In this e-book, you will learn about basics of good design. These simple principles will help you make better-looking PowerPoint slides. These principles are simple to understand and easy to apply. This e-book is based on the six-part series 'Design Basics'. Go ahead, download the e-book, apply the principles and make awesome looking slides. Share it with your friends and colleagues. Click here to download (from Google Docs; no login required)** Click here to download e-book (SlideShare 2.40 MB) ** To download, first click on the link. Then go to File (on your left) and choose Download.

MS PowerPoint is a software for making presentations. Over the last many years, I have been using it for doing all weird kind of things. Here are 11 such things I have used the software for. 1. Designing posters / leaflets 2. Designing logo 3. Writing e-books 4. Photo editing 5. Image creation (creating shapes and saving as a picture) 6. Making a screen saver (by running PPT in a loop) 7. Preparing presentations to wish friends/relatives Happy Birthday (a complete audio visual affair; almost like a mini movie) 8. Designing press advertisements 9. Designing a scratch card 10. Designing a book cover (the author actually rejected the deisgn :-( 11. Designing the layout for websites Other than making PPTs, what have you used MS PowerPoint for? Image credit: scottchan

This is the last part of the six-part series called 'Design Basics' where we are learning how to make our slides look good. This series is based on the book 'The Non-Designer's Design Book' by Robin Williams. In the last four parts we have covered the four principles of good design; Contrast , Repetition , Alignment , and Proximity (in short C.R.A.P.). In this post, we will learn a few simple tricks. 1. Have a lot of white space on the slide 2. Avoid all capital letters in the text. It makes the design very busy and uncomfortable to read. The same rule applies to emails as well. 3. Break all the rules. White Space The invisible element of any design is the amount of blank space that is there in it. It is our tendency to fill the slide completely with either text or image. Example, open a newspaper and look for an advertisement by a small company. You will see no blank space at all. Afterall, the owner has paid for it and hence has to write as much as he can. The pr...

This is the fifth post in the series 'Design Basics' where we are discussing how to make our slides look good. Read the first post of the series here . This series is based on Robin Williams' book 'The Non-Designer's Design Book'. Design Principle #4 of 4: Contrast What does it mean? Contrast means difference. The difference between two elements on the slide. The difference can be of colour, size, font type, bold and not bold, vertical and horizontal text, etc. A simple example of contrast is the headline. See the image below. The two headline texts are in bold and they are bigger in font size. This is the contrast here. It makes it easy for us to read the text. What is the Contrast Principle? Contrast adds visual interest in the design and makes it interesting. In order to be effective, the contrast HAS TO BE strong. Example, font 18 and 20 is not a strong contrast. A strong contrast would be 18 and 30. Contrast also helps organise a document, so readers can...

I am going to s top blogging for 3 months due to personal reasons. I will write till February end and bury the blog from March to May. This is the 290th post and I will try to reach as close to 300 as possible before the long summer approaches. In these three months I will be sharing old posts which will be of use to new readers who have joined in the last one year. I have been updating this blog 2/3 times a week since the day I started and this break seems to be too long. However it also seems like a blessing in disguise. Imagine that God came to me and said; "You have 10 more days to blog." What will I do? Write to the best of my ability. Write like I have never written before. If you are new to the blog, you will like the old posts I will share. Others, please hang on till I come back in June. I will also share few more blog links which you can read while I am gone. However, do not stop emailing questions and queries. I will answer all your questions. Take care and make...

This is the fourth post in the series 'Design Basics' where we are discussing how to make our slides look good. Read the first post here , second here and the third post here . This series is based on Robin Williams' book 'The Non-Designer's Design Book'. Design Principle #3: Repetition What does it mean? Repetition is a simple word which means to repeat. To repeat an element across the design. In our context, it stands for consistency as well. Consistent use of elements (colour, fonts, etc.) on a slide and throughout all slides. What is the Repetition Principle? This principle of good design states that we repeat some aspects of the design throughout the presentation. It helps organise information and guides your reader through the presentation. How to apply this principle? Here are a few tips to remain consistent throughout the slides 1. Use a template (can be created by you as well) so that the looks across all slides remain the same. 2. Use the same font si...

This is the third post in the series 'Design Basics'. Read the first post here and the second post here . This series is based on Robin Williams' book 'The Non-Designer's Design Book'. Design Principle #2: Alignment What does it mean? Alignment is the adjustment of an object in relation to other objects ( Wikipedia ) . You are aware of left alignment (often called left justify) and right alignment. By alignment here, we mean the way every element is positioned in comparison to the other element. What is the Alignment Principle? Every element on the slide should have a visual connection with other elements on the slide. A slide which has all the elements aligned gives a more cohesive look. It appeals more to the eye. Robin suggests that every element should be aligned in the same manner. If the slide header text is aligned left, the body text should also be aligned left. Have a look at the image below. The slide on the left is the most common thing to do. Robin ...

This is the second post of the series 'Design Basics'. This series is based on Robin Williams' book 'The Non-Designer's Design Book'. Read the first post here . Design Principle #1: Proximity What does it mean? This is the first principle of good design. Proximity means closeness. Physical closeness of elements on the slide. What is the Proximity Principle? On a slide, there are many elements (images, text). The elements which are related should be placed together (physically closer) on the slide. The elements which are not related should never be placed together. Physical closeness (proximity) implies a relationship. Example #1 Look at the example below. This is something very similar to what Robin shares in her book. Which visiting card looks better? The one at the bottom looks better. There were 4 elements on the top visiting card. The proximity principle wants us to group the similar elements together. So we put investment banker with the name. We put the l...

[In this post we will learn what makes a design good . In the next few posts will discover how we can make our slides look great.] A good presentation is a result of three things; meaningful content , good-looking slides and powerful & engaging delivery . These three elements are equally important and we cannot get away by mastering only one or two out of the three. Most of us have no formal training in design and many of us do not consider ourselves creative. In this series of posts, termed as Design Basics I am trying to learn and share with you what makes a design appealing. Why do we like some slides and don't like others? What are the basic principles we can use to make our slides awesome? Principles which are easy to understand and easy to apply. Our guide here is Robin Williams and her book 'The Non-Designer's Design Book' . The term design applies to every type of design; slide design (a PPT slide), newspaper advertisement, newsletter, websites, etc. ...

You have made lots of presentations in your life. Some worth remembering, some may not be so. You would have given successful presentations; where you cracked the deal or got the sale or received a warm response from the audience. Share your presentation stories with me. Tell me what the presentation was about, what did you do and how did you feel during and after the presentation. Don't worry if you think it was a small thing. I want to listen from you. Tell me your stories so I can share them here (with your permission) and we all will learn something about how to become better at making presentations. Share your stories by shooting an email to vivek @ allaboutpresentations dot com . I am waiting for you.

To become awesome at making presentations I strongly recommend: Retrospection after every Presentation. Sit back, relax, rewind, think about the presentation you have just given. What did not go well? and how can you correct that next time. What went well which you can replicate next time. You need to do this within 24 hours of giving the presentation and write down your learning for future reference. I delivered a presentation today to a group of 60 first year MBA students. I was representing my organisation and had gone to offer them a small market research project. The objective was to get students excited about the (glamour less) project . My aim was to enroll atleast 30 of them . What went well? The presentation was liked by the students. I am gauging from the response I received. 48 of them enrolled (48 out of 60). My objective was met and that was the most satisfying part. I was really worried that only 5 or 10 students will like the project. The project is too small and not s...

PowerPoint Presentations are going to be there for as long as we can imagine. The hardware may change or the software may change but we will have to continue to make presentations. Even if we love them or hate them our job (or college) will ask us to present and present well. Let us decide not to be happy with an 'ok-ok' presentation and go out and give our best shot. Plan better, design better slides and rehearse more so that we can deliver a better presentation. Why not try to become the best presenter in our college or place of work? Let us make a conscious effort to evaluate ourselves on the three aspects of making a presentation; planning the content, designing the slides and delivering the presentation. We won't be bad on all three. Let us become conscious of our flaws and give our best to improve on these. Let us stop being average and start being awesome *. * I have borrowed this word from an awesome blogger Chandoo who inspires so many people (including myself) t...