Creating Effective Presentations Using PowerPoint

Course Outline

Duration: 1/2 Day

Introduction

This course is designed to offer you a practical, hands-on demonstration of how you can use Microsoft PowerPoint to improve the quality and effectiveness of your presentations. It helps you to see PowerPoint in a new light, moving beyond the concept that slides are a container for speaker’s notes and into a new vision of PowerPoint as a tool that can help you achieve your business goals with more interesting, engaging, and meaningful presentations.

Prerequisites

Before attending this course, students must have:

•	The functional need to make presentations to audiences of different types, for a range of business reasons.
•	Familiarity with the fundamental components of a presentation, including a structure that includes a beginning, middle, and end; the need to be confident; and the desire to engage an audience rather than simply talking at them.
•	Hands-on experience with PowerPoint, including the ability to:
•	Write and edit text in the title area of slides.
•	Insert, resize, reposition, and manipulate graphics on a slide.
•	Work in PowerPoint’s various design views, including Normal, Notes Page, and Slide Sorter.

Course Content:

Module 1: Presenting Clearly and Confidently with PowerPoint

The module introduces new approaches that you can apply to create more effective PowerPoint presentations and it describes the basic criteria for defining the effectiveness of a presentation, from the perspectives of both presenters and audiences.

Topics and Activities

•	What Is an Effective Presentation?
•	Demonstration: Presenting with a Conventional Bullet Point Presentation
•	Discussion: Analyzing the Presentation Case Study
•	Expert Video: Presenting with Clarity and Confidence
•	Making Presentations More Effective

Module 2: Maximizing the Use of the Notes Page View

This module shows you how to simplify the layout of a slide by shifting on-screen information into the Notes Area. This simple but powerful technique will help you expand the space available to present information.

Topics and Activities

•	The Importance of Moving Spoken Text Off the Screen
•	Maximizing the Use of the Notes Page View
•	Exercise 1: Making Use of the Notes Page View in a Student Example
•	Exercise 2: Presenting with a Slide Designed in Notes Page View

Module 3: Summarizing the Main Idea of a Slide

This module demonstrates how you can more clearly communicate your ideas by summarizing the main idea of a slide in a complete sentence. This technique helps the audience and the presenter keep track of the key point of the slide.

Topics and Activities

•	How a Summary Headline Assists Both Audience and Presenter
•	Demonstration: Summarizing the Main Idea of a Slide
•	Exercise 1: Summarizing the Main Idea of a Slide in a Student Example
•	Exercise 2: Presenting with a Summary Headline

Module 4: Using the Full Screen Area to Display Graphics

This module illustrates the power of using the full screen area to display graphics. Because many presenters shrink graphics down to sizes that lose their visual impact, this module helps you to maximize the impact of the visuals on your slides.

Topics and Activities

•	The Power of Showing Instead of Telling
•	Demonstration: Using the Entire Slide Area to Display a Graphic
•	Exercise 1: Displaying a Graphic in the Entire Slide Area in a Student Example
•	Exercise 2: Presenting with a Full-Screen Graphic

Module 5: Applying Five Overlooked Techniques to Your Presentations

This module highlights five overlooked techniques that can help you increase the effectiveness of your presentations. Although most presenters are familiar with the basic set of techniques, they may not be aware that their delivery can quickly improve by using this additional set of techniques.

Topics and Activities

•	How Five Overlooked Techniques Can Make a Big Difference
•	Demonstration 1: Applying Five Overlooked Techniques
•	Exercise: Applying the Five Techniques in a Student Example
•	Demonstration 2: Presenting with the New Trey Research Slides
•	Discussion: Putting It All Together