|
To make slides clearer for your audience, put one point on
a slide. Take a slide with 3 bullet points, for example, and
turn it into 3 slides. Then add an image, diagram, or chart
to illustrate the point. The benefits? Audiences can integrate
one point at a time more easily than three. They remember
it better, too. The slide is simpler, so it has more impact.
Your audience listens to you rather than reading the slide
ahead of you and then tuning out.
At the same time, get rid of an overdone, irrelevant template
and let the illustration stand on its own.
The technique? Easy! Here are steps for this bulleted slide
with 4 bullets on it. It describes the 4 ways that insurance
companies finance health insurance.
1. First, think about images, diagrams, or charts that will
best illustrate your point. If you'll use images, find high
quality photos and save them in the same folder as the presentation..
If you'll use diagrams, sketch them out. For charts, gather
the necessary data.
2. Remove the template. It's totally irellevant to the topic,
anyway. To do so, you just attach the blank template. Click
the Design button on the toolbar, and choose Default Design.pot
in the Available for Use section. (In 2007, click the Design
tab, and in the Themes group, choose Office Theme.)
3. If you haven't formatted the slide master as you want,
do that now. For example, most slides would be better with
a sans-serif font throughout and a left-justified title. Bottom
vertical justification is also preferable if you'll have titles
that take up 2 lines.
4. Duplicate the slide. Click the slide in the slide pane
and press Ctrl+D 3 times, for a total of4 identical slides.
5. Click the first slide in the slide pane. If your illustration
will take up everything but the title, change the layout to
Title Only. Right-click a blank area of the slide, choose
Slide Layout (Layout in 2007), and choose the Title Only option.
then delete the body text placeholder on the slide.
6. With the first slide displayed, delete the bulleted text,
leaving only the first point. Click the border of the placeholder
and click the Bullets button, to remove the bullets.
7. If the text is longer than one line, you'll see an outdent,
meaning that the first line of text is at the margin and the
following lines are indented. To remove the outdent, click
the text, and drag the bottom triangle on the ruler to the
left, matching the top triangle. (If you don't see the ruler,
choose View> Ruler.)
8. Insert the image you want to use. Or create a diagram,
or chart. If you use an image, you'll often need to crop and
resize it. Use the Crop button on the Picture toolbar to crop
the image. (In 2007, use the Crop button on the Format tab
that appears when you select the image.) Drag the corner handles
to resize it, remembering the too much resizing may make the
image unclear. Then move the image to the desired location.
9. Move and resize the text placeholder so that the text
fits with the illustration. You may have to, or want to, adjust
the title placeholder as well.
10. Continue with the rest of the slides, so that each slide
has one point and an accompanying illustration.
Makeover an existing slide today! You'll be amazed at the
difference! Banish bullet-heavy slides from your life!
Ellen Finkelstein is the best-selling author of How to Do
Everything with PowerPoint 2007 (and previous editions for
PowerPoint 2002 and PowerPoint 2003). Other books include
PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive
Classroom Projects and 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should
Know.
|
