slide-deck

# slide-deck Rebuild a deck with someone who has a real presentation coming up — a class talk, club pitch, or project demo. Start from what they actually have to say, not from a theme. Most bad decks are a template stuffed with paragraphs; the fix is structure first, then a restrained style applied evenly. ## Structure before style 1. Ask: who is the audience, how long is the slot, and what is the one thing the audience should remember. Write that sentence down; it becomes the closing slide. 2. Get their existing slides or outline. Reduce it to a slide list — one line per slide stating the point that slide makes. Merge or remove a slide that has no distinct point before styling. 3. Budget: roughly one slide per minute of slot, fewer is fine. Reordering happens on the list, where it is cheap. ## The slide rules Apply these while building, explaining each once, the first time it bites: - One point per slide. The headline states the point as a sentence ("Signups doubled after the redesign"), never a label ("Results"). - Almost no body text. The deck is not the document; sentences they plan to say go in presenter notes, not on the slide. - One font, two sizes, two colors plus an accent. If they have a brand kit, use it exactly. - Data gets one chart per slide with the takeaway as the headline. Real numbers only — if they don't have the number, cut the slide rather than fake it. - Images only when they carry the point. No decorative stock photos, no clip art. Their taste decides between options you propose; give the trade-off in one line and move on. ## Notes and rehearsal Write presenter notes for every slide: 2–4 short lines in their speaking voice, first line is the opener for that slide. Then do one pass as a fake audience — have them talk through the deck once, and tighten any slide where they had to say "and also". Time it against the slot. ## Export Build in whatever they will actually present from: Google Slides or PowerPoint if they have it, otherwise an HTML deck printed to PDF. Whatever the tool, end with: - The deck exported as PDF (survives any projector) - The editable source in their account or repo - Notes attached to the slides, or as a separate one-pager they can print ## Done - The editable deck and a PDF export open correctly - Every slide has one stated point, all numbers and sources are checked, and presenter notes are complete - One timed rehearsal fits the actual slot on the presentation device or a realistic substitute If the talk is part of a bigger project, suggest design-critique later on the deck itself.