Take 2! Double up your slides to meet your audience's needs
PowerPoint quick fix tip ??
Do you often need to print or email around a copy of your slide deck after your presentation? Does that encourage you to include ALLLLL the information and what you say during the presentation? Uh oh, that’s going to result in a boring, word-heavy #Deathbypowerpoint slide deck.
"But I need to include my points on the slide or when people look at it later it won't make sense", I hear you cry.
Never fear, there’s a really easy fix….create 2 versions of the slide deck. That's right, double up!
One version of the slide deck you can design and use when you are speaking – this one should be light, with minimal words and compliment what you will say. This is the visual aid version.
The other version becomes a document (rather than a visual aid) and includes more details, your talking points on each of the slides. This is the version that you can send out after your presentation for people to refer to or catch up on, if they missed you presenting. This is a document NOT a visual aid.
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Sounds like a lot of work? Are you short on time? An in-between solution, is to create the visual aid version and add your talking points into the “speaker notes” section, then print/save a pdf version of your PowerPoint with the speaker notes showing. This will result in only one version, but it meets both purposes.
Another option (yes, you have choices here!), which is particularly simple when presenting online, is to record you presenting to your (beautiful, helpful, illustrative, visual aid) slides and send out the recording to those who missed the presentation/meeting.
Remember: your PowerPoint is NOT a document. It's a visual aid. If you need it to be a document then create another document (in ppt or otherwise) or make it into a shareable slide deck by adding in your speaking note or record your presentation.
YOU are more important than your slide deck when you present. Make sure you're not giving your power to the PowerPoint! Double up when you need to.
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Published Author??Managing Global Business Relationships at International SOS??Entrepreneur
3 年I’m loving your newsletter. And the pictures are always cute!
Helping corporate execs and TEDx speakers become influential presenters??| Business presenting coach | Keynote speaker| ?? South European champion speaker
3 年Music to my eyes, ears, throat!!! YEEESSSS! I love the double-up idea, and how you skirted the usual "extra work" objection by making it easy to create a second document. Following Martin Field's excellent suggestion and taking it one step further - I do a quick copy and paste of the presenter's notes into a word document to share as a reminder/review after the fact (time 10-15 minutes). I sometimes include little thumbnail versions of the slides for reference - or for slides that need to be readable, a larger image. The document never amounts to more than a couple of pages and it's easier to read and comprehend.
Communications specialist - writing, editing, digital, media
3 年Great advice! Another (very similar) technique - create in-between 'busy' slides with the notes, and then put them in hidden mode for presentation. So you only show the minimal visual aid slides, but all the details are there in the saved and printed version.