Visually appealing slide decks

One thing I wish I was better at was designing beautiful decks.  If given a template I can do ok, but carte blanche I am kind of useless.

I recently started exploring the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) programs (excellent, FREE!,  resource - and applicable beyond Microsoft products) and came across one called Presentation Design 101: How to Create Visual Slides with Impact.  It is exactly what I needed.

One great thing I learned was how to use a website called Coolors to generate a colour pallette to match a photo - and it is so easy! I learned about Coolors back in June 2018 at AppleMania18 when I attended one of Marcus Painter's sessions, but this feature was new to me.

Here is how:

1. Visit Coolors.co
2. Click "Generate"
3. Click the camera icon to upload a photo
4. Watch the magic happen! (See the #EDUgif below)

Once you have the colours, you can then copy the Hex Colour Code to use in your deck as colours for fonts, shapes, etc.

To customize colour do the following:

1. Copy the Hex Colour Code (the number preceeded by the #)
2. In the slide deck, Pick the element for which you want to change the colour
3. Click the Fill bucket or font colour (depending on the item)
4. Scroll down to "Custom"
5. Copy the Hex Colour Code into colour box.

This was only one small tip - be sure to check out the entire "course" for more.