The use of graphic icons in a presentation makes the whole thing engaging to look at. They ensure the presentation becomes more visual and your story is therefore better remembered.

Here are some tips on using icons in your presentation and how you can easily create them.

Clarity An icon is an interpretation of words and must above all be clear. Always use an icon on a slide with one or more words alongside. The combination of the two makes the whole clearest.

Style of the icons

The style of the icons naturally aligns with the house style of your company or the general style of your presentation. Make sure you keep using the same style throughout the presentation.

No duplicate use

To maintain the clarity of an icon, each icon in a presentation may have only one meaning. That way you can use icons in various places in the presentation and it will always mean the same thing.

Icon as a bullet point

An icon can be used very nicely as a replacement for the dull vertically aligned bullet points. By positioning icons, each with a key word alongside, horizontally across the slide, you get a visually attractive slide.

Did you know that PowerPoint has its own icon library?

The more original the icon, the better. But not everyone is a graphic designer. That is why, for a few years now, PowerPoint has included a decent library of icons.

How do you use these?

• In the 'Insert' tab you will see 'Icons' next to 'Shapes'. When you click on this, you open PowerPoint's built-in icon library.
• Choose an icon from the various categories and click 'insert' at the bottom right. The chosen icon is now on your slide.
• You can position the icon wherever you like.
• Just like any other colour block, you can change the colour of the icon. In addition, you can determine the outline colour separately and even add some effects (shadow, reflection, glow and 3D effects). Do not overdo it, though, and make sure the icons look the same throughout the entire presentation.

Good luck! Lieselot