What are the best practices for creating a consistent look and feel across all slides in your presentation?

1 Choose a theme and stick to it

A theme is a predefined set of colors, fonts, backgrounds, and layouts that you can apply to your slides. Most presentation software offer a range of themes that you can customize or create your own. A theme can help you maintain a consistent look and feel across all slides by ensuring that your elements match and complement each other. Choose a theme that suits your topic, audience, and purpose, and avoid changing it midway through your presentation.

2 Use a master slide and layouts

A master slide is a template that defines the common elements and styles for all slides in your presentation, such as the title, logo, footer, and background. A layout is a variation of the master slide that specifies the placement and size of placeholders for different types of content, such as text, images, charts, and videos. Using a master slide and layouts can help you create a consistent look and feel across all slides by saving you time and effort, ensuring alignment and spacing, and preventing accidental changes.

3 Follow the rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a design principle that divides your slide into nine equal parts by drawing two horizontal and two vertical lines. The idea is to place your most important elements along or near the intersections of these lines, creating a balanced and visually appealing composition. Following the rule of thirds can help you create a consistent look and feel across all slides by avoiding clutter, enhancing focus, and creating harmony.

4 Use colors wisely

Colors can convey emotions, moods, and meanings, as well as attract attention and create contrast. However, too many or too bright colors can also distract, overwhelm, and confuse your audience. To create a consistent look and feel across all slides, use colors wisely by following some simple tips. Limit your palette to a few coherent colors that match your theme and message. Utilize colors to emphasize key points instead of decorating or filling space. Additionally, make sure to choose colors that contrast well with your background and text, as well as are accessible and readable for all viewers.

5 Choose fonts carefully

Fonts can be used to communicate tone, style, and personality, while also affecting readability and comprehension. However, too many or too fancy fonts can reduce consistency, clarity, and professionalism. To create a cohesive look and feel across all slides, it is important to choose fonts carefully by following some tips. Limit yourself to two or three fonts in your presentation, such as one for headings, one for body text, and one for accents. Ensure that the fonts are legible, simple, and compatible with your theme and message. Additionally, make sure they are available on most devices and platforms, or embed them in your presentation file. Lastly, be sure the fonts are consistent with your brand identity and voice.

6 Vary your content types

In order to create a consistent look and feel across all slides, it is important to use different types of content, such as text, images, charts, videos, and audio. This will help create a more engaging and memorable presentation. To ensure the content is relevant, meaningful, appropriate, respectful, ethical, high-quality, clear, and accurate for your audience and context, follow these tips: make sure it supports your message; is consistent with your theme, style, and format; and is respectful of your audience and context.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?