Slide Design: layout and storytelling

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Story first, slides second

In simple words

A good presentation is like a story you tell a friend: it has a start, a middle and an end. You decide the story first. Then you make the slides to help tell it.

Before this course: Microsoft PowerPoint Essentials: Slides That Look Professional (course 13.3). You already know how to add slides, pick a theme and follow the 10/20/30 guideline. Now you will design the deck on purpose.

Key facts

Outline view (View tab) is made for building an outline or storyboard. It shows only the text on your slides, not pictures or other graphics.
Microsoft says Outline view is handy for global edits, getting an overview, and changing the order of bullets or slides.
Slide Sorter (View tab) shows your slides as a grid so you can reorder them by dragging.
A simple story shape that works for most school and work talks: who is listening and what they need (audience), one main message (the one thing they should remember), then opening, three supporting points, closing and next step.
A useful habit is the "headline test": a slide title written as a full sentence that states the point (for example, "Sales rose in the second term") tells the audience more than a label (for example, "Sales").

Step by step

Write one sentence: who is the audience and what should they remember?
Open PowerPoint and click View, then Outline View.
Type one line per slide as a title that states its point. Press Enter for a new slide and Tab to turn a line into a bullet under the slide.
Aim for an opening, three supporting points and a closing slide.
Click View, then Slide Sorter, and drag slides into the order a listener would follow.
Click View, then Normal to go back to full slides.
Check: you can read only the slide titles, in order, and they tell the whole story.

LESSON 01Story first, slides second

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Most bad slides start with the slides. Good decks start with the story."
[Screen: View > Outline View, one title per line] "Outline view shows only your words. Type one title per slide, each one a full sentence that makes a point."
[Screen: View > Slide Sorter] "Slide Sorter lets you drag the slides into order."
[Text on screen: Read only the titles. Do they tell the story?] "Read just the titles. If they tell the story, the deck is ready for design."

Try it now

Pick a topic you know. Write the one-sentence message, then build an 8-slide outline in Outline view with a sentence title on each slide. Reorder it once in Slide Sorter.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Slide Design: layout and storytelling" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Story first, slides second".

What the lesson teaches:
- Outline view (View tab) is made for building an outline or storyboard. It shows only the text on your slides, not pictures or other graphics.
- Microsoft says Outline view is handy for global edits, getting an overview, and changing the order of bullets or slides.
- Slide Sorter (View tab) shows your slides as a grid so you can reorder them by dragging.
- A simple story shape that works for most school and work talks: who is listening and what they need (audience), one main message (the one thing they should remember), then opening, three supporting points, closing and next step.
- A useful habit is the "headline test": a slide title written as a full sentence that states the point (for example, "Sales rose in the second term") tells the audience more than a label (for example, "Sales").

The exercise I'm working on:
Pick a topic you know. Write the one-sentence message, then build an 8-slide outline in Outline view with a sentence title on each slide. Reorder it once in Slide Sorter.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Story first, slides second" from the course "Slide Design: layout and storytelling".

Here's what the lesson says:
A good presentation is like a story you tell a friend: it has a start, a middle and an end. You decide the story first. Then you make the slides to help tell it.

The activity:
Pick a topic you know. Write the one-sentence message, then build an 8-slide outline in Outline view with a sentence title on each slide. Reorder it once in Slide Sorter.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Microsoft Support, Choose the right view for the task in PowerPoint: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/choose-the-right-view-for-the-task-
Microsoft Support, Organize your PowerPoint slides into sections: support.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/training/organize-your-powerpoi

My notes

I learned this

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