In this post, we’ve put together simple tips on text, formatting and slide design to help you start your course with a great presentation. Check it out!

Creating Slides: Tips for getting your presentation right

Creating slides is a practical way to organize educational content and a great option for those who want to create visual and didactic material quickly.

It is very likely that you have already used PowerPoint or Keynote at some point, and that’s all you need to create slides. 

Both programs provide features that allow the use of text and images to develop well-organized and visually attractive lessons.

Furthermore, it is possible to integrate other media into your presentation, such as videos and audios, making it even richer.

You can also turn your slides into videos, adding audio with explanations to reinforce the written content. 

– 7 tips for speaking well on video

PowerPoint itself allows this to be done or you can even use free software, such as Windows Movie Maker.

Don’t worry about creating slides with sophisticated design, your main goal should be to convey information clearly. In these cases, the “less is more” rule is worth a lot.

Check out some tips on how to prepare a pleasant and efficient material for your online courses. 

Create slides: Design

Let’s start with the look of your presentation.

A simple but well-designed design can improve your message and make it easier to understand.

When creating slides, try to use a maximum of 3 or 4 colors that generate a harmonious combination, preferably in your brand colors (if you have one).

To make this easier, you can consider using the best AI presentation makers to design slides with cohesive colors.

But let’s start from the beginning:

Theme

Choose one design that complements the content. For example, a presentation about technology could have a modern, minimalist design, while one about sustainability could use shades of green and natural elements.

Be careful not to overload your presentation and your student’s mind. Choose clean, clear backgrounds that highlight the text and images. 

PowerPoint offers several ready-made themes and you can create yours directly within the platform.

There are also paid or free template options on specialized websites such as SlideCarnival, Envato Elements, or Canva. 

These templates are made by professional designers and save time.

Color palette

If you don’t already have a brand with defined colors to maintain the same pattern on your slides, don’t worry. 

Select two to three colors: one dark and one light, because the contrast helps the image stand out, and a third complementary color to emphasize elements. 

If you need help choosing the best combination, there are sites like Colour Lovers, Adobe Color and Coolors to assist you in this mission.

– Step by step to build a brand for your business

Graphics

If your presentation contains a lot of data, use graphics to support the text and convey some ideas more clearly.

You can, of course, use ready-made graphs from other materials and sources, but this can break the pattern of your presentation in a visually unpleasant way.

Our suggestion is that, if it is a simple graphic, you use the PPT tools or other software you are using to draw it. 

This way, you’ll have control over colors, typography, and more, creating a consistent, more professional presentation.

PowerPoint provides a wide range of charts which are perfect to help you with this task.

If you want something more elaborate, you can use the SmartArt, an internal tool that allows you to create infographics in a wide variety of models, such as cycles, hierarchies, and pyramids.

Videos

First tip, videos are always a good choice for online courses, and if you like the idea of ​​creating one with your slides, start by making sure they are in the correct format. 

For example, if you are going to make the video with aspect ratio 16:9, set your slides to the same format to ensure no information is cut off.

Overall, it’s super easy to insert video into Keynote and Powerpoint — just insert the file as you would an image.

It may be a good idea to set the video so that you have to click to play, preventing it from starting automatically when you are moving through the slides.

This way, you have more predictable control over when the video starts and prevent it from taking a long time to load and ending up freezing and skipping to the next slide.

– Tips for using videos in online courses

Images

Images help make your slides more dynamic and less tiring, in addition to offering visual support to what is being explained.

You can use photos that relate to the concept you are talking about and, ideally, are not complex in terms of composition. 

Your photo can be a metaphor or something more literal, but it should be clear why the audience is looking at it.

We are in the age of memes and GIFs and yes, you can use them to break the ice or explain your ideas in a less formal way, if the subject and target audience allow it. 

Whatever your options, be consistent. Using different image styles in the same presentation can distract your audience and make the overall look chaotic.

– Best Ways to Include Images in Your Online Course

Transitions

Use, but don’t abuse, transitions to “bring life” to the presentation. Here is another time when the “less is more” rule applies.

Although both the PPT and Keynote offer a variety of transitions, users often find its excessive use quite distracting and unsophisticated. 

A simple “fade” effect between slides is more than effective and, most importantly, sufficient.

BONUS TIP: Choose just one transition effect, a very soft one, preferably, and use it on all slides.

Create slides: Text formatting

Texts for slides must be brief and get straight to the point. 

Avoid long paragraphs, ideally organize the text into topics and short sentences.

As a reference, you can follow the 6×6 rule: arrange up to 6 lines of text on each slide, each with a maximum of 6 words per line.

Think about topic transitions. You don’t want every slide to look exactly the same, so create one style for slides that discuss the same idea and another when the topic changes.

For example, if your slides have a dark background with light text, when changing topics you can use a light background with dark text. This way, your presentation gains texture and your slides still look like part of the same family, but the audience gets a visual cue that we’re moving to a new question.

Another valuable tip is to use white space well (i.e. space without color, text and other elements). Using it correctly helps direct the viewer’s focus. 

You can freshen up your presentation by adding extra margins, breaking up long paragraphs, and trying to use no more than half the slide for placing objects.

Font style

To create easy-to-read slides, opt for a classic font (avoiding decorative and cursive formats), such as Verdana, Arial, Calibri and Helvetica.

These fonts, in addition to being very readable, are common to all computers, which will prevent PowerPoint from substituting a random one if the person does not have the font used installed on their computer.

Important to highlight: There are several font options that can be downloaded for free on the internet, but remember that if it is little known, the person opening your file on another computer must have the same font installed to be able to view it.

– How to Create a Great PowerPoint Presentation

Font size

The size of the font used is a very important factor when creating slides.

The text must be well readable, but it should not take up too much space to avoid creating a confusing look and to support the use of images and graphs, when necessary.

We recommended the following:

• headers with at least 20pt.
• body text up to 18pt.

These sizes will provide students with a comfortable viewing experience and will ensure readability across multiple devices, such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and TVs.

BONUS TIP: To create slides more easily use the Slide Master feature to organize headings and subheadings. You can also use it to customize color schemes and add logos.

Create slides to improve your online courses

In online courses, you can create slides like study support material or as support for audio or video explanation.

This is an excellent resource to start structuring your classes in a simpler way that gives you greater confidence, since we are all familiar with PPT presentations.

Think about your main message, structure your topics, review your cadence and consistency, and then start thinking about your slides.

A presentation needs to be independent; Slides are just something you put on top of it to improve the student experience. 

In addition to enriching your online courses, you can share this content on SlideShare to increase your authority and attract more audience.

– How to use SlideShare to promote your business

Now that you have the necessary tips to create beautiful and well-organized slides, there are no more excuses for leaving your online course to tomorrow. 

– Design tips for creating professional presentations

Create your course, upload it on Coursify.me and start making money doing what you like.

Complete eLearning platform, Coursify.me has all the features you need to customize your school page, integrate and import content from your computer and sites like Vimeo and YouTube, and more.

Visit our website, take a test and start now create slides and sell quality online courses. 

– Practical guide to creating and selling online courses

If you have any questions, just get in touch!

The post How to create slides for online courses appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.

Professional presentations: how to create one for your online course

If you still do not understand the importance of good design for professional presentations, know that our brains process images 60,000 times faster than texts.

That’s one of the reasons why you should improve the visuals of your course, blog, and any other material you produce for the public.

We understand that creating your own presentation can seem daunting if you do not have any design experience, so we will share some instructions to help you craft amazing visuals and professional presentations.

These tips can be used for any visual content you are creating, such as ads, spreadsheets, eBooks and even your sales page.

When we talk about online courses, an easy-to-use feature is the slides, and you can work them out in several ways.

Most people, for example, have used PowerPoint or Keynote at some time and already have some familiarity with the program.

The good news is that this is all you need to create slides. Through these free software you can use text and images to create classes and professional presentations.

See SlideShare, for example. Most of its “hits” are just slides with content that tell a story or lesson from start to finish.

It’s simple and that’s exactly what you can do for your course.

Tips for creating slides for professional presentations

Now let’s start with some simple tips and instructions that are all you need to create amazing professional presentations.

Let’s talk about formatting the layout, colors, fonts and images in order to make beautiful and effective slides.  

Remember that these tips are for any type of visual content, such as Facebook ads, social networking images, blog and even landing pages.

Format and Layout

Before you start doing anything, make sure the slides are in the video format.

For example, if you add some video feature, or display your presentation on YouTube or Vimeo, ideally use the 16-by-9 ratio, which is used for filming.

– How to record videos at home

Both in PowerPoint and in Keynote just select the widescreen format option.

Using slides in the same video format ensures that no information is clipped and makes editing easier.  

Your presentation will adjust to the proportion of the multimedia projector or screen, when it is the case of TVs, monitors, tablets, and others.

Text

First basic rule for texts in professional presentations: keep them short and go straight to the point.

Do not use long paragraphs, full of explanation. This will leave your stuff heavy and dull.

Instead, use bullets or short phrases. You can even use multiple slides to explain a single point, which is better than trying to squeeze everything into one.  

Your audience will thank you and your presentation will be much more enjoyable.  

Colors

Now, let’s dive into the color choice for your slides, your brand and even your sales page.

If you already have a brand, use its colors in the presentation. Your course is a direct extension of you and your brand, and the slides should keep that same identity.

So when the audience sees your course, it knows it’s yours because it recognizes that pattern.  

If you do not have a brand or an already chosen color palette, no problem.

Select two to three colors to use on all slides. Choose a dark and a clear color because they stand out best when used together.

Then choose a third complementary color to use when you want to emphasize something.

Keep in mind readability, how colors blend, and whether they work well together.

If you do not take care of that aspect, your presentation can become a real carnival, tiring to the eyes.

To help you choose colors that work well together, here are three great websites that you can use:

• Color Lovers: Great option to generate color palettes, especially if you’re new to the subject. In this site you can search for colors by keyword, hexadecimal code and even by the most recent creations that brands are using.
• Coolors: One of the favorites, Coolors is super easy to use. All you need to do to generate color combinations is to press the spacebar. That’s right, just click on the space bar and a new palette will appear each time. The site also provides a search section where you can search for Color Palettes already assembled.
• Adobe Color: This Adobe site allows the creation of palettes through a Color Wheel that can be adjusted in several ways, such as Triad, Complementary Colors and Monochrome. In Adobe you can also explore palettes created by other users.

The colors you choose can be used as solid background colors or in other elements of the layout along the slides.  

For text, you can use one of the colors selected in the header or when you want to emphasize an important word.

You can also apply another color to body text, but generally use black or dark gray or white, depending on the background color, is the best option.  

Aside from being the most common, it’s actually the most readable way. So our tip is that you stick with the default colors for the text and use your palette in other ways.  

If you lack inspiration, go to SlideShare and see what others are doing.

It is not necessary to invent the wheel, if someone did something cool, adapt the idea to your color palette and replicate.

Typography

Now let’s get some typography tips and how to choose the best fonts for professional presentations.

First, you must decide between a serif font or sans serif for your text.

Remember that the font with serif is the one with small traces at the end of the letters stems.

Many people say that serif fonts create a sense of continuity, making it easier to read.

On the other hand, here at Coursify.me we like most of the non-serif fonts, which have a more casual and friendly look (but no Comic Sans!).

Combining fonts can be a daunting task, but fortunately, font designers have already created collections that work well together.

The trick is to choose variations within the same family, such as Helvetica Bold Condensed and Helvetica Light.

Notice how they are different, but still maintains a visually pleasing pattern.

Avoid using decorative or script fonts because they are much harder to read, especially when they are small.

If you do not like any of the fonts that are already installed on your computer, there are sites like DaFont and FontSquirrel where you can find different and free fonts.

As with color sites, you can search for keywords and font styles, such as lettering with quotation marks, serif script, and so on.  

So just download the chosen fonts and install them on your computer.  

One last thing to remember is to make sure you use one that is large enough to read.

Do not go to a 20 size font. It’s too small. Start with at least 40 points. Bigger is always easier to read.

Images

As we said at the beginning of this post, the visuals draw more attention and keep your audience interested.

To make your content more attractive, visit sites like Flickr and Pixels and choose images that relate to your text.

Selection made, follow the first obvious and important tip: if the background image is dark, use the font in light color, and vice versa.  

If the photo has many colors or many elements, add a shape over it, like a text box, to keep the readability of what you are going to write.

One idea that creates a cool effect is to add a solid color rectangle over the image. All you have to do is create a rectangle the size of the slide, paint it with one of your colors and position it on the photo. Then reduce the opacity until you reach the desired tone.  

As you can see, this helps the slide look much more interesting, but keeps the text and colors reasonably intact.

You can also reverse this process. Instead of putting a color on the image, you can reduce the opacity of the image itself, so you can see it slightly in the background, like a watermark.

Images are great, but if you need to put other type of visual information, such as graphics, they can disrupt readability.

In this case, we advise you to use the main color of your palette on the backgorund in a solid way.

Remember that you do not need to consume every inch of space.

Professional presentations are clean and give the reader room to breathe and absorb the content.  

Professional presentations for online courses

To make your online classes more interesting and improve your professional presentations, you can insert audio by explaining the content while the student accompanies the slides.

With PowerPoint you can add audio, such as songs, narration or effect phrases to your presentation.

To record and listen to any audio, your computer must be equipped with a sound card, microphone, and speakers.

Just click on the audio option and start recording. When finished, listen to everything to make the necessary adjustments.

There is even the option to insert videos that you can take advantage of, if you have some recorded video that contributes to the content, to make classes even more complete.

– Design and video editing tips

Material ready, go to the Coursify.me website and upload it to the page of your online course and ready, it will be accessible to all your students.

Perfect solution is for those looking for more privacy and a high level of viewing experience Coursify.me also allows full integration with Vimeo and YouTube.

– How to get more views for your lessons on Youtube

Serving businesses and professionals in more than 60 countries, Coursify.me is the ideal choice for anyone who wants to create, sell and promote courses on the internet without having to invest to start their own business.

Visit our website, test the platform and see how easy it is to profit by doing what you love.

The post How to create professional presentations appeared first on Blog Coursify.me.