Techniques to build a slide presentation

Techniques to Build a Slide Presentation


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These four sections provide the details for how to build a slide

presentation. But first…Is a slideshow even necessary?

Whether you need a slideshow or not depends on the formality of the

event, the audience, and the location.

• A handout may be sufficient if you’re presenting informally to a small audience within a face-to-face setting.

• A more formal setting, a larger group, and/or online delivery might be better with more advanced media like a slideshow.

If you would like to enhance your presentation with a slideshow, this

module will show you some techniques to build a slide presentation in

PowerPoint.

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Before setting up the slides for your PowerPoint presentation, the best

practice is to first organize all your content in an outline format. This

technique lets you arrange your main points into clear and logical

order without getting distracted by formatting and style.

Many presenters use the “rule of three”

to organize their information into three

main points since this is a well-known

aid to memory.


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To create an outline for your content, open a Word document in

“Outline view” and enter your information using “Level 1” headings

for every point you want to make. Use “Level 2” for the supporting

facts and data underneath.

Your Level 1 headings should be

written as short, complete sentences,

each representing a single main idea.

These statements will become the

‘headlines’ or titles at the top of each

of your slides.


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ForMicrosoft Word

2003

Next, begin setting up your presentation by transferring your content

outline from Word into PowerPoint. It’s an easy two step method

when using Microsoft Word.

1. From the File menu in your Word 2003 document, select ‘Send To’.

2. Click Microsoft Office PowerPoint to export.


Set UpFollow these steps when using Microsoft Word 2007.

1. Open a blank PowerPoint file.

2. From the Home menu, select New Slide and then Slides from Outline.

ForMicrosoft Word

2007


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These steps will insert your content into PowerPoint, with each Level 1

heading positioned at the top of a slide and the rest in a text box

underneath. There is now one main idea per slide.


Set UpThere are no actual rules for how many slides to use in a PowerPoint

presentation. It depends on the number of points you want to make,

how much time you have to present, and how many details you decide

to include. In general, however, a presentation with three main points

will have 10 slides as shown below.

Two for the introduction (Title + Agenda)

Two for the conclusion (Review + End)

Two for each main point (Facts + Data)


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Now that you have slides with meaningful titles and placeholders for

facts and data, you can start to work on the rest of the presentation

real estate.

You can add additional content

to the slide area at the top,

including text, pictures, sound,

or video.

The notes area is where you

can put everything you want

to say out loud while the slide

is on display.

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Text is an important visual element as well as a way to convey your

message. Here are some guidelines to enhance readability.

• Use a “sans serif” font such as Arial, Verdana or Calibri. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read on a slide than fancier “serif” fonts which have small decorative lines added to the letters.

• Use the same font set throughout your slide presentation, such as Calibri (Heading) and Calibri (Body). Limit the number of complementary fonts to no more than 2-3 on any one slide.

• Don't change font style in mid sentence unless you have a very good reason.

• Use bold text sparingly to highlight important information.

• Avoid words in all capital letters.

Sans-serif Serif


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Appropriate font sizes for a presentation range from 18 to 48 points.

This is 48 points.This is 32 points.

This is 24 points.This is 18 points.

Select the appropriate size based on where your intended audience

will be viewing your slides. In general, use 18, 24, or 28 points for

viewing on a computer monitor; use a larger size for other venues.

Also use a larger size text for titles and headlines and a smaller size for

sub-headings and body text.


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Another aspect of readability involves how your words and sentences

are arranged on the slide.

Try to avoid long sentences and big blocks of text. Many presenters

use bullet lists instead, which is a common convention for grouping

related items together.

For clear communication and visual clarity, each bullet point should

follow the same grammatical form. You can also use the “6 x 6”

guideline, which says there should be:

• No more than six bullet points on a slide

• About six words per bullet


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There are many creative options when building PowerPoint slides, but

we often rely on the bullet list because it’s a commonly accepted

format. But a bullet list is not always the best choice for certain kinds

of information, as it communicates just three logical relationships:

• Membership in a group with no significant order

• Sequence - first to last in time

• Priority – least to most important and vice versa

While text by itself on a slide is adequate for listing information,

pictures, graphs, and diagrams along with text can be a more effective

and interesting way to tell your story.

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1.2.3.

• • •

A.B.C.


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A slide presentation is a visual medium, so the best practice is to

incorporate relevant images to illustrate or explain your topic. These

examples illustrate abstract concepts like size, distance, and

hierarchical relationships.Main topic

Lead Topic

Sub Topic Sub Topic

Lead Topic

Sub Topic Sub Topic


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When you have both text and images on a slide, the information is

processed in two different parts of the brain. This dual-channel

system makes it easier to understand and remember new information.

• The ears are the verbal or auditory channel, where we process language – both written and spoken words.

• The eyes are the visual channel, where we process images.


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The images on your slides should be appropriate for your topic. It’s

best to minimize the use of clip art, as it can appear cartoonish in a

professional business presentation. Although there are ways to

enhance and customize clip art, use high-quality graphics instead that

you can download for free from Microsoft Office Online.

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Tables, graphs and charts are a useful way to display your data on a

slide. To be effective, make sure the information on display is easy to

understand and can be read more quickly than the original raw data.

• A title should appear above the graphic to provide a succinct description of what the data refers to.

• Use grid lines or colors to separate and visually align large quantities of data.

• Provide a scale to show dimensions and label these clearly.

• Include a legend to identify various items as appropriate.

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A table like this is

useful for showing

side-by-side

comparisons of

quantitative data.

This particular example, however, lacks impact because the

information is crowded together and it’s hard to tell what’s important.Images

Provider Availability Geographic Access


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This is the same data

as shown above.

Can you tell what is

different?

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Provider Availability Geographic Access

Standard Results

Urban <10 miles 100.0%

Suburban <25 miles 100.0%

Rural <40 miles 99.2%

Aggregate 90.0% 99.7%

Provider Availability by Region

Before…

… After


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• This table has a descriptive title.

• The most important information is shaded to stand out better.

• The layout is more transparent which is easier on the eye.

Images Standard Results

Urban <10 miles 100.0%

Suburban <25 miles 100.0%

Rural <40 miles 99.2%

Aggregate 90.0% 99.7%

Provider Availability by Region… After


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A bar chart is

useful for showing

changes in data

over time.

Many think that numbers and details are dull, so they add decorative

details like grid lines and repeating labels. These items can be

distracting and take the focus away from what’s important.Images

Improving the 30-Day Ambulatory Follow-Up Rate


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This is the same

data as shown

above. Can you

tell what’s

different?

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Improving the 30-Day Ambulatory Follow-Up Rate

70%

77%

79%

50%

100%

Baseline (2004) R1 (2005) R2 (2006)

Steadily Improving 30-Day Ambulatory Follow-up Rate

Before…

… After


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• The gridlines are removed.

• Arrows highlight the fact that the data is trending upwards.

• The formatting adds depth to the chart.

• It has a descriptive title.

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70%

77%

79%

50%

100%

Baseline (2004) R1 (2005) R2 (2006)

Steadily Improving 30-Day Ambulatory Follow-up Rate… After


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At this point in building a slide presentation, each of your slides

should have the following elements:

• A meaningful ‘headline’ or title at the top.

• Bullet point text or short paragraphs to explain your point.

• An image or some type of visual to take advantage of the dual channel concept of information processing.

• Speaker notes added beneath the slide area (optional).

Both text and images are essential for communicating your message.

How these elements are arranged on the slide is another important

factor to consider. The next section provides a few techniques for

styling your slides effectively.


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One of the first elements of style is the general appearance of your

presentation slides. To achieve a professional look, use a template

with a consistent background and colors. These examples from

Microsoft Office Online contain title and content slides that reflect

the same design and theme.


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It can be a challenge to include both text and visuals on

a slide. Too many words and/or images that are too large

can result in a crowded and confusing slide. Don’t let

your message get derailed by content that’s unnecessarily

complicated or busy.

If you find yourself having to shrink words to fit, you are

probably overloading it. Remember, most of us have

limited capacity to take in a lot of new information at once.

It’s better to just create another slide or two.


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There are endless ways to fine-tune your slideshow by adding graphic

elements, animations, and slide transitions. But just because you can

doesn’t mean you should.

When too much is happening on the screen or between the slides,

your audience can easily be distracted by extraneous details that

overwhelm the senses. Keep it simple so that your audience will talk

about your special ideas, not your special effects.


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What we perceive on a screen is largely dependent upon contrast, so

it’s important to carefully choose your color palette. Below you can

see how text looks with different foreground or background color

combinations. Certain combinations just don’t work very well when

trying to distinguish details. In general, select no more than three

colors per slide, using either light against dark or dark against light.

Background

Fore

grou

nd


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After you assemble the content on your slides, make sure the text and

other visual elements are all aligned relative to the margins. Your

slides should have plenty of white space for a clean and simple look.

Do not feel compelled to fill your slides with decorations or anything

else that does not contribute to better understanding.

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Technology

Techniques to build a slide presentation