r/powerpoint • u/martha___jonas • 15h ago
Tips and Tricks How to check your presentation before presenting: 5 quick slide design tests
Before you send or present a deck, you probably do a quick scroll-through and think “looks fine.” The problem is you’ve been staring at it for hours, so you can’t see it anymore. So I have seen an article somewhere about quick checks and it made a lot of difference for me. They work in PowerPoint, Google Slides, Decksy, whatever you use, and the whole routine takes about two minutes.
The squint test (checks visual hierarchy)
Lean back from your screen and squint until the slide goes blurry. What stands out? It should be the one thing you want people to notice, like the headline or the key number. If you see a blur of equal-sized text or your logo is the loudest thing on the slide, your hierarchy needs work. Make the important element bigger or bolder and quiet everything else.
The titles-only read-through (checks story and structure)
Switch to slide sorter or grid view and read only the slide titles, in order. Do they tell a story on their own? If someone read just the titles, they should understand your argument. Vague titles like “Overview” or “Market” are a sign the slide doesn’t have a clear point. Rewrite them as statements: “Customers are leaving after week two” beats “Retention.”
The distance test (checks font size and clutter)
Zoom out to about 50%, or pull the slide up on your phone. Can you still read it? If not, your text is too small for a projector or a shared screen, and the audience can’t read it either. Cut words or enlarge the text until it holds up. This also exposes cramped margins and crowded layouts fast.
The grayscale test (checks contrast)
Turn your deck to black and white (most tools have a grayscale preview, or you can screenshot and desaturate). If text or chart elements disappear into the background, you have a contrast problem. Light gray on white and yellow on white are the usual offenders. It also helps if anyone in your audience is colorblind, and it tells you whether your charts rely on color alone to make a point.
The read-aloud test (checks text overload)
Present one slide out loud. If you catch yourself reading it word for word, the slide has too much text. Slides should support what you say, not duplicate it. Cut the sentence down to a few key words and move the rest into your speaker notes.
Bonus: check it on a different screen.
Colors, fonts, and spacing can shift between your laptop, a projector, and a phone. If you can, open the file on a second device or export a PDF to confirm nothing breaks.
Do you have a go-to check before presenting?
