Anatomy of a PowerPoint Presentation
Putting together a basic PowerPoint presentation takes little more than the spark of an idea and a few minutes with the AutoContent Wizard. Assembling an effective, persuasive presentation, on the other hand, demands much more.
Although the next few chapters deal with the mechanics of creating a dynamite presentation, one thought should remain uppermost in your mind: Content rules. A poorly conceived and executed PowerPoint presentation will leave your audience cold, no matter how many fancy transitions, animations, or Web links you employ. Conversely, a compelling story, well told, will stick with your audience even if it's presented exclusively in 14-point Times New Roman.
Note
Although PowerPoint can help you create effective presentations, becoming a better public speaker is largely up to you. If you want to hone your presentation skills, we recommend picking up a copy of Special Edition Using Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 by Patrice Rutledge (also by Que, ISBN: 0-7897-2519-3).
Figure 28.1 illustrates the basic components of a PowerPoint presentation—slides, notes, and a panel on the left side that can be switched between a text outline and slide thumbnails.
Figure 28.1. PowerPoint's Normal view includes most of the information you need to assemble a presentation.
A fully loaded slide (see Figure 28.2) has at most six parts:
Figure 28.2. All the components of a PowerPoint slide are shown here, with slide thumbnails in place of a text outline.
Body text, the main part of the slide. The text on a slide frequently appears as a series of bulleted or numbered phrases. In fact, any kind of text can appear in this part of a slide—bullets and numbers are not required. The text sits inside a resizable and movable container, called a placeholder, which you can see if you click any of the bulleted text in the slide pane.
Note
PowerPoint help screens sometimes refer to the text and its surrounding placeholder as a "text object."
Some slides contain one or more graphics—pictures or video clips that, in the best circumstances, serve to illuminate your presentation. Each graphic resides in its own resizable placeholder, too.
Note
You will also see references to "graphic objects" in the online help. The term is meant to include a graphic and its surrounding placeholder.
The date and time which, if they show up on the slide at all, generally appear at the lower-left corner.
The footer usually appears at the bottom of the slide, in the middle.
And finally, a slide number might sit in the lower-right corner.
Most presentations begin with a title slide,which includes the title of the presentation, the speaker's name, and other introductory details. Other slides in a presentation can also be title slides—you might use a title slide to introduce different portions of a long presentation, for example—but in most cases, you'll have just one title slide in a presentation, and it will serve as the first slide.
Note
Don't be confused by the terminology. A title slide is, in most cases, a slide that introduces a presentation. A slide title, on the other hand, is usually the first line on a slide.