Powerpoint Presentation for the Beginners (Chapter 3)

In our last chapter, we discussed that how draft for the presentation shall be prepared. Once the draft is finalized, we can start working on power point to make our presentation. Remember that putting your name & organization name on first slide is general trend but not mandatory. You can put some pics or graphics on first slide to introduce the topic first before you give your own introduction. Its up to you to decide that you want a conventional start (your intro first) or a slightly different approach (if possible).

Now, question here is what to put in the slides. Shall we put all the details and facts & figures or only the title of the content. Well, it depends on various factors. If it is a technical presentation for technical experts, facts & figures may be filled in your slides, but don't make it too congested. Try to make it in points rather than paragraphs copied from draft onto the slides. The audience shall listen to you rather than reading everything from the slides. Remember, slides are there to aid you, not to divert all attention from you to them (slides). 

After first slide having your topic of discussion, and your name designation etc., next slide shall introduce the topic. Even if topic has been introduced before giving your intro as explained above, a formal definition or introduction can be given by relating it to the content to be presented. Its like briefing the audience about the table of contents without mentioning it on the slides.

A typical slide will consist of TITLE on the top. Then in body part you may add one or two pics or graphs that shall be clearly visible to all, or your content under that heading, mentioned in points. For example I'm presenting my topic on alternative fuels. After introduction, I want to explain about problems of conventional fuels that leads to search for alternatives. My slide may look like this:

WHY NON-CONVENTIONAL FUELS

• Limited stock of conventional fuels
• Increasing Demand
• Global warming concerns
• Control the rising prices of conventional fuel

So, the matter that has to be explained is briefed in the slide as indicated above, but main content is still with you. So, while audience will understand that what points you are going to cover in this slide, they are still going to listen to you to get the details. In this minor facts like expected availability of conventional fuel (say for 45 years) or fact like demand has doubled over past seven years may be spoken by you without their mention on the slide. Some other facts like name of any Govt. policy or any other mandate can be mentioned in the slide though.

So, next time we will be continuing with this chapter. till then if you have any doubts, you may leave your comments here.