How to avoid a ‘crashing’ end to your PowerPoint presentation

How many times have you seen a presenter come to a big, impactful finish, only to undo the effect by running past their final PowerPoint slide? In doing so they ‘crash out’ of Slideshow mode to reveal their desktop, complete with sentimental screensaver and an iTunes library that invariably kicks off with Abba’s Greatest Hits? No amount of fumbling is ever going to completely bring back the feeling they created – for just a fleeting moment – nor the Call to Action they delivered with such panache.

Happily, there is a very simple solution to avoiding ‘crashing your PowerPoint’. Make yourself an ‘end slide’ – this could simply be a copy of your ‘intro slide’ or it could be more specific to the close of your presentation, showing a ‘big message’, an abiding image or your contact details and website address.

Place this at the very end of your presentation, followed by a duplicate. That way, you can click onto a definite end slide that marks the end of your presentation. And if you happen to fumble and click too far you display the duplicate and no harm is done. If you want to be really safe - belt and braces, as they say - you could have two duplicates at the end. It may seem like a small point but, as I always say, ‘Firsts & Lasts’ are the most important parts of any presentation and you really do want to send your audience away with your big message, undimmed by any clumsy slide control.

Once you get the hang of putting high focus on how you open and close, you may want to move to another level and deliver your intro and your outro with a blank screen. To see the advantages of doing that, click here: Open and close your businesspresentation with more impact – by switching off.