Better PowerPoint Layouts with Slide Master - Part 2

In our last post, we talked about how designing consistent PowerPoint reports can improve brand perception and engagement.

We’ve also shared five essential tips with you for sprucing up your layouts with Slide Master.

Now it’s time to move beyond the basics. Let’s see how you can enhance your layouts to create more memorable reports.

Here are five more tips for you.

6. Choose a legible and familiar font

Reports are not ideal for experimenting with fonts. Often, it’s best to stick to default or classic fonts unless, of course, you already use a custom brand font.

Pretty fonts may attract attention, but they can be harder to read. Also, they often come across as unfamiliar, which means that viewers may not connect with your report right away.

Use Slide Master to enforce a legible font size and style across the text body and title for all slides.

Top tip: For most reports, use a minimum font size of 30pt for maximum legibility across screens.

7. Keep headers and footers clean

You don’t want slide headers and footers to contain unnecessary information. And you probably don’t want to leave them blank either.

Use Insert > Header & Footer in Slide Master to customize the information displayed on all slides.

Here are some suggestions:

• Add the slide number to keep track of slides more easily.
• Choose a date that updates automatically, rather than a fixed one.
• Add your brand motto or other useful information to a custom header or footer.

8. Keep data visualizations consistent

Charts and graphs make your data easier to visualize and help viewers retain information.

But to keep your presentation consistent, you should enforce the same design guidelines for all your visualizations—this includes colors, fonts, and shapes.

An easy way to do this is to use PPTX Builder to generate custom data visualizations from your Excel tables.

9. Use empty space to draw attention to your data

Empty space is as important as the content on your slides.

Don’t think of empty space as something negative that needs to be filled up with content. Instead, use it to frame the essential content on every slide and draw attention to visualizations.

Use your Slide Master layout to free space on your slides. Add to your layout only essential design elements—those which help convey your message.

10. Pay attention to the effects you choose

Slide Master gives you a dozen or so effects to choose from, ranging from plain Office effects to Glossy.

Depending on the theme and style of your report, the impact of these effects may not always be evident.

That’s why it’s good to try the different effects and pay attention to the subtle differences between them.

A good approach is to choose a default effect for all your brand reports and stick to it for consistency.

Create a Better PowerPoint Report

In the end, creating an engaging, professional PowerPoint reports doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming. Start with the basics and then enhance your report with the right visual elements and effects.

With PPTX Builder, you can create professional PowerPoint reports packed with engaging visualizations.

Try PPTX Builder now to better understand how it can help you create professional reports in no time.