Geoff asks: Should I be using headings/titles in my slides? I’d like to see your view on this, I’m currently fence-sitting on this issue.
Hi Geoff, thanks for your question. Like so many questions there is no easy yes/no answer to this one. My preference is to start with a blank white page and work with that. You can use up the whole space that is provided by PowerPoint (or Keynote) and utilize it fully for your photos or other visual aids.
But I do understand that at work you often will have a template you have to work with in order to comply with corporate identity. I understand the notion of this, and I have this “struggle” as well; because I think those headers (and footers) clutter the slides and I don’t see the point in having the company’s logo on every slide and I often find title texts (sometimes even two or more lines of title texts) distracting. Though if the headers/footers are done in a nice and subtle way, I think they’re not too annoying.
If they are done badly, though, you might want to ask your boss to have them re-made professionally, or if you are self-employed you might want to get a professional to do some work for you on presentation slide templates or maybe consider changing to the blank all-white template.
I hope this answers your question!
Do you have a question as well? Send it to mail@rethinkpresentations.com. I will try to give at least a short answer to every question I receive; frequently asked questions will be answered on this blog in more detail.
