If you are asked to deliver a presentation at work, you will either be asked to or might want to consider creating a slideshow to accompany it - even if it’s just a few slides long. The primary advantage of using a slideshow is that visual representation can help to reinforce the key points that you are making and help your audience to understand certain concepts better. Humans are pretty visually orientated when it comes to picking up new ideas or learning new skills; they have also been known to lose focus and get bored quite quickly. A slideshow accompanying your presentation, if done well, it can make it easier for your audience to retain key information and it will probably keep them more engaged.

Contents

  1. Planning your slides
  2. Ultimate do’s and don’ts
  3. Shortcuts
Did you know that 350 PowerPoint presentations are started every second and that there are 500,000,000 PowerPoint users worldwide?

Creating a slideshow is not as simple as whacking a few images and a bit of text onto some slides, in order for it to be effective you have to consider several factors: which information to highlight, which graphics to use, how to style it, how much to put on one slide and more. In this lesson, we’ll cover the basics of how to create a professional slideshow to accompany your presentation.

Planning your slides

What should I create my slides in?

First things first, you need to decide which software to use to create your slides. Your options are:

  1. Powerpoint: This is the most widely used and established presentation software. You’ll definitely be able to do everything you’d want to be able to do with a slideshow in Powerpoint. Powerpoint is included in Microsoft Office and can be used on Mac and PC.
  2. Keynote: This is part of Apple iWork and exclusively for Mac users. So, if you don’t have a Mac then this one isn’t for you. Although the support isn’t quite as extensive as it is for Powerpoint, there is still more than enough resources available on there.
  3. Google Slides : This is part of Google’s office suite and is included within Google Drive. Google Slides is relatively new and definitely the most basic software; features are limited and there are few effects and templates to choose from. However, if you are collaborating with multiple people on a presentation, Slides might be the right choice for you; it’s web-based, which means that multiple people can access an up-to-date online version of the file from any device at any time (as long as they are connected to the internet).

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