Can’t Copy Presentations! Well, you can, but don’t!

Updated on November 25, 2010 By Simon 2 Comments

I’m talking here, about copying slides from one slidedeck to another, be that in PowerPoint, Keynote or anything else.  And obviously I don’t mean that you should never, ever do it, but I’d urge you to think long and hard before you do.

I read a post recently where a specialist in PowerPoint training (rather than presenting) suggested that everyone had a basic presentation and just built variations around that theme.  To me, that just about sums up the whole mindset associated with PowerPoint, but that might just be me!  :)    The idea was to use the time you saved to do other ‘more important’ stuff… such as standing by the company water cooler.  Perhaps that last bit was a joke.

Yeah, probably.

Thing is, though, when you’re writing a presentation, there’s nothing more important than your audience – not the water cooler, not your boss… nothing.

Now, I’m all for doing things as quickly as possible (it’s one of the reasons I use Keynote, not Powerpoint, after all) but the key words there are “as quickly as possible” because by that I mean that you can do things as quickly as possible within the standards of a good presentation.  A quick-fire/copy-&-paste mentality isn’t going to do that, I’m afraid.

For all presentations you should start with the three standard questions (or another method of designing your presentation) and build from their.  You sure as little green apples shouldn’t start from what slides you’ve got and build from that!

My three questions, by the way are

  1. What does my audience already know?
  2. What do they need to know?
  3. What do I need to tell them (and how should I do that?)?

…. but they’re the basis of another post.  All I want to emphasise here is that using them (or your own versions of them) is different from starting from the point of

  1. What have I got lie-ing around on my hard drive?
  2. How quickly can I get something assembled that looks acceptable?
  3. What do I want to tell my audience about?

Simon is one of the UK's most highly regarded presentation skills trainers and professional speakers in the fields of presenting, confidence and emotional resilience.

You May Also Like

Where did the presentation stuff go?
Confidence Month

2 Comments

  1. Chris Atherton November 25, 2010

    Hi Simon

    This is a really interesting one. Full disclosure: I do this a lot, though I also tweak slides and add new ones as I go. But the thing is, most of my slides are one diagram or picture, or one phrase. Each slide is a single anecdote, or a single point I want to make. What I do when I present is I tailor my description and explanation of that thing to the people I’m addressing. The examples I use are often the same, but my explanation around them varies as a function of the audience’s prior knowledge and learning requirements.

    Cheers,

    Chris.

  2. Simon Raybould November 25, 2010

    Hi Chris – nice to hear from you. And you’re right that it’s easier to do this with iconic slides.

    I’m not saying you can’t copy slides over Chris (I do it too!), just that the process of designing the presentation should come first and take priority. It’s more the mentality than the act I have problem with….

    If I’ve got slides that work for what I want to say, then great – jut don’t do it the other way around and create what you want to say based upon what slides you’ve got!

    :)

Comments are closed.