You can’t give a presentation these days without PowerPoint slides to support your ideas. Plus, research has shown that people remember nearly 90% of the information from presentations that use visuals. So here are some tips for optimizing your use of digital images in presentations:

• Don’t change the original image file. If you need to manipulate the image, save it as a new file so you can go back to the unadulterated original if necessary.
• Don’t edit images in PowerPoint. Instead, do your scaling and cropping in a photo editing application to keep file size down.
• Do save your images in the most commonly used formats (BMP, TIF or JPEG) after cropping and re-sizing them.
• Do maintain consistent image size and shape throughout your presentation. Use "guides" to precisely establish image position and shape.
• Don’t choose busy or complex images. For projection in a presentation, simple is best.
• Do add dimension to your images by working with drop-shadows and borders. This can be done either through the special effects in your photo-editing software or in PowerPoint itself.