Mistake Which user do

1: Font size is too small.

The smaller the font size in the body or title 

text, the more you’re encouraging presenters to 

include more text which is generally not a best 

practice.

2: Weak contrast

When you combine the smaller text and weak 

contrast, the titles are  essentially invisible and worthless.

3: Custom fonts.

I’ve blogged about how you can add a custom font to your presentation. I 

like using non-standard fonts in certain situations; however, I’m against 

using them as default fonts in corporate PowerPoint templates.

4: Off-center bullets.

Designers will often reduce the size of the bullet character as a percent of  

text (e.g., 70%) when they want a smaller bullet. They don’t realize that 

changing the size of the bullet mark will create a bullet that isno longer 

centered on the line. The better approach is to find a smaller version of 

same object (circle, square, dash, etc.) in one of the standard fonts 

(wingdings, webdings, normal text, etc.).

5: Large file size. 

If the template designers are sloppy, they’ll include a hi-res image for a 

background and inflate the baseline file size of all your presentations 

(much to the annoyance of your IT department). If your empty 

presentation template is over 1 MB, you’ve got this problem. You’ll want to 

have the designer save the background image at a lower resolution to 

reduce the file size of your presentation files.

6: Default color theme.

Each PowerPoint template should have a color theme that matches the 

corporate brand colors. You can create a custom theme for colors under the Design > Colors tab.

7: Mismatched shape formatting.

Often so much emphasis will be placed on the slide background, layout, 

color themes, etc. that designers forget to create a standard format for 

shapes or objects that matches the overall presentation template (e.g., fill 

color, outline color, text font, etc.)

8: No blank slide.

With the increased use of images in PowerPoint presentations, many 

presenters will appreciate a layout option for a simple blank slide. 

Template designers often neglect to include this option, but it should be a 

standard option in any good PowerPoint template

9: Uses standard footers.

In PowerPoint 2007 and 2010, Microsoft mistakenly (in my opinion) made 

the footers editable when you’re designing your slides. This can be a 

major pain in the butt when you accidentally select a page number footer 

when you’re re-positioning different objects on a slide.

10: No light/dark background options

Sometimes you might need a light background presentation for an internal         

meeting or you might need a dark background for a presentation at an 

industry conference. Good presentation templates should have both light 

and dark versions available for the presenter to choose from.