Discover How You Can Save Time with the PowerPoint Outline View

Would you like to reduce the time it takes you to create a presentation in PowerPoint 2010? The solution is to use the PowerPoint Outline feature. One of my friends travels extensively giving presentations across the country. She feels as if she is always in presentation creation mode. To help her save time during her brainstorming sessions with herself, I taught her how to use the PowerPoint 2010 Outline feature effectively — and she loved it! So, I thought to share this option
with you.

Most clients admit that they create a presentation slide by slide, which can be very time consuming especially if you add the fact that some clients try to build their tables and insert pictures and graphs at the time they are brainstorming. Using this method can derail you from your original stream of creative thoughts.

The trick is to get all of your ideas into PowerPoint as quickly and efficiently as you can while simultaneously building your presentation. The Outline feature will allow you to do this. You can insert placeholder slides for graphs, photos and tables and then revisit those slides later to enter the actual data.

To help you with this exercise, remember when you needed to build an outline for a school paper, the structure would look something like (see below). It’s the same process for a PowerPoint outline.

So, for your next presentation, I recommend trying the Outline feature. All you have to remember are these three keyboard shortcut keys:

1. [Enter] – to create a new slide (moves your cursor down one line)
2. [Tab] – to add a bullet point to an existing slide (indents your cursor to the right)
3. [Shift] [Tab] – moves your cursor to the left (usually creates a new slide)

Using these keyboard shortcut keys will enable you to build a similar outline quickly and easily.

So, next time, consider creating your presentation using the Outline view instead of looking at the Outline view after the presentation has been completed.

Snippet™ Training Lesson

1. Open a new file in PowerPoint 2010.

3. The following window will appear.

4. The box seen in the Outline view represents Slide #1 which is your Title Slide. To start building your outline, click to the right of the #1 box.

5. Type the title of your presentation.

6. Before you press [Enter], you need to decide if you wish to:

a. Stay on the same slide? If so, press [Enter] and then press [Tab] and type your text.

b. Or, create a new slide? Simply press the [Enter] key and type the information for slide #2.

7. When you wish to indent a subtopic, press the [Tab] key. PowerPoint will automatically bullet the subtopics starting with slide #2.

8. When finished bulleting, press [Enter] to create a new line and then press [Shift] [Enter] to move the cursor to the left and start a new slide.

Try this…

1. In the Outline View, on slide 1, type: My Summer Vacation
2. Press [Enter] and then press [Tab].
3. Type: By (your name).
4. Press Enter.
5. Press [Shift] [Tab] to create Slide #2.
6. Type: Places we visited
7. Press [Enter]. Press [Tab]
8. Type: Leadership Conference
9. Press [Enter]
10. Type: Canoe Trip
11. Press [Enter]
12. Type: Camping with Family
13. Press [Enter]
14. Press [Shift] [Tab] to create slide #3.
15. Type: Leadership Conference
16. Press [Enter]. Press [Tab].
17. Type: (Include Agenda)
18. Press [Enter]. Press [Shift] [Tab]
19. Type: Canoe Trip
20. Press [Enter]. Press [Tab].
21. Type: (Insert Picture)
22. Press [Enter]. Press [Shift] [Tab]
23. Type: Camping with Family
24. Press [Enter] Etc.

Your outline should look like this.

It takes some practice; however, within a few minutes, you will get into the rhythm of using the keyboard shortcut keys and the process of building a presentation outline will be quick and easy.

We strive to share tips and tricks that will help you become more efficient and productive using the computer software tools you have available.