Can’t face another run through of your tired marketing presentation? Imagine how your audience feels staring at blue and yellow slides that look remarkably like the last dozen slide shows that they’ve seen.

Revive your presentation and audience with a standout set of Microsoft PowerPoint slides. With a few design techniques, presentation methods and special effects, you really can deliver your point with power.

1. Create a Simple Background. Use a background style that shows off your information. Templates are a good starting point but are better when customized.

Select colours that match or complement your corporate identity (use a colour from your firm’s logo). While you’re at it, why not add your company logo to the Master slide so it will appear on each slide. Maybe the bottom right hand corner of the master slide is the right place to locate it?

2. Make Your Point. Slides should not reproduce what you’re going to say. Rather, they should identify and highlight important points in your presentation, and act as a guide for you, the presenter.

3. Keep Bullet Points Short. Focus on key words that will hit home. Save long sentences for the notes field. Follow the 666 rule — No more than six words per bullet, six bullets per image, and six slides of text in a row.

Try putting quotes on a single slide as an attention grabber.

4. Involve Your Audience. Make sure your audience is engaged and listening by asking good questions during your presentation. Stop the show and ask for a response. Be prepared to go off on a tangent to properly answer a question. Some of the most effective seminars I have ever attended totally ignored the slides when a delegate asked a really great question.

Eventually you will work full circle and get back on track, but the audience will love you for taking the time to answer a question in such detail, where appropriate. Use your judgment – if it’s a big deal to the audience then it is likely that they will want as much as you can give on that topic.

5. Switch on Office Assistant. You’ve probably ignored the Office Assistant while creating a presentation. PowerPoint’s Assistant, however, contains useful tips about visual style and consistency. For example, it will warn you when the text is too small or if you have too many bullets.

6. Make Fonts Work. Choosing the right fonts can mean the difference between a “Huh?” and a “Wow!” No more than two or three different fonts per presentation.

Chose fonts that match the tone of your content, and be sure to be consistent with how you use fonts, so that all of your headings are in the same font, and all text is the same, and please, use font-effects such as bold, italics and drop shadows sparingly.

Select bold font colours to contrast with your background colours.

7. Increase Font Size. Don’t forget the people in the back row. In general, increase font size up to four points larger than you’re used to. Most presenters recommend at least 18 points.

8. Limit Transitions. The transition options in PowerPoint are plentiful — and reminiscent of the old Buck Rogers serials. This may be great for a class of film students, but may prove distracting for your audience. Seamlessly move from one slide to another by picking one or two transitions and using them consistently.

9. Be Smart with Graphics. Consider each slide and see if a picture might better represent its concept. Then consider your graphics. Are they too busy? Too complicated? Consider dropping unessential data from charts.

10. Be Creative. Photos and pictures can jazz up your presentation.

11. Get Out of the Way and Be Seen. You’re putting on a show, so brush up on your acting skills. Be sure you’re not obstructing anyone’s view. Throughout your presentation, be sure to move purposefully and to keep your face to the audience.

Look your audience in the eye, one after one, to build that relationship while front and centre.

12. Remember to Test. Once you’ve settled on a design, project it on the equipment and test all the media you will be using, including multimedia projector, overheads, flip charts and laptop. Simulate lighting too.

Walk to the back of the room to view your presentation as your audience will see it. Then, make any necessary colour and/or style adjustments.

Love it or loathe it, PowerPoint is here to stay.

When used well, when the ‘special effects’ are used sparingly, and when the visuals complement what the speaker is say (rather than repeating it) then you too can appear to be the PowerPoint King or Queen of the office.