Powerpoint PresentationWhen you make a PowerPoint presentation, you are like a kid playing with toys.
1. Collect a list of facts about your topic and paste them into slides.
2. Look at the list and ask yourself what is the main idea or message to be found this collection of facts? Express that idea in the introduction and again in the conclusion.
3. Use all the features of PowerPoint to make the facts (one fact per slide) clear and beautiful, highlighting the most important ideas with cool effects that make them more memorable.
I am not a Microsoft Office expert and don't know everything about PowerPoint. Yet, I do know the most important slide presentation secret!
The Slide Presentation Secret
The purpose of a slide presentation is to share one big idea, and make it beautiful!
A slide presentation is just another way to give a report about a topic. Why not just give a report?
Because a slide presentation is more effective! It is more likely to get people to remember your main idea.
Do you notice that I do a line break after only one or two sentences? It's so much easier to read short bits of information...
But now that I've eased you into my presentation, I can write a whole paragraph. I caught your interest by doing something unexpected: I talked about toys. So try to catch the audience's interest by doing something unexpected, and then express your facts in small bite-sized chunks. Use one slide for each fact.
Express One Big Idea
The purpose of using a slide presentation instead of writing a report is to communicate in a way people can receive and remember. If you read an entire page of a book and then close the book, can you remember every sentence from the page? Probably not. If you can't remember every sentence from a page of a book, we cannot expect an audience to remember every sentence of a presentation!
Give the audience one fact with each slide, and dwell on that fact for a minute so they have time to consider it. And do something to keep their attention. Hello??! You have to catch the audience's attention once in a while, because it wanders off during your presentation.If you're lucky, they will remember a few of the ideas. You could write a report instead of making a PowerPoint presentation, but PPT is a more effective method of communication. Pasting one idea into each slide makes it EASIER for people to understand.
It's not a lot of writing. Just list the main facts, and the rest is playing. After you paste some sentences/facts/information into the slides, you get to decorate them and use all the fun effects offered by Microsoft Powerpoint (or whatever program you are using). Playing around with the options, you can make it a beautiful presentation. That's why I say it's like playing with toys.
Three Easy Steps
The first step is to come up with a list of facts you want to share Next, identify the “Big Idea” that is the theme or message of the presentation. Do you know what a theme is? This article you're reading has a theme: “Playing with toys.” The theme is not the same as the main idea or message. The theme is a concept that keeps your audience's attention. The theme can also be a message that you repeat over and over. When you have collected lots of ideas and pasted an idea into each slide, it is easy to find the “big idea” that becomes the theme of your presentation. Finally, go back and use the features of PowerPoint to make your presentation beautiful and interesting.
Yes, the last step is to make that idea beautiful. A poem is different from ordinary writing because it is presented in a way that is beautiful and interesting. A song is different from ordinary speaking in a way that is beautiful and interesting. Do you have an idea that is important enough to be explained with a whole slide presentation full of supporting ideas? If so, you should present it in a way that is beautiful and interesting.
Supporting Facts: Every slide is an interesting fact presented in a colorful and attractive way, sometimes with animation, music, and other effects.
Main Theme / Message: The presentation begins and ends with slides that expresse one big, beautiful idea -- the theme/message of the presentation. Remember, people in the audience cannot remember everything. If you ask them what a presentation was about, they cannot remember all the ideas, but they can remember one main idea.
There, did you catch the trick of making an excellent PowerPoint Presentation in no time? It's not a lot of work; it's all about getting rid of work so communication is easier for you and for your audience. And don't forget to enjoy it! Making a PowerPoint presentation is all about playing with ideas, just like kids playing with toys.