Everything you Need to Know About PowerPoint Formatting

Consultants speak via PowerPoint presentations.

Wouldn’t you agree? Be it selling ideas, product promotions, company management, education, marketing or a keynote speech at an event, presentations are here to stay.

And hence the need for PowerPoint formatting.

"PowerPoint Formatting is a part of our job and vocabulary at Chillibreeze. However, not everyone is familiar with the actual term “PowerPoint formatting."

So…What is PowerPoint Formatting?

“PowerPoint formatting is transforming a rough presentation into something more beautiful and presentable to the audience. 

It can also be described as a process where slides are given a facelift. It involves adding elements, such as shapes, icons, images and animations that not only enhance the look of the slide but also perfectly complement the content.”  Says Hubert, a Presentation & Design Services Executive at Chillibreeze.

You might also want to know the different levels of PowerPoint formatting.

Why is it called PowerPoint formatting?

I would wonder the same if I weren't part of the Presentation design team at the beginning of my career at Chillibreeze.

Here are some lines/terminologies used by customers when sending work to their Chillibreeze crew:

1. An attached deck that would like you to help us fix up
2. Attached is a deck we need your magic and expertise on 
3. Need help coming up with a few design options for the attached slides
4. Please improve
5. Please find attached a PPT document to be beautified and enhanced accordingly
6. Kindly, enhance the design, alignment, space utilization, and overall look and feel
7. Can I get your help to clean up attached?
8. Attached is a presentation that needs redesigning to be more appealing
9. Need some urgent layout and beautifying touches on the attached presentation
10. Can you please clean this up?

However, they all mean the same – PowerPoint Formatting.

What should you expect from PowerPoint formatting?

Nothing goes under the hammer without clear expectations. So, it is with PowerPoint formatting.

Quality is a top priority in every business. No wonder it is the number one expectation from PowerPoint formatting as well. There is more to it than just clean looking slides.

No one wants to sit through a boring presentation. So, sometimes you might also want it designed and formatted to make it presentable to your audience.

Why is PowerPoint formatting even needed for business presentations?

First of all, ask yourself, what is the purpose of your presentation?

“I want my slides to be engaging and entertaining” probably wins the vote. Formatting PowerPoint slides are part of making your slides communicate visually.

Design elements, proper alignment, consistency check…all work towards giving your presentation a clean and neat look.

When you have a lot of information in your slides, it’s not an easy task to hold people’s attention. You have to put extra effort in getting your message across.

The purpose of formatting is to bring life to your slides and capture the attention of the audience.

What is the process involved in formatting slides?

Every business organization will have its own set procedures for formatting PowerPoint slides. The list below gives the bare minimum that needs to be followed:

Instruction: Clear guidelines on the requirement in formatting. Is it just a simple clean up or, should the designer go a step further to make it visually appealing.

Consistency: All slides should have a consistent look and feel. They should show a relation either by color, font family, font size, and alignment.

Details: Spacing between fonts, spell check, text condensation, shapes, images, image size, are maintained.

QC: Final quality check to ensure that instructions are followed, consistency is maintained throughout the presentation, and finer details are attended.

Apart from these simple processes, most organizations have their brand guidelines and PowerPoint template for the company’s internal as well as external use that we must strictly adhere to.

PowerPoint presentations never run out of business. They continue to be the go-tool for communicating visually with a larger group. It does not just end there.

Just like we dress up for occasions like parties, weddings, or for work in a certain
attire, we need our PowerPoint presentation to be dressed up to fit your specific business needs.