12-4c. Building Your Business Presentation
After considering design principles and their effects, you are ready to start putting together your
presentation. In this section you will learn how to organize and compose your presentation, which
templates to choose, and how to edit, proofread, and evaluate your work.
Organizing Your Presentation
When you prepare your presentation, translate the major headings in your outline into titles for
slides. Then build bullet points using short phrases. In Chapter 4 you learned to improve readability
by using graphic highlighting techniques, including bullets, numbers, and headings. In preparing a
PowerPoint, SlideRocket, or Prezi presentation, you will use those same techniques.
The slides (or canvas) you create to accompany your spoken ideas can be organized with visual
elements that will help your audience understand and remember what you want to communicate.
Let’s say, for example, that you have three points in your presentation. You can create a blueprint
slide that captures the three points in a visually appealing way, and then you can use that slide
several times throughout your presentation. Near the beginning, the blueprint slide provides an
overview of your points. Later, it provides transitions as you move from point to point. For
transitions, you can direct your audience’s attention by highlighting the next point you will be talking
about. Finally, the blueprint slide can be used near the end to provide a review of your key points.
Composing Your Presentation
During the composition stage, many users fall into the trap of excessive formatting and
programming. They fritter away precious time fine-tuning their slides or canvas and don’t spend
enough time on what they are going to say and how they will say it. To avoid this trap, set a limit for
Book Title: eTextbook: Essentials of Business Communication 12-4. Preparing Engaging Multimedia Presentations 12-4c. Building Your Business Presentation
how much time you will spend making your slides or canvas visually appealing. Your time limit will
be based on how many “bells and whistles”
a. your audience expects and
b. your content requires to make it understandable.
Not every point nor every thought requires a visual. In fact, it’s smart to switch off the presentation
occasionally and direct the focus to yourself. Darkening the screen while you discuss a point, tell a
story, give an example, or involve the audience will add variety to your presentation.
Create a slide or canvas only if it accomplishes at least one of the following purposes:
Generates interest in what you are saying and helps the audience follow your ideas
Highlights points you want your audience to remember
Introduces or reviews your key points
Provides a transition from one major point to the next
Illustrates and simplifies complex ideas
Consider perusing the Help articles built into your presentation software or purchasing one of many
inexpensive guides to electronic slide presentations. Your presentations will be more appealing and
you will save time if you know, for example, how to design with master slides and how to create
your own templates.
Working With Templates
All presentation programs require you to
a. select or create a template that will serve as the background for your presentation and
b. make each slide by selecting a layout that best conveys your message.
Novice and even advanced users often choose existing templates because they are designed by
professionals who know how to combine harmonious colors, borders, bullet styles, and fonts for
pleasing visual effects. If you prefer, you can alter existing templates so they better suit your needs.
Adding a corporate logo, adjusting the color scheme to better match the colors used on your
organization’s website, or selecting a different font are just some of the ways you can customize
existing templates. One big advantage of templates is that they get you started quickly.
Be careful, though, of what one expert has labeled “visual clichés.”* Overused templates and clip art that come preinstalled with PowerPoint, SlideRocket, and Prezi can weary viewers who have
seen them repeatedly in presentations. Instead of using a standard template, search for
PowerPoint template, SlideRocket template, or Prezi template in your favorite search tool. You will
see hundreds of templates available as free downloads. Unless your employer requires that
presentations all have the same look, your audience will appreciate fresh templates that
complement the purpose of your presentation and provide visual variety.
Revising and Proofreading Your Presentation
Use the PowerPoint view to rearrange, insert, and delete slides during the revision
process. You can use the Prezi editor to make any necessary changes to your canvas. This is the
time to focus on making your presentation as clear and concise as possible. If you are listing items,
be sure they all use parallel grammatical form. Figure 12.10 shows how to revise a PowerPoint
slide to improve it for conciseness, parallelism, and other features. Study the design tips described
in the first slide, and determine which suggestions their author did not follow. Then compare it with
the revised slide.
slide sorter
Figure 12.10.
Designing More Effective Slides
The slide on the left uses a difficult-to-read font style. In addition, the slide includes too many words per bullet and violates most of the slide-making rules it covers. After revision, the slide on the right provides a pleasing color combination, uses short bullet points in a readable font style, and creates an attractive list using PowerPoint SmartArt features.
As you are revising, check carefully to find spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other errors. Use
the PowerPoint, SlideRocket, or Prezi spell-check feature, but don’t rely on it solely. Careful
proofing, preferably from a printed copy of the slideshow, is a must. Nothing is as embarrassing as
projecting errors on a huge screen in front of an audience. Also, check for consistency in how you
capitalize and punctuate points throughout the presentation.
Evaluating Your Presentation
Finally, critically evaluate your slideshow. Is your message presented in a visually appealing way?
Have you tested your slides on the equipment and in the room you will be using during your
presentation? Do the colors you selected work in this new setting? Are the fonts readable from the
back of the room in terms of styles and sizes? Figure 12.11 shows examples of PowerPoint slides
that incorporate what you have learned in this discussion.
Figure 12.11.
PowerPoint Slides That Illustrate Multimedia Presentations
iadams/Fotolia LLC; denis_pc/Fotolia LLC; leremy/Fotolia LLC; Source: Microsoft; Kyoko/Fotolia LLC
The dark purple background and the matching hues in the slideshow shown in Figure 12.11 are
standard choices for many business presentations. With an unobtrusive dark background, white
fonts are a good option for maximum contrast and, hence, readability. The creator of the
presentation varied the slide design to break the monotony of bulleted or numbered lists. Images
and animated diagrams add interest and zing to the slides.
Some presenters allow their PowerPoint slides, SlideRocket slides, or Prezi canvases to steal their
thunder. Advertising mogul David Ogilvy once observed, “Most people use PowerPoint like a drunk
uses a lamppost—for support rather than for illumination.”* Although multimedia presentations can supply terrific sizzle, they cannot replace the steak. In developing a presentation, don’t expect your
slides to carry the show. You can avoid being upstaged by not relying totally on your slides or
canvas. Remember that you are still the main attraction!

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