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I just have some very basic questions regarding how a professional designer would approach creating an impressive Powerpoint presentation using todays techniques.

The presentation has to be made in Powerpoint so is it better to create it in Indesign for greater design control and export as a PDF to the powerpoint. Is this the best way?

Also, what if the client wants to edit the text? Shall I just export the images and create the text in the actual powerpoint? Although this loses some of professional look and control over the text.

Another aspect is animation. Whats the best way to add animation to the slides? Is Powerpoint's animations tools the best options to use or is their an alternative way?

If I am using PDF's, can I animate these? I have heard of "Morph" but unfortunately my Powerpoint version doesn't have it even though my version is quite recent.

Any help or advice in how to create a professional Powerpoint presentation, will be most appreciated!

Thanks

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  • The Morph transition is a game-changer for animating in PowerPoint. If you're animating today in PowerPoint, you want Morph. Morph is available to PowerPoint 2016 users who have an Office 365 subscription.
    – Graham Hannington
    Commented Aug 16, 2018 at 3:35

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If the presentation needs to be done in Powerpoint, I wouldn't try to use a different platform. As you mentioned, your client might want to change things, so the format should be a popular and easy to edit one.

Since re-usability seems to be an important point here, I would consider preparing a Powerpoint template for your client. A template contains everything from different covers, layout and styling options, to (if you want) guidelines in regards to animations (this would have to go separate).

I personally spend almost as much time preparing the assets for the presentation as I do preparing the presentation file itself. This is the key, I believe. And by preparation I mean:

  • Plan a grid you can use as layout base
  • Adjust image formats and sizes so they doesn't have to scale weirdly (export them in the correct quality and size from the start)
  • Prepare graphs and graphic assets as transparent PNGs
  • Create and atomise elements you want to re-use (bullet list styles, text styles, anything really)
  • Create and import videos files to replace complex animations

Powerpoint is quite powerful, but it's also a bit heavy. The most work you can produce outside of it, IMO, the better. In the end it will be about using PP to get all those assets together, to create a template that you have designed previously.

You will never be able to get the client to use things exactly as you explained, but if you have a template they will have less chances to mess up. If you are using PP, design for PP. Use InDesign for ideas, but take advantage of the tools the other app offers, because the two softwares were planned for very different tasks.

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  • @user3241466 Yisela pretty much nailed it, but I have one thing to add if it isn't obvious, font issues. As much as you'd like to use that cool new font, you're best sticking with fonts that are standard on both platforms so you can control the viewing/editing experience as much as possible. Fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, or Calibri should be safe.
    – ErickP
    Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 19:56
  • Re: "prepare ... assets as transparent PNGs". This depends on what you want to do with those assets in PowerPoint. I create vector-based graphics in CorelDRAW that I use in PowerPoint. Often, I want to apply effects to those graphics in PowerPoint. Rather than exporting from CorelDRAW to PowerPoint in a pixel-based format such as PNG, I use enhanced metafile format (I'm using PowerPoint 2016 on Windows 10) to preserve the vector-based nature of the original graphics. In PowerPoint, I convert the inserted graphics to Microsoft Office drawing objects, ungroup them, and apply effects.
    – Graham Hannington
    Commented Aug 16, 2018 at 3:33

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