Last Friday, I shared a post on how you can save time using a Master Power Point (Keynote if you are a Mac user) file to create your custom presentations really fast.
The post was shared on Facebook and I received some great comments.
But, what if you have 100s or even 1000s of slides to manage? What if the files are huge?
Today, I'm sharing one of the comments (with permission of course) and expanding on the idea of a Master File.
Adam Urbanski Great tip, Stephanie. My challenge is that have thousands of slides. I'm not kidding! I have over 2100 slides - many of them very, very elaborate, with moving graphics and movies. Those files are huge and the inserted files must be in the same folders when the files are moved or they won't work correctly. Plus, many have different, custom designed backgrounds to fit the program. My solution is to keep all the training programs in one master folder with a sub-folder for each new program/pp presentation. As soon as I create a new presentation a master copy of it is placed in that master folder. That's the best I could come up with to make it manageable for myself! Any tips?/
Friday at 12:39pm
I've had the opportunity to attend a few of Adam's virtual and live events and I can tell you #1 they are well worth your time and #2 I have no doubt that he has that many files! His presentations are filled with videos and great content. So, what do you do if you have massive content like that?
Adam mentioned a few different challenges:
1 - Slews of slides w/ corresponding files that must be in the same folder to attach to work.
2 - Different presentations have different branding (in my post the other day, I mentioned that I keep my branding consistent, but there are many valid reasons to not do that.)
1 - How to Organize When You Have Slews of PowerPoint Slides
There are two different considerations you can take when you have 1000s of slides with complex video. One involves changing the way you display the video and one involves indexing, so let's talk about both options.
Embed YouTube Videos in Your PowerPoint to Save Disk Space
Adam mentioned that he had a lot of slides with huge video files attached in folders. This can make organizing a challenge because the files need to be connected and size can become a real problem.
One consideration is to embed your videos via YouTube rather than the physical file. This option does require you to have internet access when you give your presentation, but it frees up a lot of space. You'll have to balance the pros and cons to decide if it is right for you.
If you don't want the videos that you share in your presentations to show on your YouTube profile, that is easy to fix! Just mark your video as UNLISTED and only those with the embed or a link can view the video.
If you would like to see a quick tutorial, check out this great short video I found on how to embed your videos into your PowerPoint.
Create an Index of Presentation Slides for Easy Reuse
Rather than a master file with all of the PowerPoint slides consider creating (hopefully not you, but your assistant or virtual assistant) a master index that is search-able.
An index is simply an alphabetical listing of names, topics, etc., with references to the places where they occur. You commonly find indexes at the end of a book, but they are a great tool to use for any kind of searching.
The index could be simply created in excel or my favorite indexing tool http://www.FindInFiveSeconds.com. The index needs fields or columns for:
- topic,
- keywords,
- presentation title,
- slide number,
- description.
For example, Adam shared a video testimony from Suzanne Evans at an event I recently attended. His index entry could look like this:
This way, rather than trying to remember, I had that great slide I created for X event a year ago and having to sift through the presentations, you do one quick search on Excel (or better yet, use www.FindInFiveSeconds.com) and you know exactly where that slide is.
Indexing is a fantastic way to organize information when you have huge amounts to remember.
2 - Set up Your PowerPoint Branding to be Easily Switchable!
Adam mentioned that many of his slides hold the branding of the event he is hosting. This can make reusing slides time consuming and frustrating, but I have a trick that can save you loads of time.
Use the PowerPoint Slide Master
A PowerPoint master is kind of like a static background to all of your slides. Rather than putting your branding graphics manually on every slide, you position the branding graphics in your slide master.
Details here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/about-the-slide-master-HP005195406.aspx
Every new slide you create has the "master" background in that file.
It makes creating programs very easy and when you want to reuse a slide with X branding on a new presentation, only the content of the slide gets copied to the new presentation.
Quick re-use trick: Make sure the dimensions of your custom designed backgrounds have similar dimensions so that you could easily switch up the backgrounds when you wanted to reuse the slide.
Whew! OK. That is all for today. What presentation preparation system or strategy do you use? Please share your comments openly and freely! I know my readers would appreciate your perspective.
To your success!
PS -- A really savvy reader, Robin Bridson, shared a cool tip on how she creates her presentations and saves loads of time when she commented on my original post. Make sure you check it out! "Do You Speak for Your Business? Then You Don't Want to Miss This Time-Saving Trick" »
