Converting an Old Deck to a Gold Deck – An Example

This post is for all of you out there who downloaded yesterday’s template.  I used the template to convert a PowerPoint Deck that I found on the web from its original look to one that conforms to the Modern Presentation Method.  The deck in question was one I found online at a US Army website and it is used to teach convoy operations to soldiers.

Here, check out how a few of the slide changed when I did this.

Title Slide

I have significantly simplified the title slide and made it much easier to understand.

Before	After

 

Example Slide

Again, I have simplified the slide and I used the template to do this.

Before	After

 

Slide with 8 Points

In this case, I used an 8 point example from the template to quickly simplify the slide to bring out the key point.

Before	After

 

Moving the Overwhelming Details to Notes Slides

I did two things here.  I moved all of the detailed text from the slide to the notes slides.  This preserves the detail for the presenter to use and keeps it in the deck as notes which can be used in handouts and I simplified the slide considerably.  It also simplifies three slides on screen down to one.  You be the judge of which set of slides is easier for the audience to understand and remember.

Before	After

 

It took me less than 3 hours to convert it from its old format, into the Modern Presentation Method one.  Even better, I did not have to spend one dime to do it.  All of the graphics and pictures came from either Army websites or from the Modern Presentation Method graphics library. I was also able to eliminate 1/3 of the slides, which will make the presentation shorter.

The point is, by using the Modern Presentation Method you can quickly and cheaply convert your existing deck to something that is much more effective at getting your point across.

Two caveats: 

1. I did not change the story one bit.  In the case of this deck, I probably would swap some of the sections around to get a more logical flow. 
2. I did not confirm if the content was right.  I am not a subject matter expert on current US Army convoy operations so I am trusting that the original author was correct.  I did correct a couple of egregious errors that I did see though.

 

See the deck below and let me know what you think.

Thanks for tuning in.

 DK

mailto:dkarle@microsoft.com

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Deck – Before

convoy-operations-admin

Deck – After

3b_Build_Notes_To_80%_Convoy_Operations_Admin_After_Final

Storyboard of Deck – Before

 

Storyboard of Deck – After