Creating a presentation template can streamline your workflow and ensure a consistent look and feel across all your presentations. Whether you're a business professional, educator, or student, having a custom template can save you time and help you create more impactful presentations. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create a presentation template for PowerPoint or Google Slides.
Step 1: Define Your Branding
Before you start designing your template, it's essential to define your branding elements. This includes your brand colors, typography, logo, and any other visual elements that represent your brand. Use these elements consistently throughout your template to reinforce your brand identity.
Also consider have different versions of your logo, detailed logos when shown large and smaller, simpler logos when used in smaller sizes.
Step 2: Edit Theme Slides
In PowerPoint or Google Slides, the theme slides are where you design the layout and formatting for your slides. To access the theme slides, go to 'Slide' then 'Edit Theme'. Here, you can customize the background, fonts, colors, and placeholders for various slide types, such as title slides, content slides, and section headers.
This part can be a little frustrating, but we highly recommend you spend time creating these theme slides, as they become easily reusable for everyone.
Create layouts for different types of content, such as text-heavy slides, image slides, and charts/graphs. Use placeholders to indicate where users should insert their content, making it easy for them to customize the template.
Step 4: Add Visual Elements
Enhance your template with visual elements that reflect your branding and make your slides more engaging. This can include background images, icons, and other graphics. However, be mindful not to overcrowd your slides, as simplicity is key to an effective presentation.
It can also be good to create a bank of visual resources (located at the end of the template) that contains a variety of photos, icons and logos that you can copy and paste the items you require.
Step 5: Include Custom Fonts and Colors
To further personalize your template, consider using custom fonts and colors. This can help create a cohesive look across your slides and reinforce your brand's visual identity. Make sure to embed custom fonts in your template to ensure they display correctly on other devices or use Google supported fonts.
Step 6: Test Your Template
Before finalizing your template, test it to ensure that all elements are working correctly. Check the formatting, layout, and alignment of text and graphics to make sure everything looks consistent and professional.
You can also send the template to coworkers, so they can give their feedback before distributing to all stakeholders.
Step 7: Save Your Template
Once you're satisfied with your template, save it as a PowerPoint template or a Google Slides template (.pptx). This will allow you to reuse the template for future presentations and easily share it with others.
Conclusion
Creating a presentation template can help you save time and maintain a consistent brand image across all your presentations. By following these steps, you can design a template that reflects your branding and makes your presentations more effective and professional. And don't forget presentations are supposed to be engaging and impactful, so try not to have them as simple and safe, as they just won't create excitement. Make them fun!