By the tiswa editorial team, from the official sources listed at the end of this guide. How we write our guides
These PowerPoint design tips do not need design talent, only a few rules applied from the first slide. Most university presentations look weak for two reasons: too much text packed onto each slide, and formatting that changes from slide to slide. This guide fixes both with practical steps inside PowerPoint itself, using Microsoft's own tools to save you hours of manual formatting.
Five rules before any tool
- One idea per slide. If your title needs the word "and", you probably have two slides.
- Make the title a sentence that states the finding, such as "Library use rises during exam weeks", not a generic word like "Results".
- Slide text is for the audience, and the long explanation lives in your notes. A slide is not a page to read from.
- Two fonts at most, one main colour and one accent. Strong contrast between text and background matters more than any decoration.
- Leave enough empty space. A crowded slide is hard to read from the back of the room.
Start with the Slide Master
According to Microsoft, the Slide Master is where you make design changes that apply to the whole deck, and it is best set up before you build slides. If you edit it after creating slides, you need to reapply the changed layouts to the existing ones. So make it step one:
- Open the Slide Master
On the View tab choose Slide Master, or on Windows press Alt, then W, then M. A Slide Master tab appears on the ribbon.
- Set the master slide
Pick the large slide at the top of the side panel and set the fonts, colours and the position of your university logo if one is required. What you set here appears on every layout.
- Adjust the layouts
Below it are layouts such as Title and Title and Content. Set the title size and text position in each one instead of fixing every slide later.
- Close and build
Close the master view and add slides by picking the right layout for each from New Slide.
Designer: a slide layout in one click
PowerPoint's Designer suggests professional layouts based on what is on the slide. Microsoft's steps:
- Open suggestions
On the Design tab choose Design Suggestions. On an iPad or Android tablet, tap Designer on the ribbon.
- Turn it on
If a prompt appears, choose Turn on or Let's go.
- Pick a design
Ideas appear in the Design Suggestions pane on the right. Select one to apply it, and press Ctrl+Z (or ⌘+Z on a Mac) to undo.
- If the button is greyed out
Go to File, Account, choose Manage Settings under Account Privacy and turn on Turn on optional connected experiences.
Key conditions from Microsoft: Designer needs an internet connection, works with themes that come with PowerPoint rather than custom or downloaded ones, and is a Microsoft 365 subscriber feature on desktop while PowerPoint for the web offers it to everyone, with the file stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. With a university account, Office 365 A1 includes PowerPoint for the web; see Office for students.
- For photos: use the Title or Title + Content layout with no extra shapes, and up to four photos in jpg, png, gif or bmp, each larger than 200 x 200 pixels.
- Designer cannot suggest designs when the slide has a drawn shape or text box, so put text and photos in placeholders.
- If a classmate is editing the same slide at the same moment, no suggestions appear for it.
- It can turn lists and timelines into SmartArt, and when it cannot produce good options it shows none.
Charts instead of tables of numbers
Nobody reads a twenty-number table on a slide. Pick a chart that says the point. Per Microsoft, columns compare categories, lines show a trend over even intervals such as months, pie charts show parts of a whole for one series with no negative values and about seven categories at most, and bars suit long category names. Build the chart in Excel and paste it in; the full walkthrough is in charts in Excel.
- Cut the clutter
Remove gridlines you do not need, and the legend when there is only one series.
- Colour the message
Make every column grey except the one you are talking about, in your main colour.
- Write the takeaway
Put the finding in the slide title, so people get it without decoding the chart.
Alt text for images and charts
Microsoft recommends one or two sentences in the Alt Text pane describing the object and its context, and marking decorative images with Mark as decorative. It notes that PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 on PC generates alt text automatically for some images, which you should review, while charts, SmartArt and screenshots need alt text you write yourself. That makes your deck readable with screen readers and helps when you email the file to your instructor afterwards.
Present with your notes in Presenter View
Write the detailed explanation in the notes pane under each slide. Per Microsoft, Presenter View shows your notes to you alone while the audience sees only the slides, and it appears automatically when you start the show with a second display connected. On a single screen, Alt+F5 starts the show that way so you can rehearse.
Mistakes that spoil a university presentation
- Pasting whole paragraphs from your paper onto slides, then reading them aloud.
- Small type nobody can read from the back, or light text over a busy photo.
- A different animation and transition on every slide. One calm transition, or none, is better.
- Low-resolution or watermarked images. Use clear images and credit the source if your department asks.
- A lone "Thank you" slide at the end. Make the last slide your key findings or a discussion question, since it stays on screen during questions.
Before presentation day
- Rehearse against the clock
Run the whole deck with a timer. If you run over, cut slides rather than speaking faster.
- Test on another machine
Open the file on the room computer or a classmate's laptop to check fonts and images appear as you designed them.
- Save a PDF copy
Keep a PDF next to the PowerPoint file on a USB stick and in your cloud account, so if the app fails you can show the PDF.
- Prepare likely answers
Write three questions the committee will probably ask, and put a backup slide for each after your conclusion.
Here is a paragraph from my paper: [paste paragraph]. Turn it into one PowerPoint slide: a title that states the main finding in under ten words, then three bullet points at most, each under eight words, then speaker notes in three sentences. Suggest an image or chart type that fits.
For timing your talk and handling questions, read how to make a presentation. For AI tools that draft decks, see AI presentation makers, and if you prefer ready templates try Canva for students.
- Canva: Canva offers Canva Pro free through Canva for Campus to university students in Saudi Arabia.
- WPS Office: WPS Office offers WPS Office for free to university students in Saudi Arabia.
- Google AI: Google AI offers Google AI Plus free for a year to university students in Saudi Arabia.
