11 Steps to Presentations - Page 3 of 4

Last time, you went shopping. You came home with text, data, visuals, media, and a receipt or two (legal clearances count). The groceries are on the counter. Now it's time to cook.

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Step 5 - Attempt
Step 6 - Architecture
Step 7 - Navigation

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This part covers three steps: Attempt, Architecture, and Navigation. They’re the steps most people skip. It’s a bit like driving to a new city, then checking the map only after you’ve already missed two turns. Give these steps a few minutes, and the rest of the trip gets a lot smoother. Here’s the quick route:

Step 5 - Attempt

Attempt means assembling all your content in a linear order. Leave interactivity for later. The result is a rough cut. Think of it as a test batch of cookies. Nobody serves the first tray without tasting it. Play the rough cut through and use it to:

• Check the flow and edit where it breaks.
• Set timings, either manual or automatic.
• Test builds and transitions.
• Remove content you don't need and add what is missing.

Repeat this cycle as often as necessary. A rough cut is meant to be revised.

If you storyboard on screen, an ink-enabled device such as a tablet PC can help. Handwritten notes and sketches can sit alongside your slides, and Microsoft Word can double as a storyboard. You can also build presentations from Word outlines.

Step 6 - Architecture

Think of it as tidying a closet. Everything is in there, but can you find anything? Architecture is where you step back and look at how your presentation is built. Do you need new slides? A different order? Fewer slides overall? Be ready to move things around and throw some things out.

Here are four house rules:

• Split crowded slides. Picture a dinner party where every dish goes on one plate. Soup, salad, pasta, and dessert all run together, and nobody enjoys the meal. A crowded slide does the same thing to your audience. Serve the content in courses instead: spread it over two or more slides and give each slide one idea to digest.
• Test readability. Think of your slide as a road sign. A driver has a second or two to read it from far away, so it must be big, bold, and clear. Adjust the size, weight, color, and shadows until the text stands out. Then walk to the back of the room and check again. Text that looks fine at arm’s length can vanish from ten feet away, like a restaurant menu you can read at your table but not from the street.
• Keep it consistent. Use the same text styles and sizes from slide to slide.
• Use no more than two fonts. Dingbat fonts don't count. Think of fonts as clothes: a top and bottom make an outfit, but five different patterns make a costume.

Step 7 - Navigation

Interactivity is expected nowadays. It is especially attractive considering the fact that you can combine it with a linear presentation.

A navigation structure is rarely required for a linear presentation - since all presentation programs have shortcut keys to proceed to the next or previous slides, or to start the entire presentation from the beginning. On the Windows platform, most of these options are available by a right-click of the mouse during a showing. However, adding interactivity takes so little effort that there seems little justification in avoiding it. In real terms, this means that clicking an object or text onscreen will activate a link to another part of the presentation or elsewhere.

We always incorporate a few hidden links for our clients. The logos on each page always hyperlink to the start of the presentation. This usually is slide no 5 or 6 in our case, since we use the earlier slides as a multimedia build to begin the showing.

If you require a whole lot more interactivity, then you are using the wrong software. You need to understand the limitations of presentation software and take a good look at multimedia software like Director, ToolBook, Dazzler, Illuminatus, etc.

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