April 28, 2005
How To Structure Your PowerPoint Presentation
One reader e-mailed me with a common problem. One person who presents regularly always tries to fit “25 pounds… into a 5 pound bag.” How do you prevent this from happening with your presentations? Try these six tips…
- Tip One: Figure out what the audience needs to know, not what you want to say
Thinking like the audience helps you figure out what you want them to know after the presentation. You may have more you can tell them, but you need to decide if they need to hear it. If you don't tell the audience something they need to know, they will ask. If you tell them lots of extra stuff, they may walk away thinking about things other than your intended message.
- Tip Two: Design from summary to detail
If you design from detail to summary, you will get so attached to the details that you won't want to skip them when you should. If instead you start with what the audience needs to know, the content will flow easily as the next step. Figure out the main points, and then add details layer by layer to each main point. Before you add the layers, think about if the extra information just needs to be available or if you have to cover it every time.
- Tip Three: Hide the details
Once you know what the important stuff is, make sure that only that information is available during the base presentation. Create the detail slides, and then hide them so that they don't show unless you need them.
While you are presenting, your audience's attitudes and attention span will tell you when they need to hear the details and when they don't. If they need the details, go to them. If they don't, go on to the next slides.
- Tip Four: Create FAQ slides
To vary how your detail slides work, create a series of FAQ slides at the end of your presentation. The first slide in the series should contain the questions. Each question should be linked to its answer. When the question comes up, you can jump to its answer either via the question slide or via the slide number.
When you give the presentation, keep track of questions that come up. Afterwards, add the question and the answer to the FAQ area.
- Tip Five: Nest information
When you feel that you must put more information on a slide than should normally fit, use your imagination to make it fit. Only have part of the information on the slide at any given time. You can use any of a number of animation techniques to fit more information on a single slide, as long as you don't have too much on the slide at any given time.
- Tip Six: Tell them where to find more information
When you don't have the time you need, send them to the source. If you know that your content won't possibly fit in the space provided, then set up a slide or two at the end of the presentation with where more information can be found. If you are using this technique, be sure to provide the links and source locations on paper or via e-mail. Just putting it up on the screen probably won't help during a live presentation: The information won't be able to stay up long enough for people to write it down.
Original article "PowerPoint For Techies: How much is too much?"
by Diana Huggins first published here.
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Diana Huggins is an independent contractor providing both technical writing and consulting services. She worked as a senior systems consultant and technical trainer. Over the past few years, she has managed to author several MCSE study guides. Although her focus and passion is on the Information Technology industry, she also holds a bachelor's degree in education. Currently, Diana runs her own company, DKB Consulting Services.
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on Thursday, April 28 2005
Thursday, December 1 2005
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http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/2005/04/28/how_to_structure_your_powerpoint.htm
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