The first step is to create a preliminary layout of what you want to say. Think of your slides as chapters in a book. First, create your Book Title, which will be the theme of your presentation.

Next comes the chapter titles, and from there add a maximum of three talking points as sub titles. Continue adding slides in this manner, Title and 3 talking points max.

Once you have determined the information, add a pencil sketch of the imagery, if necessary, you feel will work best to compliment your words. Review your storyboard, revising content, changing the slide order, swapping out images until you are happy with the flow. It is only after this stage where you would actually fire up your PowerPoint program.

This is the basic procedure we use for our clients all the time. Ask any professional graphic designer, and they will tell you the same thing, that rough sketches or storyboards are the only way to begin. Changing a scribbled line of text or photo idea on a piece of paper involves about 10% of the time it would take to make those changes in PowerPoint.

Once they have calmed down, and started breathing normally again, they realize that we have not added any content, we have simply restructured the information into more manageable bites.

Psychologically, when people see too much information crammed on to a slide, they actually turn off. The mind says there is too much here, I’m not going to try and figure it out, so I’ll just ignore it. Proper context with minimal words, and effective imagery offers the greatest clarity, and message retention.