PowerPoint Tips for Non-Designers
- jennmontgomery28
- Sep 26
- 10 min read
How to Customize a Presentation for Brand Consistency
In today’s fast-paced business world, first impressions matter, and for a small business, every opportunity to stand out counts. Whether you’re pitching to investors, presenting to clients, or training your team, a powerful slide presentation can be the difference between gaining traction or being overlooked. Utilizing a well-designed presentation deck - no matter if you use Powerpoint, Keynote, or Google Slides - can make a world of difference in how your presentation is perceived. But crafting an effective deck isn’t just about flashy slides; it’s about clear messaging, strong visuals, and a strategy that supports your business goals. It shows that you put time and thought into your content and presentation, and it helps the information be absorbed better. This blog will focus on using Powerpoint on a Mac, but the same principles apply regardless of operating system; the steps might just be a little different.
This blog provides some specific direction to navigate PowerPoint and make updates. The following 5-minute video will give you a quick breakdown of terms and where to find mentioned settings, in case you’re new to PowerPoint.
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Getting Started: Matching Your Presentation to Your Brand
Consistency is key, and that is most easily curated by using the same fonts, colors, and logo placement throughout your deck. Having your brand elements installed within your PowerPoint will make your creation process faster and much more streamlined.
When you start a presentation, the first thing to do is customize your colors. Under the “design” ribbon, you are able to add and save customized color schemes for your brand using RGB or Hex values. Next, under the “view” ribbon, you are able to view and customize your master slides, which allows you to customize your presentation’s font and apply your brand’s color scheme. This is also a good place to add your logo to appear automatically on your slide layouts (like on the title slide or footers) so you don’t have to manually add it to every slide. I personally like to have my logo on the bottom left corner and a page number on the bottom right corner. These small setup steps create a polished, professional presentation that looks cohesive!
How to Use Master Slides for Consistency
Master slides are powerful. Taking the time to customize them upfront can save you hours down the line and ensure every presentation stays on-brand. With master slides, you can set your brand preferences and elements and have them automatically applied across your entire deck.
Title Styles
When you set up your master slides, not only can you customize fonts and colors, but you can also do additional formatting to make all slides consistent automatically. For example, you can set all of your titles to be in uppercase letters. You can do this by going into format > font and check the “all caps” option for your headings (there are other ways to set this preference, but I’ve noticed this is the only one that applies it consistently; others tend to revert back to the original format when edited).
Autofit Text
A pro-tip I like to share with my clients is to adjust the autofit settings to maximize consistency. In order to do this, click on both the heading and body boxes and head over to the “shape format” section. Once there, click on “Format Pane” (which will open a handy right sidebar with lots of additional options) and click on the third tab, “size and properties.” Under that, click on the “text box” drop-down and change from “shrink text on overflow” to “do not autofit”. This will allow you to put in as much text as you need, then re-size when and where you want, versus having the system try to resize for you, which results in more work for you in trying to get sizing just right.
Slide Footers
Something to keep in mind is that the pre-built templates will have a date and footer at the bottom of each slide; but those are generally outdated elements. You can turn them off by checking the “footers” box under “slide master” but that will also automatically remove the page number. What I like to do instead is click on the “slide number” option under the "insert" ribbon. This will allow customized options for specific exclusions.
Although this may seem like a lot to do as a first step, using these techniques will help you not only save time and reduce formatting headaches, but also ensure your presentation looks polished, professional, and aligned with your brand every single time. It’s ideal to do this once and create a master deck that you reuse repeatedly for ultimate brand consistency.
Using the Best Charts and Tables to Visualize Your Data
Choosing the right chart or table is essential for making your data easy to understand and visually impactful. For small businesses, that means creating visuals that support decision-making without overwhelming your audience. For the best results, you want to make sure your visuals are consistent - if you style a table or chart one way, keep that same style throughout your presentation to maintain a polished look.
Charts
For example, when you insert a pie chart, PowerPoint opens a linked Excel sheet where you can enter your data. The neat part is, if you've already customized your brand colors in PowerPoint, they’ll automatically apply to your chart, saving time and keeping your visuals on-brand. You can further personalize your chart by using the "Format" tab to adjust elements like labels, borders, and fonts.
Tables
When using Tables, PowerPoint will automatically create simple designs, which, in my opinion, can look too basic and like you didn’t take the time to customize, which may be off-putting when you’re going for a customized look. To make them stand out, try customizing the header row with your brand color and keeping the body rows white or alternating light gray, with a light border style. This improves legibility and adds a professional touch.
Adding Pictures to Your Presentation...the Right Way
Pictures do a lot for a presentation; they can help to illustrate points and they can be a decorative element that breaks up content on a slide. I absolutely recommend utilizing them, but there are a few things to keep in mind.
Photo Sources
First is your source; you want to make sure you have the appropriate licensure (For example, images on Google are copyrighted and use without permission is a copyright nightmare). There are plenty of resources you can use, though - both free and paid! Some of my favorite free sites are pexels.com, unsplash.com, and freepik.com and some great paid options are shutterstock.com, istockphoto.com, Adobe Stock, and 123rf.com. Each library has different content and different rules for crediting, usage, etc.
Brand Photos
Having photos that are specific to your brand is even more powerful. If you have professional photos taken for your brand, photos that you already use for your website, or those that you have used for previous marketing efforts (that you have licenses for) - I would recommend using those first (versus getting new ones). Once you download your photos, best practice is to resize them to a medium or small size; you don’t want to overload your presentation to a point where the file size is so large it becomes un-shareable.
Using Images
Once you have your photo, you want to make sure you’re inserting your images into PowerPoint the right way. You can drag and drop images, but doing so overrides PowerPoint’s built in compression features and greatly enhances your file size. The best practice method is instead to click on insert > pictures > picture from file or to click on the picture icon within a placeholder. It will look and function the same as if you drag and drop, but will significantly decrease the final deck file size. (Check out the video at the top of the blog to see this in action!)
Lastly, be mindful of consistency—use images that match your overall design, tone, and color scheme to keep your slides visually cohesive. When used thoughtfully, pictures can elevate your presentation from average to impactful, helping your message resonate more strongly with your audience.
How to Make Your Slides Shine with Pro Touches
One of the easiest ways to elevate your slides and show that you've put real thought into their design is by going beyond the default PowerPoint layouts. Try overlapping elements, adjusting text box sizes, adding shapes, or customizing the placement of your content. These small tweaks can make your slides feel more polished and dynamic. Just be careful not to go overboard, as too many elements can make a slide feel cluttered and distract from your message.
When customizing slides, make sure to leverage some of the built-in tools intended to help, such as the alignment guides that help you center and balance your elements to maximize space on your slides.
Speaking of maximizing space, don’t be afraid to spread your content across multiple slides—even if it’s all related to the same topic. I’ve worked with clients who felt compelled to cram everything onto one slide, but that often leads to clutter and smaller text that's hard to read. As a rule of thumb, try to keep your font size at 16-18 points or larger. You can occasionally go down to 14 points for things like disclaimers or photo credits, but if you find yourself needing to go smaller to fit everything in, it’s a good sign you should split the content across more slides. Remember, PowerPoint slides are not designed for heavy reading. They should support your presentation with key points, not serve as a script. Keep them concise and use your verbal delivery to add depth and show your audience that you’re an expert on your topic!
Special Note Regarding Layering Elements
When you’re building templates to use going forward, it’s important to remember how layering works in master slides. Any element you put in a master slide that’s not a placeholder (like a circle shape, for example) will always be at the back or the bottom of the design - everything else will overlap it. When you’re actually using the templated slides, this can cause issues depending on how you want the final design to appear, and so it’s important to be cognizant of this feature.
The Final Touch: Adding Subtle Animations and Transitions to Your Slides
Now that you’ve built a powerful presentation that’s branded, uses engaging charts, compelling images and thoughtful design elements, you’re ready to add the finishing touches. Subtle animation and slide transitions can be really powerful and make your presentation feel complete and polished.
Slide transitions are visual effects that you use between slides to help enhance the change from one slide to the next. In PowerPoint, you’ll find these options under the “Transitions” tab on the ribbon. For a cohesive and polished look, I would recommend using one transition for every slide on your deck. Using a variety of transitions can feel distracting or unprofessional unless there's a specific reason to highlight a particular slide with a unique effect.
Animations are visual effects that you can apply to individual elements within a slide—such as text, images, or shapes. They’re useful for revealing content in stages, creating emphasis, or making elements interact in a more dynamic way. For example, you might animate bullet points to appear one at a time as you speak, helping your audience focus on each idea. If you're adding animations purely for visual appeal, it's a good idea to apply them consistently across all slides to maintain a cohesive look. To apply an animation, simply select the element you want to animate, then go to the “Animations” tab in the ribbon and choose your effect. I recommend sticking with subtle animations like “Fade” or “Wipe” to avoid distracting from your message. PowerPoint also lets you control when the animation starts—on click, automatically, or after a delay—and you can customize the direction and speed for even more control.
Used thoughtfully, animations and transitions can add a layer of professionalism and visual interest that ties your entire presentation together. The key is consistency and subtlety; let the effects support your message, not distract from it. With these final touches in place, your presentation will not only look polished but also deliver your content in a clear, engaging, and impactful way.
The Best Export Options for Powerpoint
In most cases, you’ll be presenting your slideshow live, whether in person or virtually. When it’s time to present, open the file and enter the Slideshow View. If you're using two screens, PowerPoint will typically display the current slide on one screen and the Presenter View on the other. This secondary view allows you to see your notes, upcoming slides, a timer, and other helpful tools for staying on track. You can customize this view and take advantage of other features like Rehearse Timings, Record Slideshow, and more under the “Slideshow” tab in the ribbon.
When you're ready to share or distribute your presentation, consider exporting it as a PDF. On a Mac (and on a PC, but the steps may vary slightly), be sure to choose the “Best for printing” option. This setting will preserve your fonts, transitions, and colors. Using the “Best for electronic distribution and accessibility” option will, more often than not, alter fonts, design elements, or shift formatting in an unattractive way.
If you've gone in and made all the updates to your master slides, consider saving this deck as a template - put it in a POTX format, and make it easy to reuse.
Taking a few extra minutes to rehearse your delivery and choose the right export settings can make a big difference in how professional and reliable your final presentation appears—whether you’re presenting it live or sharing it afterward.
Why You Should Customize Your PowerPoint Presentation
A well-designed PowerPoint presentation can be a powerful asset for any small business. It not only helps present your information in a clear and visually appealing way, but also makes it easier for your audience to absorb and retain what you’re sharing. From client meetings and sales proposals, to internal training and onboarding, the possibilities for using presentations to support your business goals are nearly endless.
If you find yourself creating presentations regularly, or customizing them for different clients, having branded templates on hand can save you time and will help you maintain brand consistency across all your materials.
If you need help creating a presentation or a template, this is something I personally greatly enjoy doing and would love to help you with. Find some time to collaborate here.
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