Before PowerPoint, a presenter had to rely on overhead projectors and the speed at which he/she fumbled around with transparencies in order to get through a simple presentation. PowerPoint has revolutionised the art of the presentation with the ability to add simple animation, video and audio that engages and maintains an audience's attention. A presentation can now have the ability to be designed and personalised. Fonts, images and sounds all go into the overall presentation. An aspect of creating an engaging presentation is the design of the words within PowerPoint and how they are animated.

  • Before PowerPoint, a presenter had to rely on overhead projectors and the speed at which he/she fumbled around with transparencies in order to get through a simple presentation.
  • PowerPoint has revolutionised the art of the presentation with the ability to add simple animation, video and audio that engages and maintains an audience's attention.
Graffiti fonts can bring a certain urban feel to your presentation.

Search for "Free Graffiti Fonts" on the Internet. There are many great sites to pick from. Dafont.com, for example, has a section dedicated to graffiti fonts. Pick the font that best serves the needs of your PowerPoint presentation.

Add this font to your "Font Library."

Open up PowerPoint. In PowerPoint, type "Presentation" in one of the text boxes where it states, "Click to Add Title." This should add the text to this area of the PowerPoint slide. Since PowerPoint utilises "boxes" to display objects upon slides, the creation of a text box is required to add text.

  • Add this font to your "Font Library."
  • Since PowerPoint utilises "boxes" to display objects upon slides, the creation of a text box is required to add text.

Click and drag the cursor across the word (or press Command + A on Mac; Control + A on PC to select all) to highlight it.

Click on your font menu and select the graffiti font you downloaded so that the word "Presentation" appears in graffiti. The word that is highlighted should change the moment this has been picked.

Create a square about the size of the word that was created. Right click on the square and scroll down to "Format Shape." Change the "Fill Color" to white and turn off the shadow within the floating window. The white square should blend in with the slide's background. Press "OK."

  • Create a square about the size of the word that was created.
  • Change the "Fill Color" to white and turn off the shadow within the floating window.

Cover the word "Presentation" with the white square in order to make the word disappear. The white square should cover up the font completely.

Make the word slowly appear letter by letter from left to right by going to "View" and then to "Custom Animation." Add a path animation of a straight line onto the white square by going to "Add a Path Animation," selecting "Line," and clicking within the square. This allows the slide designer to move any object in a straight line to anywhere within PowerPoint. Drag the cursor to the right. This should reveal your graffiti font as if it is being written onto the PowerPoint slide.

TIP

Adding interesting and creative animations and fonts can bring a lot of interest to a possibly boring presentation. These add flare and can keep an audience engaged while you present important information to them.

WARNING

Be careful not to inundate a presentation with too much animation because it will take away from the information presented. Remember that the star of the show is the information being presented and that anything that is added should stand to highlight this information. Also, remember that attention spans are short. An animation that goes on and on with no end in sight may lose your audience and they will, in turn, not remember the message that you want them to leave with.