How Do I Make a Slideshow?

Angela Farrer

You can make a slideshow by first examining the topic to be presented, whether it has been specifically assigned to you or you have been given the choice of formulating your own topic. The latter case typically requires some initial brainstorming to come up with a relevant subject that can be communicated effectively with a montage of digital media. Once you have a definite topic, you will need to gather your content for the slide presentation, which can include images, text descriptions, video, music, and graphics. The next step involves deciding on the sequence of this content that will make a slideshow as interesting as possible. Final steps then include creating the presentation with industry-standard slideshow software, showcasing it to your assigned business meeting or school class, and sometimes making it available online for others to view.

Woman posing
Woman posing

Presentations are popular ways of communicating a wide array of information in both the business world and in academia. One of the common challenges that many presenters face is that of maintaining their audience's consistent interest in the topic, particularly if it is one that they do not normally contemplate on a daily basis. An effective strategy is often to make a slideshow with a variety of multimedia such as images paired with appropriate music. Communication experts often find that people generally remember ideas that are presented with audio and visual aids much better than if those same ideas were presented only with written text.

After you have your appropriate digital content ready, you will need to make sure your selected slideshow software meets all of the technical requirements for your presentation. Some software packages only support specific video, graphic, or audio formats. You do not want to put in all of the effort to make a slideshow only to find it will not play back correctly. Slideshow software programs can be either web-based or stand-alone desktop applications, and some are designed specifically for certain types of computer operating systems.

Once you have the needed compatible software, it is time to arrange your media into a sequence that logically follows your ideas from start to finish. Some experienced presenters compare this step to creating a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Edits are usually common when you make a slideshow that presents a complex topic, and this part of the process often helps result in a polished end product.

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