what are keynote presentation

Presentations that stand out. Beautifully.

With its powerful tools and dazzling effects, Keynote makes it easy to create stunning and memorable presentations, and comes included with most Apple devices. Use Apple Pencil on your iPad to create diagrams or illustrations that bring your slides to life. And with real‑time collaboration, your team can work together, whether they’re on Mac, iPad, iPhone or a PC.

See what’s new in Keynote

Present your story. Your way.

Keynote sets the stage for an impressive presentation. A simple, intuitive interface puts important tools front and centre, so everyone on your team can easily add beautiful charts, edit photos and incorporate cinematic effects. And Rehearse Mode lets you practise on the go, with the current or next slide, notes and clock — all in one view.

Start with a gorgeous layout.

Choose from over 40 eye-catching themes that instantly give your presentation a professional look. Or create your own slide designs, background images and page‑by‑page customisation.

Create next-level animations.

Add drama to your presentation with more than 100 cinematic transitions and effects. Make your words pop by adding textures, colour gradients and even photos — with just a tap. And animate objects along a path using Apple Pencil or your finger on your iPhone or iPad.

Make every slide spectacular.

Add subtle movement to your slides with dynamic backgrounds. Illustrate your point with over 700 Apple-designed shapes, or add photos, videos, music, image galleries and charts. Easily remove backgrounds from supported images and live videos or manually refine adjustments as needed. You can even use your iPhone to take a photo or scan a document, and Continuity Camera can send it straight to Keynote on your Mac.

What’s new in Keynote.

Learn about everything you can do in Keynote

Get the updates. Then get in touch.

Stay up to date when people join, edit or comment in collaborative presentations and easily get in touch with your team using Messages and FaceTime.

Get more done on iPad.

Quickly insert objects, find settings and get to your favourite tools with the customisable toolbar. And Stage Manager makes it easy to multitask across multiple presentations and apps at the same time. 1

Make backgrounds disappear.

Now you can more easily remove backgrounds from supported images — and even live videos — or adjust them to your liking.

Add live video feeds to any slide.

Appear in a window, right on your slides, with a picture-in-picture display during remote presentations. Or include a live feed of your iPhone or iPad screen to show off apps.

Get started with dynamic themes.

Start with one of three beautiful new animated themes, then customise it to set the tone for each slide with 18 adjustable background presets — from understated to highly visual, monochrome to colourful, calm to energetic.

Captivate your audience with dynamic backgrounds.

Make your presentation stand out by adding stunning colour and visual interest to your slides. Create motion on a title or closing slide for a bold statement, and keep viewers engaged with subtle movement throughout the presentation.

Present with your team. Seamlessly.

For slideshows with multiple presenters, you can now take turns controlling a single deck — from anywhere — on Mac, iPad and iPhone.

Play YouTube and Vimeo videos right in Keynote.

Embed a video from YouTube or Vimeo, then play them right in your presentations, without the need to download or open the video in a media player. 2

Present over video conference. Like a pro.

Play a slideshow in its own window so you can access other apps while you present. You can view your presenter notes, upcoming slides and navigation in a separate window as well.

Outline your presentation. Easier.

With outline view for iPhone and iPad, quickly jot down your thoughts, restructure ideas and move concepts from slide to slide. Then switch to slide view and start designing.

Present like never before. From anywhere.

With Keynote, presenting remotely can be just as seamless as presenting in person. Say goodbye to saying “Next slide, please” — now multiple people can present together, even remotely, with each person taking control of their section of the deck. Add a live video feed of yourself to any slide for a picture-in-picture experience. Or when presenting on your Mac, include a live feed of your iPhone or iPad screen to walk through your apps. You can even play a slideshow in its own window, so you can simultaneously access your notes and other apps.

Any presentation. Any device. Anytime.

You don’t work in one place on just one device. The same goes for Keynote. Work seamlessly across all your Apple devices. The slides you create using a Mac or iPad will look the same on an iPhone or web browser — and vice versa.

You can also work on presentations stored on iCloud or Box using a PC.

Start using Keynote at iCloud.com

Create and present together. Even when apart.

Work together in the same presentation, from across town or across the world. You can see your team’s edits as they make them — and they can watch as you make yours too. You can even get notifications when people join, edit or comment. When presenting as a team, you can also take turns controlling a single deck from anywhere.

Use Apple Pencil when inspiration strikes.

Add colour, illustrations and handwritten comments for more beautiful presentations with Apple Pencil on your iPad.

Plays well with Office.

Teaming up with someone who uses Microsoft PowerPoint? Keynote makes it a great working relationship. You can save Keynote presentations as PowerPoint files. Or import and edit PowerPoint presentations right in Keynote.

Learn more about Microsoft PowerPoint compatibility

See everything that’s new in Keynote

• What’s new in Keynote for iPhone and iPad
• What’s new in Keynote for Mac
• Keynote for iCloud release notes

Additional Resources

• Get Keynote support
• Learn about Microsoft Office compatibility
• Learn about collaboration for Pages, Numbers and Keynote
• Use Keynote in a video conference app

Keynote User Guides

• Keynote User Guide for Mac
• Keynote User Guide for iPad
• Keynote User Guide for iPhone
• Keynote User Guide for Web

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Pro Speakers on How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation

Updated: January 13, 2021

Published: November 03, 2020

Two years ago, I was asked to give a presentation about my HubSpot article on emotional marketing . It was by far the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking experience of my professional life.

I don’t necessarily hate public speaking. However, leading up to the event, I felt the full responsibility of not only delivering a good presentation but also teaching the audience valuable , actionable information — and that was very intimidating.

I wanted to do a good job, and I wanted to be a good teacher.

Therein lies the importance of keynote presentations : to be effective, they should be educational and entertaining. Do you have a keynote presentation in your future? Read on for some advice from professional speakers.

First, what is a keynote presentation? Glad you asked.

You may also be tasked with a keynote presentation in order to secure funding, make a sale, or update stakeholders or executives. Whatever stage you find yourself on, delivering a keynote presentation is an important responsibility as a public speaker.

How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation, According to the Experts

I spoke with four professional speakers on how to deliver a near-perfect presentation. Here are five pieces of advice they shared.

1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

When it comes to public speaking, practice quite literally makes perfect. Every expert I spoke with mentioned how frequently they rehearse their presentations.

“However much you think you need to rehearse, rehearse 10 times more than that. When you show up to a concert, you expect that the musicians know their songs, and you certainly don't want the first time they try to play it to be right there on stage. You owe your audience and the folks hiring you to speak the same respect,” said Melanie Deziel , international keynote speaker and founder of StoryFuel . (She received this advice herself from Michael and Amy Port at Heroic Public Speaking .)

Provided by Melanie Deziel

As more presentations and events become fully virtual, the likelihood of technical difficulties also grows. Rehearsing your content can help you weather any interruptions or last-minute changes.

Rehearsal not only leads to content mastery; it allows freedom in your presentations. “The more you rehearse and become comfortable with the content, the freer you'll be to take chances, experiment, and truly focus on your delivery, rather than trying to remember what comes next,” shared Deziel.

How do these experts recommend practicing your presentations? “[Use] a mirror,” said Olivia Scott , keynote speaker and founder of Omerge Alliances . “I take the time to see how I'm being received, I look at my body posture, and I look at everything to make sure that I feel good about what I'm delivering. This isn’t exactly a tool or technology, but it's a way to practice and rehearse.”

Additionally, consider asking friends, family, and trusted colleagues to listen to your practice runs and provide feedback on your presentation.

2. Ask for feedback.

Speaking of feedback, expert orators know to ask for it on a regular basis — from friends, peer groups, mentors, audience members, and clients. “Find a support crew and connect with other speakers in the industry,” mentioned Karen Hopper , keynote speaker and data strategist at M+R. Hopper personally recommends Shine Bootcamp , which provided her with lifelong friendships, helpful feedback, and a priceless education about public speaking.

Provided by Karen Hopper

“We help each other with feedback on our pitches, topics, outlines, and presentations, and we celebrate each others' wins,'' said Hopper. “ ... It’s well worth surrounding yourself with people who will cheer for you and who will give you honest feedback — the fastest way to get better is to ruthlessly seek out that feedback.”

Clients can also be an incredibly helpful source of feedback. If you’re asked to speak at an event or conference, consider asking the people who hired you. “I ask my client for their reaction immediately after every presentation. It’s important to know how they felt, and whether the presentation achieved their goals. Every time my client is happy, that’s my most successful presentation,” said Jeff Toister , keynote speaker, author, and customer service expert.

Lastly, the best feedback often comes from the source — in this case, your audience. Whether you ask questions during your presentation (which we’ll discuss next) or ask for feedback following your presentation, it’s never a bad idea to know what your audience thought about your keynote.

Feedback may look different if giving a remote keynote presentation, but it's still possible.

“It’s been a creative challenge to adapt a talk I'd hoped to give in person to work in a virtual environment. It's much harder to tell how your talks are received online, without being able to see nodding and note-taking and hear laughter and clapping. But all the feedback I have received [over email] indicated that my talk successfully changed the way many people are thinking about their content idea generation process, and that was the ultimate goal of the talk: to change how people think ,” shared Deziel, referring to her recent keynote at Content Marketing World 2020.

3. Engage your audience.

Nobody likes being talked at . Sure, delivering a keynote presentation involves you doing most of the talking, but it doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation. Many of the experts I interviewed encouraged some sort of audience engagement or interaction to enhance your presentation.

“People love to be involved in a presentation. Rather than explain a concept to my audience, I find a way to have them experience it,” said Toister. “For example, when I share how multitasking hurts productivity and causes us to make more errors, I have the audience try a brief multitasking exercise so they can experience the problem themselves.”

Did you know that audience engagement levels drop considerably (14%) if a presenter does most of the talking, versus if the audience talks just as much? Moreover, 64% of people believe that a presentation with two-way interaction is much more engaging than a one-way presentation.

Presentation engagement also takes practice — just like your presentation content itself. “ ... Entertainment comes from the performance itself: the way in which you deliver that content and the energy you bring to that delivery. This is a separate skill you need to practice. Work with a coach, watch back recordings of yourself to identify opportunities to improve your craft, and watch videos of top-notch comedians, poets and other speakers to see what you can learn from them,” encouraged Deziel.

Lastly, as important as engagement is, don’t let technology stand in the way. While smartphones and polling software can make audience interaction easier, they can also get in the way of you connecting with your audience. “I prefer to just have people stand up, raise their hand, or clap to participate in the poll. It gets the audience moving, and I don’t have to worry about WiFi connections or whether the polling software is working,” said Toister.

4. Prioritize your content as much as the delivery.

While entertaining and interacting with your audience is helpful and exciting, it shouldn’t take precedence over your presentation content itself. “Nearly all of what the audience can learn from you comes from the content: the stories you tell, the examples you share, the facts you cite and the other information you explain. Carefully crafting those materials and testing it out ensures that the audience will get the information they were promised from your session,” said Deziel.

Tools like PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and Canva can help you hone your content and develop a story within your presentation. A 2018 Prezi study (another presentation tool option) showed that 90% of people believe a strong narrative makes for a more engaging, interesting presentation. Data can help form arguments and explain facts, but stories stay with your audience long after your time on stage.

Storytelling is yet another way to engage with your audience, especially by evoking emotions like humor. “It’s entertaining to ask questions, saying, ‘Can anyone relate to this? Has anyone ever had this type of experience before?’ and then getting them involved with some laughter around those experiences. Laughter always helps,” said Scott, who presented at INBOUND 2020 .

Hopper, who was also a Breakout Speaker at INBOUND 2020, agreed: “Don't be afraid to be funny or drop in jokes — there are studies that show that laughing actually helps your brain retain information better, so not only will your audience have a good time laughing with you, but they'll also get more out of your presentation. It’s a win-win!”

5. Focus on the audience.

Finally, everyone can agree that public speaking is either revered or feared. If you relate to the latter and find yourself nervous when giving presentations, turn your focus on the audience.

“Speakers easily get nervous when they focus on themselves and worry too much about their own performance. Focusing on your audience first takes the nerves away and redirects your attention to making sure your audience gets something of value from your keynote,” shared Toister.

That’s the goal of a keynote presentation — to provide value to your audience. Regardless of what story you’re telling, what tools you’re using, or how you’re engaging the crowd, as long as you deliver a presentation that inspires your audience to think differently — even for 30 minutes — you’ve given a perfect keynote presentation.

Note: HubSpot Marketing teams reserve the right to use guest blog author’s likeness across our content as we see fit, including but not limited to HubSpot’s social media channels.

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Apple keynote: how to make an interactive presentation..

Although we have all heard of Powerpoint as a powerful tool for presentations, I believe that after using the Apple keynote, I have also learned that it can be used to create impressive and engaging presentations.

In this story I’m going to show you how we can create and Deliver a Killer Keynote Presentation using Keynote

Set it up correctly :

Start Keynote, then choose a Theme . Choosing an appropriate theme can save you time and effort in redefining styles, backgrounds, and image formatting.

Planning your content :

The Slide is the core component of Keynote, so it’s best to view your interactive piece as a series of small, slide-sized chunks. If you want to tell an interactive narrative, you’ll want to write it one slide at a time in words, images, video, or short animations.

Create your content :

The first page will be a title slide , so write a good welcome text ,Also use simplify charts and graphs to present your data,Always try to put points in further interactive way so that viewer can understand and grasp the slides veritably and fluently. it'll also helps to make the bystander always stick with the slide.

Short animations :

• On the slide, click to select the object you want to animate.
• In the Animate sidebar, click the Animate tab.
• Click Add an Effect, then select an animation.
• To set animation options such as the duration and direction of the animation, use the controls that appear.(Start Transition,Delay)

A Good Animation can help make a PowerPoint presentation more dynamic, and help make information more memorable. The most common types of animation effects include entrances and exits. You can also add sound to increase the intensity of your animation effects.

Presentation experts recommend using animations and sound effects sparingly. Animation can be useful in making a presentation more dynamic, and help to emphasize points, but too much animation can be distracting. Do not let animation and sound take the focus away from what you are saying.

Present it! :

Go ahead — press Play and test out your presentation. Everything should work as you’d expect, and you can press Escape to exit. Save your Presentation to iCloud, then open it on your iPad, and everything will work just the same there.

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November 16, 2023

You have some great tips. I also appreciate the paragraph about using sounds and animations sparingly. It never fails when I introduce Keynote to students, that their first presentation has sounds and animations for everything. Thank you for sharing, Keynote is one of my favorite apps.

November 22, 2023

There's nothing like a great, well-thought-out Keynote. Thanks for sharing your step-by-step guide.

November 30, 2023

Another great tips would be to use purposeful animation. If your an explaining how gravity work, using the anvil composition to have an object (or even the word GRAVITY) fall for the sky and land in a smoke dust deliver a message out the topic. And you are right to use is sparingly, use it to gain focus, to surprise you listener.

Great topic and explanation!

December 01, 2023

Hi Satyajit

Who doesn't love keynote? Thank you for the reminders on creating a presentation. You will have to share one you have created!

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PowerPoint vs Keynote: Which Is The Best Presentation Software?

The PowerPoint vs Keynote debate has been around for ages. While most people will say PowerPoint is the best presentation software ever, Mac users may beg to disagree. In this article, I’ll do my best to provide as neutral a take as possible, so you can choose the best presentation software for your needs.

PowerPoint vs Keynote: What’s similar?

If you’ve been tasked to present something in front of an audience, you’d usually use a presentation software (or app, as it’s called nowadays). This can be PowerPoint, Keynote or whatever presentation app you have access to.

You wouldn’t normally use a word processor like Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages app. Of course, if you’re pressed for time, and you absolutely must present at that very moment, you can just show people whatever you have on your screen. However, if points are awarded to properly made presentations, then using PowerPoint or Keynote is the way to go.

There are many advantages to using either PowerPoint or Keynote for your presentations. For instance, both of them are slide-based. You can control the flow of your presentation by adding as little or as many points for discussion on your slide. Ideally though, only discuss one point per slide. You can also pick from several types of content (including graphics and multimedia) to add to your slides.

To keep your audience hooked, you can also use a variety of transitions and animations. But keep these to a minimum as people can easily get motion sick when there are far too many fancy schmancy animations! When used correctly, however, the right combination of content and animation can create a memorable experience for your audience.

These are just a few of the similarities between these two popular presentation apps. Read along to find out when you should use one app over the other.

When to use PowerPoint over Keynote?

PowerPoint is so ubiquitous that it’s easy to think everyone’s probably heard of or used it at one time or another. From academic to business or corporate presentations, PowerPoint has been the de facto presentation software for decades. In fact, for many people, the word ‘PowerPoint’ is synonymous with ‘presentations.’

That being said, if you’re not yet firmly in the PowerPoint camp or are looking for validation to stay in it, here are some good reasons for you:

• You’re a PC user and PowerPoint is already installed on your system

A PowerPoint license can cost you a pretty penny. So, if it already came pre-installed on your computer, then there’s no need to go look for another presentation app. Chances are you’ve used PowerPoint or other Microsoft Office apps before. So, you’ll be familiar with how their ribbon menu system works.

The ribbon works practically the same way across MS Office apps. Even if you’ve only used Word or Excel before, you’ll still feel right at home with the PowerPoint interface. When you have easy access to PowerPoint, you can just fire it up anytime and work on your presentation when you need to.

• Everyone on your team is using PowerPoint

If you’re collaborating with other PowerPoint users, it wouldn’t make sense to ask them to use Keynote. Common sense would dictate that you use PowerPoint as well so you can quickly work on tasks assigned to you.

You’re probably wondering why that would be a problem when Apple themselves have announced that they’ve improved Keynote’s compatibility with PowerPoint. Well, it’s true that you can now open PPT files on Keynote and export keynote files to PowerPoint.

However, do you really want to jump through several hoops just to get the files converted or exported to the right format? Would you actually prefer to do something that will take you 10 clicks (on Keynote) as opposed to just a single click (on PowerPoint)? If you’re working under time pressure, it makes sense to just use the app that everyone else is using.

• You want to use that beautiful PowerPoint template you found online

The global PowerPoint community is massive. There are plenty of designers who spend their free time creating PowerPoint templates. They know there’s a demand for it and they work hard to fulfill that demand.

Templates are awesome in that they are literally time- and life-savers. Instead of spending 10 hours working on your slides, you can edit an existing template and have your slides finished in under an hour!

If you didn’t already know, 24Slides also has our very own Template Hub which you can check out right here. All our templates are 100% free and have been professionally-designed by our in-house team of presentation designers. Here’s a screenshot of one of our most popular templates:

In short, there are a ton of options available for PowerPoint users. So, if you want a wealth of options for your presentations, then PowerPoint is the right app for you.

• Advanced features you’re not going to find anywhere else

In addition to being a powerful presentation software, did you know PowerPoint is also a stand-alone graphics app? Yes, it is. Well, it’s nowhere as advanced as Photoshop , but for basic graphics creation, PPT can handle it with aplomb. You can remove backgrounds in images, you can crop and reshape pictures, you can even create social media graphics!

You can also convert your PowerPoint file into video format. If you’re looking to share your presentation online, just convert it to video and upload to your YouTube channel! If you want to host a webinar , you can also use PowerPoint to create your slides and share it with your audience.

The new PowerPoint Designer is another very useful feature. You can simply add an element to your slide and PowerPoint will suggest a bunch of design ideas. Unfortunately, if you don’t see the Design Ideas button when you go to Design tab, then you probably need to purchase an Office 365 subscription .

Check out PowerPoint’s ribbon menu and toolbar system. This is where all the magic happens:

Some may say PowerPoint’s menu option is far too complicated. It takes some getting used to, but once you become familiar with how it all works, you’ll see it’s not really all that complicated. In fact, you may even find other presentation apps a bit lacking in the features department.

PowerPoint is like a jack of all trades in the presentation world. There are things you can do on PowerPoint that just isn’t possible on other apps. Some may say these extra – and more advanced – features aren’t necessary. But from my point of view, it adds a lot of value to the whole PowerPoint experience. If you want to learn how to make the most of PowerPoint, check out our tutorial articles here .

When to use Keynote over PowerPoint?

Keynote presentations are, arguably, better looking than PowerPoint presentations. Just like most Apple products, the aesthetics and polish of a Keynote presentation is second to none. But is this good enough reason to use Keynote? If you’re not sure whether you should make the switch, here are some compelling reasons for choosing Keynote over PowerPoint.

1. You’re an Apple user

If you’re deeply integrated within the Apple ecosystem, that is, you use MacOS or iOS in your day-to-day life, then Keynote is probably the right option for you. Apple’s Continuity feature is well-loved by Apple users for a reason.

Let’s say, you started working on your Keynote presentation on your Mac. But then you had to go somewhere. While you’re on the train or drinking coffee at Starbucks, you can use your iPad or your iPhone to pick up where you left off on your Keynote. Then when you get home, you can finish your Keynote on your Mac and get it ready for prime time!

Also, Keynote comes free on all Apple devices. So, you don’t need to shell out money to start using this amazing software. In case you’re wondering, PowerPoint for Mac is available, but it’s not free.

On top of it all, Apple regularly updates Keynote too. In fact, Keynote 9.0 was released just a few weeks ago (for free, mind you). So, you’re getting a frequently updated app for free. While PowerPoint users are stuck with either paying a subscription (to get regular updates) or buying Microsoft Office for a one-time fee (with no updates). So, this is a definitely a plus point for Keynote!

2. You want a user-friendly presentation software

PowerPoint is powerful, yes, but for novice users, it can be very overwhelming. To be fair, though, if you’re coming from PowerPoint and you’re trying out Keynote for the first time, you may find it confusing as well. Let’s just say that both apps have a learning curve, with PowerPoint’s considerably steeper thanks to its impressive feature list.

If you’re not interested in tweaking every single aspect of your slides, that is, you just want a presentation that looks good, then Keynote may be right for you. Keynote is said to be more intuitive and more user-friendly than PowerPoint, and I have to say, I agree with this assessment. There are fewer hoops you need to go through on Keynote to create a visually stunning presentation.

Keynote’s toolbar is considerably less busy and less cluttered than PowerPoint:

You can play around with the options on the toolbar, and you’ll see it’s not nearly as complicated as PowerPoint. Since you don’t have all the bells and whistles that PowerPoint has, you can quickly get the job done. In short, you can focus on what’s truly necessary.

You don’t need to choose from a million different things which will only confuse you and delay your final output. At the end of the day, you want a presentation that will help convey your message to your audience. And with that said, Keynote is more than capable of helping you out with your presentation needs.

3. Better looking themes from the get-go

It’s so much easier to identify presentations that are made with PowerPoint over those that are made on Keynote. Why? Because most PowerPoint users stick to the default options. They use the default Calibri font, use the default layouts, they even use the built-in outdated templates and themes that have been used in countless presentations.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with using the defaults per se. However, if you’re looking to stand out and make your presentation interesting and memorable, then you’re really not doing yourself any favors. This is where Keynote stands out.

Keynote’s default options look way better than PowerPoint’s. It’s really no contest, in my opinion. Keynote’s built-in themes are beautiful. Don’t believe me? Here’s a screenshot of Keynote’s Theme Chooser:

Wouldn’t you say the above looks way better than PowerPoint’s (see below)?

You can certainly make gorgeous presentations in PowerPoint, but you’d have to either use third-party templates or design one from scratch. Either way, it will cost you a bit of time. But with Keynote, you just need to select the theme you want to use, switch up the placeholders, and you’d have your attention-grabbing slides in mere minutes!

PowerPoint vs Keynote: A Head-to-Head Comparison of Key Features

As I’ve mentioned earlier in this article, PowerPoint has a lot of features that aren’t found in Keynote (or other presentation apps). So, in this section, we’ll compare apples to apples (pun intended) and evaluate these 2 apps based on some similar, key features.

· Formatting options

PowerPoint : To format an element in PowerPoint, you’d first need to click on it and a new tab will appear on the ribbon. If you want to edit text or images, click it and the Drawing Tools tab will appear. For tables and charts, it will be Table Tools and Chart Tools, respectively. Clicking on a picture will make the Picture Tools tab appear, like this:

Some of these Tools have more than just a Format menu, some also have an additional Design menu. A good example of this would be SmartArt Tools , Table Tools, and Chart Tools.

All these hidden menus give you a lot of control over an element’s format and design. You can literally make an element a 100% unique just by experimenting with the multitude of options at your fingertips!

Keynote : Just like PowerPoint, you’d need to click on the element you want to edit so you can format it properly. For instance, if you want to format your text, you’d need to click on the text itself. Then hit the Format button on the upper right side; a sidebar will appear right below it.

For text formatting, Keynote will give you 3 tabs of options: Style, Text, Arrange. In the Style tab, you can adjust the fill, border, shadow, reflection and opacity settings. In the Text tab, you can change the font face, font size, alignment, spacing, etc. Under the Arrange tab, you can adjust the alignment, size, position, rotation, etc. of the text. Here’s a screenshot:

For table formatting, you’ll find the following tabs in the Format inspector sidebar: Table, Cell, Text, and Arrange. For chart formatting, these are the available options: Chart, Axis, Series, Arrange.

As you can see, there’s a similarity between the formatting options in both PowerPoint and Keynote. First, you’ll need to click on the element you want to edit, and the software will give you a bunch of formatting options to choose from. Second, make the adjustments you want to make and voila! You’ll have your newly formatted element!

My verdict: PowerPoint wins this round because it has a lot more formatting and design options available than Keynote. You have absolute control over the tiniest little thing on PowerPoint.

· Working with shapes

PowerPoint : Inserting shapes in your PowerPoint slide is easy. Just go to Insert > Shapes and click on the shape you want to use. Your mouse pointer will change to a precision pointer and you can now draw your shape anywhere on your slide.

If you want to draw a perfect shape, that is, you want it to maintain its exact dimensions, then you need to press the Shift key while drawing the shape. This is especially useful when drawing circles in PowerPoint.

If you want to create unique, fun shapes, you can easily do so in PowerPoint. First, you’ll need to click on the shapes you want to use – you can either use the Shift key or the CTRL key to select multiple shapes. Then in the Drawing Tools tab, click on the Merge Shapes button. As you can see below, you’ve got 5 different options: hover, combine, fragment, intersect, and subtract.

Hover your mouse over each of these options and you’ll see a quick preview of the resulting shape on your slide. If you want to use a particular effect, click on it and PowerPoint will apply the changes.

Keynote : Keynote’s Shape tab works a bit differently than PowerPoint. In PowerPoint, shapes and icons are two different buttons on the ribbon. But in Keynote, you’ll find both shapes and icons in the Shapes menu.

To insert a shape (or icon), click on it and it will appear in the middle of the slide. Unlike PowerPoint, you don’t get to decide where the shape is going to appear and what size. So, you need to click on the newly-added shape, resize it and drag it to where you want it to appear. But just like in PowerPoint, if you want to resize the shape perfectly, you will need to press the Shift key on your keyboard while resizing the shape.

If you’re wondering if you can also merge shapes in Keynote, the answer is yes. Select the shapes you want to merge, then click on Format > Shapes and Lines . You’ve got 4 options as you can see below: unite, intersect, subtract, and exclude shapes.

Unfortunately, Keynote doesn’t give you a preview of the merged shape by hovering over the options just like in PowerPoint. You’d need to click on the merge option to see the effect. If you don’t like the result, just hit command + z to undo.

My verdict : PowerPoint still wins this round with the number of shapes available and the different shape formatting options. Keynote basically only has 15 shapes (shown in the Basic tab) and the rest are vector icons.

· Editing the slide master

PowerPoint : PowerPoint’s slide master truly lives up to its name. Why? Because editing the slide master will allow you to make global changes to your entire presentation file.

To do this, just go to View > Slide Master . On the left side of the screen (navigation pane), you’ll see the slide master at the very top and the layout slides right below it.

All changes you make to the slide master will be applied to all slides in your presentation. However, if you only make changes to a layout , then those will only appear every time you use that layout in your presentation.

If you want to add a new layout or even a new master slide, you can do so with just a single click. You can insert placeholders in the layout slides. Placeholders include text, pictures, charts, tables, SmartArt, media, and online image. You can even create a new theme color and format the background for all your slides in one fell swoop.

Keynote : You can also edit Keynote’s slide master, but it’s not nearly as feature-packed as PowerPoint’s. Yes, you can make changes to several slides by editing the layout/master slide it uses. But there’s no way to make global changes like you would with PowerPoint.

First, let me show you how you can edit Keynote’s master slide. Go to View > Edit Master Slides .

This is the Master Slides view. You can see all the layouts on the left side of the screen.

As you can see above, these are all the available layouts in a Keynote theme. There is no ‘master slide’ like you see in PowerPoint. If you make changes to a layout, that is, add or remove some elements, then it’s only going to affect the slides using that particular layout. There’s no way to make ‘global’ changes to your Keynote file.

For instance, if you want to add your logo to all your slides, you would need to add it manually. You can do this by editing the slides one by one, or by adding the logo to all the master layouts. Alternatively, you can also add the logo to a new layout and use this layout on all your Keynote slides.

Adding placeholders in Keynote works a bit differently from PowerPoint. There’s no Insert Placeholder button, but you can add elements to a layout slide and then define it as a Placeholder. You’ll find this option in Format inspector > Style . Here’s a screenshot:

Make sure you tick the box like you see in the screenshot above. Otherwise, Keynote won’t recognize it as placeholder element.

My verdict : For this round, PowerPoint is the winner, no doubt about it. The ability to make universal changes just by editing the slide master is an absolute necessity. This is especially important when dealing with a large number of slides in your presentation.

· Animations and transitions

PowerPoint : Object animations and slide transitions can make your presentation look a lot more exciting. In PowerPoint, you can access the slide transition effects by clicking on the Transitions tab. You can specify effect options, duration, timing, etc.

For animations, you can click on the Animations tab. But in order to actually apply an animation to an element or object, you’d need to click on the element first. Then the animation options become clickable, like you see below:

There are 4 different kinds of animations: Entrance, Emphasis, Exit and Motion Path animations. Now, it’s easy to get carried away and apply animations to every single element on your slides, but please stop yourself from doing so! You don’t want people to vomit during your presentation. Yes, motion sickness can happen during presentations. So, please use animations only when they add value to your presentation.

Keynote : To access the different transition options in Keynote, click anywhere outside the slide. Then go to the Animate inspector and you’ll see the Transitions menu in the right sidebar. Click on Add an Effect to see the different transition options for your slide:

To animate various elements on your slide, you’ll need to click on the element first. Then when you go to the Animate inspector, you’ll see a bunch of different options. Instead of the Transitions tab, you’ll see the following: Build In, Action, and Build Out. These are equivalent to PowerPoint’s entrance, emphasis and exit animation effects.

When it comes to the quality of animations and transitions , I have to say Keynote’s look way better than PowerPoint. You can preview the animations by hovering over the dropdown list and clicking on the Preview button that appears.

My verdict : For this round, Keynote is the winner. Their animations are way classier than PowerPoint’s and provides a much better viewing experience for your audience.

· Save and export options

PowerPoint : PowerPoint allows you to save your presentation in many different file formats. You’re not limited to saving your file in the default .PPTX format. You’ve got plenty of choices! Check out this screenshot:

When it comes to exporting your PPT, you’ve also got a lot of options. You can export it to PDF/XPS, video, CD package, handouts, and even publish it to Microsoft Stream. See here:

Keynote : When you save your Keynote file, you can only save it to one format. That’s the default .keynote file type. Your export options are pretty limited as well. However, it’s nice to be able to import keynote files to PowerPoint. You can convert to either .PPTX or .PPT format (PowerPoint 1997-2003 compatible).

My verdict : While PowerPoint is obviously the winner due to the sheer number of file types you can convert your PPT to, I have to give credit to Keynote for at least being able to open PPT files. This is something that PowerPoint can’t do (open Keynote files). But obviously, it’s not Microsoft’s fault if Apple chooses to lock Keynote within the Apple ecosystem.

Final Words

The PowerPoint vs Keynote debate is probably going to continue into the foreseeable future. While I personally think PowerPoint trumps Keynote in so many ways, Keynote is still a powerful presentation software in its own right. Keynote is obviously an app that’s made exclusively for Apple users. But even so, it’s not for all Apple users. For those who want absolute creative control over their presentation slides, PowerPoint is the way to go.

Mac users who want more than what Keynote can give them can always buy their copy of PowerPoint for Mac. The downside to the Mac version is that it’s not full-featured like its Windows counterpart. So, you may need to look into installing Bootcamp so you can run Windows natively, or run a virtual machine app on your Mac.

You might also find this interesting: How To Use PowerPoint Templates in Apple Keynote and Google Slides

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10 Expert Tips to Create and Deliver a Killer Keynote Presentation

So you’ve got a keynote presentation coming up, and you’re hitting the books to make sure you’re armed with the best plan possible. Besides taking notes from all the greats on TED, you’re reading up about a message structure that works, and looking for the perfect template.

While it seems like you’ve got your bases covered, like all things in life, there’s always a way to streamline the planning process.

According to Aaron Weyenberg , the UX Lead for TED and a self-professed “master of slide decks,” and the wizards behind Apple’s presentation slides , there are a number of tricks of the trade that you can rely on to create a rocking keynote presentation .

Below are some of our favorites. And to easily create a professional-looking presentation , sign up for Piktochart . It’s free and it allows you to make beautiful visuals without being a graphic designer.

1. Do your slides last

While most keynote speakers will typically build their presentation around the structure of a template, Weyenberg says that “building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation.” Before working on your slides, you should put together your main message, structure, supporting points – then practice and time your presentation. The reason for this, he says, is that the presentation needs to be strong enough to stand on its own. Approaching a keynote like this requires a shift in thinking.

While a beautiful set of slides is imperative to your presentation, it should not be central to it.

Weyenberg said it best: “The slides are just something you layer over [the presentation] to enhance the listener experience.”

Observe these 2017 Google I/O keynotes, especially CEO Sundar Pichai’s – the role of the slides are to support what the speaker is saying – not the other way around.

2. Get creative with photos

Often times, presenters will be far too literal or cheesy with their image choice. Weyenberg suggests to use images that are simple, yet punchy – and pairs nicely with your spoken words. He says to look for photos that are:

• Related to your keynote’s concept
• Are not complex in terms of composition

3. Simplify charts and graphs

While most presenters will simply drop an image of their charts and graphs into their deck, Weyenberg points out that it might be a bit “unsightly.” If you need to use data to back a point that you’re making, you should make the extra effort to make it more attractive – and this can be done by recreating it in your presentation maker .

There are a couple benefits to doing this:

• It will make your presentation seem consistent and well-thought out
• You’ll have control over colors, typography, and more.

4. One theme per slide

According to the designers of Apple presentation slides, less is certainly more. Trying to cram too many ideas on one slide can only work to your detriment. Beyond ideas, the same goes for statistics.

Let’s play a little game: For the following idea, how many slides would you use? “The developer program is incredibly vibrant. We have over six million registered developers. Demand for this show has never been greater. We sold out in just over a minute [71 seconds].”

While the average person might think that 6 million and 71 seconds would belong on the same slide and be short and sweet enough, let’s compare it with what Apple’s CEO Tim Cook did.

He only leveraged two slides: The first said “6 million,” and the second: “71 seconds. Sold out.”

5. Create a visual experience with data

Taking a leaf again from Apple’s presentation book, once you’ve gotten the hang of having just one stat per slide – you should also make it as visual as possible.

One data point per slide, combined with it being visually interesting – is sure to be memorable.

6. Practice Really Makes Perfect

Imagine the late Steve Jobs, a legendary keynote presenter, still rehearsed for months before a presentation. According to Brent Schlender , one of the co-authors behind the Steve Jobs biography “Becoming Steve Jobs,” Jobs would rehearse and prepare “exhaustively” for all of his public appearances.

Despite being a natural on the stage, Jobs never would wing it, he came to the show well prepared.

“I once spent an entire day watching him run through multiple rehearsals of a single presentation, tweaking everything from the color and angle of certain spotlights, to editing and rearranging the order of the keynote presentation slides to improve his pacing,” remembers Schlender.

While you may not be a perfectionist like Jobs, you are likely also not nearly as good of a presenter as he is – so practice really makes perfect in this case.

7. Tell A Consistent Story

Circling back to Weyenberg’s tips – he suggests that in a good slide deck, every slide should feel “like part of the same story.” Think of your deck like a story – every slide should feel cohesive to the big picture message you’re trying to communicate – as opposed to random ideas juxtaposed together.

You can do this by:

• Using the same or similar typography, colors, and imagery across all slides
• Using presentation templates can help with maintaining the same look and feel

8. Less is more

We explored the less is more concept earlier in the article by suggesting you keep to one idea per slide. The same can be applied to text.

When it comes to creating slides for your next keynote, the cardinal sin is a slide with ample text that is verbatim of your spoken presentation.

What this does is encourage people to keep their eyes on your slides instead of listening to you.

Weyenberg also points out that a text-heavy slide forces the brain to multitask between focusing on what it’s reading and hearing – which is quite difficult and will compromise your presentation.

9. Consider topic transitions

While you want to make your slides look like a cohesive unit, you want to also keep in mind that making every slide look the same may be boring. Weyenberg suggests to:

• Create one style for the slides that are the “meat” of the message
• Then create another style for the slides that are transitioning between topics

For example, if your overall slides have a dark background with light text, you can use transitional slides that have a light background with dark text. This way, they’ll still feel like they’re from the same presentation family without being completely uniform.

10. Tell a captivating story

It is fitting that our final tip comes from likely the greatest keynote presenter of all time. The late and great Steve Jobs had the ability to captivate and inspire his audience with his talks, and that’s because he was a very good storyteller. And that’s the golden leaf that you can take from Jobs’ book today.

Always aim to tell a captivating story.

One example is perhaps when he introduced the iPod: “In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. It didn’t just change the way we all listen to music. It changed the entire music industry.” Listen to Steve Jobs weave a story about the digital music revolution when unveiling the iPod.

Bonus Round: Tips From Piktochart Designers  

• Always remember that your audience is sitting far away . So ensure that your title font size is large enough to be seen from a distance, and that your body text is no smaller than 20px.
• Use only two colors for your entire presentation – a primary and secondary color. If you must use a large color palette, your maximum choice should be up to five colors.
• Make sure that there is enough white space throughout your presentation . This will give your content room to breathe. Less is definitely more in this case.
• Emphasize only one object per slide – whether it’s an image, statistic, quote. This will make sure your audience stays focused.

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Easily create gorgeous presentations with Keynote, featuring powerful yet easy-to-use tools and dazzling effects that will make you a very hard act to follow. The Theme Chooser lets you skim through an impressive collection of over 40 Apple-designed themes. Easy-to-use tools let you add text, tables, charts, shapes, photos, and videos to slides—and bring it all to life with cinematic animations and transitions that look as though they were created by your own special effects team. Add live video to your slideshow and appear right on your slides in remote presentations, how-to videos, and lectures. Confidently present to your audience from anywhere, in person or virtually, and take turns controlling a presentation in multi-presenter slideshows. Collaborate with others at the same time • With real-time collaboration, your whole team can work together on a presentation at the same time on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and even on a PC • Share your document publicly or with specific people, see who’s currently in the presentation with you, and view other people’s cursors to follow their edits • See a list of recent changes in collaborative presentations, including when people join, comment, and make edits • Available for presentations stored in iCloud or in Box Get started quickly • Choose from over 40 Apple-designed themes to give your presentations a beautiful start • Use the slide navigator to quickly skim through your presentation, add new slides, and reorder slides • Get quick access to shapes, media, tables, charts, and sharing options • Import and edit Microsoft PowerPoint presentations • Quickly open password-protected presentations using Touch ID on supported Macs Create stunning presentations • Easily change slide layouts and backgrounds • Use the built-in camera or a connected device to add live video right on your slides • Engage your audience with interactive charts and chart animations • Enhance your presentations with a library of over 700 editable shapes • Quickly add your photos and videos from the Photos app using the Media Browser • Add an interactive image gallery to view a collection of photos • Easily remove image backgrounds • Use gorgeous preset styles to make your text, tables, shapes, and images look beautiful • Edit down to the pixel with rulers and alignment guides Cinema-quality animations • Beautiful cinematic slide transitions and impressive text and object animations • Magic Move effect effortlessly animates and morphs graphics • Emphasis builds let you add impact with one click • See live on-canvas previews as you animate your slides Present to your audience • Customizable presenter display with support for up to six displays • Rehearse a presentation with current slide, presenter notes, and timer all in one view • Present on an external display or projector, or stream wirelessly using AirPlay and Apple TV • Present over video conference and view presenter notes, current and upcoming slides, and slide navigation in a separate window • Use multi-presenter slideshows to let participants take turns controlling a shared presentation from their own device • Control your slideshow from iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch • Create self-running, interactive shows for kiosks and displays iCloud • Turn on iCloud so you can access and edit your presentations from your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and from a Mac or PC browser at iCloud.com • Keynote automatically saves your presentations as you make changes Share a copy of your work • Export presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, movies, and image files • Use AirDrop to send your presentation to anyone nearby • Quickly and easily share a link to your work via Mail or Messages Some features may require Internet access; additional fees and terms may apply.

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Kaynote's terrific. However, with Figma, Canva, and the Adobe Suite out there, it seems like it's time to add more features and design tools. For instance, Figma has the ability to add features with plug-ins, e.g., free illustrations. And others have easier-to-accomplish presentation animations - even partially automated. Also, with the rise of AI, it would be great to have Keynote assist more in making presentations. I know this is a big one, but that's something Canva's already doing. All of the Apple apps could use a similar refresh that helps make them easier and faster to use. I know Apple's likely working on it -- I guess I'm just saying I'm looking forward to (i.e., sincerely hoping for!...) a bigger evolution in Keynote and other Apple apps soon. I don't want to spend the time just complaining about what's not there. Most importantly, I've done very good work with Keynote. That's the bottom line. But that's exactly why I'd like to use it for more tasks.

Essential in presenting scientific research with one minor defect

I have recently started using Keynote for my presentations as a substitute for Latex and Powerpoint. While the output in Keynote looks much better compared to the previously mentioned softwares, I have been suffering from a defect which might be happening to other users too. Its regarding dragging objects around on a slide. Lets say I write an equation using Latexit or say copy and paste an image from my computer, it sometimes get “stuck” and won’t move around when selected and dragged around. It will eventually but I have no clue as to the origin of the problem. This is time consuming and annoying while editing presentations at the last minute or in general. I haven’t found a good solution to this problem online. The typical solution suggested is to use coordinates which works but sometimes and more often you would like to place the object according to your liking which is difficult to judge from the coordinates. Compared to Keynote, it is seamless in Powerpoint to drag and drog items. Barring this issue, Keynote is a wonderful software, easy to start with and highly useful in presenting your research anywhere.

Keynote has certain frustrating limitations. When animating on a video, you are not able to start playback of the video until the animation is complete. ANY animations lock you out of other controls. Say you are following a presenter and they speak faster causing you to have to go forward, Keynote does not allow you to skip the animation easily, and if you do skip, it isn't in a way that hides the change, you will get an ugly jump to the end of the animation insteads of just moving forward to the next slide. The group numbering and ordering is a little confusing and also limited especially standing out when having multople items in the build order with delay timings, as the delays don't necessarily connect to the start action but the prior object in the build order. It is also frustrating to not be able to stack build items to create even more detailed animations. Keynote is great for basic presentations and handles video playback well. As presentations get more advanced, I find that a lot of the work has to be done outside of Keynote and brought in, or ideas just have to be simpified to work within Keynote's parameters.

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What Is a Keynote Speech? (+10 Speaker Tips to Deliver Powerfully)

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Being asked to give a keynote speech can be a little intimidating, especially if you've never given one before. You may even be wondering: what is a keynote address?

Keynote speeches are important and being asked to give a keynote talk can be a great opportunity for you and your business. So, if you're asked, consider taking advantage of the opportunity. But first, you'll need to learn a little bit more about keynote speeches.

In this short tutorial, we'll cover what you need to know about giving a keynote message. We'll provide you with a keynote address definition. We'll provide you with some good keynote speech examples. Plus, we'll cover ten tips to help you become a better keynote speaker.

For valuable tips on how to create a top-notch presentation, be sure to download our free eBook:   The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations .  It'll help you master the complete presentation process.

What Is a Keynote Speech?

So, you're probably wondering what a keynote speech is and how it differs from any other speech you might give. A keynote address is typically given to set the theme for an event . Examples might include the main speaker at business conference or even a guest speaker at a graduation.

Keynote speakers are sometimes well-known figures or even celebrities. In other instances, depending upon the audience, they may just be someone who's very accomplished in their field. Keynote speakers are often paid for their services and a professional keynote speaker who is in demand can earn quite a bit. Even if you've never given a keynote message before, being asked to give one is both an honor and a great opportunity.

Keynote speeches are usually based on the speaker's own experiences and knowledge. They can also include motivational and inspirational elements. Effective keynote speakers often make use of storytelling as well. But the most important factor for keynote message success is audience engagement. The keynote speaker needs to capture and hold the audience's attention and set the tone for the entire event.

If you're trying to learn about a particular type of public speaking, hearing an example can help. One good example of a good keynote speech comes from Oprah Winfrey, who gave the keynote address at the 2018 commencement for the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. You can listen to her speech for yourself:

For even more examples of effective speeches, many of which could serve as keynote addresses, study this roundup of some of my favorite Ted Talks:

How to Make Your Presentation Stand Out With a Slideshow

If the keynote address you'll be giving will include a slideshow presentation, you need to make sure that slideshow is the best it can be. Part of making effective use of a slideshow is to make sure that your presentation design is attractive and eye-catching. Admittedly, this can be tough to do if you're not a professional designer.

Fortunately, there's any easy way to create an engaging slideshow even if you're not a designer yourself. Envato Elements is a great way to find beautiful presentation templates for any need. These professionally designed templates will help your slideshow to really stand out. Plus, you'll be able download stock photos, WordPress and web templates, graphics, and more—all for a single flat rate! Download as much as you need as often as you need it. This is just the type of service a busy professional needs.

 But even if you're sure you're only going to give the one presentation and you don't need any of the other assets available through Envato Elements, we've still got you covered. You can purchase an affordable, one-time download of a professional slideshow template through GraphicRiver.

Now that you know where to find good slideshow templates, you may be wondering which templates to pick. The template roundup below can help:

Now that we've discussed how to use a slideshow for your keynote message, it's time to examine some tips for giving a better keynote speech.

Speaker Tips for Giving a Keynote Speech

You're pulling your keynote message together and you need to make sure it's effective. But it's been a while since you've given a speech, or maybe this is your first one. How can you make sure your speech is a success?

Here are ten tips for public speakers that'll help you deliver a powerful keynote address:

1. Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is vital for any public speaker, but it's especially important for keynote speakers since it's vital that they establish rapport with their audience and also because they set the tone for the entire event. So, as early in the speech preparation as possible, give some thought to who you'll speaking to. Tailor your speech to their needs and interests. Ask yourself these questions:

• Who'll be listening to this speech?
• What do they already know?
• What do they need to know?

What are these listeners interested in?

If you know nothing about your audience, try asking the contact person who invited you to speak.

2. Do Your Research

If you've been asked to give a keynote speech, there's a good chance that you're already quite familiar with your topic. But don't take that knowledge for granted. Double-check your facts. Also, look for recent developments and include any relevant updates to your material. Pay special attention to information that'll be useful to your listeners.

3. Tell a Story

Storytelling is a great way to connect with an audience. If you've got personal experiences that your audience can relate to turning those into a story can often help engage your audience. Even if you don't have personal experiences, you may be able to share the experiences of others. For example, sharing the story of how a client successfully overcame an obstacle may inspire your listeners—especially if they've faced a similar obstacle.

4. Consider Giving an Interactive Presentation

Adding an interactive element to your keynote message is another way to capture your audience's attention. There are several types of interactive elements you can add including getting audience feedback in real-time and incorporating a Q&A session into your presentation. To learn more about interactive presentations, review this tutorial:

5. Practice Your Speech

Like any other speech you might give, you should practice a keynote speech until you're very familiar with the material. Strive to know your speech topic so well that you could talk about it without your notes if you needed to. As you practice, use your presentation notes or outline as a prompt rather than reading your speech. If possible, practice the speech in front of a friend or family member who's willing to provide feedback. The following tutorial includes a checklist for practicing a speech that could be helpful:

6. Overcome Your Fear

Does the idea of getting in front of an audience and talking make you uncomfortable? Well, you're certainly not alone. Studies from the National Institute of Health (and other sources) have shown that as much as 77% of the general public may fear public speaking. With a keynote message the fear and pressure is sometimes greater since the presentation is such an integral part of the event. Fortunately, there are methods you can use to overcome the fear of public speak ranging from positive self-talk to body language and more. In the tutorial below you'll discover over 20 ways to fight the fear of public speaking:

7. Stay Focused on Your Goal

If you're giving a speech, it's easy to become distracted. Unfortunately, if you stray too far from your topic you're likely to lose the interest of your listeners. This is where your speaker notes can be particularly helpful. Make sure that your speaker notes are visible (and use a large enough font that you can read them easily). If you do lose your pace or feel you've gone off topic, don't be afraid of a brief pause while you check your outline. You can learn more about creating speaker notes to your presentation tool in these short tutorials:

8. Be Brief

Avoid overexplaining the topic of your keynote address. You can do this by stating each point once followed by your supporting detail for that point (including slides and other visual aids). Next, summarize the point and move on to the next point. If you expected the audience to react to a point and they don't respond in the manner you expected, resist the temptation to go back over the point. Finally, when your presentation is complete you can restate the main purpose of your talk. Being brief and being focused matter and the audience will appreciate you for it.

9. Get Enough Sleep

You probably already suspect that you're not at your best when you go without sleep. Now science supports what you've always suspected—lack of sleep negatively impacts your performance . So, do your best to get a good night's sleep before your keynote talk. But that may be easier said than done--especially if you're at a business conference where there's a temptation to stay up late socializing and visiting with colleagues and potential clients. There are some practical steps you can take, even when you're traveling, to improve your sleep. You'll find some of those steps in this tutorial:

10. Share It Online

Once your keynote address is over, you can still benefit from it. One way to do that is to share your speech online. Sharing your speech online helps you to reach a larger audience than you initially spoke too. There are a number of ways to share your speech online, including:

• YouTube.  This popular site is useful for sharing video presentations.
• Vimeo.  Another site that can help you to share a live presentation.
• Facebook live.  You can live stream your presentation through Facebook.
• Other social media . You can include a link to your presentation on most other social media sites.
• Your website . Including a video on your own website can be a great way to impress clients and prospective clients.
• SlideShare . If your keynote address included a slideshow presentation, you can share it on SlideShare.
• Email . You can also share links to your keynote speech through email.

To learn more about sharing your keynote address, study these tutorials:

Make Great Presentations ( Free PDF eBook Download )

We also have the perfect complement to this tutorial, which will walk you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully.

Download our new eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It's available for free with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter.

Your Takeaways

You've just been given a keynote definition and some examples of great keynote speeches to follow. Now that you understand what a keynote address is and why it's important, you'll want to make your keynote message as good as possible. 

Even if you've never given a speech before, you can use the speaker tips in this article to give the best keynote address that you can. Once you've finished your keynote presentation, don't forget to share it for maximum impact. If you've enjoyed the tips in this tutorial, you may also enjoy our  Fundamentals of Public Speaking Learning Guide .

Have you given a keynote speech? What tips or advice would you add for others?

Editorial Note: This content was originally published in 2018. We're sharing it again because our editors have determined that this information is still accurate and relevant.

What is the difference between a presentation and a keynote?

Glad you asked

It’s a question I get quite often and the lines can, and are often blurred – but the way I like to look at it, is that a presentation is something you might give to a small room, a customer or an internal business audience to get a specific set of messages across, but a keynote is much broader, typically it’s to a bigger audience and its far more prepared, staged and carefully executed.

The underlying idea of a keynote is to take some key points, they can be business points, or points about something, and turn them into an immersive, engaging experience for your audience.  This is how keynote speakers succeed.

It’s all about preparation, delivery and variety

Some great examples of keynotes are those produced by big software companies such as Apple and Microsoft, and of course the wonderful TED talk content that most of us listen to in awe.

A keynote is not something that should be delivered with little preparation.  Even professional keynote speakers will typically have an area of expertise they speak about, and then when employed to speak at an event, will spend many hours customising based on interviews with their client.

Another key to keynote success is variety in delivery and also content.  Getting up on stage and clicking through slides won’t win an audience, you need to be prepared with an armoury of content to keep things exciting.  Yes, you will have static visuals (slides), but you also need video, demonstrations, props, audience participation and stories.  The right mix and you will deliver a keynote that the audience won’t forget.

Executives can be under a false impression of success

Business executives that are tasked with giving a keynote believe that because of their business success, then speaking in keynote form will be naturally successful for them.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I always tell my clients that there needs to be two of you.  The business you which you have had great success with and the on-stage or keynote you, in which you are inexperienced with and that you need to be flexible and creative with.  Just because an executive may have given thousands of presentations in the past, it does not qualify them to get up and deliver a keynote – the situations are entirely different.

Audience credibility is very different to corporate credibility

Executives who do many presentations are typically presenting to an audience in which their credibility is already earned, in other words, the audience don’t need to be convinced.  However, in the keynote world, the audience is at first your critic, and then either your supporter because they start to like the on-stage you or, on the downside, they just switch off – and we’ll leave that topic for another time.  Many executives also are comforted by the fact that once they finish their presentation they are naturally commended by their peers and subordinates, this is where you must ensure you have a trusted critic, someone that will not get superficial with you and help you improve.  That’s been my role with many senior executives over the years and interestingly the balanced honesty is normally refreshing and welcomed by them.

Having the audience engaged is a feeling only a truely successful keynote can give

As a keynote speaker myself, I’ve done some pretty crazy things on-stage to spike up the audience and keep them interested, and there is nothing like the feeling of taking an initially cold keynote room and having an audience smiling, engaged and intently listening.   That’s one of the reasons I started my company Bespoke Factor – I love helping executives bring their business success to the keynote stage.

Hopefully now I’ve provided a little insight into the world of keynote creation and delivery and how it is very different to your stock standard presentation.

About the Author: Adam Jaques

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Pro tips: How to approach your presentation or keynote slides

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How to get the most out of attending keynote presentations.

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Audience listening to keynote speaker

Conferences promote professional growth and development, collaboration, and phenomenal opportunities to network. They offer the chance to get out of the office and surround yourself with like-minded people in an atmosphere of congeniality and sociability. When you head back to the office, you should feel motivated, renewed, and ready to share new ideas with your colleagues.

Breakout sessions focus on specific topics. But it’s the keynote presentations that should inspire you most. Imagine how tech developers feel when they leave the keynote at an Apple conference . They’re more than ready to explore new frontiers, taking what they’ve learned along for the adventure.

As a frequent keynote speaker, I take the responsibility to inspire seriously. I strive to pull together the big picture, galvanize action, educate, and motivate my audience to leave and conquer whatever challenges they face.

These presentations shouldn’t be lectures. Speakers should engage and interact with you with vibrancy and energy. They should raise and answer questions, and leave you with compelling takeaways . But to get the most out of the ones you attend, you’ll need to do your part as well. Here’s how.

Do Your Homework

It’s OK to just show up, take a seat, and listen to a keynote presentation. In fact, that’s probably what most people do. But if you want to get the most out of the experience, come prepared.

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Conference schedules will feature speakers’ bios and keynote topics. It will be infinitely easier to connect with presenters if you know something about their background. What about them can you relate to, admire, or want to learn more about? Read what they’ve published and what’s been published about them. Finding that type of information is fairly easy with a quick online search.

You should also research the topic slated to be addressed. Having a grasp of it going in will help you to understand the presentation better and to ask more informed questions if you choose to. And if the keynote is virtual, be prepared to turn on your camera to focus on the presentation rather than multitasking. That leads me to my next point.

Audience engagement isn’t just a marketing strategy. A great keynote should raise questions or prompt comments from the audience. As a presenter, it’s my job to draw the audience into what I’m talking about, pushing the door wide open to interaction. If I look out and see people dozing off or checking their social media feeds, I’m not doing my job.

But you also have a job to do. You need to engage in the presentation to get the most out of it. Note questions as they come to you, so you don’t forget them when it’s time for the Q&A. You should also jot down your ideas for applying what the speaker’s saying to your job. If, for example, the speaker talks about the value of role play in team projects, don’t dismiss it because you aren’t a D&D aficionado. Figure out how you can apply the principles of it to your team.

Take advantage of the opportunity to ask the presenter specific questions about your unique situation. That sort of engagement could cost thousands of dollars if you were to hire the speaker as a consultant. Don’t miss the chance to get some free direction. Most presenters truly enjoy sharing their wisdom with curious minds.

Share the Wealth

Keynote attendees should be like sponges, absorbing all the new ideas an event worth its salt will provide. If you soak up some wisdom, don’t keep it to yourself. Share what you’ve learned with others while everything is shiny and fresh.

Discuss what you learned with friends, old and new, who were also in the room. Whatever the speaker imparted will grow exponentially during this type of discussion. Note the highlights, the kernels of knowledge, and the takeaways the presenter offered you. Then make sure you volunteer those takeaways to your colleagues back at the office, even if you aren’t required to deliver a report.

Not everyone you work with can attend keynote presentations. If you’re chosen to, take back what you’ve learned. Just remember, you can only share it if you gleaned the most out of it while you were there. So, pay close attention.

Get a Bigger Bang for Your Attendance Buck

Time and money are inevitable investments in attending a keynote presentation. If you’re going to make it, make it count. Prepare before, engage during, and share what you’ve learned when you leave. You’ll be a better professional and your employer will reap the benefits as well. That’s a win for everyone—including the keynote speaker.

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How to Find Keynote Speaking Opportunities

• Nathan Mixon
• August 16, 2024

Table of Contents

Introduction.

So you’re a keynote speaker or you’d like to be one. You’ve got a message that you think is worth sharing and can inspire change in people. If you believe it, then someone else will. But how do you actually get on stage and in front of an audience to share that message and that value?

Keynote speaking isn’t just about delivering a nice speech; it can also be a pivotal milestone in an aspiring speaker’s journey toward professional acclaim. Keynotes offer unparalleled opportunities for visibility, credibility, and career advancement. They serve as a showcase of one’s expertise, a platform to actually influence industry trends, and a catalyst for personal branding. For speakers who want to elevate their profiles and make a lasting impact in their fields, getting keynote speaking gigs is not just advantageous—it’s essential.

In this blog post, we will jump into keynote speaking, exploring its significance, strategies for securing engagements, and tactics for leveraging other speaking roles into coveted keynote slots. Following a structured approach inspired by The Speaker Lab’s SPEAK framework we will provide actionable insights and practical steps to help you navigate and thrive in the competitive landscape of public speaking.

Whether you’re an experienced speaker looking to expand your repertoire or a newcomer eager to make your mark in the industry, this guide will equip you with the tools and strategies you need to succeed in finding and maximizing keynote opportunities.

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Understanding Keynote Speaking

What is a keynote speech.

Keynotes are generally high-profile presentations that are delivered at big events to set the overarching theme or message of the event. They’re often inspirational, motivational, or informative with the aim of engaging and captivating a large audience. Event organizers will go to pretty great lengths to find the ideal speaker for their keynotes because of the importance it holds for the whole event.

Keynotes differentiate from other speaking formats in a variety of ways. Workshops, for example, focus on interactive learning, skill-building, and lots of participant engagement. There is a lot of back-and-forth with the audience in workshops.

Keynotes, however, are more about delivering a central message to an audience without much interactivity (although there can certainly be some engagement).

Panels tend to involve several speaking in discussion, talking over various aspects of a topic but keynotes are singular presentations aimed at providing a cohesive message.

The Importance of Keynote Speakers

As a keynote speaker, you have a big responsibility. Keynotes serve as the cornerstone of events. They set the tone and direction for the whole thing. They are meant to inspire, challenge perspectives, and initiate action among audiences. Your role will often include address themes or trends that shape discourse in the industry. Your expertise will be in the spotlight.

With that responsibility comes a lot of advantages for you as a public speaker. Taking keynotes can provide a lot of exposure to a very big and diverse audience.These speaking opportunities can hugely increase you visibility as a public speaker within the industry. Keynotes will position public speakers as thought leaders and experts in their field.

Finding paid speaking opportunities will also help build credibility. Delivering a keynote can enhance your credibility as a speaker and give you some authority over other speakers on particular topics. Keynote speakers can become established as go-to sources for insights and expertise within their niches.

Successful keynote speakers can also find themselves getting invited to more and more prestigious and lucrative events and public speaking opportunities. Keynotes can often help one find speaking engagements, paid gigs, book deals, and media appearances. Needless to say, finding events to deliver a keynote at can go a long way in advancing your career as a paid public speaker.

Types of Keynote Speeches

There are three main types of keynote speeches that we’ll go over here:

Motivational Keynotes:

Motivational keynotes are designed to inspire and energize an audience. They will often use personal anecdotes from the speaker’s life and motivational stories. Think Tony Robbins. These keynotes are meant to rile up a crowd and touch on audience members’ emotions, preparing them for calls-to-action that will come both in the keynote and in later programs and segments of the event.

Informative Keynotes:

Informative keynotes tend to focus on delivering substantial knowledge, insights, or data on specific topics or industries. They will often include in-depth analysis, research findings, and applications that attendees and listeners can use and implement.

Speakers for these types of keynotes might use data-driven content to make their points and may provide strategies or frameworks that are useful and relevant to the audience. These keynotes may include more audience engagement than motivational keynotes due to their depth of content. There may be Q&A sessions, case studies, or demonstrations that help enhance the understanding and retention of the information being shared.

Industry-Specific Keynotes:

Industry-specific keynotes, on the other hand, are tailored to address challenges, trends, and innovations within a particular industry or sector. Speakers will focus on providing specialized knowledge and insights relevant to professionals within that industry. Keynotes like this are typical at industry conferences or company gatherings.

Knowing which type of keynote you’ve been hired to deliver is important because you need to understand the audience you’re presenting to. You need to study and be aware of the audience demographics (such as age, profession, interests, etc.) in order to tailor your keynote’s content and delivery. You have to align your keynote’s objectives with the event’s goals and themes to ensure your talk is relevant and impactful.

The SPEAK Framework for Keynote Opportunities

Step 1: select a problem to solve.

Audience Analysis

The first step to finding paid speaking opportunities as a keynote speaker is to do your research on who you’ll be speaking to. Learn about the events’ target audiences and understand what their needs, challenges, and interests are. From there you can develop some strategies to align your keynote’s topics with the audience’s expectations and event theme effectively.

Topic Selection

Once you’ve figured out who your audience will consist of and what they need, choose a topic within your niche that will be compelling to them. It should address industry trends, emerging challenges, or some other pressing issues. To make it even more impactful, come up with a clever title and description that will resonate with conference organizers and appeal to attendees’ interests.

Step 2: Prepare Your Keynote

Content Development

Next, you’ve got to actually write or prepare your keynote. When developing the content of your speech, structure it with a powerful opening, an engaging body with loads of memorable and impactful insights, and a conclusion that will leave the audience with something to remember as well. (The basics of speech-writing, really.) Audiences can relate when you incorporate storytelling and actionable advice into your presentation.

Rehearsal and Refinement

Now to prepare. As with any paid speaking gigs , you’ve got to practice. Practice your delivery to enhance presence, pacing, and audience interaction. If there are opportunities at other gigs to practice this particular speech or even with friends or family, do that. Take some feedback and refine your speech.

Step 3: Establish Yourself as an Expert

Building Your Brand

Keynote speakers are generally chosen by decision makers because they have established themselves as experts in their niche. This takes time, of course. Building your brand takes lots of work and experience in the world of speaking. Create a professional speaker profile that highlights your expertise, achievements, and unique perspectives. A speaker website is the ideal place to post this information.

You can also use other online platforms like blogs and social media profiles to show your expertise. This includes thought leadership in your niche. Socials give you a great platform to engage with a broader audience and build relationships.

Networking and Thought Leadership

Building a network of other experts and thought leaders in your niche is a great way to find opportunities. Try to connect with industry influencers, other speakers, and event organizers through networking events, conferences, and online communities. Community is an excellent way to get more opportunities.

Another way to network is by participating actively in panel discussions, webinars, and podcasts to share your thoughts, your message, your expertise. This will help you gain visibility and build credibility as a paid public speaker.

Step 4: Acquire Keynote Speaking Gigs

According to TSL’s founder, Grant Baldwin, there are two main searches you can make when trying to find speaking opportunities: people and events.

Use Social Media

If you don’t know who or what to search, use social media. If you follow industry leaders and influencers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. then your feeds should be flooded with events and speakers to Google.

How to Use Google to Find Upcoming Conferences

Here’s an example: If you’re a dentist in Tennessee, search for “Tennessee Dentist Conference.” Take a look at the big national conferences but also focus on smaller, local events that may be more accessible for you next event.

When you search, scroll to the bottom of the search results page to find “People also search for” and use those related keywords to expand your search within your area and beyond. Most speakers will look through the first page of search results and then look elsewhere. There are good ways to use Google to find speaking opportunities.

Adapt your search method to your field (e.g., “Top Christian Conferences” for faith-based speakers, or similar searches for healthcare, knitting, youth athletics, etc.). This will help narrow down your results greatly. Using Google alerts can be a good way to stay on top of new opportunities.

Grant’s Pro Tip

Grant Baldwin encourages you to list events without contacting the event organizers immediately. You can use Google Docs or Sheets to make a list with links, dates, and contact information and then repeat this process until you have a solid list of potential events. Set Google alerts for each event.

Pitching and Proposal

Once you’ve established a list and decided to whom you want to reach out, now is the time to pitch. Your pitches should each be tailored, at least slightly, to each event so that it aligns with the event’s themes, target audience demographics, and the organization’s objectives.

Your pitch is your chance to make connections and negotiate. You can discuss fees, logistics, and contract terms as you emphasize the precise value that you bring to the event.

Leveraging Other Speaking Gigs

You won’t often find a keynote speaker who doesn’t have a lot of prior experience in other speaking roles already. You don’t usually jump straight into big keynotes. Use your other opportunities from smaller speaking engagements, like conferences or workshops, to hone your skills and position yourself for keynote roles. Highlight some of your successful speaking experiences and gather testimonials to showcase your abilities and your readiness to be an effective keynote speaker.

Another way to leverage your other speaking gigs is to expand your keynote offerings into series. You can offer workshops based on audience demand and feedback to draw out your keynote into more gigs, or vice versa. This is all about scaling your content in a way that is customizable to different industries, events, or organizational needs.

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Scaling Your Keynote Speaking Career

Managing speaking engagements.

Managing engagements means balancing commitments. Develop a system to prioritize keynote speaking engagements while also maintaining a personal and professional balance. If you’re not healthy, your work will suffer. You’ll also need to use time management to deal with prep, travel, and speaking without giving up other important responsibilities.

The next thing you’ll want to mange well is your schedule. This includes travel logistics. Start by creating a calendar system so you can easily track speaking opportunities, deadlines, and travel dates. Over time you’ll gain some travel hacks that you can use to minimize stress and maximize efficiency. This might be booking flights and stays well in advance or using loyalty programs to gain points.

Finally, make sure you’ve done your research on each event. If you show up and clearly show that you’ve tailored your keynote to be optimal for the event you’re at, the event organizers will notice and appreciate that you’ve come prepared. That will make you much more likely to get good referrals to advance your speaking career.

Measuring Success and Growth

As you establish yourself as a paid speaker and use keynotes to boost your opportunities to speak publicly, you also need to measure your success and set performance metrics goals in an organized way. This means setting clear goals for engagement, such as audience engagement levels, the number of new contacts you get, and getting feedback scores. You can collect most of this information through audience surveys, social media mentions, and just face to face interactions with people who have heard you speak.

You can also evaluate your own progression just by tracking the number and quality of your gigs over time. Note how you’ve improved the caliber of events and how many repeat bookings you’ve had. Even better, gaining your recognition in the industry via awards, media mentions, etc. is a great way to build.

Try monitoring your revenue growth from not only your speaking gigs, but also things like book sales and consulting offers. Try and find ways to increase your fees based on an improving and growing reputation and the added, unique value that you bring to events. Sell yourself at the rate you deserve.

Keynote speaking can be a game-changer for your career, boosting your visibility, credibility, and professional growth. By using the SPEAK framework you can effectively land more keynote gigs and make the most of these opportunities. Each step ensures you’re connecting with your audience, delivering powerful talks, building your brand, and finding the right gigs.

So, dive in and start applying these steps to find and secure more keynote speaking opportunities. Let your expertise and enthusiasm shine through, and watch your career soar. With dedication and a strategic approach, you’ll inspire audiences and achieve great success.

• Last Updated: August 7, 2024

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If you’re ready to control your schedule, grow your income, and make an impact in the world – it’s time to take the first step. Book a FREE consulting call and let’s get you Booked and Paid to Speak ® .

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How To Create a Slide Deck: Templates & Tips

Written by: Unenabasi Ekeruke

Wondering how to create slide decks that hit the mark? Look no further; you've come to the right place.

Whether you're pitching investors or making a keynote presentation, the quality of your slide deck matters a great deal.

Well-designed slide decks can pique your audience's interest and win them over.

In fact, about 91% of presenters swear beautiful slide decks boost their confidence during presentations.

In this article, we'll discuss what a slide deck is and how to create one. We've also included templates and helpful tips for creating powerful slide decks that leave a lasting impression.

In this video, we've also put together 13 presentation design tips for creating awesome slide decks.

Let's dive in!

Table of Contents

• What Is a Slide Deck

How To Make a Slide Deck in 5 Steps

10 slide deck templates for creating successful presentations, slide deck faqs, create attractive slide decks with visme, what is a slide deck.

A slide deck is a collection of slides used as visual aids during a pitch or presentation. Think of each slide as a single card in a deck with unique content, meanings, value and structure.

Like a deck of cards, you can queue up your slides to tell a story about a topic. Depending on your story's angle, tone and mood , you can shuffle your slides or eliminate some of them.

How you build your slide deck depends on these three things:

• The type of presentation you're making
• Who your audiences are
• What you want to accomplish or the message you're passing across

Slide decks like the one below are a valuable resource for entrepreneurs, marketers and businesspeople.

When used to pitch a startup or idea , a slide deck is also called a pitch deck . But you could call it a presentation deck when you're using it for other purposes like presenting a proposal in a professional or academic setting.

Slide decks help you present ideas in an organized format and aid delivery during presentations. Many presentation programs like Visme and PowerPoint let you add as many slides as you want to your deck. The best part is that you can design and customize your deck, making it look professional and attractive.

Create a stunning presentation in less time

• Hundreds of premade slides available
• Add animation and interactivity to your slides
• Choose from various presentation options

Sign up. It’s free.

How you craft your slide deck can play a big role in the success of your presentation. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create an effective slide deck.

Step 1: Build Your Deck Around Your Story

Want to up the value of your presentation? Start by focusing on your core message. Regardless of your presentation type, your slide deck outline should answer these key questions:

• What is the purpose of your presentation?
• What do you want your audience to understand or remember?
• What actions do you want them to take after listening to you?

Many people, including experienced presenters, tend to fill their slides with points that don't add value. This leaves the audience confused about whether to listen or read the slide.

Remember, the pitch deck should visually enhance your audience's learning experience. Once you weave your narrative around your main story, you can organize your supporting points around it. You're sure to engage your audience and drive your message across.

Dealing with busy execs who won't sit through your presentation? Use a startup one pager instead. It'll get their attention quicker and more efficiently. You can then secure a meeting to present your pitch deck.

Step 2: Use Premade Templates

Templates give you a creative head start. They provide consistency in design, layout and ideas. Visme has thousands of editable slide deck templates to help you create presentations quickly.

Here's how to customize your slide deck in Visme.

1. Select and Edit a Template

Each slide deck template in Visme has two or more slides. Feel free to add, remove or reorder slides to your deck as you proceed. Once your presentation structure is ready, pick out slides to edit and input your own content.

If you have an existing presentation in PowerPoint, you can import it and continue editing your slides in Visme.

2. Input and Edit Text

After you've selected your slides, add custom text to them. Our templates have built-in text placeholders. Click and drag the placeholder to change the text position. Or click each placeholder and highlight the block of text to edit it.

Type your text or paste the text you copied from elsewhere. Repeat the process throughout the rest of the slide deck.

Want to add more fun and personality to your text? Visme editor makes it easy for you to change font style, text color, size, style, direction and much more. Animate your text and add other special effects to make your text alluring.

3. Use High-quality Stock Images

High-quality images capture and convey abstract concepts like color and emotions. Upload images stored on your computer and use them in your design. Or select from Visme's rich library of free high-resolution images to find the perfect one for your slide deck.

4. Add Shapes, Icons and Animated Graphics

Use these elements to bring boring presentations to life. They are effective for creating minimalistic designs and explaining complex ideas.

Visme has a comprehensive library of more than one million shapes, icons , illustrations and animations . Click the graphics tab, select the asset, and add it to the slide. You can change the color, position and size of your design assets.

5. Add Data Visualizations

Use data visualizations to share statistics, financial and other numerical data in your presentation. You'll find bar charts, pie charts , graphs , timelines , flowcharts , maps and more in Visme.

Select the chart or graph and customize the title, color, data, legends and more.

6. Eliminate Unwanted Elements

Pre-built slide decks contain lots of placeholder content. They serve as a guide to help you create the perfect presentation. You don't have to use all of it.

Feel free to eliminate anything that isn't useful to your deck. Watch this video to learn more about creating beautiful slide deck presentations in Visme.

Step 3. Make Your Design Count

When preparing for your big day, invest as much time into your slide design as your content. What's in it for you? An engaging slide deck can draw in your audience and get them excited about what you have to offer.

Be Consistent

If your company has a brand guideline, apply your brand elements to the slides. But if you haven't got one, Visme helps create a strong and memorable brand identity .

Use the brand style guide template below to define your brand personality and ensure consistency.

After creating your logo, fonts and colors, you can save them in Visme's brand design tool . Your team members can easily create presentations in Visme and your brand theme will automatically appear on their designs.

Watch the video below to learn how to set up your branding kit in Visme.

Use the Right Font Pairing

Choosing the right font pairing and sizes can be a big deal, especially for non-designers. But getting it right can turn a boring slide deck into an appealing one.

Stick to two or three typefaces and assign distinct roles to each font —the more contrast between your fonts, the better.

For instance, you can use the same font for headings, another for the intro, another for the body and the fourth for quotes.

Use typefaces that connote your personality and style. If you're pitching art or design themes, incorporate classic and contemporary typefaces that connote creativity and elegance.

Not sure how to pair fonts? We've created this detailed guide to help you choose the right font combination for your designs.

Step 4: Incorporate the Right Visuals

Without a doubt, the human brain is wired for visuals . The mental capacity to process visual content far exceeds that of written and spoken words.

Attractive visual aids help you tell more compelling stories than text. Incorporating images, video animations and sleek transitions to break up static slides will get people's attention.

Bar charts that show patterns or trends can boost investors' confidence and convey excitement. The same goes for pie charts, which are great for comparing growth areas.

Use infographics to condense lengthy text into visuals that people can easily relate to. Luckily, Visme has the right tools for every job. With our infographic maker , you can easily translate your ideas into digestible graphics.

Step 5: Make Your Slide Deck Clear and Brief

One big mistake people make is that they want to keep adding content to their slide deck. They end up filling it up with tedious details irrelevant to their audience.

Remember, your slides are supposed to aid your presentation rather than contain every word you say. If you fill it with text, you could quickly lose your audience. They'll keep longing for the end and leave the room with little or no information.

To make your slide deck impactful, eliminate fluff. Keep it brief yet filled with key action points. Fit your information into three key blocks- a persuasive intro, a strong body and an actionable conclusion. You will have a more focused, shorter, and memorable presentation .

Whether you want to create slide decks for business, education, or nonprofits, Visme has everything you need. We have thousands of templates to help you create stunning slide decks you can be proud of. Here are our top 10 templates from each of these categories.

Template #1: HybCab Pitch Deck Presentation Template

Got a new business idea? Or do you want to scale your business? Get your investors pumped up with this Uber-inspired professional pitch deck template.

The editable 20-slide deck template covers every element of a winning pitch. It features a striking slide layout, a beautiful color scheme, and high-resolution photos and icons. The interactive data visualizations allow you to share compelling numbers that attract investors' interest.

Template #2: Buyer Presentation Template

Use this attractive slide deck template to win over clients for your real estate business. The simple and classy design makes it unique and impactful.

You'll find a lot of space to play around with colors, fonts and other design elements. Feel free to tweak the layout design, add compelling images of your properties, key stats and much more.

Template #3: BuffIT Pitch Deck Presentation Template

This template is a perfect pick for companies looking to pitch to customers or investors. Use this Buffer-inspired slide deck to share your key information like goals, traction, milestones, financial projection and more.

The consistent blue color theme and elegant styling provide a refreshing visual experience. Notice how charts, timelines and images are used to draw attention to critical data. You can add or remove slides, edit the content, and use your brand colors, fonts and logo to keep it on brand.

Template #4: Training Course Presentation Template

Bridge the skills gap in your organization with this training slide deck template. The template has a minimalistic design and seamlessly blends different shades of blue across all 13 slides.

The slides feature valuable elements and sections to help your audience retain the information better. You'll find quality icons, images, a chart, timeline, checklist and evaluation matrix.

Use this template to onboard new hires and get them in the mood for work. You can also use it to prepare training courses or introduce new policies and procedures.

Template #5: Coffee Lover Statistics Presentation

Here's another cutting-edge slide deck template for education, training and informational purposes. The coffee-themed presentation has a rich blend of white, brown and black color themes.

You can use it to highlight the benefits of a product with relevant statistics, charts and graphs to make it digestible. The text, icons and images are evenly spaced, making it easier for your audience to grasp key information.

Create the perfect slide deck with Visme's design collaboration feature. Team members can view, edit and leave feedback on your presentation in real-time. You can reply, resolve and delete comments till the design is top-notch.

Template #6: Nonprofit Report Presentation

Are you starting a nonprofit or growing an existing one? This editable slide deck presentation can serve multiple purposes.

You can use it to share what you and your volunteers have been up to in the past year. It's also helpful in building support for your charitable projects.

It features sections like executive summary, introduction, map of projects, number of incidences, cases, casualties and more. Use images, data visualizations and widgets from Visme's library to tell stories that pique your audience's interests.

#Template 7: Lesson Plan Presentation

With this slide deck template, you can build a learning trajectory for your students. It outlines what students need to learn, how lessons will be delivered, and how learning will be evaluated. You can also list resources needed by teachers and students, methods and assignment types.

Change the color, font and logo to fit your brand and your deck is ready for use.

Template #8: Creative Product Presentation

Weave a captivating narrative about your product with this slide deck template. The template has a dynamic layout, creating room for you to present any information.

It highlights key information like the product mockup, milestones and timelines, revenue projections, product pricing and more. Use this template to visualize the creation process for SaaS-based platforms, cloud solutions and tech products.

Template #9: Financial Report Presentation

Looking to communicate financial activities and performance within your company? This visual-rich slide deck template fits the bill. It contains bars, charts, and graphs, making your data easier to comprehend.

The dark background and bright-colored fonts and elements create the perfect visual contrast. Liven up your presentation with animated icons, illustrations and special effects. Also, incorporate hover effects and clickable pop-ups to make your slides interactive.

Template #10: Parenting Keynote Presentation

Use this appealing keynote presentation template to deliver a powerful presentation on parenting. This colorful slide deck can help you connect with other parents, teachers and child caregivers.

Utilize our crisp stock photos, icons and illustrations to make your audience engagement more rewarding.

Why Is It Called a Slide Deck?

The term slide decks date back to an old technology where slides were physically inserted into a carousel projector and projected on the wall or screen. These slides were shuffled like a deck of cards to create a presentation. Hence, the name "slide deck" has stuck with the modern age.

Today slide decks are created and projected digitally using software like Visme , PowerPoint, Google Slides and more.

What Is the Difference Between a Slide Deck vs. Powerpoint vs Presentation vs Pitch Deck?

A slide deck is a group of slides put together to tell a story. PowerPoint is a software application used to create slide decks or presentations. A pitch deck is a distinct type of slide deck used to pitch a solution, idea, or product when seeking financing from investors.

How Do You Make a Beautiful Slide Deck?

Whether you're sharing strategies or performance updates, you don't need to build your slide deck from scratch. Visme has a rich library of beautifully-designed slide decks that leaves a lasting impression on your audience.

Now you know what makes a slide deck great. It's time to create one for your business.

Visme presentation software and templates provide everything you need to create beautiful slide decks for any purpose. Our software has helped thousands of businesses and professionals nail their presentations.

Each template comes with pre-designed slides. You can replace your content and customize other design elements according to your preference. With Dynamic Fields , you're sure your personal, company and other critical information will be accurate and updated throughout your presentation in real-time.

Visme lets you download your slide deck in multiple formats or share online using a link . You can generate an embed code and paste it on your website or blog. From your analytics page , you can see who has viewed your presentation and other metrics.

Easily put together winning slide decks in Visme

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Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.

About the Author

Unenabasi is a content expert with many years of experience in digital marketing, business development, and strategy. He loves to help brands tell stories that drive engagement, growth, and competitive advantage. He’s adept at creating compelling content on lifestyle, marketing, business, e-commerce, and technology. When he’s not taking the content world by storm, Unenabasi enjoys playing or watching soccer.

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Keynote User Guide for iPad

• What’s new in Keynote 14.1
• Intro to Keynote
• Intro to images, charts, and other objects
• Create a presentation
• Choose how to navigate your presentation
• Open a presentation
• Save and name a presentation
• Find a presentation
• Print a presentation
• Prevent accidental editing
• Undo or redo changes
• Quick navigation
• Change the working view
• Customize the toolbar
• Copy text and objects between apps
• Basic touchscreen gestures
• Use Apple Pencil with Keynote
• Create a presentation using VoiceOver
• Add or delete slides
• Add and view presenter notes
• Reorder slides
• Group or ungroup slides
• Skip or unskip a slide
• Change the slide size
• Change a slide background
• Add a border around a slide
• Show or hide text placeholders
• Show or hide slide numbers
• Apply a slide layout
• Add and edit slide layouts
• Change a theme
• Add an image
• Add an image gallery
• Edit an image
• Add and edit a shape
• Combine or break apart shapes
• Save a shape to the shapes library
• Add and align text inside a shape
• Add 3D objects
• Add lines and arrows
• Add and edit drawings
• Add video and audio
• Record video and audio
• Edit video and audio
• Add live video
• Set the movie and image formats
• Position and align objects
• Use alignment guides
• Place objects inside a text box or shape
• Layer, group, and lock objects
• Change object transparency
• Fill shapes and text boxes with color or an image
• Add a border to an object
• Add a caption or title
• Add a reflection or shadow
• Use object styles
• Resize, rotate, and flip objects
• Add linked objects to make your presentation interactive
• Select text
• Copy and paste text
• Format a presentation for another language
• Use phonetic guides
• Use bidirectional text
• Use vertical text
• Change the look of text
• Use text styles
• Change text capitalization
• Add drop caps
• Make characters superscript or subscript
• Format fractions automatically
• Format dashes and quotation marks
• Format Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text
• Set tab stops
• Format text into columns
• Adjust line spacing
• Format lists
• Add mathematical equations
• Add borders and rules (lines) to separate text
• Add or delete a table
• Select tables, cells, rows, and columns
• Add or remove rows and columns
• Move rows and columns
• Resize rows and columns
• Merge or unmerge cells
• Change the look of table text
• Show, hide, or edit a table title
• Change table gridlines and colors
• Use table styles
• Resize, move, or lock a table
• Add and edit cell content
• Format dates, currency, and more
• Highlight cells conditionally
• Format tables for bidirectional text
• Alphabetize or sort table data
• Add or delete a chart
• Change a chart from one type to another
• Modify chart data
• Move, resize, and rotate a chart
• Change the look of data series
• Add a legend, gridlines, and other markings
• Change the look of chart text and labels
• Add a chart border and background
• Use chart styles
• Animate objects onto and off a slide
• Animate objects on a slide
• Change build order and timing
• Add transitions
• Present on your iPad
• Present on a separate display
• Present on iPad over the internet
• Use a remote
• Make a presentation advance automatically
• Play a slideshow with multiple presenters
• Rehearse on your device
• Play a recorded presentation
• Check spelling
• Look up words
• Find and replace text
• Replace text automatically
• Set your author name for comments
• Highlight text
• Add and print comments
• Send a presentation
• Intro to collaboration
• Invite others to collaborate
• Collaborate on a shared presentation
• See the latest activity in a shared presentation
• Change a shared presentation’s settings
• Stop sharing a presentation
• Shared folders and collaboration
• Use Box to collaborate
• Create an animated GIF
• Post your presentation in a blog
• Use iCloud Drive with Keynote
• Export to PowerPoint or another file format
• Restore an earlier version of a presentation
• Move a presentation
• Delete a presentation
• Password-protect a presentation
• Create and manage custom themes
• Transfer files with AirDrop
• Transfer presentations with Handoff
• Transfer presentations with the Finder
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Keyboard shortcut symbols

Create a presentation in Keynote on iPad

To create a new presentation, you first choose a theme to use as a starting point. Themes use coordinated fonts and colors for a unified look and often include placeholders that you can replace with your own content.

Create a presentation from a theme

In the theme chooser, tap the category names at the top of the screen to view different themes, then tap a theme to open it.

Some themes aren’t downloaded to your device until you choose them or open a presentation that uses one. If your connection is slow or you’re offline when this happens, placeholder images and slide backgrounds in the presentation may appear at a lower resolution until you’re online again or the theme finishes downloading.

Each slide layout offers a different arrangement of text and images that you use as a starting point for your content.

Do any of the following to build your presentation:

Add text: Double-tap placeholder text to add your own.

To end the presentation, pinch closed anywhere on the screen. For more ways to show a presentation, see Play a presentation on your iPhone or iPad .

Keynote automatically saves your changes as you work, so you don't need to worry about consistently saving your presentation manually. However, it's a good idea to rename your presentation so you can easily find it the next time you want to work on it. You can change the name of the presentation or change where it’s saved at any time.

Create a presentation outline

You can create a text outline of a new presentation in outline view in Keynote. Outline view displays your slides as a hierarchical series of titles, subtitles, points, and media placeholders. You can add and edit text, place images and videos, and change the format of slides in outline view. This is useful for creating an initial draft, taking notes, or focusing on the structure of a new presentation.

Do any of the following:

To quickly add a slide while typing in the last row of a slide, tap Return twice.

Reorder slides: In the slide navigator, touch and hold the slide until the slide appears to lift up, then drag it to a new location.

Add text: Tap a row in the text outline, then type.

Your presentation is saved automatically as you work, so you don’t lose your work when you close the presentation. Closing the presentation doesn’t quit Keynote.

To learn more about working in outline view, see View slides as text outlines .

Awkward! Google Gemini fails twice during a live demo

Google 's AI-powered assistant, Gemini , is a bit of a diva.

During Tuesday's  Made by Google  event, Gemini AI's live demo failed twice in a row, resulting in the presenter, Dave Citron, saying, "Let's see the demo spirits are with us today." On the third attempt, Gemini completed the task at hand: checking his calendar to see if he's free for Sabrina Carpenter 's upcoming show in San Francisco.

The live demo aimed to demonstrate Gemini's new capabilities on Android to connect with Google Calendar , Tasks, and Keep.

Before the demo failed, Citron clearly stated, "All the demos we are doing today are live," with a smile. He took a photo of a Sabrina Carpenter poster held up by co-presenter Jess Carpenter and asked Gemini, "Check my calendar and see if I'm free when she's coming to San Francisco this year." But the Gemini briefly loaded and then reset. Citron tried again with the same result. It's only when he pulled out a different device and tried for the third time that Gemini informed him of his availability to see the "Espresso" singer live. It took Gemini 20 seconds to determine he didn't have anything on his schedule.

• Pixel Watch 3 announced at Made by Google event: It can detect a loss of pulse
• Sabrina Carpenter's 'Espresso' is the internet's Song of the Summer
• The new Google Pixel 9 comes in the yummiest shade of peony pink
• Google’s new ‘Pixel Screenshots’ can search your screenshot library — and it’s the most useful AI feature of 2024

Tweet may have been deleted

After, he asked for a reminder to be set to check for tickets later today and to add espresso to his shopping lists, both of which Gemini completed without incident.

Topics Artificial Intelligence Google

Elena is a tech reporter and the resident Gen Z expert at Mashable. She covers TikTok and digital trends. She recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in American History. Email her at  [email protected]  or follow her  @ecaviar_ .

Eric Carmen and the Raspberries receive Music Keynote to the City during a special presentation at the Rock Hall

• Updated: Aug. 08, 2024, 7:52 p.m.
• | Published: Aug. 08, 2024, 6:06 p.m.

From left: Cleveland City Councilman Brian Kazy, Amy Carmen, widow of Eric Carmen, Raspberries' drummer Jim Bonfanti, Heather Adams daughter of bassist Dave Smalley, band manager Al Kaston and Rock Hall CEO and president Gregg Harris celebrate Eric Carmen and the Raspberries at the Rock Hall on August 8, 2024. (Photo by Janet Macoska/Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Used with written permission. One-time use only for coverage of Aug. 8 2024, Rock Hall event) Janet Macoska

• Malcolm X Abram, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - It was a celebratory and emotional afternoon at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday as family, friends and fans of Eric Carmen and the Raspberries were on hand as the late singer-songwriter and his band were awarded the City of Cleveland’s second annual Music Keynote to the City by City Councilman Brian Kazy.

Kazy also officially declared Sunday, August 11, to be Eric Carmen Day in Cleveland. Carmen, who died at 74 in March, would have been 75 on Sunday. To coincide with the celebratory weekend, Arista, Carmen’s former label, released a new digital compilation, “And Now, Eric Carmen: The Arista Collection,” featuring 25 tracks, including demos, rare recordings, and live tracks, as well as two unreleased songs from the “Tonight You’re Mine” sessions. The collection can be streamed or purchased at ericcarmen.com .

More eric carmen

• Raspberries frontman Eric Carmen’s wife cut kids out of trust, lawsuit says
• Eric Carmen tribute concert in Lyndhurst draws more than 1,000 fans; council honors retiring police K-9
• Taylor Swift guitarist and Strongsville native Paul Sidoti featured in new tribute to Eric Carmen
• ‘Excitement is building’ for Lyndhurst’s Aug. 3 tribute to hometown rocker Eric Carmen

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• ThinkPad X1 Carbon review
• California IDs go digital
• Meta Quest adds TV, monitor support
• Kim Dotcom extradition
• Sony headphone deals and more

Made by Google 2024 liveblog: Live updates on Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Watch 3 and more

Google's annual hardware launch is here, and we're expecting to see a slew of new pixel devices. join us as we liveblog the announcement event..

It's earlier in the year than usual, but Google is unwrapping its latest slew of Pixel devices. Here is everything announced at its Made By Google event today, the company is showing off the new Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro Fold (or Pixel Fold 2), as well as the Pixel Watch 3 and a set of next-gen Pixel Buds Pro 2. Whew, that's a lot of Pixels. Google's keynote started at 10am PT or 1pm ET today, and we're covering it live from the company's Bay View campus to bring you all the news as it breaks.

OK, one last, truly final note:

Contributing reporters Lawrence Bonk, Kris Holt and Will Shanklin have worked up a number of comparison posts comparing Google's latest devices to their Android rivals. You can find those here:

Google Pixel 9 vs. Samsung Galaxy S24

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

Google Pixel 9 Pro XL vs. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

One final note, the official release dates for everything Google announced today are below:

Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro XL: August 22

Pixel 9 Pro Fold: September 4

Pixel Watch 3: September 10

Pixel Buds Pro 2: September 26

Catch up on everything announced at the Made by Google event

August used to be a relatively sleepy month for tech news — no longer! Now that Google scooted up its annual October Pixel event by two months, the tech world is abubble, going over everything execs announced from Mountain View, California at the Made By Google keynote on Tuesday.

The Pixel 9 launch event came with enthusiastic introductions for all the hardware we expected, including the new Pixel 9 and its sizable camera bump. The Pixel 9 Pro and the larger Pixel 9 Pro XL made their official debut, too, and the new foldable, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, does indeed measure just 0.4 inches thick. The new Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Buds Pro 2 have now been revealed, as were plenty of software features, mostly in the form of Gemini integrations with the latest Android 15.0 operating system.

If you're late to today's liveblog, you can catch up with the link below:

The Google Pixel 9, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and everything announced at the Made by Google event

Thanks so much for joining us today! That was a surprisingly short hour and a half. We'll be livestreaming on the Engadget YouTube channel at 6pm ET or 3pm PT to break down all this news, so join us there! And make sure to check out our Instagram and YouTube profiles for more videos that cover everything announced today.

Thanks so much for tuning in, and once again, for more in-depth info, check out all of our stories on Engadget.com

Well that's it folks!

I don't think I realized how many retail stores Google is opening. There are new locations in Boston and California. Long-term, this might be the biggest way to battle Apple, who has a massive retail footprint.

That's it, the event has wrapped and most of our coverage is already live on Engadget.com! I'll be going to interview some Google executives here in Mountain View. I will say that based on the two people chatting behind me, people seem to already be impressed by Gemini Live and say it was done better than Microsoft's Copilot. What do you all think?

This feature will launch to all Gemini Advanced users "in the coming months," Osteloh said. For now, Osterloh is recapping what we've seen today and says we can test out the features here in Mountain View and at Google Stores around the world. Oh, and there's a party with Keke Palmer after this and Osterloh will be... dancing on fire? On Hot Ones.

I wish I had something like this in college to automate writing bibliographies.

To Sam's point: This is all useless if AI hallucinates even once.

You can ask Gemini to help research graduate schools or tell it to research what to do if you're looking to open a sidewalk cafe. Gemini will start by creating a multi-step research plan and uses multimodal reasoning, dropdown menus and more to come up with a proposal. It'll then bring together all that data into a Google Doc as a report.

Well this could be a pretty powerful "one more thing." The ability to be an AI researcher could be huge, but once again, the AI needs to be accurate.

Other apps can also be brought into Gemini Live, like Google Calendar. Gemini AI is also being evolved to use reasoning, planning and memory to "think multiple steps ahead." Osterloh describes how Gemini will "soon" be able to "assist you as a researcher."

"One of the first places you'll see Project Astra come to life will be right in Gemini Live," Osterloh said. You can share your camera feed with Gemini Live to ask for help with homework, furniture assembly and brainstorming.

Osterloh is giving us "a quick look" at where Google's research in AI is leading. He reminds us of Project Astra, which was demoed earlier this year at I/O.

Rick Osterloh is back to close out the show. And no. I don't know who Mark Rober is. Sad.

Catch up on all the news from Google’s Pixel 9 launch event right here !

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