I sometimes help out clients to clean up a very large presentation. Incorrect PowerPoint use, copying and pasting of different slide masters, and a less trained eye for design/proportions create slide decks that look inconsistent and "not right".

I created the presentation design app SlideMagic in such a way, that these mistakes are hard to make. Here is the list of actions I typically go through when cleaning up big PowerPoint files. (And this is also the list of PowerPoint annoyances [well, most of them] you do not have to worry about anymore when using SlideMagic).

• Locate the client's super clean template file and use it as a start for the presentation
• Go in the slide master view and delete all master slides you do not need (I am usually just left with a title page and a regular slide)
• Create slide templates with the correct title positioning for 1) empty page, 2) picture in frame page, full page picture page, and separator slide
• Create drawing guides (left, right, top, bottom, not centre and middle)
• Set the the default text boxes, shapes, and lines (font, colours)
• Copy the monster presentation into this new master file
• Select all slides in the presentation and apply the standard template slide (title, not text) to it.
• Font replace all the incorrect fonts to the right font with one command
• For each slide:
  • Adjust the title text, so it fits in its frame, 2 lines maximum
  • Resize shapes that should have the same height and width
  • Make sure squares and circles have a 1:1 aspect ratio
  • Reset the aspect ratio of distorted images (if possible), otherwise do it by eye
  • Re-crop images
  • Increase/decrease font sizes, adjust text if necessary
  • Tone down the colours, make sure that things that need an accent colour, have one
  • Make sure everything fits in the slide frame
  • Realign and distribute the whole slide, centre/mid-align objects that need it
  • Take out gradients
  • Take out drop shadows
  • Take out outline lines around boxes/shapes
  • Round up numbers
  • Make sure numbers line up correctly vertically
  • Apply correct colours to data charts
  • Reformat tables (colours, text alignment, uniform row heights, column widths, font sizes, make sure they fit in the slide frame)

All this work is:

• Time consuming
• Not the result of an original presentation designer's fault, it is just hard to get the details right
• Probably obsolete as soon as more changes are made to the presentation

People should be spending time crafting their story, and not making basic typographical adjustments. Give SlideMagic a try!

Image: Banksy, Street Cleaner, by Dan Brady on Flickr.