Knowledge Management in PowerPoint Presentations
- Omer Ben Yehuda
- Aug 1, 2005
- 4 min read
Many tips have already been written about how to build and design PowerPoint presentations that interest readers/viewers and convey the message in the best possible way. Naturally, almost all advice discusses improving the presentation for its users. As a serial presentation creator, I want to provide several tips from a slightly different angle—that of the presentation writer.
How often have you wanted to reuse a presentation (yours or someone else's) and couldn't find it? Or, if you did find it, you couldn't recreate all the good messages because it was written in key phrases or diagrams?
We save most presentations for reuse, but by nature, a presentation serves us in a specific context and at a given time. After we've moved on, it's difficult to reconstruct everything we thought then, and now we're forced to start from scratch.
Therefore, here are several useful tips that will help manage knowledge in PP files in an organization over time:
File name: Since presentations usually serve us in a specific context (meeting, conference, workshop, etc.), we tend to name them with meaningful names at that moment, like "Conference 05" or "Status Meeting." Names with meaning that are forgotten as soon as we move on to the next topic. The file name should indicate the content, context, and date (when relevant).
For example, the Knowledge Management Conference for Managers is on 07/05, and the Internet Usage Training - Public Course is on 05.05. The name may be long, which usually deters us, but it's important to remember that this is just the file name and not a title within the presentation. The name will allow us to remember the subject and context from among the "sea" of other presentations and will still be hidden from users. Establishing consistency in the naming logic is important to serve as an efficient source, not a confusing one.
Using Notes: The presentation workspace consists of 2 parts:
The part that will eventually be displayed to users
And notes - a text field for writing notes. (Below the main area, if you don't see it, drag the bottom border of the workspace upward until you see "Click to add notes") Most of us don't use this area since it's not visible during the presentation. However, that's its advantage!! You can use this area to write an expansion on the slide and its messages, rationales, comments, emphases, etc. The notes will help in the future and won't interfere with users (they can also help when distributing the presentation in PPT format). Another advantage of Notes is the ability to print the presentation with them (see options in printing).
Using comments: In the same way we used notes, we can also use comments (see insert> comments). The advantage of a comment is the ability to attach it to a specific field, and it will only be seen in the editing view (not in the presentation view). In addition, it is displayed on the workspace itself without wasting space, as it is a floating field that only opens when the mouse is over it. Its disadvantage is that it can contain relatively short text and cannot be printed.
Slide templates: In most PP versions, when you want to add a new slide using add slide, several slide options open. We usually get annoyed by the delay, so we choose the first option, delete the automatic fields, and do what we want. We thus lose an important advantage in terms of knowledge management: these templates preserve a soft type of metadata. On the right side of the workspace, there is usually a minimized collection of all slides in the presentation that allows moving between them (if you don't see this, drag the right border of the workspace until it appears). When using fixed templates, the titles (and even the text, depending on the template we chose) of each slide are displayed in this slide collection, and you can browse between slides easily and even edit text without entering the slide itself. This ability saves time and effort and allows for observing the sequence of topic progression without going through slide by slide.
Minimum clicks: Most of us like to add animation to impress and give substance to the message. These add a lot to the presentation and take advantage of PP's benefits. However, it's important to remember not to overdo the amount of animation for 2 reasons: In the short term, excessive animation tires users and disrupts the presentation flow. In the long term, when we return to the presentation in the future (or refer to someone else's presentation), we'll find it difficult to reconstruct its presentation sequence and the reasons for animation, and we'll find it difficult to reuse it. The less animation we use, the more easily and intuitively we'll reconstruct the operating logic and sequence of the presentation.
Date and author's name: Some of us save presentations on shared drives where many people have access to presentations. Sometimes, we want to use someone else's presentation and adapt it to our needs. To enable this sharing, it's important to add the author's name and the creation date in the basic template of each presentation. These will help us know who to contact when needed to get clarification and advice. If you don't want the name and date to appear during the presentation, you can use several methods to hide them (color like the background color/"patching" over them). If there is a fixed procedure whereby everyone adds a name and date to presentations, it will be easy to find them when needed, even if they are hidden.
In conclusion, a presentation is indeed for an audience (usually) but also belongs to its creator. Presentations are used for many purposes besides the classic use, so these tips aren't suitable for everyone. However, in many cases, these tips will help you manage your presentation inventory efficiently and according to knowledge management principles that will ensure the ability to reuse them in the future.
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