Organize content with an outline

What’s the first step in creating a presentation? I firmly believe in starting your presentation with an outline. An outline helps you focus first on your content and how it’s organized. After all, isn’t what you’re saying more important than how you say it?

But how do you know what to say? Come up with the following:

A goal
3 main points
An expansion of your points
Data, images, and diagrams for your points
A good conclusion

Then consider your audience. Ask these questions:

Why is my audience interested?
What is their level of knowledge on the topic?
What type of content will be useful to them?

Then outline your content accordingly. One way to do this is in Microsoft Word. To create an outline in Microsoft Word, type text at the margin for slide titles, and press Tab once for first-level bulleted text.

Now speak out your talk to test how long it takes. This first run-through will tell you if you have to cut or expand.

Then choose File | Send To and choose Microsoft PowerPoint. Or instead, return to PowerPoint, choose File | Open, choose All Outlines from the Files of Type drop-down list in the dialog box, find your outline document and double-click it.

Ellen Finkelstein can train you or the presenters in your organization to create high-impact, engaging, professional presentations for training, sales, business, or education. For more information, please click here.

Cheril Seidel

August 9, 2011 at 5:55 pm

The outlining function in PPT avoids the use of Word. It is a boon to structuring your content. Again, and again, I have found flaws in my ‘logical flow’ when I have viewed my structure with the outlining function. It points up gaps in your logical argument/story, and/or the need to re-order the flow. And, it is so easy to rearrange.