Sometimes you want to use a bulleted list. That doesn’t mean that you can’t add a little interest to the slide, however.

The graphic “ribbon” on the slide above provides a place to make the “winning team” point along with adding photographs to help set tone. This slide can deliver the presenter’s message and drive the point home. The graphic ribbon can also be used in other places within your presentation (using different pictures and messages, of course). Several of these slides appropriately placed within the presentation create unity and consistency – a little minitheme within your presentation.

Another way to present the same information, however, might be just as easy to achieve. The slide below is comprised of the same three bullet points and also uses a photograph to help set tone, but a little graphic embellishment and layout transforms the bullets into a cool-looking slide that is easy to animate with reveals.

You don’t need a lot of layouts to help you convert bulleted slides into something more pleasing – just a few will do nicely. It’s actually desirable to use layouts a few times within a presentation. When done well, it creates continuity.

A very fast and simple way to add interest to a bulleted slide is to configure a few rectangles and apply just a little formatting. The example below has a vertically oriented rectangle on the left (no transparency). Partially overlaid onto this rectangle are four horizontally oriented rectangles with two gradient colors. Apply a vertical gradient direction and then apply colors and transparencies. The gradient color that is visible is a lighter hue of the left-hand rectangle at 70% transparency. The second gradient color is white and 100% transparent.

This is a quick way to add interest to a page, especially if you use the snap-to-grid feature. The top and bottom subordinate fields can be “snapped” into place on the left-hand rectangle. Then use the vertical distribution tool to make sure that all the horizontally oriented rectangles are vertically distributed.

You can also use this type of layout with lots of other right-hand shapes, not just rectangles. Experiment and see what you like and then use it consistently in your presentation. Let it show up a few times as a minitheme within the overall theme of your presentation.

It’s simple. Do this and you can say, “Yes, it is pretty. I created it myself, you know.”