect the audience’s time and attention. This means being mindful of how long your presentation is, what you’re including in your slides, and importantly, how it is all packaged and presented.

A great presenter is one who is intentional: each element in the presentation serves a clear function and is intended to support the audience’s understanding of the content.

Here are 10 tips to keep in mind to ensure your presentation hits the mark

1. Any time you put something on your slides, its primary purpose is to help the audience, not you

Many presenters will add copious text or other elements to help themselves remember points they want to make. However, this is usually less helpful for the audience (most of this information belongs in presenter notes, and not on the slides). Think of yourself like a director of a movie. What do you want the audience to focus on at any given moment? What features on your slides will enhance the verbal point you are making and which will distract from it? Be intentional about what you include on your slides, and only include elements that serve a clear and helpful function for the audience.

2. Condense text to the main question or key points of the slide

It may be tempting to write out snippets of the script wholesale and add them to the slides, but this often results in PowerPoint karaoke, where the audience is simply watching you read the text out loud to them. While text is certainly useful for helping to concretise points or make slides more accessible, be judicious about what you include. Each slide should make one or two clear points. It’s better to have more slides with less content than fewer slides that are jam-packed. Of course, the amount of text you include will also be determined by the type of presentation you are giving. If students will be using your slides as a study aid, for example, you may want to include more information than if you are creating a research talk for a conference.

3. Avoid using too many colours, fonts or animations

Consider elements such as fonts, colours and animations as tools in your presentation toolkit. These elements should be used sparingly and only when they serve a clear purpose. I’m sure you’ve all attended a talk with colours bright enough to burn your retinas or crammed with “fun” fonts such as Comic Sans. Try to refrain from doing that. Animations that allow certain elements to appear or disappear along with your presentation — such as bullet points that appear as you say them — can help direct the attention of the audience. Colour contrasts are primarily helpful for visual segmentation or bringing attention to particular elements. Fonts, colours or flashy animations that are purely decorative are more distracting than helpful.

4. Avoid colour combinations that are hard to read

Be mindful of how colours interact with each other to either facilitate or inhibit comprehension. White text on black (or the reverse) is often a safe bet. Don’t overdecorate! (See above).

5.  If you’re showing a graph, orient the audience to the axes before plotting the data and make sure they can actually see all of it

I typically show the axes and labels first, making sure to orient everyone to the variables and how they are going to be visualised, and then I reveal the data. This ensures that everyone understands how to interpret the visualisation they are about to see. It is also helpful to restate the key prediction and tell the audience what they should expect to see if the prediction is true, and then plot the data. Use large sizes and clear fonts. I’ve heard way too many people say things like: “You probably can’t read this but…” To that, I want to say: “But you’re the one making the slide! You did this to us!” Don’t be that person.

6.  Use high-resolution images or videos

This is especially true for presentations that will be projected onto a larger surface. If it’s fuzzy on your computer screen, it will look even fuzzier when magnified and projected. Try to integrate high-resolution images and vector graphics to avoid this. When your images contain text, delete those portions and re-enter the text in text boxes that will scale up much more clearly when magnified.

7. When illustrating results, identify one or two key graphs to make your point

The temptation is often to show the audience every single result you found, but this dilutes the overall message you are trying to send. There’s no need to visualise everything: you should focus on the key graphs that tell most or all of the story. If you have built up the presentation in the right way, when the audience see your data visualisation, they will immediately understand what you found and whether it supports your hypothesis. That’s how clear and accessible the graph should be.

8.  Don’t overload the audience with unnecessary complex jargon or acronyms

Every time you introduce a new term or a brand new acronym (BNA), you are asking the audience to do you a favour and commit this new item to working memory. The audience doesn’t know your presentation; they don’t know what’s going to be important later and what isn’t. They’re trusting that you are only presenting information to them that is relevant and they’re doing their best to follow along. Make this process as easy and enjoyable as possible for them. Be judicious with what you ask them to remember or commit to memory. If you can explain a concept without jargon, avoid the jargon!

9. Enhance accessibility

The Web Accessibility Initiative has a great set of guidelines that I will summarise here. Use easy-to-read fonts in large sizes. Make sure there is enough contrast between colours to make them discernible. When giving virtual talks, consider turning on automatic closed captioning. If it’s feasible, provide annotated slide handouts. During the presentation itself, speak clearly and loudly, avoiding unnecessarily complex vocabulary or culturally specific idioms. Where possible, use a microphone. You should also try to verbally describe pertinent parts of visual information on your slides, such as graphics or videos.

10. Use outline slides and marker slides to segment information

Research shows that we understand and remember information better when it comes in bite-size pieces; think of chapters in a book. To incorporate this structure into your talk, break apart the presentation into smaller pieces. Always incorporate an outline slide that previews the structure of the talk and gives the audience a sense of what to expect. Also, use marker slides to communicate that a new section is beginning. And make sure to wrap up each section with a summary slide.

Dorsa Amir is a postdoc in the department of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

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How To Design PowerPoint Slides For Academic Presentations

Gunjan Gupta

The much-maligned PowerPoint is not dead. In fact, it is not even near to its end, no matter how smothered it may seem due to its far more prevailing and awarding history.  

Whether delivered through PowerPoint, Keynote, PC, Mac, or any other platform, bad slides are always tormented for being sleep inducers (termed as DEATH BY POWERPOINT) that make the audience cringe and regret their second serving at the buffet. 

We all have suffered through those long-winded speeches, horrible slideshows with nothing to reflect upon, hot mess PowerPoint presentations, and whatnot that totally undermine the point of ‘visual’ representations. Due to the long list of unreadable and jarred text, pixelated clip art, and the constant habit of the presenter turning a blind eye to the fact that his presentation is a torturous experience, slides have always been reprimanded as “Bad”. They have always received a bad rep in the history of visual art due to ‘information overload’. 

But, the fact that no matter how embroiled slides are, they are always a prerequisite and an essential part of our work.  Whether it is a major business conference, a small group meeting, or a thesis defense topic, having good quality presentation slides is a must. If done well, they serve as visual reinforcements that speak the language you like. If not, well you know it better! 

Although the basic principles are still applicable like “limit your text servings”,  “keep it simple” and others that can be navigated across all the Internet pages, we have a few extra tips that can make your complicated slide designing process, less tormenting and more rewarding!  

But, first, let us start with the basics! 

What you see up front is not what your audience will see

Consider this as a thumb-rule! Although rules are meant to be broken, not this one! 

Why? Hear us and then decide! 

If you are using a modern laptop with a pretty good display quality in terms of resolution and contrast, there is nothing to worry about. But what if you are catering to three or more people? Then obviously, a good laptop with a decent color display simply won’t cut it. While projecting on a large screen, the images, fonts and other elements are to be chosen wisely and competently, because they may not seem as clear as they are on a small laptop screen. 

Consequently, the room layout is also an important factor to consider. In dedicated lecture theatres, people might have an unobstructed view of the screen, but that is not the case with small enclosed auditoriums, jam-packed with an audience far more than required, meaning most of the people will have a partial view. 

These less-than-ideal conditions should always be borne in mind and reflected upon if you want your presentation slides to work their magic. Therefore, it was important to get them out of our way first. 

That being said, let us break down all the potential tips for designing and delivering good presentation slides! 

1. Say No to “Junk” 

PowerPoint software was designed to support the visual message and the speaker. Slides were never meant to be the star of the show in the first place, they were meant to be supporting actors that shielded and made the true star (You: the speaker) look good. This is why slides brimming with unnecessary stuff like charts, fancy backgrounds, and others derail and defeat the entire purpose of presenting. They hinder the process of communicating the actual message to the audience, or as Edward Tulle calls it turns it into a ‘Chart Junk’.Therefore, nothing in your slide should be superfluous, rather it should contain enough “white space” or negative space as filling it with unnecessary graphics will not contribute to it becoming a piece of art. The less the clutter, the more powerful the visual message!

2. Typography- Serif or Sans-Serif?

Non-designers often stress the importance of choosing the right typeface for their presentations and for a good reason. The wrong font can be a serious turnoff and more so when it is not legible to all your audience. Typefaces can communicate a mood, set the tone right, and reflect a point in time, so choosing the right typeface is necessary. For academic presentations, serifs fonts can look crappy and lousy because of their finer details. Also, when viewed from a distance on a large screen, they may seem to be blurry and inconsistent. Therefore choose the old style sans-serifs fonts that are simple, less finely milled, and sharply edged to help create a balance. Fonts like Arial and Helvetica are safer choices to play with. They feel more formal and professional, ensuring that your slide design remains inside the realm of the neat and polished layout. 

3. Use high-quality graphics and imagery 

Death to screen beans! 

Low-quality images are “visual cliches” and make your presentation look flat out cliche and unprofessional. They show a lack of creative intellect and adherence to the most basic presentation design rule to “use high-quality imagery.” While presenting on a larger screen, the biggest issue is image pixelation, which is why a presenter needs to make certain that all the images used are of high resolution. These high- quality images can also be thematic to reinforce your Big 

Idea competently. 

Ideal presentation slide images should be:

4. Leave the Fireworks to Walt Disney

It is great to know how to add visual elements to a design by transforming the text into shapes, making images spin- but, leave the fireworks to Disney. Let them do what they are best at and focus on conveying the true meaning of your presentation. Your job is to make your speech the star of the show. Simple transitions, bare minimum animations, clean and polished fonts, attractive graphics trump creative PowerPoint tricks every time. So, stick with plain and simple rather than over-the-top and fancy! 

5. Use the top half 

Unless an event management presentation is to be designed, specifically showing the venue where an unobstructed view for the audience is guaranteed, try using just the top half of the slide.

This restricts the amount of space available for you to play with, making the slide look neat, polished, and professionally sound. 

6. Ditch the “Me” paradigm 

Recklessly scanning a graphical image or a table from the existing print file material and including it in the presentations is the biggest presentation sin referred to as the “Me” paradigm. A majority of presenters commit this crime, resulting in a sub-optimal presentation slide. Print visuals are actually meant to be viewed from a distance of 8-12 inches, not more than that. If the distance is exceeded it can result in image pixelation. Typically these images are text-laden and too detailed, so the most you refrain from using such images, the better your slides will be. The same is true for font size; 12 points or lesser font simply won’t do. For an optimally designed slideshow to be presented in a conference room, a minimum of 40 point font fulfills the legibility criteria. 

Note- Remember,  move the circle from “me” to “we” to help create an impact, strong enough to induce call-to-action! 

7. Practice, Practice and Practice 

More important than the slides, is planning the delivery beforehand. Practice your talk (speak loudly and fluently, carefully scanning every important point you want your audience to ponder upon) and make sure:

• They fit the time criteria
• Are neatly aligned 
• The opening and closing statements are well-scripted 

8. Last but no the least: When in doubt, dump it

If you are AI Gore explaining CO2 emissions or Jeff Besos for that matter, slides are essential- but not always!  If not, pre-designed slides that have all the elements neatly and professionally presented that can act as a valuable asset. 

One last thing and probably the most important of all is; if you are a solo flyer, with no A/V assistance, then pack a remote with spare batteries to suffice your flight filled with turbulencies. Nothing is worse than looking at a miserably confused presenter, hunting for the right key to peck away the advanced slides! 

We hope you enjoyed reading the tips and will apply a few to make your slides AWESOME! 

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 Academic Presentations

Academic presentations are an integral part of university study and assessment. Academic presentations may be presented individually or as a group activity but both require the key skills of planning and structuring key information. The key difference between an academic presentation and a general presentation is that it is usually quite formal and includes academic research to evidence the ideas presented. The presentation will include references to credible sources and demonstrate clearly your knowledge and familiarity of the topic.

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Giving a good academic presentation

• Think about the aim of your presentation and what you want to achieve.
• Concentrate on your audience: who   they are and  what   they (want to) know.
• Choose the topic that interests you: involvement and motivation are key to confidence.
• Give your presentation a  clear   and  logical   organization so that everyone can follow.
• Present information  visually : this adds interest to your talk and makes it easier to follow.
• Practise giving your presentation until you are familiar with the key points; this way you may discover any potential problems and check the timing. Besides, practice will also make you feel more confident.

Basic outline / structure

• Introduction: introduce the topic, some basic background, thesis (your stance or argument).
• Outline: provide basic bullet points on the key parts of the presentation.
• Main body: divide the main body into sections.
• Evaluation: always include evaluation. This can be a separate section or part of the main body.
• Conclusion: summarise key points, restate the thesis and make a recommendation / suggestion / prediction.
• Reference list: create one slide with all your sources.
• Questions : be prepared to answer questions.
• Cope with nerves: breathe deeply; it calms you down and stops you from talking too quickly.
• Control your voice: speak clearly and try to sound interesting by changing intonation and rhythm.
• Watch your body language: try to give the impression that you are relaxed and confident.
• Maintain eye contact with your audience: it keeps them interested in what you are saying. For this reason, you should not read.
• Provide visual information, but do not give too many facts at a time. Give your audience enough time to take them in.
• Keep attention by asking rhetorical questions.

 Advanced Signposting Language –

key language phrases for presentation

Presentation Speaking Criteria

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An Introduction to Academic Presentations

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Suitable phrases to use for greeting, structuring, examples, transitions summarising and  concluding .

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Improve your Presentation PowerPoint Slides

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A Basic PPT Presentation

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Presentations and posters

Most presentations that you see are not using PowerPoint as effectively as they could and so are not necessarily examples of good practice. Simply following the style of many presentations you see is therefore not the way to produce the best presentations that you can - at university and beyond.

Many lessons come from the world of business which is now moving away from text-rich slides full of bullet points to more visually interesting slides. Death by PowerPoint is a phrase often used to describe a presentation that is so dominated by the excessive use of PowerPoint features (bullet points, animations, complex diagrams, clip art etc) that the important content is lost and any enthusiasm or interest that the audience had for the topic is killed by the end of it.

The pages in this guide will introduce you to good practice in creating and delivering presentations which should ensure that your content is given centre stage and your audience is engaged with both you and your material.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation of Your Research Paper

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Table of Contents

A research paper presentation is often used at conferences and in other settings where you have an opportunity to share your research, and get feedback from your colleagues. Although it may seem as simple as summarizing your research and sharing your knowledge, successful research paper PowerPoint presentation examples show us that there’s a little bit more than that involved.

In this article, we’ll highlight how to make a PowerPoint presentation from a research paper, and what to include (as well as what NOT to include). We’ll also touch on how to present a research paper at a conference.

Purpose of a Research Paper Presentation

The purpose of presenting your paper at a conference or forum is different from the purpose of conducting your research and writing up your paper. In this setting, you want to highlight your work instead of including every detail of your research. Likewise, a presentation is an excellent opportunity to get direct feedback from your colleagues in the field. But, perhaps the main reason for presenting your research is to spark interest in your work, and entice the audience to read your research paper.

So, yes, your presentation should summarize your work, but it needs to do so in a way that encourages your audience to seek out your work, and share their interest in your work with others. It’s not enough just to present your research dryly, to get information out there. More important is to encourage engagement with you, your research, and your work.

Tips for Creating Your Research Paper Presentation

In addition to basic PowerPoint presentation recommendations, which we’ll cover later in this article, think about the following when you’re putting together your research paper presentation:

• Know your audience : First and foremost, who are you presenting to? Students? Experts in your field? Potential funders? Non-experts? The truth is that your audience will probably have a bit of a mix of all of the above. So, make sure you keep that in mind as you prepare your presentation.

Know more about: Discover the Target Audience .

• Your audience is human : In other words, they may be tired, they might be wondering why they’re there, and they will, at some point, be tuning out. So, take steps to help them stay interested in your presentation. You can do that by utilizing effective visuals, summarize your conclusions early, and keep your research easy to understand.
• Running outline : It’s not IF your audience will drift off, or get lost…it’s WHEN. Keep a running outline, either within the presentation or via a handout. Use visual and verbal clues to highlight where you are in the presentation.
• Where does your research fit in? You should know of work related to your research, but you don’t have to cite every example. In addition, keep references in your presentation to the end, or in the handout. Your audience is there to hear about your work.
• Plan B : Anticipate possible questions for your presentation, and prepare slides that answer those specific questions in more detail, but have them at the END of your presentation. You can then jump to them, IF needed.

What Makes a PowerPoint Presentation Effective?

You’ve probably attended a presentation where the presenter reads off of their PowerPoint outline, word for word. Or where the presentation is busy, disorganized, or includes too much information. Here are some simple tips for creating an effective PowerPoint Presentation.

• Less is more: You want to give enough information to make your audience want to read your paper. So include details, but not too many, and avoid too many formulas and technical jargon.
• Clean and professional : Avoid excessive colors, distracting backgrounds, font changes, animations, and too many words. Instead of whole paragraphs, bullet points with just a few words to summarize and highlight are best.
• Know your real-estate : Each slide has a limited amount of space. Use it wisely. Typically one, no more than two points per slide. Balance each slide visually. Utilize illustrations when needed; not extraneously.
• Keep things visual : Remember, a PowerPoint presentation is a powerful tool to present things visually. Use visual graphs over tables and scientific illustrations over long text. Keep your visuals clean and professional, just like any text you include in your presentation.

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Another key to an effective presentation is to practice, practice, and then practice some more. When you’re done with your PowerPoint, go through it with friends and colleagues to see if you need to add (or delete excessive) information. Double and triple check for typos and errors. Know the presentation inside and out, so when you’re in front of your audience, you’ll feel confident and comfortable.

How to Present a Research Paper

If your PowerPoint presentation is solid, and you’ve practiced your presentation, that’s half the battle. Follow the basic advice to keep your audience engaged and interested by making eye contact, encouraging questions, and presenting your information with enthusiasm.

We encourage you to read our articles on how to present a scientific journal article and tips on giving good scientific presentations .

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The Best Resources for Academic Presentation Templates

Many people in academia — undergraduates, graduate students, and professors alike — feel intimidated at the thought of designing eye-catching presentations that provide the perfect balance of information, images, and data while using appropriate colors and fonts.

If you've ever had to endure a presentation in which the presenter read verbatim from a text-heavy PowerPoint® slide, you probably vowed to never make that same mistake. To help you design professional slides regardless of your artistic skills or technical comfort level, I have compiled a list of the best online sources for academic presentation templates. Since many people in academia are working with limited incomes, I have placed priority on sources that offer free templates, and I have focused on user-friendly sites that are easy to navigate. Combine your academic research with the templates and other design features from one of these sites, and your presentation will be finished in no time.

Canva is an incredible online resource that features a variety of templates to help you design anything from custom baby shower invitations to academic presentations. Its user-friendly features ensure that even the least artistic person will be able to produce visually effective presentations.

Canva's flexible layout options make it easy to change your slide theme, add or remove images, and represent your visual data with timelines, pie charts, donut charts, pictograms, and more. You can enter keywords to search Canva's royalty-free stock images if you need to add visual elements, and you can even narrow your search based on the colors in the stock images. For overall slide design, Canva even suggests complementary color groups to help those of us who tend to add too many hues from the color wheel.

If you are feeling adventurous and want to create a dynamic presentation with embedded videos and animated slides, Canva will guide you through the process in just a few clicks . Once you have finished your presentation, you can present it through Canva's website, or you can download the finished presentation as a PowerPoint or pdf file.

You will have to create an account to use Canva's design platform. Canva features both free and paid presentation templates as well as free and paid stock images and backgrounds, so it is a resource that fits within any budget.

Most students (and their parents) became quite adept at navigating the many offerings within the Google Education suite during the virtual learning phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the two years since Google Classroom made virtual learning possible, Google has continued to improve and advance the free templates available for Google Slides.

Google Slides offers an impressive variety of templates that you can customize with text, images, and animated transitions between slides. Google Slides streamlines its customization choices so users do not waste hours (or days) changing backgrounds, fonts, and colors. Once you choose a particular theme for your presentation, your customizing options are limited, so you can focus on inputting your data instead of wasting all your time on custom backgrounds for each slide.

One benefit of Google Slides is that users can make changes moments before presenting, and once in Presentation mode, you can easily toggle between slides by pressing the spacebar or the arrow keys. Google Slides also offers space for speaker notes, so you can write down any important talking points that you do not want to be included on the presented slide. The downside of this feature is that once you switch to Present mode for your presentation, you cannot see the speaker notes anymore. Some people circumvent this issue by using two computers—one set in Present mode that shows only the final presentation to the audience, and a second computer for the speaker to look at so he or she can access the speaker notes. If you do not have access to two computers, you can print out the speaker notes for reference.

If you already have a Google account, you can create a Google Slide presentation for free, and your work should be automatically saved to your personal Google Drive. If you do not have a Google account, you will most likely have to set one up before you can use Google Slides. Google Slides are free for personal use, and a paid option is available through Google Workspace .

Whether you are a teacher looking to showcase science, history, geography, or other subjects' lessons in a fun yet impactful manner or a student who has been assigned a task to deliver a presentation on the given project assignment, you can count on SketchBubble.

SketchBubble has an impressive collection of academic PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes to help you spellbind your audience with polished and visually appealing presentations. Each slide boasts aesthetic design, brilliant color scheme, dynamic animation effect, and high-definition graphics to make your content engaging and presentations more lively.

The 100% customizable templates are designed for ease of use in all types of educational settings-classroom, online, or hybrid. You can effortlessly modify the slides to match the subject's complexity and students' learning level, giving you complete control over your presentations.

SketchBubble provides both free and paid presentation templates. The paid plans are available on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. To download templates, you have to create an account on SketchBubble. After downloading templates once, you can access them for a lifetime.

Slides Carnival offers a fantastic selection of free presentation templates that users can download as PowerPoint templates or Google Slides. You can search templates based on color preference or presentation topic, and then you can download the template and customize it with your research and information.

Out of all the sites on this list, Slides Carnival offers the best selection of slides for science and data presentations , and it might offer the best variety of professional-looking designs overall. With more than 200 free templates available, Slides Carnival is a great resource if you are looking for free slides that look expensive.

The only downside to Slides Carnival is that it does not seem to offer the extensive stock photo and font choices that sites such as Canva provide. However, if you already have your own graphs and images prepared, Slides Carnival is probably your best choice for a free professional presentation template that you can customize and make your own.

Slides Carnival provides all of its presentation templates for free, and there are no upgrades or paid options. Unlike most other sites on this list, you do not even have to create an account to download templates on Slides Carnival. In return for using one of Slides Carnival's templates, they require that you attribute Slides Carnival and provide a link to their website.

SlidesGo offers presentation templates that users can download and edit in Google Slides or PowerPoint. Most of the details and visual features in a SlidesGo presentation can be changed, but SlidesGo provides a disclaimer that some designs might be embedded in presentations and will not be modifiable.

SlidesGo provides extensive tutorials to help new users add information, graphs, images, and text to Google Slides and PowerPoint slides.

SlidesGo offers both free and paid options . The free option allows users to download and use 10 templates per month at no charge, but users are required to credit SlidesGo in the presentation. The premium option ranges from $2 USD to $5 USD per month and offers unlimited template downloads and priority support, and premium users are not required to credit SlidesGo.

Templates Wise features a fantastic selection of free PowerPoint templates that you can download and customize for your academic presentation. If you do not have graphs or visual data files already prepared from your research, Templates Wise features effective and unique infographics, charts, and diagrams that you can customize to present your data in a way that will resonate with listeners.

In addition to its variety of free professional-looking templates, Templates Wise provides free music loops that you can embed in your presentation.

You can download PowerPoint templates directly from Template Wise without creating an account or entering any payment information. All templates on Template Wise are provided free, as long as you agree to their terms of service.

Smile Templates provides a plethora of presentation templates that you can download and customize in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Smile Templates features more than 100,000 templates on its site in categories such as Education, Finance, Medical, Technology, and more. Smile Templates also enables users to include free or paid Music Loops, Maps, and Diagrams & Charts. Smile Templates also provides access to Animated PowerPoint Templates, which will truly bring your presentation to life.

Smile Templates offers both free and paid presentation templates and interactive features. You will have to create an account before you can download a template from Smile Templates.

E-Learning Heroes provides academic and business presentation templates that you can download in PowerPoint or Presenter. E-Learning Heroes is a community-sharing site, so individuals such as graphic designers, artists, or students design templates and then make them available to users. Since the template creators vary in background and personality, some templates include explanations about the slides and provide information about the selected fonts and images, and other templates provide no additional information.

You will need to create an account before you can download or bookmark any templates on E-Learning Heroes, but it is free to sign up and you do not need to provide credit card information.

Check out the recommendations on the list above to find the best resources for academic presentation templates, and you might even have fun preparing your next big academic presentation. With the templates and tools from any of these sites, you will be able to design a presentation that is professional and visually appealing, so you can engage the audience and effectively convey your information.

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Home Blog Business Conference Presentation Slides: A Guide for Success

Conference Presentation Slides: A Guide for Success

In our experience, a common error when preparing a conference presentation is using designs that heavily rely on bullet points and massive chunks of text. A potential reason behind this slide design mistake is aiming to include as much information as possible in just one slide. In the end, slides become a sort of teleprompter for the speaker, and the audience recalls boredom instead of an informative experience.

As part of our mission to help presenters deliver their message effectively, we have summarized what makes a good conference presentation slide, as well as tips on how to design a successful conference slide.

Table of Contents

What is a conference presentation

Common mistakes presenters make when creating conference presentation slides, how can a well-crafted conference presentation help your professional life, how to start a conference presentation, how to end a conference presentation, tailoring your message to different audiences, visualizing data effectively, engaging with your audience, designing for impact, mastering slide transitions and animation, handling time constraints, incorporating multimedia elements, post-presentation engagement, crisis management during presentations, sustainability and green presentations, measuring presentation success, 13 tips to create stellar conference presentations, final thoughts.

The Britannica Dictionary defines conferences as 

A formal meeting in which many people gather in order to talk about ideas or problems related to a particular topic (such as medicine or business), usually for several days.

We can then define conference presentations as the combination of a speaker, a slide deck , and the required hardware to introduce an idea or topic in a conference setting. Some characteristics differentiate conference presentations from other formats.

Time-restricted

Conference presentations are bounded by a 15-30 minute time limit, which the event’s moderators establish. These restrictions are applied to allow a crowded agenda to be met on time, and it is common to count with over 10 speakers on the same day.

To that time limit, we have to add the time required for switching between speakers, which implies loading a new slide deck to the streaming platform, microphone testing, lighting effects, etc. Say it is around 10-15 minutes extra, so depending on the number of speakers per day during the event, the time available to deliver a presentation, plus the questions & answers time.

Delivery format

Conferences can be delivered in live event format or via webinars. Since this article is mainly intended to live event conferences, we will only mention that the requirements for webinars are as follows:

• Voice-over or, best, speaker layover the presentation slides so the speaker interacts with the audience.
• Quality graphics.
• Not abusing the amount of information to introduce per slide.

On the other hand, live event conferences will differ depending on the category under which they fall. Academic conferences have a structure in which there’s a previous poster session; then speakers start delivering their talks, then after 4-5 speakers, we have a coffee break. Those pauses help the AV crew to check the equipment, and they also become an opportunity for researchers to expand their network contacts. 

Business conferences are usually more dynamic. Some presenters opt not to use slide decks, giving a powerful speech instead, as they feel much more comfortable that way. Other speakers at business conferences adopt videos to summarize their ideas and then proceed to speak.

Overall, the format guidelines are sent to speakers before the event. Adapt your presentation style to meet the requirements of moderators so you can maximize the effect of your message.

The audience

Unlike other presentation settings, conferences gather a knowledgeable audience on the discussed topics. It is imperative to consider this, as tone, delivery format, information to include, and more depend on this sole factor. Moreover, the audience will participate in your presentation at the last minute, as it is a common practice to hold a Q&A session. 

Mistake #1 – Massive chunks of text

Do you intend your audience to read your slides instead of being seduced by your presentation? Presenters often add large amounts of text to each slide since they need help deciding which data to exclude. Another excuse for this practice is so the audience remembers the content exposed.

Research indicates images are much better retained than words, a phenomenon known as the Picture Superiority Effect ; therefore, opt to avoid this tendency and work into creating compelling graphics.

Mistake #2 – Not creating contrast between data and graphics

Have you tried to read a slide from 4 rows behind the presenter and not get a single number? This can happen if the presenter is not careful to work with the appropriate contrast between the color of the typeface and the background. Particularly if serif fonts are used.

Use online tools such as WebAIM’s Contrast Checker to make your slides legible for your audience. Creating an overlay with a white or black transparent tint can also help when you place text above images.

Mistake #3 – Not rehearsing the presentation

This is a sin in conference presentations, as when you don’t practice the content you intend to deliver, you don’t have a measure of how much time it is actually going to take. 

PowerPoint’s rehearse timing feature can help a great deal, as you can record yourself practising the presentation and observe areas for improvement. Remember, conference presentations are time-limited , don’t disrespect fellow speakers by overlapping their scheduled slot or, worse, have moderators trim your presentation after several warnings.

Mistake #4 – Lacking hierarchy for the presented content

Looking at a slide and not knowing where the main point is discouraging for the audience, especially if you introduce several pieces of content under the same slide. Instead, opt to create a hierarchy that comprehends both text and images. It helps to arrange the content according to your narrative, and we’ll see more on this later on.

Consider your conference presentation as your introduction card in the professional world. Maybe you have a broad network of colleagues, but be certain there are plenty of people out there that have yet to learn about who you are and the work you produce.

Conferences help businesspeople and academics alike to introduce the results of months of research on a specific topic in front of a knowledgeable audience. It is different from a product launch as you don’t need to present a “completed product” but rather your views or advances, in other words, your contribution with valuable insights to the field.

Putting dedication into your conference presentation, from the slide deck design to presentation skills , is definitely worth the effort. The audience can get valuable references from the quality of work you are able to produce, often leading to potential partnerships. In business conferences, securing an investor deal can happen after a powerful presentation that drives the audience to perceive your work as the very best thing that’s about to be launched. It is all about how your body language reflects your intent, how well-explained the concepts are, and the emotional impact you can drive from it.

There are multiple ways on how to start a presentation for a conference, but overall, we can recap a good approach as follows.

Present a fact

Nothing grabs the interest of an audience quicker than introducing an interesting fact during the first 30 seconds of your presentation. The said fact has to be pivotal to the content your conference presentation will discuss later on, but as an ice-breaker, it is a strategy worth applying from time to time.

Ask a question

The main point when starting a conference presentation is to make an impact on the audience. We cannot think of a better way to engage with the audience than to ask them a question relevant to your work or research. It grabs the viewer’s interest for the potential feedback you shall give to those answers received.

Use powerful graphics

The value of visual presentations cannot be neglected in conferences. Sometimes an image makes a bigger impact than a lengthy speech, hence why you should consider starting your conference presentation with a photo or visual element that speaks for itself.

For more tips and insights on how to start a presentation , we invite you to check this article.

Just as important as starting the presentation, the closure you give to your conference presentation matters a lot. This is the opportunity in which you can add your personal experience on the topic and reflect upon it with the audience or smoothly transition between the presentation and your Q&A session.

Below are some quick tips on how to end a presentation for a conference event.

End the presentation with a quote

Give your audience something to ruminate about with the help of a quote tailored to the topic you were discussing. There are plenty of resources for finding suitable quotes, and a great method for this is to design your penultimate slide with an image or black background plus a quote. Follow this with a final “thank you” slide.

Consider a video

If we say a video whose length is shorter than 1 minute, this is a fantastic resource to summarize the intent of your conference presentation. 

If you get the two-minute warning and you feel far off from finishing your presentation, first, don’t fret. Try to give a good closure when presenting in a conference without rushing information, as the audience wouldn’t get any concept clear that way. Mention that the information you presented will be available for further reading at the event’s platform site or your company’s digital business card , and proceed to your closure phase for the presentation.

It is better to miss some of the components of the conference than to get kicked out after several warnings for exceeding the allotted time.

Tailoring your conference presentation to suit your audience is crucial to delivering an impactful talk. Different audiences have varying levels of expertise, interests, and expectations. By customizing your content, tone, and examples, you can enhance the relevance and engagement of your presentation.

Understanding Audience Backgrounds and Expectations

Before crafting your presentation, research your audience’s backgrounds and interests. Are they professionals in your field, students, or a mix of both? Are they familiar with the topic, or must you provide more context? Understanding these factors will help you pitch your content correctly and avoid overwhelming or boring your audience.

Adapting Language and Tone for Relevance

Use language that resonates with your audience. Avoid jargon or technical terms that might confuse those unfamiliar with your field. Conversely, don’t oversimplify if your audience consists of experts. Adjust your tone to match the event’s formality and your listeners’ preferences.

Customizing Examples and Case Studies

Incorporate case studies, examples, and anecdotes that your audience can relate to. If you’re speaking to professionals, use real-world scenarios from their industry. For a more general audience, choose examples that are universally relatable. This personal touch makes your content relatable and memorable.

Effectively presenting data is essential for conveying complex information to your audience. Visualizations can help simplify intricate concepts and make your points more digestible.

Choosing the Right Data Representation

Select the appropriate type of graph or chart to illustrate your data. Bar graphs, pie charts, line charts, and scatter plots each serve specific purposes. Choose the one that best supports your message and ensures clarity.

Designing Graphs and Charts for Clarity

Ensure your graphs and charts are easily read. Use clear labels, appropriate color contrasts, and consistent scales. Avoid clutter and simplify the design to highlight the most important data points.

Incorporating Annotations and Explanations

Add annotations or callouts to your graphs to emphasize key findings. Explain the significance of each data point to guide your audience’s understanding. Utilize visual cues, such as arrows and labels, to direct attention.

Engaging your audience is a fundamental skill for a successful presentation for conference. Captivate their attention, encourage participation, and foster a positive connection.

Establishing Eye Contact and Body Language

Maintain eye contact with different audience parts to create a sense of connection. Effective body language, such as confident posture and expressive gestures, enhances your presence on stage.

Encouraging Participation and Interaction

Involve your audience through questions, polls, or interactive activities. Encourage them to share their thoughts or experiences related to your topic. This engagement fosters a more dynamic and memorable presentation.

Using Humor and Engaging Stories

Incorporate humor and relatable anecdotes to make your presentation more enjoyable. Well-timed jokes or personal stories can create a rapport with your audience and make your content more memorable.

The design of your conference presentation slides plays a crucial role in capturing and retaining your audience’s attention. Thoughtful design can amplify your message and reinforce key points. Take a look at these suggestions to boost the performance of your conference presentation slides, or create an entire slide deck in minutes by using SlideModel’s AI Presentation Maker from text .

Creating Memorable Opening Slides

Craft an opening slide that piques the audience’s curiosity and sets the tone for your presentation. Use an engaging visual, thought-provoking quote, or intriguing question to grab their attention from the start.

Using Visual Hierarchy for Emphasis

Employ visual hierarchy to guide your audience’s focus. Highlight key points with larger fonts, bold colors, or strategic placement. Organize information logically to enhance comprehension.

Designing a Powerful Closing Slide

End your presentation with a compelling closing slide that reinforces your main message. Summarize your key points, offer a memorable takeaway, or invite the audience to take action. Use visuals that resonate and leave a lasting impression.

Slide transitions and animations can enhance the flow of your presentation and emphasize important content. However, their use requires careful consideration to avoid distractions or confusion.

Enhancing Flow with Transitions

Select slide transitions that smoothly guide the audience from one point to the next. Avoid overly flashy transitions that detract from your content. Choose options that enhance, rather than disrupt, the presentation’s rhythm.

Using Animation to Highlight Points

Animate elements on your slides to draw attention to specific information. Animate text, images, or graphs to appear as you discuss them, helping the audience follow your narrative more effectively.

Avoiding Overuse of Effects

While animation can be engaging, avoid excessive use that might overwhelm or distract the audience. Maintain a balance between animated elements and static content for a polished presentation.

Effective time management is crucial for delivering a concise and impactful conference presentation within the allocated time frame.

Structuring for Short vs. Long Presentations

Adapt your content and pacing based on the duration of your presentation. Clearly outline the main points for shorter talks, and delve into more depth for longer sessions. Ensure your message aligns with the time available.

Prioritizing Key Information

Identify the core information you want your audience to take away. Focus on conveying these essential points, and be prepared to trim or elaborate on supporting details based on the available time.

Practicing Time Management

Rehearse your presentation while timing yourself to ensure you stay within the allocated time. Adjust your delivery speed to match your time limit, allowing for smooth transitions and adequate Q&A time.

Multimedia elements, such as videos, audio clips, and live demonstrations, can enrich your presentation and provide a dynamic experience for your audience.

Integrating Videos and Audio Clips

Use videos and audio clips strategically to reinforce your points or provide real-world examples. Ensure that the multimedia content is of high quality and directly supports your narrative.

Showcasing Live Demonstrations

Live demonstrations can engage the audience by showcasing practical applications of your topic. Practice the demonstration beforehand to ensure it runs smoothly and aligns with your message.

Using Hyperlinks for Additional Resources

Incorporate hyperlinks into your presentation to direct the audience to additional resources, references, or related content. This allows interested attendees to explore the topic further after the presentation.

Engaging with your audience after your presentation can extend the impact of your talk and foster valuable connections.

Leveraging Post-Presentation Materials

Make your presentation slides and related materials available to attendees after the event. Share them through email, a website, or a conference platform, allowing interested individuals to review the content.

Sharing Slides and Handouts

Provide downloadable versions of your slides and any handouts you used during the presentation. This helps attendees revisit key points and share the information with colleagues.

Networking and Following Up

Utilize networking opportunities during and after the conference to connect with attendees who are interested in your topic. Exchange contact information and follow up with personalized messages to continue the conversation.

Preparing for unexpected challenges during your presenting at a conference can help you maintain professionalism and composure, ensuring a seamless delivery.

Dealing with Technical Glitches

Technical issues can occur, from projector malfunctions to software crashes. Stay calm and have a backup plan, such as having your slides available on multiple devices or using printed handouts.

Handling Unexpected Interruptions

Interruptions, such as questions from the audience or unforeseen disruptions, are a normal part of live presentations. Address them politely, stay adaptable, and seamlessly return to your prepared content.

Staying Calm and Professional

Maintain a composed demeanor regardless of unexpected situations. Your ability to handle challenges gracefully reflects your professionalism and dedication to delivering a successful presentation.

Creating environmentally friendly presentations demonstrates your commitment to sustainability and responsible practices.

Designing Eco-Friendly Slides

Minimize the use of resources by designing slides with efficient layouts, avoiding unnecessary graphics or animations, and using eco-friendly color schemes.

Reducing Paper and Material Waste

Promote a paperless approach by encouraging attendees to access digital materials rather than printing handouts. If print materials are necessary, consider using recycled paper.

Promoting Sustainable Practices

Advocate for sustainability during your presentation by discussing relevant initiatives, practices, or innovations that align with environmentally conscious values.

Measuring the success of your conference presentation goes beyond the applause and immediate feedback. It involves assessing the impact of your presentation on your audience, goals, and growth as a presenter.

Collecting Audience Feedback

After presenting at a conference, gather feedback from attendees. Provide feedback forms or online surveys to capture their thoughts on the content, delivery, and visuals. Analyzing their feedback can reveal areas for improvement and give insights into audience preferences.

Evaluating Key Performance Metrics

Consider objective metrics such as audience engagement, participation, and post-presentation interactions. Did attendees ask questions? Did your content spark discussions? Tracking these metrics can help you gauge the effectiveness of your presentation in conveying your message.

Continuous Improvement Strategies

Use the feedback and insights gathered to enhance your future presentations. Identify strengths to build upon and weaknesses to address. Continuously refine your presentation skills , design choices, and content to create even more impactful presentations in the future.

Tip #1 – Exhibit a single idea per slide

Just one slide per concept, avoiding large text blocks. If you can compile the idea with an image, it’s better that way.

Research shows that people’s attention span is limited ; therefore, redirect your efforts in what concerns presentation slides so your ideas become crystal clear for the spectators.

Tip #2 – Avoid jargon whenever possible

Using complex terms does not directly imply you fully understand the concept you are about to discuss. In spite of your work being presented to a knowledgeable audience, avoid jargon as much as possible because you run the risk of people not understanding what you are saying.

Instead, opt to rehearse your presentation in front of a not-knowledgeable audience to measure the jargon volume you are adding to it. Technical terms are obviously expected in a conference situation, but archaic terms or purely jargon can be easily trimmed this way.

Tip #3 – Replace bulleted listings with structured layouts or diagrams

Bullet points are attention grabbers for the audience. People tend to instantly check what’s written in them, in contrast to waiting for you to introduce the point itself. 

Using bullet points as a way to expose elements of your presentation should be restricted. Opt for limiting the bullet points to non-avoidable facts to list or crucial information. 

Tip #4 – Customize presentation templates

Using presentation templates is a great idea to save time in design decisions. These pre-made slide decks are entirely customizable; however, many users fall into using them as they come, exposing themselves to design inconsistencies (especially with images) or that another presenter had the same idea (it is extremely rare, but it can happen).

Learning how to properly change color themes in PowerPoint is an advantageous asset. We also recommend you use your own images or royalty-free images selected by you rather than sticking to the ones included in a template.

Tip #5 – Displaying charts

Graphs and charts comprise around 80% of the information in most business and academic conferences. Since data visualization is important, avoid common pitfalls such as using 3D effects in bar charts. Depending on the audience’s point of view, those 3D effects can make the data hard to read or get an accurate interpretation of what it represents.

Tip #6 – Using images in the background

Use some of the images you were planning to expose as background for the slides – again, not all of them but relevant slides.

Be careful when placing text above the slides if they have a background image, as accessibility problems may arise due to contrast. Instead, apply an extra color layer above the image with reduced opacity – black or white, depending on the image and text requirements. This makes the text more legible for the audience, and you can use your images without any inconvenience.

Tip #7 – Embrace negative space

Negative space is a concept seen in design situations. If we consider positive space as the designed area, meaning the objects, shapes, etc., that are “your design,” negative space can be defined as the surrounding area. If we work on a white canvas, negative space is the remaining white area surrounding your design.

The main advantage of using negative space appropriately is to let your designs breathe. Stuffing charts, images and text makes it hard to get a proper understanding of what’s going on in the slide. Apply the “less is more” motto to your conference presentation slides, and embrace negative space as your new design asset.

Tip #8 – Use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation

You would be surprised to see how many typos can be seen in slides at professional gatherings. Whereas typos can often pass by as a humor-relief moment, grammatical or awful spelling mistakes make you look unprofessional. 

Take 5 extra minutes before submitting your slide deck to proofread the grammar, spelling, and punctuation. If in doubt, browse dictionaries for complex technical words.

Tip #10 – Use an appropriate presentation style

The format of the conference will undoubtedly require its own presentation style. By this we mean that it is different from delivering a conference presentation in front of a live audience as a webinar conference. The interaction with the audience is different, the demands for the Q&A session will be different, and also during webinars the audience is closely looking at your slides.

Tip #11 – Control your speaking tone

Another huge mistake when delivering a conference presentation is to speak with a monotonous tone. The message you transmit to your attendees is that you simply do not care about your work. If you believe you fall into this category, get feedback from others: try pitching to them, and afterward, consider how you talk. 

Practicing breathing exercises can help to articulate your speech skills, especially if anxiety hinders your presentation performance.

Tip #12 – On eye contact and note reading

In order to connect with your audience, it is imperative to make eye contact. Not stare, but look at your spectators from time to time as the talk is directed at them.

If you struggle on this point, a good tip we can provide is to act like you’re looking at your viewers. Pick a good point a few centimeters above your viewer and direct your speech there. They will believe you are communicating directly with them. Shift your head slightly on the upcoming slide or bullet and choose a new location.

Regarding note reading, while it is an acceptable practice to check your notes, do not make the entire talk a lecture in which you simply read your notes to the audience. This goes hand-by-hand with the speaking tone in terms of demonstrating interest in the work you do. Practice as often as you need before the event to avoid constantly reading your notes. Reading a paragraph or two is okay, but not the entire presentation.

Tip #13 – Be ready for the Q&A session

Despite it being a requirement in most conference events, not all presenters get ready for the Q&A session. It is a part of the conference presentation itself, so you should pace your speech to give enough time for the audience to ask 1-3 questions and get a proper answer.

Don’t be lengthy or overbearing in replying to each question, as you may run out of time. It is preferable to give a general opinion and then reach the interested person with your contact information to discuss the topic in detail.

Observing what others do at conference events is good practice for learning a tip or two for improving your own work. As we have seen throughout this article, conference presentation slides have specific requirements to become a tool in your presentation rather than a mixture of information without order.

Employ these tips and suggestions to craft your upcoming conference presentation without any hurdles. Best of luck!

1. Conference PowerPoint Template

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2. Free Conference Presentation Template

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30+ Best Research Presentation Templates for PowerPoint (PPT)

Finding the right PowerPoint template plays an important part in getting your message across to the audience during a presentation. And it’s especially true for research presentations.

Using the right colors, graphs, infographics, and illustrations in your slides is the key to delivering information more effectively and making your presentation a success.

Today, we handpicked a great collection of research presentation PowerPoint templates for you to make the perfect slideshows for various types of research papers and studies.

Whether you’re preparing for a presentation at a school, event, or conference, there are templates in this list for all purposes. Let’s dive in.

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Explore PowerPoint Templates

Science & Research Presentation PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template is a perfect choice for preparing a research presentation to share your scientific findings and reports.

The template has 30 unique slides with unlimited color options. There are a few infographics included in the slideshow as well.

Why This Is A Top Pick

The presentation has a very modern and creative design where you can showcase your data and information in an attractive way. You won’t be making boring research presentations ever again.

Labvire – Research Presentation PowerPoint Template

Labvire is another modern PowerPoint template you can use for various types of research presentations. It’s also ideal for laboratory-related research presentations. The template has fully customizable slide layouts with editable charts, graphs, and more. You can choose from more than 40 unique slide designs as well.

Novalabs – Science Research PowerPoint Template

Novalabs PowerPoint template features a highly visual and attractive design. The template includes 36 different slides that feature large image placeholders for adding a more visual look to your presentations. There are lots of editable graphics, shapes, and tables included in the template too. Feel free to customize them however you like.

Research & Development PowerPoint Template

The minimal and clean design of this PowerPoint template makes it a great choice for delivering more effective research presentations. With fewer distractions in each slide, you’ll be able to convey your message more easily. The template comes with 30 unique slides. You can change the colors, fonts, and shapes to your preference as well.

Marketing Research Presentation PowerPoint Template

When talking about research presentations, we can’t forget about marketing research. Most sales and marketing meetings usually include a sophisticated marketing research presentation. This PowerPoint template will help you design those research presentations without effort. It includes a total of 150 slides, featuring 30 unique slides in 5 different color schemes.

Free Business Market Research Presentation Template

This is a free PowerPoint template designed for making business market research presentations. It gives you 27 different and fully customizable slides to create professional slideshows for your business meetings.

Free Business Data Analysis & Research Presentation

With this PowerPoint template, you can create colorful and creative business research and data analysis presentation without any design skills. It includes 35 unique slides with lots of infographics and editable shapes. The template is free to use as well.

Lernen – Research Thesis PowerPoint Presentation

Larnen is the ideal PowerPoint template for making research slideshows for your thesis presentations. It includes 30 unique slides that are available in light and dark color themes. It also has editable charts and graphs.

Aristo – Research Academic PowerPoint Presentation

This PowerPoint template is also made with academic research presentations in mind. The template has a professional design with clean layouts and light colors. It comes with more than 30 different slides.

Biosearch – Science Research PowerPoint Template

You can use this PowerPoint template to make professional presentations to present research data and results. It lets you choose from 40 different slides and 90 color themes. The slides are available in both light and dark color themes as well.

Neolabs – Laboratory & Science Research PPT

Neolabs is another science research presentation made with laboratory research teams in mind. You can use it to make effective slideshows to present your research findings. There are 30 unique slides in this template.

Free Business Cost Analysis PowerPoint Template

This is a free PowerPoint and Google Slides template that comes with 35 unique slides. It’s ideal for making research presentations related to business financials.

Research & Case Study PowerPoint Template

Create the perfect case study presentation using your research data with this PowerPoint template. It includes a modern slide design with infographics and charts for effectively presenting your data.

Liron Labs – Laboratory Research PowerPoint Template

Another PowerPoint template for laboratory research presentations. This template includes 15 useful slide layouts with editable graphics, free fonts, and image placeholders. You can edit and customize the colors and text as well.

Research Thesis PowerPoint Template

Make an attractive and creative research thesis presentation using this PowerPoint template. There are over 30 unique slides in this template. You can either use dark or light color themes to create your presentations.

Colorful Thesis Research PowerPoint Template

If you want to make your research presentations look more colorful and creative, this PowerPoint template is for you. It has 15 different slides with fully customizable layouts. It has editable shapes, free fonts, and image placeholders too.

Free Data Analysis Research PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template is also free to download. You can also customize it using PowerPoint or Google Slides. This template is ideal for marketing agencies and teams for presenting research and data analysis.

Laboratory & Science Research PowerPoint Template

You can make more convincing and unique lab research presentations using this PowerPoint template. It features a creative design that will easily attract the attention of your audience. You can use it to make various other science and research presentations too. The template includes 30 unique slides.

The Biologist – Research Presentation PowerPoint Template

Just as the name suggests, this PowerPoint template is designed with biology and science-related presentations in mind. It includes many useful slide layouts that can be used to make various types of research presentations. There are 30 different slide designs included in this template with editable shapes and colors.

Modern Science & Research PowerPoint Template

If you’re looking for a PowerPoint template to create a modern-looking research presentation, this template is perfect for you. It features a collection of modern and attractive slides with lots of space for including images, icons, and graphs. There are 30 unique slides in the template with light and dark color themes to choose from.

Marketing Report & Research PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template doubles as both a research and report slideshow. You can use it to create various marketing reports as well as marketing research presentations. It comes with 30 slides that feature minimal and clean designs. It includes lots of editable charts, infographics, and tables as well.

Market Research Presentation PowerPoint Template

Another modern PowerPoint template for making market research presentations. This template includes 25 unique slides with master slides, image placeholders, and editable colors. The template is ideal for marketing agencies and corporate businesses.

Free Academic Research Thesis PowerPoint Template

This free PowerPoint template is designed for defending your academic research thesis dissertation. Needless to say, it’s a useful template for academics as well as teachers. The template features 23 unique slide layouts with customizable designs.

Free Economics Research Thesis Presentation Template

You can use this free template to create thesis and research presentations related to economics. It’s useful for academic students and gives you the freedom to choose from 21 slide layouts to make your own presentations.

Labia – Research Presentation Powerpoint Template

Labia is a research presentation template made for professionals. It comes with a set of modern slides with multipurpose designs. That means you can customize them to make many different types of research presentations. There are 30 unique slides included in this template that come in 5 different color themes.

Medical Research Infographics & Powerpoint Slides

You’ll be using lots of charts, graphs, and infographics in your presentations to showcase data in visual form. Not to mention that visuals always work well for attracting the audience’s attention. You can use the infographic slides in this template to create better research presentations. Each slide features a unique infographic with animated designs.

Foreka – Biology Education & Research Presentation PPT

Foreka is a PowerPoint template made for educational presentations, especially for covering topics related to biology. But it can also be customized to present your research presentations. The slides have very useful layouts that are most suitable for making research slide designs. There are 30 slides included with light and dark color themes.

Maua – Aesthetic Business Research PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template is suitable for making elegant and stylish business reports and business research presentations. It’s especially great for making background research and competitor research slideshows. The template comes with 30 slides featuring master slides, image placeholders, and more.

World Data Scientist Powerpoint Presentation Template

You can use this PowerPoint template to create research presentations for many different types of topics, industries, and projects. The template includes lots of data-centric slides where you can easily showcase your data in visual form. There are 30 unique slides included with the template as well.

Free SWOT Analysis Infographics PowerPoint Template

SWOT analysis is a commonly used methodology in business research presentations. With this free PowerPoint template, you can create stylish SWOT analysis infographics for your presentations. It includes SWOT infographics in 30 different styles.

Free Market Research Presentation Infographics PPT

This is a collection of free PowerPoint slides that feature various styles of infographics you can use in your business and market research presentations. There are 30 different infographic slides included in this template. You can edit, change colors, and customize them however you like.

Sinara – Science & Research Powerpoint Template

Sinara is a brilliant PowerPoint template you can use to craft a professional presentation for science-related research and reports. It’s available in 3 different color schemes as well as the option to customize the colors to your preference. The template comes in light and dark themes too.

Political Science and Research PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template will be quite useful to political science and international relations students. It features a total of 150 slides you can use to create attractive presentations for your research and methodologies. There are slides in 5 different color schemes.

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Recent Articles

Apr 25 2012

PPT Presentation Essay Sample, Example

< 1 min read

In today’s digital era, the art of presenting ideas in a captivating manner is no longer confined to marketing professionals or startup enthusiasts pitching their next big product. Even in academic settings, students find themselves needing to use tools like PowerPoint to convey their findings, arguments, and ideas. Whether it’s for a class assignment or defending a thesis, academic presentations demand a certain level of finesse to ensure the message is clear, engaging, and memorable. By understanding the essence and the steps of creating these presentations, students can improve their communication skills and make their work stand out.

What Is an Academic Presentation Example?

An academic presentation is a visual and oral exposition of a scholar’s research, findings, or theoretical argument. Unlike a product presentation example you might see in a company setting, these are not about marketing a product or service. Instead, they delve into scholarly topics, aiming to inform, persuade, or enlighten an audience about a particular subject or research question.

To illustrate, imagine a student researching the impact of digital marketing on startup success. The presentation would incorporate slides detailing the research methodology, data gathered, and the conclusions drawn. These slides serve as a visual aid, supporting the oral narration and making the information more accessible to the audience.

Why Students Need to Understand How to Create Presentations

It’s essential for students to grasp the art of creating academic presentations for several reasons. One of the most vital skills in any profession or academic pursuit is the ability to communicate ideas effectively. Crafting a presentation forces students to distill complex topics into easily digestible slides, refining their articulation and synthesis abilities.

Furthermore, as students transition from educational institutions to the real world, they will find that clear communication is often the bridge between an idea and its realization. By mastering the skill of creating presentations, students equip themselves with a tool that can elucidate and persuade, thus opening doors to collaborative opportunities.

In many sectors, from academic research to company boardrooms, the capacity to present findings or pitch ideas is invaluable. Beyond the academic realm, whether it’s sharing project updates, proposing innovative solutions, or reporting annual results, the art of presentation remains fundamental. Gaining proficiency in creating presentations prepares students for future career demands, setting them apart in competitive environments.

An engaging presentation can capture the audience’s attention, making the conveyed information more memorable. This engagement is not only beneficial for the presenter in terms of positive feedback but also ensures the audience truly grasps the essence of the subject. A well-delivered presentation fosters understanding, promotes discussion, and can even inspire action.

The Main Differences Between Business Presentation Examples and Academic Presentations

Business and academic presentations may both aim to inform, persuade, or motivate an audience, but they have distinct differences in terms of content, style, and purpose. Business presentation examples often focus on marketing a product, service, or idea to potential clients or stakeholders. They may use catchy slogans, compelling visuals, and emphasize the benefits of a product or strategy. The main goal is often to make a sale, secure investment, or gain support for a business proposal.

On the other hand, academic presentations are centered around research findings, theoretical discussions, or educational topics. They prioritize factual accuracy, detailed explanations, and proper citations of sources. Rather than selling a product, academic presentations aim to share knowledge, promote understanding, or present research outcomes. The language used tends to be more formal and less focused on persuasive techniques commonly found in business settings.

In summary, while both types of presentations aim to convey information effectively, business presentations are more sales and strategy-driven, whereas academic ones prioritize knowledge dissemination and scholarly discourse.

How to Pick a Template for Presentation Examples

When preparing an academic presentation, the visual appeal and readability of your slides play a significant role in capturing and maintaining the audience’s attention. The foundation of this visual appeal is the template you choose. A well-chosen template can accentuate your content, making your findings and arguments stand out. On the other hand, a poorly chosen one can overshadow your hard work and make your presentation seem disjointed. With this in mind, let’s delve into the key considerations when picking the perfect template for your academic presentation.

A background template suitable for a literary analysis might not work well for a presentation on statistical charts. Ensure that your chosen template matches the theme and tone of your subject. An intricate design might look aesthetically pleasing, but if it sacrifices readability, it’s not a good choice. Opt for designs that ensure your text and visuals are clear and easy to decipher.

While some presentations might benefit from a splash of creativity, academic presentations generally require a more sober and professional design. Neutral colors, standard fonts, and a clean layout are typically safe choices. Make sure your chosen template is compatible with the tools you’re using, like PowerPoint. It would be frustrating to pick a background only to find it doesn’t function as intended within your software.

An academic presentation should breathe. Opt for templates that offer ample space between elements, avoiding those that cram too many design elements on one slide. Ensure your template doesn’t contain symbols or visuals that could be deemed inappropriate or offensive in certain cultures, especially if presenting to a diverse audience.

Your presentation should have a cohesive look. Select a template that provides consistent slide layouts, ensuring that transitions between slides flow smoothly and don’t jolt the audience.

Tips on How to Create Good Presentation Example

Creating an academic presentation goes beyond merely filling slides with information. It’s about ensuring that your message is coherent, your slides are engaging, and your source materials are credited appropriately.

Starting with a compelling introduction is crucial. Just as a company might initiate a product presentation with an intriguing hook, your academic presentation should captivate right from the beginning. It’s imperative to briefly outline what the presentation will encompass and shed light on its significance.

When it comes to the content on the slides, brevity is key. A slide inundated with text can quickly overwhelm an audience. It’s wiser to resort to bullet points or concise sentences. This strategy not only ensures the content is digestible but also maintains the visual allure of the slide, facilitating easier comprehension.

The inclusion of visuals like charts and images can undoubtedly elevate the appeal of your presentation. Yet, it’s vital to employ them judiciously. These visuals ought to amplify the content rather than overshadow it. Every image, graph, or illustration should serve a distinct purpose, contributing meaningfully to the topic at hand.

Citing sources is non-negotiable in academic presentations. Whether it’s a direct quotation, a chart, or any other referenced material, proper citation is mandatory. This practice not only bolsters the credibility of the presentation but also underscores the meticulousness of your research.

The written content of a presentation is just one facet; its delivery is equally, if not more, paramount. Even a flawlessly written presentation can falter if not delivered adeptly. It’s beneficial to rehearse multiple times, get acquainted with the sequence of your slides, and refine your pacing. Mastery over these aspects ensures that your core message resonates profoundly with the audience.

Additionally, maintain a consistent theme throughout. Consistency in design, font, and color schemes can provide a seamless flow, making the presentation appear more professional and less disjointed.

Another useful tip is to encourage audience interaction. Posing questions or integrating quick polls can foster engagement, ensuring that the audience is not just passive listeners but active participants in the discussion.

Lastly, always have a strong conclusion. Summarize the main points, reinforce the central message, and provide a clear takeaway for the audience. This ensures that your presentation leaves a lasting impact and doesn’t fizzle out towards the end.

Crafting an effective academic presentation is both an art and a science. By honing this skill, students are not only better prepared for academic challenges but also for future endeavors in any professional field. Whether pitching a groundbreaking startup idea to investors or presenting research findings to peers, the ability to communicate ideas clearly and engagingly is invaluable. With the right approach, tools like PowerPoint, and a keen understanding of one’s audience, any presentation can be transformed from mundane to memorable.

What is presentation and examples?

A presentation is a method of conveying information or explaining a topic to an audience, often using visual aids to support or enhance the spoken word. It’s an organized collection of data, ideas, or arguments displayed visually, typically through slides or multimedia elements. For example, a business executive might give a presentation to shareholders about the company’s annual performance using charts and graphs. Meanwhile, a teacher might use a presentation to explain a historical event to students, complementing the spoken lecture with images, timelines, and short videos.

What are the 5 basic steps of presentation?

The process of crafting an effective presentation can be broken down into five basic steps. Initially, it involves understanding the audience and defining the purpose of the presentation. Knowing your audience aids in tailoring the content to their interests and level of understanding. The next step is researching and gathering relevant data or information. Once gathered, this data needs organizing into a coherent structure, starting with an introduction and ending with a conclusion. The fourth step involves designing visually appealing slides or visual aids. The final step is practicing the delivery, ensuring a seamless blend of speech and visual elements.

How can I give a good presentation example?

Giving a good presentation involves a mix of content quality and delivery prowess. For instance, if an individual were to present on the effects of climate change, they would first ensure the content is well-researched and organized. They might start by explaining the basics of climate change, move on to current impacts observed globally, and conclude with potential solutions. Visual aids would complement each section, perhaps using images of melting glaciers, charts showing rising temperatures, and videos of experts discussing mitigation strategies. During delivery, the presenter would engage with the audience, maintaining eye contact, using clear language, and varying tone and pitch to emphasize critical points.

What are the 4 types of presentation?

Presentations can be categorized into four primary types based on their purpose. Informative presentations aim to educate the audience on a specific topic, providing facts without expressing personal opinions. Persuasive presentations, on the other hand, seek to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint or take specific actions. Inspirational presentations aspire to motivate or inspire the audience, often filled with anecdotes and success stories. Lastly, decision-making presentations are used in business settings, providing data and options to help a group make informed choices.

What are 3 examples of presentation program?

Presentation programs are software tools designed to create visual presentations. Three notable examples include Microsoft PowerPoint, a widely-used tool that offers a range of templates and design features; Apple’s Keynote, known for its sleek design capabilities, especially on Apple devices; and Google Slides, a cloud-based tool that facilitates collaborative efforts, allowing multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously from different locations. Each of these tools provides unique features catering to various presentation needs and preferences.

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Creating an Academic Poster: Home

Creating an academic poster.

Introduction:

Note:  Visit WSU Spokane's Printing Services page for PowerPoint poster templates.  Template are are available in standard sizes, both portrait and landscape orientations, and branded for the three Health Sciences Colleges (Nursing, Medicine, and Pharmacy). 

Key Features of an Academic Poster:

• Clear and Concise Title : The title should capture the essence of the research while being catchy enough to draw attention.
• Introduction or Background : This section provides context for the research, including the main research question and the hypothesis.
• Methodology : Briefly describes the methods used to gather data and conduct the research.
• Results : Visual representations such as graphs, charts, and tables are often used to display key findings effectively.
• Discussion or Conclusion : This section interprets the results, discussing their implications, significance, and possible limitations.
• References : Cites all sources of information used in the research in a concise manner.
• Acknowledgements : Recognizes contributions from others, such as advisors or funding bodies.
• Contact Information : Allows interested viewers to contact the researcher for further discussion or collaboration.

Design Considerations:

• Visual Appeal : Use of color, thoughtful layouts, and clear visual hierarchies that make scanning the poster easy.
• Readability : Text should be legible from a reasonable distance, typically using large fonts and concise language.
• Balance : Effective use of space, ensuring the poster is not too cluttered yet informative enough to provide a substantial understanding of the topic.

Academic posters are a popular method for researchers to share their work with the academic community, allowing for direct interaction and feedback, fostering networking and further discussion.

Using Images on the Poster

When including images in an academic poster, it's crucial to ensure that they enhance the presentation and communicate the research effectively. Here are key considerations to keep in mind when selecting and using images:

Relevance:  Images should be directly related to the content of the poster. Use visuals that illustrate or clarify the research findings, methods, or concepts being discussed. Irrelevant images can distract from the main message and reduce the overall impact of the poster.

Quality:  Images must be of high resolution to avoid pixelation when printed in large formats. Typically, images should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) when printed. Low-quality images can make the poster look unprofessional and can undermine the credibility of the research.

Legibility:  Ensure that any text within images (such as labels on graphs, charts, or diagrams) is legible. Font size in images should be large enough to be read from a distance that attendees will typically view the poster from, usually about 3-6 feet away.

Simplicity Images should be simple and not overly complex. Avoid cluttering visuals with too much information. Simplified and clear diagrams, charts, and graphs are more effective in conveying information quickly and effectively.

Color Use:  Use color strategically to enhance comprehension and draw attention to key parts of the image. However, maintain a consistent color scheme that aligns with the overall design of the poster. Be mindful of color blindness and avoid combinations that might make the poster difficult to read for color-blind individuals, such as red-green contrasts.

Labeling:  All images should be appropriately labeled with captions or titles that explain what the viewer is looking at. Captions should be concise but informative enough to allow the viewer to understand the image without needing additional explanation.

Source Attribution:  If images are not original (i.e., taken from another source), it's essential to provide proper attribution to avoid plagiarism and respect copyright laws. Make sure to have the right to use the images or obtain necessary permissions, and cite the source according to academic standards.

Layout and Integration:  Images should be well-integrated into the flow of the poster. Their placement should be logical, supporting the narrative of the research. They should guide the viewer through the research story in a logical and sequential manner.

Alignment and Proportion:  Maintain proper alignment and proportion of images in relation to the text and other content on the poster. Consistent margins, alignment, and thoughtful spacing contribute to a clean and professional appearance.

Ethical Considerations:  For research involving sensitive subjects or identifiable human subjects, ensure that any photographs or sensitive information have the necessary ethical approvals and consent for public display.

These considerations help ensure that images contribute effectively to the communication goals of an academic poster, enhancing the viewer's ability to quickly grasp and retain the essential elements of the research.

Poster Size

The dimensions of an academic poster can vary based on the requirements of the conference or event where it is being displayed. However, there are a few commonly used standard sizes. Here are some typical dimensions:

• 36 x 48 inches : This size is particularly common in the United States.It provides ample space for text, images, and graphics.
• 24 x 36 inches : This is a smaller option often used for smaller venues or when the printing capabilities are limited.
• Conference Guidelines : Always check the specific requirements of the conference or event. Most conferences will specify the dimensions to ensure uniformity and that all posters fit within the provided spaces.
• Content Volume : More detailed research with extensive data might require a larger poster size to accommodate all the information without appearing cluttered.
• Visibility : Larger posters are easier to read from a distance, which can be beneficial in a busy conference setting.

When preparing an academic poster, make sure to know the dimensions in advance before designing it, as resizing a finished poster can affect the layout and readability of your content.

Changing Slide Size in Microsoft PowerPoint

To identify and change the dimensions of a slide in Microsoft PowerPoint, you need to access the "Slide Size" settings, which allow you to customize the size to fit specific display requirements. Here’s how you can do it step-by-step in the latest versions of PowerPoint:

Identifying Current Slide Dimensions

• Open your PowerPoint presentation.
• Go to the “ Design ” tab on the Ribbon at the top of the screen.
• Click on “ Slide Size ” in the Customize group. This will show options such as ‘Standard (4:3)’, ‘Widescreen (16:9)’, and ‘Custom Slide Size’.If you click on "Custom Slide Size," a dialog box titled "Slide Size for" will open, which shows the current dimensions of your slides in either inches, centimeters, or pixels, depending on your settings.

Changing Slide Dimensions

• Follow the first two steps above to reach the “ Slide Size ” button.
• Click on “ Custom Slide Size… ” to open the Slide Size dialog box.
• In the dialog box, you’ll see options for width and height. You can manually input the dimensions you want for your slides in the width and height fields. Here, you can select from a list of predefined sizes or enter custom dimensions.
• Choose your preferred slide orientation for the slides (Portrait or Landscape) under the orientation settings in the same dialog box.
• Ensure Fit: Scales down content to make sure it fits the new slide dimensions.
• Maximize : Expands your content to fill the new slide size but may cut off content that doesn’t fit.
• Adjust your content if necessary. Changing the slide size can alter the layout of existing content, so you might need to manually adjust text boxes, images, and other elements to ensure that your presentation still looks as intended.

Export Slide to PDF

Exporting your academic poster from PowerPoint to a PDF while maintaining the original slide dimensions is a straightforward process. Here’s how you can do it to ensure your PDF looks just as intended:

Steps to Export a PowerPoint to PDF with Correct Dimensions

• Open your PowerPoint presentation that contains the academic poster.
• Click on the “ File ” menu in the top left corner of the PowerPoint window.
• Select “ Export ” from the list on the left side of the screen. If you're using an older version of PowerPoint, you might need to choose "Save As" instead.
• Choose “ Create PDF/XPS Document ” and then click on the “Create PDF/XPS” button. This option is directly aimed at saving your file in a PDF format.
• Where : Choose where you want to save the PDF.
• Filename : Enter a name for your PDF file.
• Save as type : Ensure it's set to PDF.
• Click on “ Options …” to access additional settings. This is a critical step to ensure your poster’s dimensions are preserved:
• Under Range, select " All slides " if your poster spans multiple slides (usually, an academic poster is just one slide).
• Check the box that says “ High quality (printing) ” to ensure the PDF is in the highest quality suitable for printing.
• In the Publish options, under Slide Size, you can specifically choose to use the slide dimensions you set in PowerPoint. Make sure it reflects your custom slide size if applicable.
• Ensure that “ Scale to fit paper ” is unchecked to maintain the original slide dimensions in the PDF. This setting is crucial as checking this box could distort or resize your poster to fit the standard paper size, which might not match your custom dimensions.
• Click “ OK ” to close the Options dialog box.
• Click “ Publish ” to create the PDF file.

Additional Tips Review Your PDF : After exporting, open the PDF to verify that all elements appear as expected and the dimensions are preserved. This check is especially important if the poster contains detailed graphics or specific formatting. Consider PDF Software Settings : If you're using third-party PDF software to view or print your file, ensure that the settings in that software do not alter the scale. For example, printer settings should be set to print at actual size, not fit to page.

Printing Your Poster

You can have your poster printed either at a commercial print shop, or at a WSU printing services office. The Pullman-based Printing and Design Services department offers a full suite of printing services. The Spokane-based Printing Services office offers academic poster printing and a limited suite of lamination and mounting services for print jobs with modest dimensions.

Before submitting a print job, ensure that:

• The dimensions of the file match the dimensions that you want printed. 
• The images are a sufficiently high quality to be printed at a large scale.
• You have identified the source of funding for the poster. Posters can be printed with personal funds, and at WSU print shops can also use a budget or grant code as applicable. 

Online Resources

• Preparing a Poster Presentation | American College of Physicians
• Creating conference posters: Structure, form and content Barker, E., & Phillips, V. (2021). Creating conference posters: Structure, form and content. Journal of perioperative practice, 31(7-8), 296–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750458921996254
• An Illustrated Guide to Poster Design Rose T. M. (2017). An illustrated guide to poster design. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 81(7), 6423. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8176423

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• The Visible Human Project The NLM Visible Human Project has created publicly-available complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of a human male body and a human female body. Specifically, the VHP provides a public-domain library of cross-sectional cryosection, CT, and MRI images obtained from one male cadaver and one female cadaver. The Visible Man data set was publicly released in 1994 and the Visible Woman in 1995.
• Last Updated: Apr 26, 2024 2:24 PM
• URL: https://libguides.libraries.wsu.edu/posters