What is a good workflow for Presentation Design?

Question

A client wants a presentation design that he can edit and change after, including elements such as: template frame, body copy, lists, calls-to-action, animations, custom vector graphics, mockups - you get the point!

What is the best way to undertake this? how do YOU design presentations? is there a way to design in PSD and convert to PPT? do you work directly on Powerpoint? (Feeling lost)

The final outcome should be: Inatilized design delivered in PDF and templated Powerpoint format that can be edited! for future use

Thanks!

Answer 1

There is no way to convert a PSD, into a PowerPoint. What you do is you export your graphics assets as PNG to use in PowerPoint. Try to actually bring assets such as logos as fonts if possible. Consider that vector content does not always work so well in PP unless it was created in PP*.

It is better if you do most of the designing in PowerPoint itself. Mostly focus on typography and colors. Design a few master slides of different kinds. A opening slide, a heading slide a one column slide, a image slide, a two column slide etc. You decide what is actually needed.

For each slide design the look and feel of each text level. Mind yourself that while non-bulleted items are cool, most users will accidentally bullet the lists. As they aren't aware of the shortcuts. Use only fonts your clients machines have installed, or there will be trouble.

Most designers do an absolutely mess of the PP slides. So be sure to test your slides in actual use. Also prepare ready made slides in the form of company presentation etc. this gives users ideas on how the slide is to be used. And finally make instructions on how to install the template so it can be instantiated in a second.

* warning, PP may embed Illustrator files, but they will fail/fallback unexpectedly on machines that dont have illustrator installed. same applies to many other things. Tread with care.

Answer 2

Another consideration is your client's capacity. Do they have a graphics team? Who will be editing the presentation? What will their audience be for the presentation (i.e., does it matter if it looks awesome? Or is 'good enough' acceptable?)? I doubt they will like to edit a PSD file, and even if you could convert it, they will have issues with properly defined text hierarchy.

My guess is that the client just needs a powerpoint he or she can edit, and that they don't have a dedicated team for making this. Make sure you don't use a custom font (unless you've talked about it), because it will be a big hassle for when they work on it later.

Also, I use Keynote. They have a lot of nice texture functions built in (although 19 times out of 20, the projector is so crappy you can't see the subtle textures used in the presentation—still, the pdf looks good).

Answer 3

I personally would do everything in Photoshop and then put it manually in PowerPoint.

In would create a template power point where the user simply could copy and paste all elements onto another PowerPoint file

Answer 4

You can also use keynote, which is included in your apple cloud account. I find it to be the best way to design presentations as it has all the deliverables and can be edited. I believe you can also export it as a PPT. Good luck!

Answer 5

I'm kinda shocked no one mentioned slide masters and PPT templates (pot / potx).

These two PowerPoint features should help make the PowerPoint sufficiently flexible if someone were to edit it later. Infact the whole idea behind these were to build templates.

While I'm not very sure of any standard way of doing this, here's how I would go about building a template

1. Enlist the different kinds of slides your client would typically use: There might be some intent behind why the client would use the deck. Like make sales pitches, submit reviews, internal communication. You would be able to make a list based on this.This would basically involve listing out what kinds of slides he would typically use. For E.g. The would be a cover slide, divider slides, Index, Table of Content, Agenda etc. Also I'd also keep a "blank slide" incase there's something the client would wanna do, outside of our list.

2. Decide designs for each kind of slide

If you're planning on directly incorporating you designs in PowerPoint make sure you refer to the third point first, else if you're more comfortable with another graphics software, would do the conceptualizing there first and then bring it to PowerPoint

a. Decide on fonts,color etc You would want to think about aspects like typical color scheme, fonts etc for the entire template before starting any designing.

b. Think about typical elements that would go into different slides These would include charts,tables,titles,paragraphs,shapes etc. It helps designing these commonly used elements first

c. Build different layouts Based on the list be made earlier (of different kinds of slides), we would conceptualize designs for the cover slide, table of content slide etc. We would also be leveraging the elements we designing in the earlier step here.

3. Incorporate these into a template Here, instead of making a PPT as usual, go to view>slide master first. This would change the interface a bit, you would have a "master slide" along with layouts below it. Every slide you designed in the previous section would be a new layout here. When the client is using your template, he simple needs to rightclick on a slide and hover over layout to get a list of different templates to choose from. Thus you can create different layouts for different slides. The overall slide master interface should be pretty self explanatory. Another major benefit of slide master is, it allows you to handle all fonts, colors, font sizes etc in one single place. Thus forcing the client to maintain consistency.

4. Save it as a template Once you're done with all the designing, close the slide master view and save it as a potx.

I might add more points to the slide master section in a while, but most if it is a lot like conventional PowerPoint, and should not be that tricky.

5. Train your Client Last but not the least, no matter what you do, it would be crucial to explain and train the client like a baby.

I've had times when I made a decent template that was then butchered by the user's "creativity". They will mostly feel tempted to play around and get creative sometimes, this would likely result in your design breaking. A simple session on design do's, dont's (and why do and dont) would save you a lot of frustration IMHO.

Answer 6

I like to start most of my PowerPoint presentation templates in Adobe Illustrator until i am completely satisfied with the look.

Once i am happy, i start exporting bitmap images as PNGs and exporting vector files to the Enhanced Meta-file Format .emf. I do this so that i can continue manipulating my vector images in PowerPoint. For example, your client might want to change the entire color scheme on their own which will be very easy if you have things like the 'calls to action' still in vector form.

To make your vector files editable in PowerPoint, insert them as .emf files like any other images then right click and select 'Edit Picture'.

A dialogue box will pop up with the message, 'This is an imported picture, not a group. Do you want to convert it to a Microsoft Office drawing object?' Just click 'Yes' and then ungroup the image.

You will have your vector image in PowerPoint ready to change colors, take strokes etc. For the rest you can follow TDsouza's suggestions. They are on-point.