Make Your Presentations Pop: Create Effective PDFs for Presentations.

Creating and sharing a presentation is an essential part of any business meeting or discussion. But there are times when a presentation, even in all its interactive, illustrative, and engaging glory, just isn’t enough. That’s where PDFs come to the fore.

Why? PDFs can be easily accessed, printed, shared across devices, and allow for a convenient viewing experience. PDFs are ideal for creating valuable handouts or reference materials that complement your presentations and your audience can refer to them again after your presentation is over.

What you’ll learn

• The benefits of putting your presentations into PDF format
• Tips for designing presentation documents to convert to PDF
• Making PDF presentation documents visually appealing
• Creating accessible and responsive PDFs that engage users
• Optimizing presentation PDFs or a better user experience

PDFs for presentations have benefits.

The benefits of creating or converting your presentation content into Portable Document Format (PDF) are many for both you and your audience. PDFs add value to high quality-presentations across industries because they are:

• Easy to share and distribute electronically, which can save you time and money. And because they’re compressed, PDF file sizes are typically smaller than other types of file formats.

• Compatible with different operating systems and devices, meaning your presentation content can be accessed by you, and your audience, no matter what device they are using, or where they are, with a PDF reader.
• Access controlled by password protection and other security features if privacy and security is important for your work and/or the nature of your content.

Design a PDF presentation that pops.

To create a great-looking presentation in PDF, the key is to simplify your design and use consistent fonts, images, and formatting choices to keep your document looking professional and cohesive. By following these tips, you’ll create high-quality PDFs that are easy for your audience to read, understand, and navigate.

• Fonts: Consider using a single font family for body text and titles that matches your other branding and colours. This gives the impression of consistency in your messaging, content, and delivery.
• Headers and footers: Use bold and clear headers and footers in your presentation to grab the reader’s attention when needed. Again, use fonts and colours to match your branding.
• Visuals: Include visuals, such as charts, diagrams, photos, or other graphic elements, in logical places to break up large blocks of text, illustrate your point, and add interest to your document.

Make your presentation PDFs engaging.

Optimize your presentation PDFS as much as possible to increase the likelihood of user engagement — especially if you want your audience to finding it an outstanding experience that stays with them, or they will refer back to.

• Layout: Create an efficient layout for a presentation PDF. Be consistent in your use of fonts and heading styles that are easy to read.
• Text: Summarize key points with bullet points and write smallish blocks of text.
• Visual: Bring your document to life with visuals. Images, charts, graphs, and other visual representations help you convey your message in a different way and connect with your audience.
• Interactive: Enhance your content and get your audience engaged by including interactive elements such as links and image or page animations to your PDFs.
• Compression: Compress your PDFs to reduce document file size and loading time. This will help make it effortless to send, share, and open your content.
• Accessible: Make sure your PDFs are optimized and accessible and for mobile devices. This will ensure that users can navigate and read your PDF presentation easily on different types of mobile devices.

Follow best practices for creating accessible and responsive PDFs.

There are a few best practice tips to keep in mind for creating accessible and responsive PDFs:

• Optimize your file size to help with quick upload download times. You can use the PDF Optimizer in Acrobat Pro to compress images, remove items and elements that are not needed, or use features like the Reduce File Size command, and Compress PDF in Acrobat.
• Use navigation features so your readers can find what they want quickly and easily - bookmarks, heading styles, and hyperlinks can all help people get around your document and find information quickly.
• Add alternative text to the image settings in your document. Alt text gives a brief description of what the image is. Screen reader software reads the alt-text loud, and the text loads onto the page to give context as a back-up if an image does fail to load.
• Include multimedia such as video, audio, and/or interactive elements such as questions and note fields or forms that people can complete. These elements can help keep viewers interested and engaged throughout the document.
• Remember to tweak your security settings and password protection as needed for your audience.

Be engaging, accessible, and responsive with presentation PDFs!

Presentations are a great way to communicate your ideas — having an accompanying PDF version will help your message and ideas stick. PDFs are easily accessible, universally supported, and scalable for any platform. Neat and professional, they can help both you and your intended audience work with the information you are sharing efficiently and effectively — saving everyone time and money. Follow through on some of the tips we’ve given here, and you’ll be able to create craft powerful PDFs that are sure to impress your clients and boost your presentation power.

Frequently asked questions.

Are there any other tips or tricks I can use to make my PDFs more visually appealing?

If you’re looking to make your PDFs more visually appealing, there are several tips and tricks you can use.

• Use high-resolution images and graphics in your PDFs to create a beautiful finish. Vector graphics can add to a crisp and professional look.
• Always use colours and fonts that match and are consistent with your brand. You want your presentation to look as if it is part of your company’s overall product range and create that feeling of familiarity for your readers.
• Take advantage of the various layout options available in PDF software —you’re your design software if you are converting to PDF — to create attractive page designs. Use features such as columns, margins, headers, and footers. Format your document in a way that is pleasing to the eye.

Are there any potential downsides to using PDFs for presentations?

For diehard fans of InDesign or PowerPoint slide presentations, creating a presentation only in PDF may take a little getting used to. However, this is easily remedied by continuing to create your presentation deck in your preferred software, and then using features such as convert PowerPoint to PDF. Job done.

Presentations often include, or refer to other documents or attachments, that might not be a part of the main presentation. You can include links other information in your PDFs. You can also merge PDF documents if you want to append more information to your presentation.