How to PowerPoint

A lot of people moan and groan about PowerPoint because there are so many bad PowerPoint presentations out there.  But the way I see it, PowerPoint’s just a tool.  If something done in PowerPoint is no good, tell the person who created the presentation or elearning course.  Don’t blame PowerPoint.

I heard someone say that it’s still PowerPoint’s fault because it’s so easy to use.  That’s just flat out ridiculous.  Why don’t we start blaming pens or keyboards for all of the crap that’s out there.  They’re a lot easier to use than PowerPoint and empower anyone who can type to write to produce worthless drivel.

To prove my point about the power of PowerPoint, I wrote a post for the Rapid E-Learning Blog that shows how you can use PowerPoint to build effective and viable elearning courses.  You’ll still need to start with good instructional design.  However, if all you have to sue is PowerPoint, there’s no reason why you still can’t build a decent course with it.

Below is an example of an elearning course created entirely in PowerPoint and then published with Articulate Presenter.

Click here to view the elearning course.

To learn more, check out the post on the Rapid E-Learning Blog.

It’s not really a matter of right or wrong as it is a matter of how the fonts you use in your PowerPoint files communicate with your audience and contribute to the overall tone and visual design of the slides.

When using fonts, you kind of have two considerations. 

• Is the font going to be legible?  Can people read and retain the information.
• What does the font’s design communicate?  How well does it support the tone and design of your slide content?

The Rapid E-Learning Blog has a good post on How Fonts Take a Starring Role in Your E-Learning Courses.  While the focus of the post is elearning, the information is just as relevant to any use of PowerPoint.

It’s a good post with an interactive exercise that illustrates how fonts can do more than display text.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog as a great year end wrap.  There’s a list of the top posts for 2009.  With the list is a link to 13 posts on the blog that has free resources.  So if you want some good information and free templates, check it out.

You can even download the template you see below.  And it’s all free.  Here’s a quick tutorial that explains how to edit the template.

Here are some good tips that will help speed up your development time in PowerPoint.  While the post references elearning, you can apply the ideas to all types of PowerPoint use.

In the post, How to Be More Productive When Using PowerPoint to Create E-Learning Courses, you’ll learn three key concepts:

• Move objects off screen so you don’t have to go back and forth.  The viewer can’t see them during the presentation.
• Create a staging area by using a blank slide that sits under the real slide
• Hide slides that aren’t being used.  You have quick access to them, but the viewer can’t see them. 

There’s a lot more detail in the blog post and a quick tutorial that explains it all.

I worked for a multibillion company that employed about 30,000 people.  There was one executive who made the decision that anything built in PowerPoint could only use a single PowerPoint template.

That’s ridiculous!

Now, I understand the need to have some quality control over how PowerPoint is used; especially when you interact with the public.  But, that’s why you come up with style guides and teach your staff about basic design concepts.

The executive saw PowerPoint from a single perspective.  He was a director who was presenting to higher level executives and the investment community.  From his perspective, it was best to have tight quality control over how the company was portrayed in public.  That makes sense.

However, the reality is that PowerPoint is a versatile tool used for more than just public presentations.  Because of this, it’s ridiculous to apply broad branding rules and template limitations to all uses of PowerPoint.

Not All PowerPoint Files Are the Same

For example, I wrote a blog post about PowerPoint and rapid elearning.  When you use PowerPoint to build courses, you need as much room as possible.  Any branding should be applied to the color theme or player.  You should try to keep the slide are as open as possible and use that for the learning content.

The problem template restrictions is that the message of the presentation is discounted and altered to comply with the template requirements.

The template should just be a guide for the content and what you hope to communicate.  But it shouldn’t dictate the content.  Sometimes a branded template is fine, but sometimes it’s just crap.  And it’s usually the cause for a lot of the horrible PowerPoint presentations we have to endure.

OK, enough of my rant.

Here are some good resources to help you rethink how you use PowerPoint and whether or not having strict branding requirements is necessary.

These are some key books that I think do a great job discussing visual design principles; and then blends them with sound presentation and communication concepts.  They’ll make you rethink the one-size-fits all template strategy.

Non-Designer’s Design Book If there is only one book to buy, it’s this one.  You’ll learn all of the basics about typography and visual design.	Beyond Bullet Points If you want to do presentations and PowerPoint right, then this book is highly recommended.  It’s practical and has some good job aids.
Slide:ology Great book on visual design concepts and how to craft better presentations.  They have some good examples of branded templates that do work.	Presentation Zen This book is very similar to slide:ology and will help you learn to communicate better with your slides.  His new book goes through the new design.

Be sure to check out this free ebook by Seth Godin on Really Bad PowerPoint.   It’s not just a rant, he’s got some very good tips on communication that will help you do a better job.

Most software tutorials are built using screenshots of the application or using a screencast video like those from Screenr. 

What’s cool about PowerPoint is that you can combine those techniques to create your software demos.  Or you can just build it in PowerPoint without the screencasting application.

In the post, Here Are Some Time Saving Tips for Your Next Software Demo, I wrote for the Rapid E-Learning Blog, I showed some ways that PowerPoint can be effective as an authoring tool for software demos.  You can even make them interactive, which you can see on that post.

Compared to older versions, PowerPoint 2007 makes this even more viable because you can easily right-click and swap out images.  Thus if the application’s screen changes after building your demo, it’s just a matter of right-clicking and inserting the updated images.  All of the interactivity and animations will still be intact.

Having produced hundreds of screencasts and software courses, I can tell you that PowerPoint is a very effective tool for software training.  Is it the best tool? Not always.  But for a lot of software training, it’s a good tool.  And in many cases a lot faster and easier to work with than a screencast video that requires more production (and usually a lot more editing).

Check out the blog post on the Rapid E-Learning Blog to learn more.  Be sure to watch the demo and try the interaction on the last slide.

I did a post for the Rapid E-Learning Blog where I demonstrated a simple elearning scenario.  I got a lot of emails asking how it was built. 

So I did a follow up post where I show how I actually built the elearning scenario using PowerPoint and Articulate Presenter ‘09.

View the Tutorial and Download the Free PowerPoint Files

If you use PowerPoint for elearning and you want to learn to make your courses more interactive, then you’ll get a lot of value out of the link above an this one on How I Built that E-Learning Scenario. 

Not only is there a good tutorial that goes with it, I also included the PowerPoint files so you can deconstruct how the scenario was built on your own.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog is giving away a free PowerPoint template.  In addition to the template, you get a great tutorial on how to create your own PowerPoint templates.

To view the tutorial and download the free template, go to Here’s a Free PowerPoint Template & How I Made It via the Rapid E-Learning Blog.