Every time you create a slide deck, it’s because you need people to do something. Sometimes there’s just one key thing that’s obvious. But on other occasions, there could be several actions sprinkled throughout the document. 

To help your readers notice and remember the actions, you can use a really simple clipboard motif. We like to place this bottom right, so people read the content, then note the tasks.

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It’s very easy to build this yourself - watch this video that walks you through the steps.

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And if you have a lot of actions, it is worth repeating them all at the end – both to remind your audience, and to put them all in once place.

Choosing bullets for checkboxes

You want to use an empty checkbox to indicate that these are tasks that are not yet done. But there are plenty of fonts and characters to choose from, so which is the best. We recommend the following because they look fine and – crucially – will work across Windows, Mac and mobile apps. (We haven't tested every combination, but these appear to be the best choices.)

If you are using Windows: Set the font to Wingdings and use character 168. (Yes, this font is extremely old. But because of that it's very compatible. And the square symbol is perfect for this.) If you want a box with a tick in it, use character code 254.

Alternatively, you could use Segoe UI Symbol characters 2610 and 2611 for a more modern-looking tick.

If you are using macOS: Use the bullet shown in the picture below. Ticked boxes seem to be more problematic and end up displaying an emoji, which doesn't look great. A better option is to use an icon via the Picture bullet option; watch out for a future post about that.

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If you are struggling to make the right impact with your documents, then get in contact to see how SHARPN could help you and your team.