Image: Discover DuPont
Question: I tried to design a slide deck to feature more images and be less text-heavy but my manager told me that I had to redesign the slides because we need to use these slides as training materials for people who didn’t attend the presentation. What can I do?
Answer: Your company has a point. Modern visual, minimal text slides are great for helping your audience to grasp and remember your ideas but they are no good for any one who didn’t attend the presentation and hear what you had to say.
Before you design your slides, talk to your manager and find out if they will just be needed for the presentation or will training materials be needed for future use.
If training materials will be needed then while you’re creating your slides, also write a handout. This will take everything that people usually put into their text-heavy slides and put it into the handout. For added effect, use the images from your slides in the handout so that the people who attended the talk will have a visual reminder of what you said.
The handout will fulfill all your manager’s needs for training documentation without you having to put too much text on your slides.