Episode 4: Using Action Buttons in Presentation

Action Buttons Help in Transition

Sometimes it becomes necessary to move from one slide in powerpoint to another slide and then come back. This is necessary in order to build up the overall story of the presentation. However, if done manually, it becomes tedious and confusing because it breaks the flow of the presentation. Well powerpoint has a useful but less appreciated feature built in - the action buttons. It is indeed a powerful in creating seamless transitions in any presentation. 

What are action buttons? Well they are simple graphic icons which has embedded features which can be customized according to one's need. In simple words, you can use them to create links, embed video, audio in the slides. 

Where can you find action buttons? The answer is simple. All you have to do is to click on the INSERT tab, then go to shapes where you will get a drop-down. The action buttons are at the bottom of the drop-down as shown in the image below.

Action Button Location

Once you select and place an action button on the slides, you get a pop-up as shown in the image below. This pop-up will have default property set according to the action button type. You can customize the same according to your need. The pop-up has two tabs one determines the action to be taken on mouse click and another determines action to be taken when the mouse pointer hovers over the button.

 

Action Button Property

You can explore the different types of buttons to see for yourself their default actions. Here I will focus more on how to customize the buttons. Once you get the pop-up, you can two options under both the tabs namely None and Hyperlink to. The second option again has a drop-down with a preset value according to the action button type. The various options in the drop-down are: 

1. Next Slide: It will take you to the immediate next slide in the presentation
2. Previous Slide: As name suggests, it takes you to the preceding slide
3. First Slide: Takes you to the start of presentation
4. Last Slide: Self explanatory
5. Last Slide Viewed: Again self explanatory
6. End Slide: Ends the presentation
7. Custom Show: You can link to an embedded show 
8. Slide: It further gives you a pop-up providing you the facility to link the slide to any particular slide in the presentation.
   Note:This is highly useful as adding or deleting a slide in between will not disrupt the flow of the presentation. I prefer this approach always.  
9. URL: You can embed a web page address. The webpage will open on clicking the button.
10. Other Powepoint presentation: Self explanatory
11. Other File; You can embed a video, audio, excel etc.

Besides this you can as well embed macros and programs to them. So this is more or less about action buttons. 

Now a useful tip to design transitions. I usually follow a 3 step process regarding the same:

1. Step 1: Insert action button in a slide and link it to the desired slide.

2. Step 2: On the destination slide insert another action button with link to last viewed slide.

3. Step 3: Test it multiple times to check the flow of presentation.

The advantage of this method is a smooth transition without skipping the presentation.

This is it from my side guys!!! Once gain do let me know if you feel there is any inputs you would like to share regarding the same!!!

Episode 3: Designing the Presentation

Say No to On-the-Go Style

Very often, we start the presentation with a minimal or no planning with just the overall objective/problem statement in mind. The outcome- a lot of on the go modifications and last minute changes resulting in truck loads of extra work and re-works. 

I am not saying that all these can be completely avoided. But one thing is for sure, all these can be reduced to minimal by proper planing and framework design at the start itself. 

I keep on designing a lot of corporate presentations and over the time, I have realized and formulated a presentation design framework for myself that does help me a lot. So, here I am sharing the same with you all, eagerly looking forward to your inputs about the same.

The Central Theme

First and foremost there will always be a central theme - a problem statement for any presentation. The first target is to narrow it down to a tangible question format. What is the presentation actually trying to highlight? Is it related to an existing business problem or a business idea or a sales pitch?

One this is identified, it actually becomes a great support in identifying the presentation skeleton.

Consider a scenario - your boss asks you to prepare a presentation about the findings of a customer satisfaction survey that your company did recently.

SCENARIO I - You start in the conventional on the go mode. You start making the presentation then you realize - a particular question about after sales service has very skewed result as compared to the other questions before that. You modify the presentation to highlight the same. Then after a while you again see similar results for another question. You do the same. Then you find the overall result to be the negative. But you had started a with a preset mind that you will highlight the positives, so you either try to dig deep and find positive inferences which require extra work or you start modifying the presentation to include the unexpected (Extra Work!!! Isn't it).

SCENARIO II - You identify the central theme of the presentation. Lets just consider it to be:

"How satisfied are my customers?." Done!!! So far so good. Now what?

The Framework

So based on the above theme, you can easily chart out a draft plan. The draft plan will act as your agenda. So a simple draft plan can be:

1. Agenda - Using the draft plan

2. Introduction - Survey Details

3. The Highs

4. The Lows

5. The Anomalies

6. Recommendation

7. Conclusion

So, I have a draft plan ready with me. Next is what?

Put the Placeholders

Now all I have to do is to create empty slides with proper placeholders. For example, my slide 3 speaks of the highs. So, I create an empty slide with placeholders for tables and charts (if need may arise). Similarly, I do for other slides. Once done, I am ready for the next step.

Note: This steps helps in ensuring one important aspect - a consistent format of presentation. Otherwise, every time you insert  something, you will have to check format and then correct it appropriately (time consuming). 

Number Crunching

Now I revert back to my survey. Do the necessary number crunching and get the data ready. Once it is done, all I have to do is to fill in those details in to the proper placeholders and I am done with the first draft. 

There will for sure be some inputs, comments and re-works. But it will definitely be lesser than the usual rework that happens with the on the go presentation designs. That is for sure!!!

This is it from my side. Do let me know if you have any more tips and tricks up your sleeves!!!