Spotlight on PowerPoint

So it's 2008. A new year, and maybe time to learn a new skill – PowerPoint.

PowerPoint Presentation– It’s a phrase that’s banded around a lot, and if you have never actually used the software it can leave you cold when people start waxing lyrical about presentations and shows. It is a piece of software that is not used as often as it could be, and even then rarely to its full potential.

If you have enough understanding of Word to create a general letter and you know your job you can create a decent PowerPoint presentation. The hardest part of using PowerPoint is knowing what you want to say, how detailed you need to be, and to which type of audience your presentation is aimed. Some of the following points may seem like common sense but they are very much worth following to produce relevant, productive and, more importantly, impressive presentations.

Before Starting PowerPoint:

Clearly state the aim of your presentation:
- Showcasing a new product
- Training a new skill
- Updating management on departmental progress
- Applying for a new position
Consider your audience:
- Top level management – Formal, ‘short & sweet’ and with room to expand
- Prospective customers – Dynamic, to the point and memorable
- Colleagues in your team – Informal, factual and relevant
Gather together the images and text needed in one place:
- Copy needed from existing documents
- New information typed out
- Data needed from external sources
- Company/Customer logos
- Product photographs
Consider your colour/font scheme:
- Corporate colours/fonts always go down well:
  - Ask your Marketing / IT team for the RGB values of your company colours
  - View your customers website for their company colours
  - Find out the Company/Customers preferred Font Style
Decide how many slides and how detailed:
- If you are going to talk the audience through the presentation you may not need very detailed/many slides
- If your audience may ask a lot of questions you may need extra slides ready
- If the information is presented better or easier elsewhere, e.g. in other file types, on the internet or intranet, add links to that information
Decide if you need a visually stimulating or factual presentation:
- If a factual presentation, e.g. for upper management, is needed then either a non‑animated or minimally animated show is required
- If you are showcasing a new product to perspective customers then animation between slides and between factual points maybe a good idea
- NOTE: Less is more when it comes to animation. If you are too over the top with your animation it will, at the least, distract from your point or, at the worst, make you look amateurish.

Once you have followed the points above you are ready to create your presentation. You know the information necessary and how you wish to put that information across. PowerPoint is just like Word – you type your text and add your images. The only difference is that instead of pages you break down your work into slides. If you need a detailed, extensive and long presentation (more than 20 slides) you may want to consider creating a story‑board on paper first. When you are ready you should create a Master Slide before you start to type any information.

Master Slides

Master Slides are a feature of PowerPoint that even the most experienced of users rarely utilise, because for some reason Microsoft have kept them very well hidden. Master Slides allow you to set background information such dates and company logos, colour and font schemes and generic text, e.g. Company names, before you insert your specific information. This gives a consistent, professional look and feel to all your presentations.

Open PowerPoint
- A new blank presentation is created
Select View + Master + Slide Master
- This will take you to the Master View

Background:
- Select Format + Background + Dropdown + Fill Effects
- Two Colours using a Company colour and White with a Diagonal up Shading style is always effective + OK

Font Colour/Style:
- Click in the various parts of the slide and choose your Font Style and colour
- Do not type anything into these areas, these are just for formatting
Company/Customer Logos:
- Choose Insert + Picture + From File + Relevant file
- Place and size your logo – this will appear on all slides
When you are happy with your format click Close Master Slide

Creating your Presentation

Once you have established the basis for your presentation you can now start to add your factual content. As tempting as it may seem to start with completely blank slides and add your content, I recommend using the predefined Slide Layouts as these will adhere to your Master Slide formatting most faithfully.

Click the New Slide icon whenever you need a new slide
Use the Title Slide or the Bulleted List slides where possible
Click and type your information into the text boxes provided
Your predefined formatting will flow through your presentation
If you wish to change any formatting make sure that you choose View + Master View + Slide Master and change it in this view, as this will ensure consistent changes throughout
If you wish to add Images, Tables and Charts use the Title Only layout and the Insert menu to add your content
- To find out more info on this check out our PowerPoint Introduction / Advanced
  courses
Save your presentation as often as possible

Viewing your Presentation

To view your presentation from the start press F5
To view your presentation from the slide you are working on press Shift + F5
To end a presentation press ESC

Animating your Presentation

You can add Slide Transitions or individual animation to your presentations. Slide Transitions are the way you move from slide to slide and are the most popular type of animation. You can also add movement to individual objects on your slides. This should be used only where relevant and necessary, as this is the area in which most presentations let themselves down by adding too much animation for the content.

For Transitions and Custom Animation choose the Slide Show menu
Transitions:
- Choose your slide and then the required transition
Animation:
- Choose your object and then the animation required
  - You can choose multiple animations per object
  - You can customise the direction and speed of each animation
For more information on both Transitions and Animation see our PowerPoint Advanced
courses

Most computer systems include PowerPoint and it is a package that, once mastered, is useful and impressive in presenting all types of information. You can convey all sorts of concepts with this package from making detailed sales progression data more interesting to producing a presentation of your newly acquired Christmas party photographs for your team.

Hand on heart it is a package that is well worth spending a little time to get to know.