Using arrows in your presentation visuals is one of the many methods that can help lead your audience to focus on specific information. Sometimes it is difficult to position information of deferring importance to make each one relevent. With arrows, we can effectively direct attention to areas of our presentaiton slides where the critical information is.

We do not need to use fancy arrows. Simple arrows that can easily be created with any presentation software are most effective. We want to lead audience to the information on our presentation visuals and not focus on the arrows. If done correctly, this can create higher impact in your presentation slides.

There are many exciting ways that you can use arrows for this purpose. Here are a few that you might want to try out in your next presentation.

Growing Trends. Instead of always using line charts for showing trend data, try using an arrow that curves up. Along the curve, you can overlay numbers (or percentages) growing in 3 to 4 intervals.

Process or sequenced information. Sometimes we have information that we want to present to illustrate steps in a process. Arrows can be useful in this situation to lead our audience from start to finish.

Highlights. Pointing an arrow to specific information during a presentaion to highlight words or numbers is better than turning your back to your audience while using a laser pointer.

When you next work on your presentation slides, give the above a try.