How to Make A PowerPoint Look Professional: 10 Quick Fixes

As ubiquitous as PowerPoint is in the corporate world, it has one major problem— most slides seem to look cluttered, unpolished, or just plain ugly. Too much text, mismatched fonts, off-brand color: these challenges are so common that presenters of every level, from interns to executives, end up with presentations that essentially look the same.

And while there are presentation designers who can help you create sleek, professional slides, a few simple tweaks can help you to instantly transform your own presentations from basic to boardroom-ready.

There are just a few things you need to know to start cleaning up your slides, improving readability, and giving your PowerPoint a polished and modern look.

Whether you're preparing a sales pitch, an executive report, or a team update, these tips will help you make a great impression—without needing to have professional design skills. Let’s dive in. 

How to Make PowerPoint Look Professional: The Tips

Stick to one font for a polished look

The problem: 

Using multiple fonts on a slide leads to a messy, unpolished look, and can make it harder to follow the hierarchy of your content.

The fix: 

Stick to one (or two max) fonts per slide. We generally recommend system fonts, but if you are using a custom brand font, make sure it’s embedded in your presentation.

Why it works: 

Consistent typography not only makes your slides look more polished, it helps the reader to follow along and understand your content. For more on fonts in presentations, check out our Typography guide.

Ditch default templates

The problem: 

If you aren’t given a corporate template, many presenters will simply turn to the built-in templates offered by PowerPoint. But while these can be better than nothing, they tend to lead to a generic, flat design.

The fix:

There are a few ways to improve your template. First, you can work with a presentation design agency to build a custom template and get trained on how to make the most of it. This is your best choice, but might not be for everyone.

Second, if you’re more of a DIY type, you create your own template. This allows you to set the fonts, colors, and layouts to your exact specifications, saving you time when making new presentations in the future.

Finally, you can browse around for the countless free templates that are available online. We don’t recommend this option for the same reasons we don’t recommend the prebuilt PowerPoint templates: it’s just not custom to your brand, and that’s the whole point of a template.

Why it works:

A custom template helps establish brand consistency across presentations, and it can save you time when you have to build a new one.

Align everything for a clean look

The problem: 

Different text alignments, floating images, and randomly-placed shapes lead to a messy slide that lacks a clear hierarchy.

The fix: 

PowerPoint offers a number of ways to easily align your slides. 

• You can choose a text alignment in your toolbar

• Under the Arrange tool, you can select Align > Distribute to choose a variety of positions

• You can go to View > Grid and Guides > Smart Guides to have see alignment when you select an object, or turn them on from the same menu to see them all the time, depending on your preference

Why it works: 

Aligning elements like images and text boxes is a fast and easy way to make your slides clean and easy to follow for your audience.

Limit text—keep it short & punchy

The problem: 

One of the most common mistakes people make when building slides is overloading them with text. It’s understandable, as you want to make sure your point is clear, but the issue is that the message becomes muddled and the audience ends up reading instead of listening.

The fix: 

Bullet points are a classic fix for long text, but they aren’t the only (or best) solution. Start by making sure your slide is focused on one main idea, and then pick text and visual content that supports it. One trick we like is to challenge yourself to remove 50% of the text on your slides and see if your point is still clear. Most of the time, it will be. Try it for yourself!

Why it works: 

Keeping your message focused makes it easier to convey your key point. With a wall of text on your slide, the audience won’t easily be able to know what the takeaway is. Remember that breaking a dense slide into two or more slides doesn’t actually make your presentation longer, but it does make your ideas sharper.

Choose high-quality images

The problem: 

Visuals are a powerful tool for conveying information, but low-resolution images, clip art, or overly-posed stock photos just make your presentation look amateurish.

The fix: 

Start by finding out if your brand has an image library to pull from. That will likely include photos that were selected to meet your standards and look good on screen. Of course you can always buy stock images, but that’s a whole project in and of itself. There are also lots of free resources for photos. For more detail on choosing the best images for your presentation, check out our Images 101 post (part of the Presentation Design 101 series).

Use high-quality, royalty-free images from sources like Unsplash, Pexels, or Pixabay, and ensure they are properly sized.

Why it works: 

Images will set the tone for your presentation. Most people are more likely to tune into your visuals than to memorize your text, so choosing the right ones can enhance your credibility with an audience.

Stick to a simple color palette

The problem: 

Too many colors on a slide can take away from the focus on your content, and make your presentation look unappealing.

The fix: 

Color is a great accent tool, but it works best when you use it intentionally. Use it to provide emphasis, to liven up a simple slide, and to reinforce your brand. But don’t just go crazy: stick to colors in your brand, and even then keep it to 2-3 total, with those used hierarchically (a primary color, a secondary color, and an accent color).

Why it works: 

When you use color intentionally, it can cue your audience to focus on a main point or support your content in some other specific way. Dive into the details of using colors in presentations with our Color 101 guide.

Minimize animations and transitions

The problem: 

Animations are an incredible tool for making your presentation look polished and professional. But a little goes a long way, and it’s very easy to overdo it. If you have shapes flying left and right on every slide, it’s time to take a step back.

The fix: 

If you’re not an experienced presentation designer, it’s best to keep animations as simple as possible. Start by asking yourself if you really need animations. But in general, a Fade transition is a great way to elevate your slides, and it never looks like too much.

Why it works: 

When used sparingly, animations bring energy and life to a presentation. Just be careful not to overdo it! For more, check out our animation overview!

Use white space to improve readability

The problem: 

Crowding slides with too much stuff, type or images, can feel overwhelming for the audience and makes your content difficult to digest. 

The fix: 

There are two ways to tackle this problem: 1) remove some content, and 2) spread out your slides.

The first is simple, and we even covered it above when we talked about limiting the text on your slide. Just make sure you are focused on one main idea, and that the rest of your content is supporting it. 

Next is to let go of the artificial slide count limitations and give your presentation more room to breathe. One of the most common things we find when talking to presenters is the belief that keeping your presentation to 10 slides will keep it tight. Unfortunately, this rarely works the way people want it to. Instead of staying focused on the big ideas, they try to cram 20 slides worth of material onto 10. By breaking up the content into smaller chunks, you make it easier for your audience, and easier on the presenter!

Why it works: 

As a presenter, you want to make it easy for your audience to retain your information. By simplifying and making it easy on their eyes, you improve the chances they will remember your message.

Make data digestible, not dense

The problem: 

Data is powerful, but it’s only as useful as the conclusions you can draw from it. Slapping an entire report onto a slide and hoping the audience can sort it out is a recipe for disaster.

The fix: 

Data storytelling techniques can help you turn a data dump into an actionable output. Simplify what you’re showing, remove unnecessary elements, streamline the visuals, and watch the results.

Why it works: 

Data works best when it tells a story. And to do that, the audience needs to understand the takeaway. By simplifying the way you’re displaying the data, and by focusing on the key point, you help them to see the story you want to tell, not get lost in the details.

Test your slides in Slide Show mode

The problem: 

Building out your slide doesn’t always give you the entire picture. You aren’t seeing it at the full size, or even the way your audience will. 

The fix: 

This is the easiest one of all: just hit Presenter View or Slide Show mode and you’ll get a look at your final product in action!

Why it works: 

Testing your slides at full size gives you a sense of what your audience will see when you’re presenting. It also helps to give you just enough distance from the initial content to make proofreading and editing a little easier.

With these tips, you can start seeing improvements immediately!

Lots of presentation tips assume you want to get your hands dirty with slide design, when most people have never really learned the ins and outs of PowerPoint.

With these 10 quick fixes in your toolkit, you no longer have to ask how to make a PowerPoint look more professional! And the best part? These tips require zero design skills—just a little attention to detail.

About the author

Kyle Kartz is the Creative Director of Storytelling at VerdanaBold. He is an expert copywriter and strategist, with experience driving major campaigns for global brands in multiple industries. He is passionate about communications, the outdoors, and cooking.