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Slide Shows and Presentations

Why Should I Care?

Designing a great presentation deck is an art. However, lots of people let the software tell them how to present. Here's what you need to know about those slide show programs.

This lesson has 4 parts

  • Designing a Presentation
  • Designing a Slide
  • Preparing Notes
  • Sharing and Collaborating

What are Slide Shows and Presentations?

Every workplace has to make presentations of company financials, project details, management reports, and sales pitches. Most people use software like Microsoft PowerPoint, but there are other products available like Google Slides, and Apple Keynote. Learning to use these programs will help you save time when you need to prepare a presentation and be more effective.

PowerPoint Basics Tutorial

  • Designing a Presentation

The trick to great presentations is that they are not necessarily designed with the software in mind. The most important aspect of the presentation is the delivery, tone, relevance, charisma, and competence of the presenter. To design a great presentation, make sure to read the lesson called Oral Presentations in this manual.

PowerPoint Example

Click on the file below to see an example of a PPT presentation. This example includes some pictures, some embedded video, and a references list. Notice the font sizes are large, and much of the content is absent from the slides, since they are designed to support a presentation rather than have all of the information in the deck.

Chanson française.pptm

The trick to great presentations is that they are not necessarily designed with the software in mind. The most important aspect of the presentation is the delivery, tone, relevance, charisma, and competence of the presenter. To design a great presentation you have to think of what you want to communicate, and how visuals can help to support your ideas.

Once you know what you want to talk about, your main key points and catch phrases, you can start designing the presentation in PowerPoint.

Steps
  1. Choose a template
  2. Determine the number of slides
    1. title slide first
    2. content slides
    3. conclusion slide last
  3. Vary the content slides
    1. bullets and data
    2. large graph
    3. large photo
    4. large quote
    5. flow chart or decision tree

  • Designing a Slide

Our main takeaway from having endured many many PowerPoint presentations is that they are often crammed with too many bullets, too much writing, and too many images.

The presenter should always have an idea of how the slides will be viewed. What size is the room? How many people? What distance are people from the screen? We recommend that you practice delivering your slide show in the actual room you will be presenting in, if possible. Sit in the back and make sure you can read what's on the screen.

Rules for slides
  • Font size between 20 and 32 pt,
  • Sans serif font such as Calibri or Arial
  • Not more than six bullets per slide
  • Not more than two photos per slide
  • Not more than 8-10 lines of data per table per slide

  • Preparing Notes

You can include notes that won't appear on the slides. There are things you might wish to tell yourself, or tell the audience, without those words appearing on a screen.

Simply click on the 'Notes' icon in the bottom edge of the program. A window will appear below each slide for notes. If you print the presentation, your notes can be printed with each slide. In the print dialog box, make sure to select Page with Notes.

You can bring this printout to the lectern or podium and the audience won't know you have extra information in front of you. This way, you can simplify the messaging on the slides without reducing the content.

  • Sharing and Collaborating

You can share and collaborate with colleagues using most of the software available.

Microsoft

In PowerPoint, look to the top-right corner, and hit the SHARE button. If you have access to a OneDrive account, you can save the document here, and then send a link to your teammates so that everyone can work on the same document. They will receive a link by email and you can control the rights of who gets to edit and who gets to read-only.

If you don't have a OneDrive account, you can save the PPT on your computer, and then use the SHARE button to send your PPT as an attachment to an email.

Google Docs

In Google, if you have a Gmail account, you automatically have access to the work software suite including Docs, Sheets and Slides. Once you are ready to share, hit SHARE on the top right, and follow the dialog box to include your teammates. They will receive a link by email and you can control the rights of who gets to edit and who gets to read-only.

You can also save the document as file, and send it by email. If you need to submit an assignment as a PPT, you can work on it as a Slide, and then create a file. Hit File - Download, and choose the type of file you prefer.

References and Further Reading

Lowe, D. (2021). PowerPoint For Dummies, Office 2021 Edition. Wiley.

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