Build a PowerPoint outline before you design a single slide

What you'll need

• The decision or ask, in one sentence
• The audience and how long you have
• Three to seven facts you already know are true

Step 1: Write the story, not the theme

Help me outline a presentation. Do not design slides or pick colors.

Audience: [who]
Time: [minutes]
Decision I need from them: [one sentence]
Facts I know are true:
[paste bullets]

Give me:
1. A one-sentence point of the whole talk
2. A slide list. For each slide: a title that is a full sentence, 3 bullets a person could say out loud, and the fact that supports it
3. Slides I should cut if I only have half the time
4. Questions the audience will ask, and which slide answers each one

Do not invent numbers, quotes, or results. If a fact is missing, write "NEED THIS."

Step 2: Fill every NEED THIS yourself

Those gaps are the work. Look up the number, ask a teammate, or delete the slide. Do not let the next prompt paper over a blank.

Step 3: Read the titles in order

Cover the bullets. Read only the slide titles out loud. If they don't tell the story, reorder or cut before you design anything.

Here is the outline with my edits: [paste].
Tighten any title that is a topic instead of a sentence.
Keep my facts exactly. Do not add new ones.

Step 4: Build the deck from the outline

Open PowerPoint or Google Slides and make one slide per title. Put the sentence in the title placeholder. Put at most three bullets on the slide. Speaker notes can hold the rest.

Director check: look before you use it

• Does each title still make sense if the bullets disappeared? If not, the title is doing no work.
• Did any number appear that you didn't supply? Remove it.
• Is the ask on its own slide, near the end? People miss an ask buried in a "next steps" pile.
• Could a skeptical person follow this without you talking? If the slides are only pictures and the story is all in your head, add the sentence back.

One extra tip

When the outline is solid, open the free Copilot site at copilot.microsoft.com, paste one slide, and ask for three sentences you could say out loud. You still build the slides yourself. The button inside PowerPoint is a separate license. If you have it, Use Copilot in Word and PowerPoint is the matching guide. The outline still comes first.