Introduction


 * Introduction**

The traditional method of creating a PowerPoint presentation mainly involves thinking in terms of bullet point lists. There are plenty of limitations with using this method, but, if you’re a new user of PowerPoint, it’s a good place to start. In fact, if you’re a new user, there’s a function built into the program to do a lot of the presentation-formatting work for you.

PowerPoint comes with what is called an “AutoContent Wizard” that will enable even the first-time user to create a professional-looking presentation. As Doug Lowe explains,

“The easiest way to create a new presentation, especially for novice PowerPoint users, is to use the AutoContent Wizard. This Wizard asks you for some pertinent information, such as your name, the title of your presentation, and the type of presentation you want to create. Then it automatically creates a skeleton presentation, which you can modify to suit your needs.” [1]

This Wizard is quiet handy. When you open the Wizard (which you’ll find in the right hand window when you first open up PowerPoint), you’ll be given a series of presentation types to select from, including: Recommending a strategy Communicating bad news Financial overview Training Employee orientation Project overview Marketing plan Selling a product or service Motivating a team

Once you select a presentation type, you will be asked a number of simple questions (for example, for the name you wish to give your presentation), and the Wizard will generate a dummy presentation for you with recommended background and formats for each slide, waiting for you to simply plug in the content.

There are lots of ways to get even more automatic templates for presentations. Here are some of the many resources:

http://www.inzones.com/powerpoint/index.htm

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=powerpoint+autocontent+templates&av=TPL000

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX100595491033.aspx?pid=CL100632981033

Once you start working with a autocontent template, you’re able to modify it using all of the tools available in PowerPoint: you can change colors, fonts, designs, and the order of the slides. You can add charts, images, graphs, and a wide variety of other forms of illustration. The advantage of using the AutoContent Wizard is that you have a start on your presentation right away, which, for the novice PowerPoint user, is often the most difficult part.

[link here to details about creating and editing slides]


 * Creating a Bullet Point Presentation on Your Own**

AutoContent Wizard hands you an outline for your presentation. But you may wish to design this outline on your own. Outlining—and using bullet points to flesh out this outline—is the most fundamental principle of PowerPoint presentations. Doug Lowe writes,

“You probably have already noticed that most presentations [that use PowerPoint] consist of slide after slide of bulleted lists. You may see a chart here or there and an occasional bit of clip art thrown in for comic effect, but the bread and butter of presentations is the bulleted list. It sounds boring, but it’s the best way to make sure that your message gets through.” [2]

While I’m not sure I agree with Lowe’s conclusion, that bulleted-list-based PowerPoint presentations are “the best way to make sure that your message gets through,” I do think it’s the most traditional and expected way to use PowerPoint. It’s the method that most presenters who are using PowerPoint follow.

PowerPoint comes with an outlining tool that is easy to use for this purpose, but you can also generate an outline using Microsoft Word. [Instructions for using MS word outlining functions] To generate an outline in PowerPoint, open a blank presentation (rather than clicking on the AutoContent Wizard) and then click on the “outline” tab (next to the “slides” tab) on the top of the left pane (it looks like a pile of lines). Then you’re ready to create your outline. Type in the first outline heading. To add points below this heading, hit return (which will generate a new slide) and then tab (which will remove the new slide and add a space for a subpoint on the previous slide). To make this a bulleted list, simply highlight the points you make and click on the bullet points (or, if you want, the numbering) option. You can add new slides by clicking the return key or the “new slide” button. Even easier: Under the “view” tab, click on the “outlining menu” and you’ll get a toolbar (probably on the left-hand margin) that will help you move from point to point to subpoint in your outline. Creating an outline in this way allows you to see your outline on slides right away. It forces you to think in small phrases—bullet points—since long points will come out awkwardly on the actual slides. In other words, this method of outlining helps you think about outlining FOR your slides. However, if you wish to focus only on the outlining and **then**, later, work on editing down your outline so that it will fit on the slides, you will do much better using Microsoft Word’s outlining features. [explain here] In fact, I strongly recommending working in this way. If you create your outline in Word, you’ll find it much easier to brainstorm and play around with ideas without having to worry about how each idea will fit on a slide. Brainstorming first; slide considerations later.

[1] PowerPoint for Dummies, 17. [2] PowerPoint for Dummies, 53.