Focus on Titles
Slide titles don't always have to be at the top of the slide. Our slides can be made more interesting if we reposition slide titles differently. A common alternative is to position them in the middle or at the bottom of the slide. Sometimes we might want to position it at an angle—a technique that we discussed previously in "Five degree impact".
Don't think of slide titles as the start of a list of bullet-points to follow. Think of it as key information that you use to lead your audience to focus the minute you display the slide. Depending on the purpose, we can either create impact on the title or play it down as information that supports the overall slide.
Let's explore a few examples.
Position middle. Bold and clear title positioned in the center of the slide. Lead the eyes to focus on the title, and later the secondary content positioned around the title.
Position bottom. This example has the title positioned at the bottom of the slide but in a toned down style. The focus of this slide is not at the title but at the key content message, the '150%'.
Position angled. Bold and focused message placed close to the middle of the slide with a 5 degrees angle. The angled title makes the overall slide more interesting.
Try these out on your slides to see how your audience responds to your changes. Think of why you need the title on the slide. What is the purpose? What message are you trying to send? What do you want your audience to remember? Once you have the answers to those questions, then you will know where to position your titles.
