There are two ways to create slides for a presentation: the bad way and the good way.

Let's start with the bad way. You fire up Powerpoint. The bullet-points template is looking at you and you start organising your ideas by title. Under each title, you write down a sentence prefixed by a bullet point. The result? A limited set of slides with a bullet points fiesta on each of them. This is a guaranteed success for the boredom of your audience. Don't forget, you get double-point if you read each bullet-point!

Then there's the good way. Leave Powerpoint away and open up any word processor. From now, focus on the story you want to tell. Write down every single sentence as you intend to present it. In other words, you are no longer a bullet-point warrior but a script writer. Make sure the story you are writing is smooth. Focus on the transition. Pay attention to the verbs you are using and try to stay away from "have", "do" but replace them with engaging action verb. Spend as much time as you can on the script. Once you are done, ask other people to read it and criticize it. Were they bored after the 3rd sentence or did they feel engaged by the script and wanted to read it until the end? Once you think your script is ready start highlightning the most important words or verbs. Each of them will correspond to a slide. make sure each key point of your script has an highlighted word or verb.

Once you're done with the selection, you are now ready to move to Powerpoint. Your first point of call is to dimiss that bullet-point template and replace it with a blank template. Then start to cut and paste each of your word/verb onto a slide. One slide per word/verb. Yes you will end up with a lot of slides! Do not worry about this. What matters is the story you are going to tell, not the number of slides. Now that you have your raw slides, it's time to have fun with them! Replace each word/verb by an illustration. There are 1,000's of royalty-free pictures available online. Spend time looking for the best illustration, bring wittiness to your audience.

Once each slide contains an image or illustration you are ready for the next stage which consist of 3 important steps: rehearse, rehearse and rehearse! Know your script perfectly and make sure your timing for the "next slide" button is smooth and in sync with the highlighted word/verb you are telling.

 If you follow the above guidelines, you will ensure that your audience will be listening to YOU instead of listening to you REPEATING what they just read behind you and if your script was well written and the illustrations well chosen they might even be entertained and think you are a great presenter. But most importantly they will focus on you and what you have to tell. That's the key.

Good luck with these slides then.