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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 3 parts

  • Designing a Presentation
  • Designing a Slide
  • Preparing Notes

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.

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 16 and 24 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 numbers per table per slide

  • Preparing Notes

You can include notes that won't appear on the slides. There are things you might 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.

References and Further Reading

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

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