GC: Presentations

“Storytelling is one of the ways we connect with other people, allowing us to share our hopes and dreams, our fears and worries, and our experiences and plans,” says Lori Gracey in her blog entry, Telling Our Stories. 

Presentations are opportunities to show people different ways of thinking about a topic and to tell a story. How you structure your presentation impacts how people receive your perspective. 

Let’s explore three tips to create a fabulous presentation with Google Slides. Then, eight tips for presenting.

Three Tips for Creating

Tip #1: Enthrall listeners with powerful narratives.

“It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at us both verbally and in written form at the same time,” says Garr Reynolds, author of the Presentation Zen book and blog. A stirring story well-illustrated can make it easier for your audience to process information. 

Avoid bulleted lists, lots of text, fancy and transitions and animations. These just get in the way of the story you are telling. Charts are fine to include when they align to the story you are trying to show and tell.

Tip #2: Engage with pictures.

“Pictures should contain the story within a frame,” suggests Tatjana Soli in The Lotus Eaters. This isn’t a bad approach when selecting pictures that capture the flow of your narrative. 

Once you have crafted an enthralling story, you need pictures that illustrate each well-defined idea or concept. The simpler the image, the more impact it can have on the viewer.

Tip #3: Enchant the Eye with Fonts

“If you need to put eight-point or ten-point fonts up there, it’s because you do not know your material,” says Garr Reynolds. 

Instead, take advantage of large font size and easy-to-read fonts. In Google Slides, you can add fonts.

 Here’s how:

Be brief and use large font sizes with only a few words on the screen. Vary colors of your font text to match the theme of your slide show.

Eight Tips for Presenting

#1 - Use Speaker's Notes 

Add these tools to make life easier:

Explore how you can use speaker notes to provide instructions. 

#2 - Dictate Your Speaker's Notes

Follow these simple instructions for English dictation:

Adding speaker notes has never been easier. Give it a try!

#3 - Hyperlinked Slide Deck 

Make an easy to follow menu of pictures/icons to jump around your slide show.

Sample ePortfolio Jeremiah Johnson

#4 - Add Audio to Slides

Are you using a Google Workspace for Education or NonProfit account? Then you can add audio to individual slides.

See below for instructions on what to do with a personal Google account. 

It's not as easy as this, and involves converting your slideshow into a video that you add audio to.

You will use two free tools, Recordcast video editor and Audio VoiceRecorder, to combine slide pictures and audio.

Audio to Slides - Personal Google Account

If you are using a personal Gmail account, the INSERT AUDIO option is NOT available. To add audio, follow these steps: 

#5 - Insert Video

#6 - Present with Captions

Closed captioning can be a benefit for hearing impaired, or when the presenter is speaking a non-native language. It also works great for those who present but can't project their voice.

Step 1: Set up your microphone

Step 2: Present with captions

Step 3: Begin speaking. 

Captions will appear at the bottom of the screen. Captions will NOT include punctuation and are not saved.

Google added the ability for users to personalize caption text size and position while presenting in Google Slides. These features can help make captions easier to read, like ensuring all audience members can view captions in a large room. Or, you could make your text smaller to maximize the number of words on screen at once.

#7 - Use Slides Q&A

While presenting, allow your audience to ask questions through Slides Q&A.

#8 - Use Remote for Slides

Present from anywhere in the room, leaving your laptop at the front. All you need is your smartphone.

Thanks to the Remote for Slides Chrome extension, you won't be tethered to your laptop.