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Editor's Notes

• #2: Speaker/Reader: Refer to the notes throughout this presentation for details related to each slide.
• #4: There are 6 steps you can take to building better slides. Let’s go through each, one by one…
• #5: The first step to smarter slides is to make them work harder so your audience doesn't have to. A case in point is what you choose to put at the top of your slides. Research conducted by Michael Alley that shows that headlines that summarize your point result in better learning than those that don't.
• #6: Most PowerPoint slides include a heading such as "Results" or "The Future" or "Lessons Learned." Although those words generically describe the content or a slide, they make it harder for your audience to understand the point you're trying to make. The reason?�� The heading is so vague that their minds are forced��to scan to the rest of the information on the slide to figure out, "What about the results?" or "What about the future?" or "What about the lessons learned?" Make your audience's lives - and cognitive processing - easier by summarizing your main point at the top of your slide in a complete sentence, in two lines or fewer. Let’s take these slides and re-work them to show you the difference a good headline can make.
• #7: Original slide. Online…Online what? You’ve got to think “WIFM?” What’s in it for me? This is a page from a presentation a media company did to SELL a brand on investing nearly $1 million in their station!!
• #8: Revised slide. Ah, that’s what’s in it for me! Custom…7 monthly versions…now that’s starting to sound like it’s worth $1 million.
• #9: Original slide. Execution Details. Blah. This is a presentation that a media agency did to sell a brand on a very bold media idea. But the why just isn’t jumping out at you.
• #10: Revised slide. Even though this headline probably seems long, it makes it a lot easier for the audience to get to the most important point right away. It sells the new media approach. Sell vs. Tell.
• #11: Original slide. There’s a big message in this slide, but it’s not immediately obvious what it is, is it?
• #12: Revised slide. Clearer. Tighter. Better.
• #13: If your heading is clear, your slide is clear, and your audience is clear. And with all of that sudden clarity in the room, your audience is free to focus their attention on you, and what you are saying verbally. And that's the main point after all, isn't it?
• #14: It's true that one of the easiest things to do in PowerPoint is to add information, and then to keep on adding more and��more and more... It's also true that one of the hardest things to do in PowerPoint is to subtract information, and then to keep subtracting more and more and more... Why is it so easy for us��to add, yet so hard to subtract?
• #15: There are many factors that��contribute to the situation, including: We've got lots to say, and we need to keep the ideas on the slide��so we are sure to cover them. We need to demonstrate our credibility by showing all the backup information that got us to the point we're making. If we delete something, we may not ever have it again. Whatever the reasons, the result is a slide that is so loaded with information, your audience can't see the forest for the (bullet point) trees. Meditate on the situation by adopting a new mantra: "single slide, single thought.“ When you apply��Step 1, write out your point in a complete sentence and put it in your headline, you suddenly have focus��for your slide. With this focus in place in your headline, only add to your slide the information that will back up your point. If you need to create more slides to make multiple points, so be it. The result should be simpler, more focused slides. Let’s give it a try…
• #16: Original slide. Three thoughts in here…and lots of points supporting each one.
• #17: Revised slides (you’ll now see 3 slides). One thought for each. It makes for more slides, yes, but now the slides are working to support you, and your audience is focused on you.
• #18: Thought #2. Animation can also help manage the flow of info to your audience, instead of bullets.
• #19: Thought #3. Again, use animation to deliver these points one at a time. Now you’ve done justice to all three thoughts.
• #20: Here’s another bullet point splatter. Yikes!!
• #21: What if we got really crazy, and just TALKED to all that extra content?
• #22: The content isn’t gone, it’s in the notes for the presenter. And more importantly, the audience isn’t focused on the words, they’re listening to the presenter.
• #23: Last one. Original slide. Again, 3 thoughts. Lots of copy. This slide might be okay for a leave-behind.
• #24: Revised slides (1 of 3). But in your on-screen presentation, try something that keeps the audience engaged.
• #25: 2 of 3. Try short-handing copy with symbols instead.
• #26: 3 of 3. Challenge yourself (at least in your screen version) to use as few words as possible.
• #27: It's a truism that the less you have on your slide, the more your audience will focus their attention on you. When you apply "single slide, single thought" to the slide you're working on, you'll be on the way to creating singular clarity that both you and��your audience will appreciate.
• #28: At first glance, making your slides smarter may appear to be a matter of making your��graphics look better. However, your hands are tied��when you've got too much information on a slide to begin with. For example, a large photograph��or a simple screen capture may be all you need to make your visual point.�� If that's the case, what do you do with all of that text and other information you have on the slide?��
• #29: The notes section at the bottom of your normal view can be expanded to make it easier to add content that you’ll talk to, so you can limit the slide to a powerful visual. You can also print out your slides with your notes at the bottom for your reference when speaking, or as a full leave-behind for your audience.
• #30: Original slide. You likely don't want to get rid of the text on this slide because it's important that you have it, so��you may��bypass the��effective visual approach and leave the graphics small.�� But it doesn't have to be that way - you can have your information cake and eat it too. To make the best use of PowerPoint,��expand thinking that the on-screen slide is the only place to put information.��
• #31: Revised slide. The visuals bring more emotion to the plan, and can be revealed one at a time through animation showing passage of time.
• #32: Revised slide. This notes version makes a very nice summary hand-out as well.
• #33: Here’s another example. This is the original slide. But take a look at what it could be…
• #34: Revised slide. Rather than just talking to the shows, using their well-known logos can help get the audience excited about the opportunity while you talk to the details.
• #35: Remember, you can print your presentation in Notes Pages format, so you're sure to have all of the information that was communicated both on-screen and off-screen. Suddenly, you've doubled the available space to place information. When you've got a secure��place to put your detailed information, you've got much more freedom to apply effective design techniques in the slide area.
• #36: It's always been a struggle to make PowerPoint work for you to create effective on-screen slides, and at the same time to hold the information you need. When you shift the detail to the notes area, you've solved the problem and are well on the way to much smarter slides.
• #37: Is there a graphic trapped inside your slide, yearning to be free? As you've been applying new approaches to your slides step by step, you're gradually finding more focus for your ideas (making your point clear in the headline, keeping a single thought per single slide) and making more space for your graphics (shifting the detail to the notes area). Next, take a look at an existing slide in your presentation, and see if there's a graphic you already have that you expand in size - and in impact.
• #38: Here’s an example where a media agency is again trying to sell a pretty cool media idea. But it’s really lost on this page. As always, your headline should summarize the point you want to make, and your notes area should contain the detail that you'll explain verbally. When you look at your headline, perhaps it's a single��graphic that will best communicate the point you want to make. And perhaps you already have the graphic on your slide. But when��your slide was crowded with ideas, you may have made your graphic small to fit amid the bullet points and other details. Let’s take a look at the revised version.
• #39: Revised slide. The text has been moved to the notes section.
• #40: Now that you’re getting comfortable with a big graphic, why not try expanding the graphic to fill the entire slide, and make a bigger impact. Let’s try that with this next one…
• #41: Wow. Lots of graphics on this page. Let’s see if we can get focused on the right one. Here’s a tip. Click on the graphic and hold down the Shift key (to preserve the proportions) while you drag one of the corners of the graphic outward.�� Scale the graphic as large as you can, filling the screen.�� If your headline is in the way, or the graphic speaks for itself and doesn't need the headline, then right-click on the graphic and select Bring to Front - your headline remains on the slide, but is just behind the graphic. Review the slide with the graphic, and ask a few questions: Does this graphic make the point described in my headline? Is the graphic clear and crisp, without blurriness or pixelation? Is this graphic a good fit for me and my audiences? If you answer "yes" to all of these questions, then your work on the slide is done. If the answer is "no" to any of these questions, it's time to search your own photo collection, to create your own graphic, or to visit a stock photography site to find a better graphic that's��a good match.
• #42: On this slide, I’ve actually hidden the slide background altogether. Your “annotations” don’t always need to be only in the notes section. Look for interesting ways to add them in, and try animation to reveal them when you’re ready to talk to them.
• #43: Not a bad start. But could it be better? I think so…
• #44: Revised slide. The copy was really hard to read, and a bit distracting in the original version.
• #45: Moving copy to the notes section allows the audience to focus on the visual, rather than trying to read tiny copy.
• #46: When you scale a graphic to fill the screen, you've managed to liberate the untapped power of your slide - and create a much smarter kind of��slide.
• #47: You've come a long way toward smarter slides��in only four steps, and now it's time to do perhaps the smartest thing of all -- use your slides to move from 1-way presentation to 2-way conversation. When we fire up PowerPoint, we automatically go into default 1-way presentation mode, where the screen and the slides are our speaker notes or��even a��visual aid to accompany our verbal communication. But PowerPoint has much more potential than that. Let's say you're at the start of your presentation - the first crucial moments that you have to make an impact on your audience; the time period when your audience evaluates you and decides whether you and your material are credible. We're often so nervous when we start��that we just want to speed through the material and get to a place where we're feeling more comfortable.�� The result of your race to finish is that your audience is doesn't get to participate in any way, so they shut down. It's no wonder that they don't feel willing to participate later on in your presentation, because you didn't establish early on that you'd like them to be involved. Since speeding up leads to shutting down, try slowing down to open up a new kind of dynamic.
• #48: Try this: use a simple graphic on a slide as a visual prompt to open up dialog with your audience. This is a particularly powerful technique at part of the opening to your presentation when you want to make sure that you're answering for your audience "what's in this presentation for me?"
• #49: Or try putting your audience in the driver’s seat. Give them the choice on which item to discuss first. Use hyperlinks to go to jump from section to section.
• #50: Another way to keep the audience engaged is to give them a hand out at the beginning of the session, and ask them to fill it out as you go along.
• #51: Using techniques like this seem so simple, yet their impact is very sophisticated. With one slide, you're able to open up conversation, demonstrate that your presentation is 2-way, and adapt your material based on your audience’s response. All in all, that's one simple step to one really��smart slide.
• #52: Sometimes the smartest slide you can use��is the one you can't see. When your presentation is in �ݺ�ߣ Show mode, hit the "B" key on your keyboard and it will turn your screen black. (Alternatively, you can display a blank slide with a simple black background.)
• #53: During a presentation, both you and your audience become accustomed to the changing images and words on the big projector screen. The effect is mesmerizing, and a kind of hypnosis��is happening that no one notices - until you turn off the screen altogether.
• #54: Suddenly, you've broken the PowerPoint spell and your audience is focused on you. Completely. The effect is jarring, but an extremely effective way to capture attention. Use this technique sparingly,��at the moment in your presentation when you want to make your most important point.
• #55: Hit the "B" key, pause, then make your point. When you're finished, hit the "B" key again��and the screen will return to the slide that you blacked out.��Click to advance to the next slide. (If��you want the screen to return from black to��the next slide in your presentation, insert��a black slide as described earlier.) By the simple step of clicking the "B" key, you'll��be��making��a smart statement, without ever needing to create a slide at all.
• #56: So that’s it. 6 steps to creating smarter slides. Try them out today and if you’d like to learn more, pick up a copy of Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson.