PowerPoint Presentation Examples for Beginners with Essential Slides

Essential slides for every PowerPoint presentation

1) Title Slide

The title slide is the first part of your PowerPoint presentation. It greets your audience during the presentation and leaves a lasting impression that can affect their perception of your work. 

Use a limited number of colors and fonts to keep your title slide simple and clean. Avoid images that make the slide look too busy or cluttered, and ensure that there is good contrast between your title text and background.

If necessary, make sure to lay out details relevant to your presentation topic. This may include the presenter’s name and title, company or organization name, and date.

2) Overview Slide

Also sometimes referred to as the table of contents or agenda slide, the overview is meant to give your audience an idea of what to expect from your presentation. Above, you’ll find a great PowerPoint table of contents example.

Usually, the overview slide is condensed into bullet points and arranged according to sequence. Think of it as a roadmap or guide to your PowerPoint presentation. If you would like to add some flair to this part of your presentation, you can also use a horizontal or circular flow diagram to show the sequence of your presentation’s different sections.

3) Introduction slide

As the name implies, this slide introduces your audience to the main presentation topic. It’s meant to present people with some brief context and background information about your subject.

Another role the introduction slide plays is to capture your audience’s attention. To do this, try to keep your text short, engaging, and purposeful. One effective strategy when writing an introduction slide is to present a thought-provoking question or eye-opening statistic related to your topic.

4) Discussion Slides

For most presenters, the meat of their presentation can be found in the discussion slides. The discussion slides are where you will present most of the information about your topic.

Beginners may find it difficult to fit as much information as possible into their discussion slides. Thankfully, there are ways to condense information about your topic without sacrificing style and substance. 

Discussion slide content examples:

5) Engagement Slides

One of the biggest challenges any beginner presenter will face is retaining the attention of their audience. Depending on the length, topic, and content of their PowerPoint presentation, it can be very difficult to keep people’s eyes and ears on your topic!

Inserting engagement slides between your discussion slides is an effective way to keep your audience interested and entertained. Some examples include slides featuring quotes from prominent personalities, ‘Brain Break’ activity slides, or polls and quizzes to test information retention.

5) Closing Slide

Every presentation has an end. Your goal as a presenter is to ensure that your PowerPoint presentation doesn’t end abruptly.

A simple solution to this issue is to include a closing slide at the end of your presentation. It can include a simple thank you note addressed to the audience or a short quote to bid them farewell. You can also include your basic contact information, such as your email address or phone number, in case any members of the audience would like to ask questions about your topic in the near future.

Summary

All of the slides you’ve learned about today can be applied to most, if not all, types of PowerPoint presentations and topics. You’re all set, but let’s just do a quick rundown of key points from each kind of slide discussed above.

1) Title Slide

• Keep your title slide clean and simple.
• Ensure good contrast between text and background.
• If necessary, provide relevant information like the presenter’s name and date.

2) Overview Slide

• A roadmap or guide to the rest of your presentation
• Commonly uses bullet points arranged according to sequence
• Can also use horizontal or circular flow diagrams

3) Introduction slide

• Introduce your audience to the main presentation topic
• Should capture the audience’s attention
• Keep text short, engaging, and purposeful.
• Present an interesting question or statistic related to your topic.

4) Discussion Slides

• Contains most of the information about the presentation topic
• Try to keep information condensed into key points
• Keep slides concise by using charts, tables, diagrams, and visuals that help condense text

5) Engagement Slides

• An effective way to keep the audience interested
• Can be slides featuring quotes from prominent personalities, ‘Brain Break’ activity slides, or polls and quizzes to test information retention.

5) Closing Slide

• Meant to keep a presentation from ending abruptly
• Can feature a short thank you message for the audience
• Can contain relevant contact information for audience members who wish to ask questions