Developing skills in using Microsoft PowerPoint is important in the home office setting. Many businesses like to create presentations for meetings, trainings, and the like. Knowing the basics of PowerPoint will allow you to provide needed services.
Understanding Why Employers Like PowerPoint
Visual presentations are a great tool to use when teaching or going over meeting points. Information can be presented visually in conjunction with written materials and verbal instructions. This allows the receiver to view and hear the info in a variety of ways, increasing the potential to process the points effectively.
PowerPoint can make longer trainings easier to mentally digest. It provides visual stimulation to the audience during lecture time. If the speaker is covering a large amount of material, the reader can re-read the shortened information points placed within the slides when needed.
Things to consider when using PowerPoint
There are several things to considering when creating PowerPoint presentations. The information given within the slide show should not be everything the presenter is reading. This can become boring and monotonous. The presentation contains short important snippets of info to solidify the verbal information given.
Presentations should hold the same font size throughout each slide. The opening slide will use larger fonts and is an exception to the rule. The only other exception that is normally acceptable is the closing slide that may hold multiple material references.
The material given in the slide presentation should be visually appealing to the viewer. Adding appropriate photos, animations, and even video clips can be used. The additions should not overpower the info given. For example, information given on a slide should not be really small compared to a large photo that is added. Balance creates uniform presentation slides.
Creating PowerPoint Presentations to suit your Employer
Understanding the basics of PowerPoint presentation is an asset to your home business. Skills should be developed to create great presentations while still meeting your employer’s needs.
Sometimes, employers will ask you to create a presentation for a certain topic. They will depend on you to research the topic and create the presentation for them from beginning to end. Other employers will have very specific things in mind. At times, they may desire too much info to be added to the presentation, instead of adding little snippets of info. If you have expert skills in creating presentations, you can help your employer make the best choices.
Holding great PowerPoint development skills will allow you to converse with your employer and give consultation on what is the most effective. This is why it is important to have a good foundation built in the skill development area.
Creating your own PowerPoint Slide Show
When learning to make presentations, it is a great idea to place a presentation in your business portfolio. This will allow employers, or future employers, to see how well you can do in this area.
Invest time in learning the basics through online tutorial writings and videos. Take time to create a few presentations of your own. Time invested is money earned in the long run of a home-based business.
What should I Learn to Develop Basic Skills?
- How to create multiple slides
- How to add text boxes
- Changing fonts and font sizes
- How to add transitions
- Adding photos and clip art
- Using animations
- Adding video presentations
- How to add notes to the presentation for the trainer
What should I Learn to Develop More Advanced Skills?
- Saving the presentation as a “presentation” and as a “slide show”
- Using pack and go functions
- Creating a slide master
- Using text animation
- Using time settings within the slide show
- Inserting auto shapes
- Changing the order of objects
- How to ungroup and group objects
- Adding sound files
Creating Presentations
Learning the basics of creating presentations is not really hard for most people. Individuals who are fairly familiar with word processing will already be one step ahead. Many of the functions are the same. Investing a small amount of time will get you started on the road to becoming an expert.
For more advanced skills, depending on the learner, an increased investment is needed in time and patience. Once skills are learned, more precise services can be offered to future employers.
