How to Prepare a Slide Presentation

 

Please read and follow these guidelines. If you use PowerPoint, please use the template for which you will find a link below.

Planning

Before you make a presentation, consider this wise Chinese proverb:

"Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand."

Your goals as a speaker are to make listeners understand, remember, and act on your ideas. To get them interested and involved, include effective visual aids. Some experts say that we acquire 85 percent of all our knowledge visually. Therefore, an oral presentation that incorporates visual aids is far more likely to be understood and retained than one lacking enhancement. And remember that presentation slides summarize; they do not tell the whole story. That's the job of the presenter. Your slides should provide an aid to the audience as they hear you present your ideas. Slides are not a script that the presenter reads to the audience.

Building Bullet Points

When you prepare your slides, translate the major headings in your presentation outline into titles. Then build bullet points using short phrases. Avoid using numbered lists unless the numbers provide significant information—e.g., a hierarchical order from first to last. Bullet points are for parallel concepts, all of which relate to the title of your slide.

One of the best features about electronic presentation programs is the "build" capability. You can focus the viewer's attention on each specific item as you add bullet points line by line. The bulleted items "fly" in from the left, right, top, or bottom. They can also build or dissolve from the center. As each new bullet point is added, leave the previous ones on the slide but show them in lightened text. In building bullet points or in moving from one slide to the next, you can use slide transition elements, such as "wipe-outs," glitter, ripple, liquid, and vortex effects. But don't overdo it. Experts suggest choosing one transition effect and applying it consistently.

Fonts

Working with Color

Tips for Using Slides

PowerPoint Template

Click on this link to download the PowerPoint template you may use to prepare your slides. (Depending on which browser you use and its preferences, you may have to click and hold down the mouse button to download this file or you may have to change your preferences to download rather than display files with a .ppt extension.) This template may be opened with Apple's Keynote presentation software.

Contact the CUG Office for technical assistance in using PowerPoint.

For assistance with the content of your presentation, contact your SIG Chair.

(revised Friday, September 5, 2008)

Plan now for
CUG 2011