2 Steps to Creative PowerPoint Slide Layouts

One of the questions I often get asked is, “Ram! How do you create such cool looking slide layouts so fast? You must be pretty good at PowerPoint”

I always answer them by saying, ‘Creating good PowerPoint layouts is more about simple common sense and creativity than about having raw knowledge about PowerPoint”.

Let me explain…

Step 1: Assemble the Design Elements

The first step to creating any good layout is to assemble a few design elements.

Let me make a simple design element by combining two auto shapes that you readily find in the auto shapes menu in PowerPoint.

I just took a ‘Teardrop’ shape and an ‘Oval’ shape and placed one on top of the other. I applied a standard ‘Inner shadow’ to the circle, to make it appear a bit recessed into the teardrop shape.

Simple so far. Isn’t it?

Step 2: Position them out to create layouts

Now, it is all about placing copies of the ‘New design element’ in different angles and positions to create layouts.

For example, you can place four copies of the element along a horizontal line to create a diagram that shows 4 phases of a project as follows:

I just changed the tear drop shape to a circle in the last phase, by selecting the tear drop shape → Format → Edit shape → Change shape → Oval.

Then, take the same layout, remove the text in the middle of the circles and replace them with icons to create a variation of the layout like this:

Then, take the same shapes, rotate them a little and create a diagram that shows 4 growth phases like this:

Then, remove one of the shapes and place them one below the other, with the pointing tip facing down to create a three step process flow diagram with a vertical orientation like this:
As you can see, creating slide layouts is more about placing the design elements in different positions than about being good at PowerPoint.

But, don’t be fooled by how easy it looks.

You need to master a few essential design principles before you can create professional and slick looking layouts – like the ones you saw above.

You can either learn those principles with trial and error. Or you can choose to enroll into our course called ‘Ramgopal’s PowerPoint Mastery Program’ to take your design skills to the next level.

The program has an entire section on creating professional quality slide layouts called ‘PowerPoint Slide Layouts Mastery’.

Once you go through the 54 videos in the section, you will be able to create studio quality slide layouts at will, in the shortest possible time. Please click on the link here to get more details about the Slide Mastery Section.