The public servants’ guide to better slide decks

Slide decks. Love them or loathe them, public servants can’t escape them.

At Apolitical’s recent online event Quick Hacks for Better Slide Decks, Excel and PowerPoint whizz (and comedian) David Benaim shared his top tricks to transform your slides from cluttered to compelling.

This guide contains all the best tips from the session. A must-read before you deliver your next presentation in government.

Master keyboard shortcuts

For busy public servants, building brilliant presentations can be a burden. David shared three time-saving keyboard shortcuts to try:

• Holding Shift while dragging keeps objects in perfect line.
• Combine Ctrl+Shift+Drag to duplicate and keep items aligned in one move.
• Use Alt when resizing to avoid PowerPoint’s “snap” behaviour and gain more control.

Format like a pro

Your brain hates misaligned objects. Here’s how to fix it.

Use PowerPoint’s Align and Distribute tools to snap everything into perfect order. You can also Ctrl+D to duplicate shapes evenly, and PowerPoint will remember the spacing.

Another pro tip for formatting: Format Painter. Double-click it to apply formatting across shapes, images, and multiple slides without constantly re-selecting. It’s a tiny tweak that saves a lot of time.

Fix slides with “surgery” tools

Stop stretching images into weird proportions. Instead, reset them with the Picture Format → Reset Picture menu — or hold Shift while resizing to keep the aspect ratio intact.

Need exact colours? The Eyedropper tool will grab hues straight from your slide for pixel-perfect consistency.

Morph into better transitions

Most PowerPoint transitions scream “1998.”

Morph is the exception. It creates smooth, video-like animations between slides. Used sparingly, it gives your presentations a polished, professional feel perfect for government audiences.

Make your agenda clickable

No more endless clicking to find “that one slide.” With PowerPoint’s Summary Zoom feature, you can create an interactive agenda that lets you jump to any section with a click — then return automatically. It looks slick, helps structure your talk, and keeps your audience engaged.

Accessibility matters

One of the most important reminders from the session: make your slides accessible. Remember to add alt text to images and consider high-contrast palettes to keep your deck inclusive.

And a final tip: use the built-in Accessibility Checker to flag missing slide titles, low-contrast colours, and issues for screen readers.

Watch, learn, repeat

Want to see these slide deck hacks in action? Head to the event page for the full recording, resources, and more.

This article was written with the help of AI using an anonymised transcript and edited by a human before publishing.