It’s Not the Look, It’s the Content that Matters
Why spending time searching for a PowerPoint template
is wasting valuable preparation time.

By Dave Paradi, MBA, co-author of "Guide to PowerPoint"

The Myth of Selecting a Fancy PowerPoint Background
Among the top search terms related to PowerPoint are those related to PowerPoint backgrounds or PowerPoint templates. In fact, if added together, these terms would rank second only to the term "PowerPoint" itself. Why are so many people searching for a slide background or look? Because they have bought into a myth that says "A cool looking presentation is a successful presentation". Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, there is now an entire industry of designers creating more and more PowerPoint templates (the term template is the PowerPoint term for the background and overall look, so we will use it for the rest of the article). I suspect they won’t be pleased with what I have to say next. Focusing on the graphical look is the wrong focus. It is the content that matters, not the look. In fact, many of the templates I see have distracting graphics that draw attention away from the message with fancy pictures on all sides of the text.

A Better Approach: Focus on the Content
The audience should spend no more than 20-25% of their time during the presentation looking at the visual support. The vast majority of their time should be spent listening to your message. In order to make a greater impact in your presentation, focus on creating great content first.

Decide on the goal of your presentation and have that as your primary focus. Then analyze your audience to figure out where they are right now. If you know where you want them to be at the end of your presentation and where they are starting out, you can then develop the three to five key points to move the audience to your goal. Then you gather supporting evidence to back up each key point.

Once you have your message outlined, you can then decide on what visual support you should use. Instead of using a fancy PowerPoint background that confuses and distracts, I would suggest using a single dramatic image to emphasize a point. Then your images are supporting your points instead of there because you thought the images were "cool". If you invest time in your message first, your presentations will have much greater impact on your audiences.

How to Create Your Own PowerPoint Template
If you are searching for a template because you want to appear unique, trust me, all the ones available for download or sale have already been used many times, and you won’t be unique. Instead, create your own look to be truly unique.

First, get some background in design so you understand basics about the use of color and space (see http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/graphicdesign/a/designbasics.htm for some online instruction in design basics). Then, you will be ready to start.

To start, set your slide background color. Click on View→Master→Slide Master to access the Slide Master, which controls the look of all your slides. Then click on Format→Background to set the background color. You can select gradients and other effects by selecting the Fill Effects option when selecting a color. Think about putting any logos or contact information on the bottom 10-15% of the slide since many times that area is not visible due to that part of the slide being obscured by people’s heads. When you have developed the look you want, save it as a template by clicking on File→Save As and selecting the Template file format. You can then access this PowerPoint template from within PowerPoint’s Slide Design function.

If you want to improve the impact of your presentations (which should be your goal), stop spending your valuable preparation time searching for a fancy PowerPoint template, focus on creating great content instead.