Creating a PowerPoint

Presentation

Slide Presentations…

Are fantastic ways to pitch or express an idea to

other people.

Are useful tools to convey ideas in a short and direct manner.

Can be created using several software packages.

There are very interesting packages now

available. In your free time, you can look up Prezi,

GoAnimate, Google Docs and Slide Rockets .

This training focuses on using Microsoft PowerPoint

training.

So you’ve been asked to prepare

a presentation…

What should you do first?

Identify Your Audience This is the first step in creating your presentation or any document at that.

Identifying who your audience is will help tailor the style, language and

level of information you should put in your presentation.

What you will present to a Senior Manager in a firm will be different from

what you will present to a developer or an engineer in the same firm.

Hence, ensure you know exactly who the recipient(s) of your presentation

is.

Top-Level managers will usually require less detailed information

compared to those who work under them.

Create an Outline

Creating an outline for your presentation gives you a roadmap and an overview of what your presentation will look like.

You spend a shorter time on a document when you use an outline to guide you.

An example of an outline is as follows:

Introduction

Background: Problem Statement

Solution

Project Cost

Risks and Mitigations

Benefits.

An outline helps you see the big picture for your document.

Now we are ready to start

creating our slides…

Let’s consider the following…

Prepare Your Slides

Be very CREATIVE with the design of your slides.

There’s no fixed rule as to how your slides should

appear but attention must be given to colour, font

size of words, slides’ theme etc.

Be creative with the themes of your slides. edit their

colour, font or add nice effects that suit your taste

or the mood of the audience you intend to

present to.

You can also download templates online to use.

There is a good collection of templates online to

use for different types of presentations.

More Pictures, Less Words Avoid using too many words on your slides. Where possible, use Pictures,

Diagrams, Smart Art Graphics etc. to convey your words.

Remember the saying “A picture is worth more than a thousand words”.

This is very true for presentations!

Humans are moved more by pictures and diagrams hence capitalize on

this to convey an idea in a presentation.

Make your slides visually stimulating. Use good combinations of color,

image arrangement etc.

In getting pictures…

You may access stock photography sites

such as iStock.com, shutterstock.com,

google images etc.

Be careful to use images that have no

watermarks on them.

Copy and save images correctly so you

have clear and sharp images.

In enlarging or reducing the size of images,

do not make them too wide or long. Ensure

its proportional.

Transitions and Animations

Give your presentations that quality and

professional edge with transitions and animations.

Microsoft 2013 has some very exciting additions to transitions on PowerPoint. The origami, page curl

and box transitions are examples.

Ensure your transitions and animations are

appropriate for the type of audience you’re

presenting to.

We’ll see some examples in the practical session.

Slide Layouts

Make use of the different layouts

under a slide design .

In your spare time, try applying the

different layout for a presentation.

Font and Style of Your

Content

Use simple, straightforward and dignified English.

Leave the flowery or high sounding language to

prose or poetry.

Use a nice and consistent font throughout your

presentation. I personally recommend the font

called Century Gothic.

Use a consistent style and alignment for headings

and content in all your slides.

You can visit www.slideshare.com to view exciting

slides submitted by professionals from all over the world.

Practical Session

Creating Slides for a presentation.

Editing slides with Slide Master, handout Master

and Notes Master.

Applying images, charts, smart art graphics and

diagrams to a slide.

Using transitions and animations in presentations.

Reviewing past presentations.