Let’s face it: most people hate Microsoft PowerPoint. In fact, some companies like Amazon have actually banned its use in meetings.

These negative feelings are well-founded after years of audiences being subjected to boring lectures and presentations with bad PowerPoints backing them. Walls of text, presenters reading directly from slides, and distracting animations have created a stigma about using Microsoft PowerPoint.

But that’s not the way that the best PowerPoint presentations are structured. When used properly, supporting slides are a powerful tool to build confidence and share info with your audience. In this collection, you’ll see amazing PowerPoint presentation templates that avoid all of the major presentation faux pas.

How to Use PowerPoint for Great Presentations

The right way to think about a PowerPoint presentation is as support to the speaker. You are the presentation, and the slides serve to back your points. That means that you should never read directly from the slides, and instead use them as a visual aid to reiterate your speaking points.

Keep these tips in mind when you’re working on your next presentation design:

• Delete text-heavy slides – there’s no faster way to lose an audience’s attention than to throw a wall of text up on a projector. Use bullets to break up your points into easy-to-scan ideas, or leave them off altogether.
• Skip PowerPoint’s built-in template designs – your audience has seen the same Microsoft templates a million times. Surprise them with a design so professional that it feels handcrafted (more on that below!)
• Convert data to graphics – instead of tables with data points, make the data visual! Rework your numeric data into charts and graphs that are intuitive to audiences unfamiliar with the topic.
• Include more visual elements – images, video clips, infographics, and charts are all visual ways to spark and hold an audience’s attention. Any opportunity to convert flat text into these visual objects is worth trying.

Remember: the central idea of using PowerPoint for presentations is letting it do what you can’t as a speaker. Your talking points will speak for themselves, so don’t repeat them in writing on the slide. Instead, use your slides to showcase visual points that are impossible to capture verbally.

10 Best PowerPoint Presentation Design Templates

It always helps to have a source of inspiration when you’re designing your next PowerPoint presentation. Building one of the best PowerPoint presentations comes down to studying designs from the professionals and using their templates as a starting point.

Here are 10 of the best PowerPoint templates that you can use for ideas while designing your next PowerPoint presentation:

1. Agio

The Agio PowerPoint Presentation template is the best design template for your next large-scale presentation. The simple and straightforward design allows you to put your best foot forward during a presentation. Efficient, minimalist templates like Agio keep design distractions at bay so the important aspects of your presentation stand out. Featuring 630 slides in total, this PowerPoint presentation theme has every possible slide design you could need to build the best PowerPoint presentation.

2. Website Proposal

This straightforward PPT presentation theme only requires you to insert your information and images, making this template the ideal choice when time is tight for pitching your next big web development project. The simplicity of this template is sure to free you up to spend more time researching and writing. The easily editable charts and tables make the Website Proposal PowerPoint template the best PowerPoint template option for a cohesive presentation that keeps the focus on your big pitch!

3. The X Note

The modern template design of The X Note PowerPoint template is the best of both worlds: it has a ton of pre-built elements, but is also flexible enough to adapt to your presentation’s specifics. It’s an outstanding general purpose PowerPoint template that you can use for practically any presentation niche. Best of all, it has that professional design touch that will help your presentation reach an audience effectively.

4. Digital Marketing Strategy

The PowerPoint presentation design in the Digital Marketing Strategy PowerPoint template gives the perfect opportunity for discussing your plans for digital. That includes strategy slides for social media, SEO, email campaigns, and more. For any marketer playing in the digital world, templates like this are tailor-made for you! It also features two fun and creative pre-made themes with forty unique slides for your next presentation on digital marketing strategy.

5. Iconic Powerpoint Template

Icons help you represent your key ideas with simple graphics. Iconic features slides that are packed with simple explanations thanks to the icon-oriented focus. Best of all, every element from shapes to color schemes is easily customizable right in PowerPoint, without the need for any other software. The simple modern design in this PPT presentation theme makes this the best PowerPoint presentation template for business or personal presentation needs.

6. SWOT Business Presentation

No matter what situation you’re in, you’re sure to find strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. That’s why SWOT analyses are so popular – they help you consider the situation from each of the four key angles. Even though this is classically a business analysis, you could apply it to practically any situation thanks in part to the SWOT Business Presentation template. From clean and minimalist to elegant, the presentation design options in these 111 multipurpose slides will help you dive deep on each of the four key elements of the analysis.

7. Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Another popular business analysis is Porter’s Five Forces, the five key angles that exist in most competitive environments. Whether presenting at a corporate level, or to investors as a startup, the design of this easy-to-use PPT presentation theme is the best PowerPoint presentation template for preparing a Five Forces study. If you’re out to assess the competition, this PowerPoint template really is the natural choice for your presentation and reporting.

8. Social Media Trends – Powerpoint Template

Turn your data on social media trends into a beautifully designed PowerPoint presentation with the Social Media Trends PowerPoint template. Over 100 unique slides with both light and dark color schemes transform your data into actionable insights that you can use to plan your social media strategy. Use this template as the launch point for growing your social presence, whether personal or professional.

9. Bucharest

For the creative that only wants the best PowerPoint design as they launch the work they so carefully craft, look no further than this template. The design of this PowerPoint presentation template lends itself perfectly to fields that rely heavily on image-centric work. For photographers, designers and creatives, this is a perfect choice.

10. Analysiz Powerpoint

Far from built-in presentation templates, it uses clean gradients and typography to emphasize your speaking points. Don’t forget to use the included infographics, icons, and visuals to really drive your presentation concept to the audience.

Where to Find the Best PowerPoint Templates with Astounding Designs

Here’s a secret: the best PowerPoint templates usually aren’t designed from scratch. Instead, they make use of pre-built templates from design professionals. Outsourcing slide design work to professionals frees you up to spend more time developing your slide content.

When you start with a presentation design template, you already have most of the work finished for you. Templates include pre-designed slides that only need your specifics to come to life. Pick and choose the slides that are relevant, add your content, and you’ll build your best PowerPoint design in less time than ever before.

As you saw here, professional PowerPoint templates are a huge evolution from PowerPoint presentation designs that are already built into the app. These templates are all available on Envato Elements, a creative subscription package with millions of digital assets.

The ideal place to source the best PowerPoint presentation templates is Envato Elements. Thanks to the all-you-can-download model, each additional download costs you nothing.

Best of all, Elements includes other assets that expert presenters rely on. You can use stock photos to really spice up your slides, or download icons and graphics that help you explain key concepts. All of these are unlocked when you subscribe to Elements.

Don’t start with a blank slate. And there’s no reason to waste time on detailed PowerPoint design. Instead, use one of these templates, or another in the Envato Elements library to get a headstart. Refocus your efforts to the research and writing for the content, and your presentation is sure to be successful.