PowerPoint’s Secret Superpowers

At 5 by 5 Design we believe it’s possible to change the world by posing the right questions, listening to the honest answers, and following the path that emerges from the dialogue. Today’s discussion focuses on how to use PowerPoint effectively.

Krista Skjold-Robbins is on a mission to stop bad presentations before they reach the conference room. After years of wrangling content as the official “Slibrarian” for a global corporate travel company (yes, that was her ACTUAL job title), she took her passion for PowerPoint and broke off to launch KSR Creative. Part storyteller, part PowerPoint hacker, Krista loves pushing the platform beyond its perceived limits to solve the “unsolvable” problems that make traditional graphic designers sigh heavily and curse presentation platforms. Her eternal quest? Kill the boredom. Save the story. And leave audiences wondering: Wait… was that really PowerPoint? We’ve asked Krista a series of questions about how organizations can use PowerPoint to create engaging tools. Here’s what she had to say.  

1. How have you used PowerPoint for a business use that others might overlook?

PowerPoint’s underrated superpower is how universal it is. Almost everyone has it, and almost everyone can jump in and edit without needing a design background. So even though it’s not “pro” design software, it’s often the fastest way to build polished, on-brand assets that entire teams can actually maintain.

Personally, I use PowerPoint for way more than decks, including:

• One-pagers/collateral
• Branded social templates
• Simple videos
• Any type of content that needs to look good AND be easy to hand off

Because you can set custom slide sizes, you can design for basically any format. I’ve built everything from business cards to self‑published journal templates, t‑shirt art, theatre posters, and even event pull‑up banner designs.

2. Are there any new or underutilized features in PowerPoint that are worth exploring?

Absolutely. I have heard people call PowerPoint “clunky,” but that’s usually because they’re only using about 10% of it. Once you go a little deeper, there are features, shortcuts, and smart workarounds that can seriously level up what you build. A few worth exploring:

Underused features

• Morph (smooth, modern motion without a bunch of manual animations)
• Slide Zoom/Section Zoom (build a clickable, non-linear “menu” for interactive decks)
• Selection Pane + Align/Distribute (quickly clean up layered slides and make spacing perfect)
• Guides, Gridlines, and Smart Guides (a framework that makes everything look “designed”)
• Format Painter + Eyedropper (copy styling instantly and match colors exactly)
• SVG Icons (insert icons you can recolor to match your brand)
• Quick Access Toolbar (put your most-used commands in an easy-to-access space)

Shortcuts I use (All. The. Time.)

• F4/Ctrl + Y: repeat last action (huge for formatting + alignment tweaks)
• Ctrl + D: duplicate (faster than copy/paste)
• Ctrl + G/Ctrl + Shift + G: group/ungroup (treat multiple objects like one)
• Ctrl + Shift + C/Ctrl + Shift + V: copy formatting/paste formatting
• Ctrl + Shift + >/Ctrl + Shift + <: bump font size up/down (faster than the dropdown)
• Shift + drag: keep objects aligned; Alt + drag: fine-tune positioning

Simple workarounds that look high-end

• Use a “shadow” (even with 0% transparency) as a design line or frame—faster than drawing shapes and keeps spacing consistent
• Use the Merge Shapes tools (Merge/Union/Subtract) to make custom badges, callouts, and icons
• Put “helper” objects off-slide or in a “resource” slide in your template (color chips, spacing rulers, icon sets) so you can reuse them quickly

3. Do you have any tips for making PowerPoint applications accessible?

Yes, and it really is an important consideration when building presentations. Accessibility is about making sure your presentation works for everyone (including people using screen readers, keyboard navigation, or who have low vision/color blindness). The nice part is that a few features/habits will get you 90% of the way there:

• Start with the Accessibility Checker (Review > Check Accessibility) and run it early/often
• Use built-in slide layouts and placeholders (Title/Content, Two Content, etc.) so screen readers can understand the structure
• Avoid “blank slide + inserted text boxes” for primary content—those boxes can get missed by screen readers, or can be read out of order
• Give every slide a unique, descriptive title (you can visually hide it if you need to)
• Check reading order (Selection Pane/Reading Order) on any slide with multiple objects to make sure screen readers pick up information in the intended order
• Add alt text for meaningful visuals; mark purely decorative items as decorative
• Use enough color contrast and don’t rely on color alone to communicate meaning
• If you use audio/video, include captions/subtitles (and a transcript when possible)
• Use tables sparingly—save them for genuinely complex data that needs a grid, not as a formatting/layout tool­­—if you do use tables, keep them simple and avoid merged cells

4. What are some common mistakes businesses and organizations make when creating PowerPoint presentations?

A few big ones:

• Treating slides like a document (too much text, tiny fonts, everything crammed on one slide)
• Inconsistent design (“Frankendecks” from copying/pasting across old decks)
• Weak visual hierarchy (no clear headline, everything the same size/weight)
• Overusing animations/transitions (movement without a purpose)
• Charts/tables that are unreadable (too many data points, no takeaway called out)
• Off-brand colors, fonts, and imagery, which quietly chip away at credibility

And here’s the biggest issue that lurks underneath it all: presentation templates are often left to chance. They’re not where most companies invest their marketing dollars, but presentations are a super high-variance output—lots of hands touch them, and they get shared everywhere. Without a strong, easy-to-use template, decks drift fast and presentations can show up way off-brand.

5. What advice would you give to a new PowerPoint user to help them get started creating effective and efficient tools?

Keep it simple when you are getting started! From a tactical standpoint, a few steps will start you off strong.

• Start from a good template (or at least pick one theme and stick to it)
• Use layouts/placeholders instead of drawing text boxes everywhere to bring consistency to your outputs
• Turn on guides/gridlines and use Align/Distribute functions for clean, balanced slides
• Build one strong “base” slide (title, section, content) and build from there
• Tell a story! Write clear, headline-style titles and keep each slide to one main point
• Save wordy/detailed content for speaker notes or a separate handout

Once you have the fundamentals down, experiment!

PowerPoint rewards people who click around. If you want to level up faster, a short course or training session can save you a lot of trial-and-error.