Canva’s free presentation software gives you access to hundreds of beautifully designed layouts to create presentations on any topic. Simply choose the perfect images, fonts and colors to make your presentation relay your message with gusto! Your friends and colleagues won’t believe how ridiculously good your presentations look.

A slide is a single page of a presentation. Collectively, a group of slides may be known as a slide deck. A slide show is an exposition of a series of slides or images in an electronic device or in a projection screen.

Before the advent of the personal computer, a presentation slide could be a 35 mm slide viewed with a slide projector^[1] or a transparency viewed with an overhead projector.

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In the digital age, a slide most commonly refers to a single page developed using a presentation program such as MS PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, Apache OpenOffice or LibreOffice. It is also possible to create them with a document markup language, for instance with the LaTeX class Beamer.

Lecturenotes in slide format are referred to as lecture slides, frequently downloadable by students in .ppt or .pdf format.

Slide producing software[edit]

Presentation slides can be created in many pieces of software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, LibreOffice Impress, Prezi, ClearSlide, Powtoon, GoAnimate, Snagit, Camtasia, CamStudio, SlideShare, and Reallusion.

Some software, like competitors PowToon and GoAnimate, produces slides with more animation. Others like CamStudio can be used to record the screen activity.^[2]

The most popular pieces of slide producing software are Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi, Apple Keynote, Google Slides and ClearSlide.^[3]

• PowerPoint is currently the most popular slides presentation program. LibreOffice Impress is a FOSS alternative.
• Prezi was developed in 2009 by Peter Arvai, Peter Halácsy and Ádám Somlai-Fischer in Budapest and San Francisco. Today, Prezi has 40 million users internationally.^[4]
• Apple Keynote, updated for OS X El Capitan, works on Macs and some other Apple devices.^[5]
• ClearSlide is commonly used in marketing and sales organizations for presentations to customers.^[6]
• Google Slides was developed by Google at the same time as Google Docs and Sheets, in 2007. The tool allows live collaboration.^[7]

Templates[edit]

Typically in a set of slides (a 'deck'), all the slides will have a similar layout template, controlling such factors as margins and headings.^[8]

Slide sharing websites[edit]

Some websites offer facilities to share slide presentations online.

Selection of slide sharing websites[edit]

SlideShare allows the user to share presentations publicly or privately. Slides can be uploaded in various ways, via email and through social media are the most common ways of sharing the slides.^[9]

AuthorSTREAM only allows the user to upload PowerPoint presentation slides. On this website users can give feedback by rating presentations and posting comments.^[10]

SlideBoom turns slide presentations into Adobe Flash so they can be viewed without slide presentation software.^[11][12]

SlideOnline allows the user to upload PowerPoint presentations and share them as a web page in any device or to embed them in WordPress as part of the posts comments.^[13]

Another way of sharing slides is by turning them into a video. PowerPoint allows users to export a presentation to video (.mp4 or .wmv).^[14]

See also[edit]

• Reversal film - photographic slides produced from camera film & viewed with a slide projector
• Transparency (projection) - viewed with an overhead projector

References[edit]

1. ^Alley, Michael (2003). The Craft of Scientific Presentations (1st ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag. p. 102. ISBN0-387-95555-0. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
2. ^'27 Presentation Software & Powerpoint Alternatives For 2015'. www.customshow.com. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
3. ^Robarts, Stu. 'The best presentation software: top 5 PowerPoint alternatives'. TechRadar. Archived from the original on 2015-10-19. Retrieved 2015-10-29.
4. ^'Prezi, la startup de Silicon Valley que no ha sido aplastada por los gigantes'. CIOAL The Standard IT. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
5. ^'Keynote - Accessibility'. accessibility.umn.edu. Archived from the original on 2015-09-09. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
6. ^'Presentation & Sales Management Software | ClearSlide'. ClearSlide. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
7. ^'Overview of Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides - Docs editors Help'. support.google.com. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
8. ^'Adobe FrameMaker 8'. help.adobe.com. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
9. ^'SlideShare - Frequently Asked Questions'. help.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
10. ^'Frequently Asked Questions on authorSTREAM'. www.authorstream.com. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
11. ^'FAQ - SlideBoom'. www.slideboom.com. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
12. ^'Slide Sharing Websites: Review | m62'. www.m62.net. Retrieved 2015-11-02.
13. ^'SlideOnline - Present More'. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
14. ^'Turn your presentation into a video'. www.support.office.com. Retrieved 2018-01-10.

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As a professional speaker, I get many chances, as I travel around the country, to see other people give presentations. With professional speakers, the presentations are always well done and professional. And of course they should be; these people are professionals!

Related: 7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers

But, sadly, I often see exactly the opposite with others: presentations that are boring, dull and dry and go on way too long, with the presenter exhibiting terrible speaking skills as well as a plethora of anesthesizing PowerPoint slides. You know what I’m talking about because you've seen it.

The point here is more important than any individual conference or meeting: In fact, I believe that in order to be a successful leader and entrepreneur, you have to become skilled at giving presentations like a pro. Here are eight tips on how to do that.

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1. Properly prepare.

I know that you’re thinking that 'preparation' means having your presentation deck in order and your handouts organized, but that is not what I mean at all.

What I refer to here is the need for a careful analysis of audience members to know whom you’re speaking to, and what they are expecting or needing from the presentation. Take time to talk to the person who invited you in the first place, to obtain a full and complete analysis of who will be in the room. Obviously, the presentation for roomful of CEOs will be different than a presentation for a group of front-line workers.

2. Start with a bang, not a whimper.

I have seen many presenters start out their presentations by giving their name and the title of the program and then saying, “Let’s get started.” I promise you, if you start out your presentation with just such a boring beginning, you'll lose your audience before you start.

We live in an era of high entertainment, and when we sit people in a room to watch a presentation, we need our presentations to start with a bang. You can start with a compelling quote, a great story, a stunning statistic or even a provocative question. The key is to get people's attention. Then you can introduce yourself and your topic.

Also use these tools to close out your presentation with a bang as well, because people do remember the beginning and the end of everything.

Related: 10 Honest and Completely Helpful Tips for Hitting a Public-Speaking Homerun

3. Recognize that the space is part of your presentation.

In many instances, I have seen the space become a barrier to the presentation being effective. Either the room was too crowded, it was set up the wrong way or the speaker was tied to the podium because that was the only place a microphone was available.

Make sure to check out in advance the space where you’re going to be presenting, to see its limitations. Additionally, arrive early the day of your presentation so that you can solve any room or space problems that exist before your presentation starts.

Presentation Templates

4. Please get rid of the PowerPoint.

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it seems to me that everyone giving presentations these days is in love with PowerPoint. To me, there are several issues here -- the main one being that PowerPoint quickly becomes sleep-inducing, because people are staring at a screen, and often the lights have been dimmed so the PowerPoint can be seen more clearly: an invitation to everyone to take a nap.

I personally believe you’d be much better off with a couple of handouts than you would hypnotizing people with PowerPoint. I also think most people giving presentations have way too many slides and try to click through 97 of them in 35 minutes. This in my opinion is a disaster.

Finally, most people believe that their PowerPoint is their presentation, when the reality is that the PowerPoint is supposed to be a supplement to illustrate key points. What's more, people actually use PowerPoint as a script for their presentation, and read from the screen. This makes audience members want to run screaming from the room.

5. Make it a conversation, not a presentation.

I think that when you’re designing a presentatio, you should have a couple of points where you have interaction with the audience, in order to have a conversation instead of just a presentation. This makes the presentation much more useful and interesting for the audience members. They have a chance to ask questions and actually talk to you like a human being instead of a presentation robot.

6. Use stories.

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Great presenters tell stories that captivate the attention of the audience -- but here’s something you shouldn't forget: The stories are not just stories for stories' sake. They illustrate the key points that you are discussing. This makes the presentation much more memorable.

7. Get some coaching.

Every professional speaker I’ve spoken with has told me he or she used a professional coach at some point to help with presentation skills. Join Toastmasters to learn better presentation skills, find out if your company offers training for presentation skills, attend a presentation skills class somewhere in your community. Or use a private coach to help you polish your skills.

I guarantee you that if you do thee things, you’ll get amazingly better results because you've had someone give you feedback in an objective way on what you do well, and what you need to improve on.

8. Evaluate.

Each time you give a presentation, either ask a trusted colleague to observe your presentation and give you feedback, or if that is not possible, at least take time after every presentation to review what you believe went well and what could be improved.

Related: Want to Be Better On Camera? Join Us for a Livestream Chat With Public Speaking Guru Jill Schiefelbein

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This evaluation will help ensure that you continue to improve and take one step closer to being a presentation pro.