Organizing Presentations

Before you actually create a PowerPoint presentation, you should determine the presentation's purpose, organize your ideas, and establish the flow of what you're going to say. Essentially, you need to create an outline.

→ To learn some useful outlining techniques, see "Creating an Outline and Storyboard,"

You can create an outline for a PowerPoint presentation in one of four ways:

• Create a presentation in PowerPoint using the outline pane in Outline View or Normal View.

• Create a presentation in PowerPoint using the AutoContent Wizard to design a basic outline and suggest appropriate content.

→ To learn what this wizard does, see "Using the AutoContent Wizard," p. 36

• Create a presentation in PowerPoint by entering information directly on the slides. This information then displays in the outline pane.

• Create an outline in another application, such as Word 2000, and import it into PowerPoint.

→ To learn how to import existing outlines, see "Importing Outlines from Microsoft Word and Other Programs,"

As you create your basic outline, keep several things in mind:

• You'll want to start nearly every presentation with a title slide that introduces your topic and its presenter.

• Think of several main points to cover and design your presentation around these talking points.

• Try not to cover more than one main topic or concept in an individual slide.

• Remember that a PowerPoint outline is usually designed to accompany a verbal presentation. Keep in mind what you want your audience to see versus what you want them to listen to during your presentation.

• If you're going to use bulleted lists extensively, try to keep them balanced and consistent. For example, a single bullet on a slide doesn't really make sense; a list should contain at least two bullets. Too many bullets on one slide and very few on another also may not work well.

• Consider using a summary slide to summarize the points you made during your presentation and conclude it.