Creating A Powerpoint Presentation Has Never Been Easier

How to make a presentation that works! Creating a PowerPoint presentation has never been easier.

The PowerPoint program from Microsoft has been at the very core of public presentations since the 1990's. There are those that say that if it wasn't for PowerPoint then the whole concept of making presentations to the either the public, professional or business communities would not exist today.

PowerPoint is basically a user friendly program, based around the Microsoft Office suite. The interface on all the Office problems is very similar, and anyone who has ever worked with Word or Excel will quickly get used to the command icons on PowerPoint.

However creating a PowerPoint presentation does not take all, if not any of the duty from the presenter. It should be remembered first and foremost that PowerPoint is a vehicle that the presenter uses to emphasize the main points of the presentation. It is not meant to take the place of the presenter.

Once this aspect has been understood, then the presenter can go about setting up his presentation to take full advantage of this valuable multi-media tool.

Here is a brief rundown of the steps required in creating a PowerPoint presentation.

Step One: The Foundations

Assuming that you possess basic computer skills, and of Microsoft Office, then the first thing you should do is open PowerPoint and click on the new presentation icon. Assuming that you know the subject of the presentation you are about to make, you should already give your presentation a name. You should already save the presentation in a file on your hard disc, with preferably a link on your desk top for easy access. Any photographs, sketches and graphs should that you have assembled should also be saved in the file you have created. To avoid unnecessary jumble, you might consider saving these illustrations in a separate image file.

Step Two: Creation

When you open PowerPoint you will notice that you are given a choice of templates to work on to create your presentation. You have a choice of the following.

  • The first is blank, and you can add all the graphics, effects, colors and fonts that you choose.
  • The next offers you a basic design template, with preprogrammed color schemes, fonts to be used and other options. Unless you are a gifted or thwarted graphic or layout artist this should be option you should choose.

Now that you have chosen which option you want to use to create your PowerPoint presentation, you will be pleased to discover that the program does not leave you on your own at any stage. For each page that you create, you will be provided with a variety of lay out options to get the most out of each stage of your presentation. You are now ready to begin to fill the blank pages with content.

This can be a most invigorating stage of creating a PowerPoint presentation, but don't allow yourself to get too carried away. Remember to save your work every few minutes. In the event that your computer crashes, you will have to begin again from scratch if you don't save the material periodically. All of us know what a soul destroying experience that can be.

Each page that you create in your PowerPoint presentation is known as a "slide" and you can have as many slides as you want or need to get your message across. You can also change the order of the slides if you wish or insert new ones at any time.

Step Three: The finishing touches.

Once you have created all the slides that you need, you can begin to "stage manage" your PowerPoint presentation. You can add animations, sound effects and even video. You can time the transition period between slides, or set up the presentation so that the slides can only be changed manually.

Once this stage has been completed you are ready to go. Take your time to iron our any technical glitches that you think may occur, and then you will be ready to face your audience. All the thought and preparation that went into creating a PowerPoint presentation will reap its rewards!