The whole point of PowerPoint is that it's a do-it-yourself toolkit. For internal meetings, or other situations where an external spend isn't justified, it makes sense to make your own presentations. But that's no excuse for an amateur look. The templates supplied with PowerPoint are fine, but we've all seen them too many times. Here's a small selection of alternatives for you to try.
These are simple, general-purpose templates. We created them using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, but they've been converted for compatibility with 97-2003 versions. The easiest way to use them is to open them in PowerPoint and then select Save As (It's behind the Windows button in 2007). In the Save as type dropdown box, select PowerPoint Template. PowerPoint should switch you automatically to your templates folder.
After you've saved the template it'll be available to you whenever you click to create a new presentation.
A muted blue-green background with interest provided by gradient squares and a faded curve.
The top left square, inside the curve, darkens after the last bullet point appears
The top or bottom areas can be used to display your logo and/or that of your customer. If you're reasonably proficient with Photoshop, try making circular graphics on a transparent background. Save them out in PNG format and import them into your presentation. Now you can position them in the curve to the left of the screen. Smooth!
A friendly, people-orientated design with a split screen effect. Blues are always popular for presentations - research suggests that this colour encourages the brain to load information.
Watch for a small blue square appearing at bottom right after the last bullet point.
The white area at bottom left is ideal for your logo. You could use the area on the left to add pictures to your presentation. If you duplicate the circle you can use PowerPoint's transparency setting to make the white area invisible, giving your presentation a consistent feel.
This template has a financial feel, making it ideal for presenting figures or forecasts.
The motif in the text area gains an extra small blue rectangle after the last bullet point.
The strongly rectangular design makes this a very easy template to work with. Try adding graphics proportioned to fit into any of the areas marked out by the lines.
Tones of grey make this template very easy on the eye. The telecommunications theme make it relevant for telesales, call centres, customer service or other communications.
A nick appears in the "magnet" curve near the top of the slide immediately after the last bullet point.
There's plenty of white logo space at the top of the slide. The open layout makes this an ideal template for simple, rectangular pictures. Try adding a drop shadow to any pictures you add to give a pleasing 3D effect.
A straightforward, simple template with lots of usable space. Legibility is ensured by avoiding any clash between text and background graphics.
The top right square in the background disappears just after the last bullet appears.
You can place your logo at top or bottom, in the space where the horizontal lines fade out. Alternatively, you could cover the horizontal lines in one of the corners with your identity.