Get Polished in PowerPoint

Name: Get Polished in PowerPoint
Rating: 4.4 (615 reviews)

Go beyond basics. Tell compelling stories.

Created byKieran Luke

Last updated 5/2026

English

What you'll learn

A critical eye for what makes a slide good or bad
A habit of planning presentations using a storyboard
The ability to write polished presentations, fast
Techniques to present well and to engage your audience
Pre-built, ready-to-use slide templates

Course content

9 sections • 18 lectures • 1h 39m total length

Introduction0:51
Once upon a time1:22
Welcome to the course! In this chapter I'll provide an overview of the course and explain the challenge we will tackle together.

You can also download the keyboard shortcuts (for both PC and Mac) here.

Writing a storyboard4:54
Before writing anything - whether a book, an essay or a presentation - it's important to plan out your story. In this chapter you'll learn how to write a storyboard for a PowerPoint presentation.
Storyboarding
Customizing powerpoint with slide master6:46
In this chapter, learn how to customize your PowerPoint template so that it looks great and saves you time. If you use a pre-set corporate template in your job, you can probably skip this chapter.

You can also download below the PowerPoint template we design during the chapter.
Guiding principles for slide writing1:39
There are so many attributes of great powerpoint slides. Which ones should you focus on? We'll go through the key principles of slide writing and the common pitfalls to avoid.
Principles

Writing snappy slide titles I1:27
First impressions last. We all know that, right? So since they are the first thing our readers see, it's critical to make sure our titles are terrific. In this chapter we'll learn what makes a title great, and set up an exercise where you will critique some draft titles.

Download the draft titles exercise file below.
Writing snappy slide titles II11:00
In this chapter, we'll go through the draft titles exercise together, critiquing drafts and crafting improved titles. In doing so, you'll learn to critically review titles and crystallize your understanding of what makes a title great.
Slide titles

Making great tables8:08
In this chapter you'll learn to make easy-to-read tables, and learn when to use tables instead of charts.
Tables vs Charts

Chart excellence I9:58

Charts are very versatile: they can be used to obscure data or to deliver insights. Here we'll learn to do the latter by covering what charts to use and how to make their conclusions clear. We'll begin with bar & column charts before covering more complex charts in the next chapter.

Charts
Chart excellence II13:43

In this chapter we extend what we know about charts to make scatter plots (a.k.a. bubble charts) and line graphs. We'll also see that symmetry is beautiful not only in faces but in slides.

Reviewing your work5:03
I've never met one, but some people get their work perfect the first time. For the rest of us, it's critical to review our work before anyone else sees it. In this chapter we'll learn to review our slides, both individually and as a package.
Using animations to focus your audience5:04
Simple and elegant slide animations are a great tool to focus your audience and add to your storytelling. In this chapter we'll touch on the animations to use (and the ones to avoid) to help you make great presentations.

In the downloadable materials you'll find the presentation we created in this course.
A quick guide to presentation skills3:30
Public speaking is hard, and learning how to do it well is a worthwhile life-long endeavor. In this chapter, we'll get started by learning what goes wrong most often when presenting slides. By being aware of these pitfalls and practicing to avoid them, you'll be well on your way.

Requirements

PowerPoint installed on your PC or Mac
Familiarity with Microsoft Office

Description

When you write PowerPoint presentations, do you

Pretend it's a Word document in landscape?
Stick objects on a page until the white space is filled up?
Write a bunch of slides, then think about how they go together?

It's easy to get the basics in PowerPoint but hard to write compelling stories that your audience will find memorable and meaningful. Don't let insights you've discovered get lost in a maze of mediocre slides.

In this 90-minute primer you'll go from slide monkey to slide master. We'll take an accelerated 'learn-by-doing' approach: picking up where we left off in Use Excel Like a Pro. Fast., we'll design a PowerPoint template, write a storyboard and craft a polished presentation. Along the way, we'll unpack the principles of great slide writing and cover time-saving shortcuts.

What makes this course different?

It's practical. The instructor worked in management consulting at BCG for eight years. That's a lot of real-world experience to share, and this courses focuses only on the most important practices.
It's fast; only 90 minutes. You'll have what you need in no time.
It uses the case-method pedagogy. By teaching in the context of an example, retention is far higher than a traditional approach, and way more fun.

Who this course is for:

Students, professionals and entrepreneurs who regularly write PowerPoint presentations to communicate ideas, results or plans

Get Polished in PowerPoint

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Setting the scene2 lectures • 2min

Getting ready to use PowerPoint3 lectures • 13min

Slide titles2 lectures • 12min

Saving time1 lecture • 5min

Text slides1 lecture • 12min

Tables and charts3 lectures • 32min

Live polling1 lecture • 5min

Finalizing your presentation3 lectures • 14min

Conclusion2 lectures • 4min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: