Building a presentation

Richard Mayer spent years studying how people learn from words and pictures. Several of his principles apply directly to presentations: remove whatever does not serve the idea, avoid projecting the text you are saying, place an image close to its explanation.

• A title that states the idea, not just the topic: “Sales doubled in French-speaking Switzerland” rather than “Sales”.
• One key figure in large type rather than a full table.
• Little text on screen, the rest in what you say or in the notes.
• An image or a diagram placed next to what it illustrates.

1. Open the deck in Deck and browse the slides in the left-hand column.
2. Choose a theme in the Theme panel and keep it for the whole deck.
3. Add an animation only where it shows an order or a change over time.
4. Share the deck for review: comments are placed on the slide concerned.
5. Present from the Present button, or export to PowerPoint or PDF.