Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson on creating a slide deck template.

I'm Mr. Coxed and I'm really pleased that you could join me for this lesson.

Let's get started.

The outcome for this lesson is I can create a slide deck template to meet the needs of an audience.

Here are the keywords for today's lesson, template, a pre-designed layout or guide.

Consistent, always happening in a similar way.

And design, to create a plan to solve a problem.

There are three parts to this lesson.

The first one is features of a slide deck.

The second part will be planning the branding to use in a template.

And the third part is to create a slide deck template from the plan that we create.

Let's take a look at the features of a slide deck.

Imagine you want to tell the class all about your favourite hobby.

Maybe it's skateboarding, music, gaming, or art.

How could you share this information with the class? There are many ways information can be shared.

Here are a few you might have thought of.

You could create a poster, you could send a letter, we could write and send an email, or we could create a presentation.

Which method do you think might be the best method for engaging a class to share lots of information about your hobby? Pause the video if you need to have a think.

Whilst all these methods could be used to share information, it's most likely we would share the information in a presentation, and this would be really engaging for the class and we could put lots of information into the presentation.

So presentations are a powerful form of communication.

They can be used to engage and maintain the interest of your audience.

With visual, audio and interactive content, they connect directly with the audience.

They can focus the audience on the main message that you are trying to get across.

And slide decks are often used to support and structure the presentations that we give.

A slide deck is a set of slides used to communicate information and to support presentations.

To be effective, slide decks should be organised, visually appealing, easy to understand, and unlike other visual media such as posters and signs, slide decks should be carefully designed to communicate a message clearly.

So each slide of a slide deck can contain different types of content to communicate information.

Let's take a look at this example.

We could have text, we could add images, we could add charts, we could add video clips, and we could also add audio clips.

Content should be carefully chosen to clearly communicate the message and to make a strong impact on the audience.

There are a few considerations to take into account when we're choosing content for a slide deck.

The texts can reinforce and summarise information to communicate to your audience.

Images are great for adding visual appeal.

They can engage the audience and show things that are hard to explain in words.

Charts can help simplify data and help the audience to picture complex information.

Video clips can show real things happening and information that will be hard to explain only with text.

And finally, audio clips can provide a break from visual elements and add atmosphere, and impact to key points.

Here's our first question to check understanding, which type of content is best used to simplify and visualise complex data? Is it A, text, B, audio, or C, charts? Pause the video to have a go at the question.

Okay, welcome back.

And the answer is, of course, C.

Charts can be used to help simplify and visualise complex data.

Don't worry if you didn't get the answer correct, you can always take a look back through the previous content that we've just covered.

Let's move on.

So a powerful feature of slide decks is that the slide decks can be revealed one after the other.

This means that we can have lots of information that we spread across several slides and splitting the content into smaller chunks helps the audience stay focused, and they're not given too much information in one go.

Here's our second question for check for understanding.

Which form of media would be best to clearly communicate lots of information to a live audience of 30 people? Is it A, an A4 poster, B, a slide deck presentation or C, an email? Pause the video and think about your answer.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the answer to the question, and it is of course, slide deck presentations.

So slide decks are great for giving information to audiences and they can help to keep them engaged and include lots of forms of media.

Well done if you got that correct.

If you didn't, don't worry.

You can always go back through, and have a look at some of the previous content and we're onto the first task of this lesson.

So Laura and Jun have been asked by their teacher to present information about their favourite hobby to a class of 25 students.

The first part of the task is to write a short explanation of why a slide deck would support their presentation.

Think back to what we previously covered in the content.

The second part of the task is to write down two or three suggestions to ensure their slide deck communicates their ideas clearly.

Good luck.

Pause the video and have a go at that task.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the answers to task A.

So the first question was to write a short explanation of why a slide deck would support the presentation.

So a slide deck can provide visual aids to support a presentation.

It can also help communicate a message clearly, and keep the audience engaged and interested in what you are presenting.

You may have got a different answer, but it should have been something similar to that example.

Question two of task A was to write down two or three suggestions to ensure their slide deck communicates their ideas clearly.

So your examples may have included: choosing the content carefully and keeping it simple.

Organise and split your content over different slides, and use a range of media such as images, videos, and audio to add interest.

Remember, your suggestions could have been different.

That's absolutely fine.

Well done for completing the first task of the lesson, you've done a great job so far.

Let's move on and go to the next part of the lesson, which is planning the branding to be used in a template.

So imagine you work for an environmental charity.

The charity might need to present information to many different audiences.

For example, it could be a primary school class, a company, a government.

The content of a slide deck should be edited, so that it's suitable for each of the different audiences that you will be present to.

You could imagine the needs of those different types of audiences could be quite different, and we must edit our slide deck to match the needs.

Here's a thought from Jun.

He's thinking that creating a new slide deck for each audience could take a long time and how can we make the process faster? And Laura says that we can make sure the slide deck designs are consistent.

This means they all have the same look.

Or to save time and improve consistency, a slide deck template can be created.

A slide deck template is a set of ready-made slides that already have features like the layouts for different content, the fonts, colours, and the logos and branding.

And because templates can be reused, they help you save time when you are designing your presentations.

A template can also help an organisation to keep the visual identity of its brand consistent.

Here's our first question to check understanding of this part of the lesson.

True or false, a slide deck template could be used to save time and improve consistency.

Pause the video and have a think about your answer.

Welcome back.

And the answer is of course, true.

Slide deck templates can help save a lot of time and improve consistency.

So there are more than one way to make a slide deck template, but here are some guiding principles to make your templates effective.

A slide deck template should follow a consistent visual style.

Include branding elements such as a logo, and brand colours have a variety of slide layouts for different types of content.

It should also be easy to edit and reuse.

So before you create a slide deck template, you should create a planning document to plan the features that we would like to include.

So Laura has asked a question, does she need to know about the organisation first, so she can design the slide deck to match its style? What do you think? Well, yes.

Before planning, we should be clear about the organisation.

So the template reflects the branding and the needs of that organisation.

And we have our second question of this part of the lesson, slide deck template should not include a logo, be editable or not be reused.

What do you think? Pause the video and think about your answer.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the answer to this question.

And the answer is slide deck template should be editable.

Well done if you got that correct.

Don't worry if you didn't remember, you can always rewind the video and go back through some of the previous lesson.

Consider the following environmental charities: our air, wildlands and best oceans.

For each charity, the template slide deck should reflect their mission, and so it's likely that slide deck will be different for each one of those different charities.

Colours, fonts and logos should be suited to the charity.

A logo is a key component of a slide deck template and usually appears throughout the slide deck.

The logo should be simple and easy to recognise and the colours must match the branding of the organisation.

The position of the logo should be carefully considered for each slide.

Suitable colours for the background and text should also be chosen.

We could have dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background, but make sure the text is easy to read against the background.

Okay, we're on to task B, which is the second task of this lesson.

An environmental charity has asked you to plan three slides for a slide deck template.

They have provided you with a planning document to help you design the template.

There are five parts to this task.

The first one is to choose a charity from the examples provided.

The second part is to pick a logo and add colours that suit the charity.

The third part is to decide where to put the logo on each slide.

The fourth part is to choose the text colour and font.

And finally, choose a background colour for the slides.

Good luck with this task.

Pause the video and have a go at your planning sheet.

Good luck.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed task B.

Let's take a look at some example answers.

So the parts one and two of the first task were to choose a charity from the examples, and pick a logo and add colours that suit the charity.

So Jun chose our air and he picked the cloud logo.

The logo has a dark blue background and a lighter blue cloud, and this suits the theme of the charity.

Remember, if you've got a completely different logo, that's absolutely fine.

It's unique to your charity and that's absolutely okay.

So the third part of this task was to decide where to put the logo on each slide.

And you may have chosen a different position and that's absolutely fine, but Jun, he chose the bottom right corner of the side for the title and the top right corner for the other slides.

Parts four and five of task B were to choose a text colour, and font and choose a background colour for the slides.

So Jun chose a light blue colour for the text as well as a simple font called Lexend.

He picked a dark blue background to contrast with the light text.

Remember, if you've picked something completely different, that's absolutely fine, but it should be clear to read for the audience.

Here's an example of how Jun laid out his design Well done for completing task B.

Hopefully you've got a really good planning document there for your template.

I'm sure you've done a super job.

Don't worry if you need to go back and make any changes, that's absolutely fine.

Let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

And we're onto creating a slide deck template from a plan.

So slide decks can be made using many different software applications.

Note that applications will have similar tools and features for creating a slide deck, but icons and menus may look slightly different on each application.

Applications may be web-based or installed on a network, or on an individual computer.

You're free to use whatever software you have access to when creating your slide deck template.

When creating a template for a slide deck, you need access to the master slide or theme builder.

And remember, this will vary depending on the application you are using, but you should know that when settings such as font, text size, text colour, and background colour are set on a master slide, these settings will appear across the other layout slides within the template.

There are different kinds of layout slide, for example, title slides and content slide.

Settings for individual slides can be manually changed by accessing the layout slides below the master slide.

Once the template has been created, it's possible to create as many slide decks as you need with the same consistent look.

To create a template, follow these steps.

Create the document using your chosen application, view the master slide or theme builder, change the text style, the size, and the colour on the master slide, Change the master slide background colour, upload a logo and place it in the desired position on each slide layout and edit and adjust your template content.

After these stages are complete, your template should be ready and you'll be ready to go on and create as many slide decks and you need.

There's a video that you can access to show this process.

Feel free to use this if you need to.

Just check for understanding on this part of the lesson.

And the question is that changing the content on the master slide of a template only changes that slide, changes the design of all the slides, or changes the design of some slides.

So is it A, B, or C? Pause the video and think about your answer.

Welcome back.

Let's take a look at the answer to this question.

And it is of course B.

So changing the content on the master slide of a template, changes the design on all the slides.

Well done if you got that correct.

Don't worry if you didn't.

You can always go back through the video and have a look at some of the things we've previously covered.

The second question to check understanding.

The design of individual slides can be different from that of the master slide.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and think about your answer.

Welcome back.

And the answer is true.

And why is this? Well, remember, individual slides can be manually changed by accessing the layout slides below the master slide.

Well done if you got that correct.

Don't worry if you didn't, you can always go back through and have a look at the previous content.

Let's move on.

Okay, and we're onto task C, which is the final task of this lesson.

You've done a brilliant job so far, let's take a look at the details of this task.

So for this task, we are going to create a slide deck template using the plan you created in task B.

Remember to set the background colour of your slides, set the font, the text size and the text colour, and add a logo to each slide, setting the size and the position.

Good luck with this task.

I hope you enjoy it and I can't wait to see what you manage to create.

Pause the video and undertake the task.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's review task C, which is the final task of this lesson.

And the task was to create a slide deck template using the plan that you created in task B.

So Laura thought it was great to change the master slide, and see the other slide designs change and she used her plan to help her set the background and the text colours as well as the position of the logos on each slide.

Your slides may look different than these ones, and that's absolutely fine.

They're unique to you.

You might have a different logo, you may have a different font, you may have different colours, but that's absolutely fine.

Well done.

You've done a fabulous job this lesson, and that's the last task of the lesson.

Let's move on and have a look at the summary.

Slide decks can be used for presentations, projects, and for sharing information.

Slide deck templates can be created to provide consistency in design and structure.

Design choices should reflect the needs of the audience, and the purpose of the product.

And slide templates can be saved and reused.

Well done for this lesson on creating a slide deck template.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

You've done a brilliant job, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in future lessons.