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Organize Your
Thoughts
Because presentation programs such as PowerPoint are
visual tools, we often jump too quickly into visually ex-
pressing our ideas when we use them—before we’ve
spent enough time arranging our thoughts and craft-
ing our words. When moving ideas from sticky notes to
software, enter each point you plan to cover as a clearly
worded title in outline or slide-sorter mode rather than
going straight to slide-creation mode (fi gure 2-3). That
allows you to read the titles in sequence, without the dis-
tractions of supporting details or graphics, to make sure
your presentation fl ows from point to point.
Ask yourself, “If people read just the titles, will they
get what I’m saying?” That’s not just an academic exer-
cise. You really ...