It is not uncommon for me to see sample slides sent by participants for my customized workshops that contain complex images. These images, which can be pictures or diagrams, usually come from a drawing program or other source. If you show the entire image on the screen and use a laser pointer to try to guide the audience to different sections of the image, it can be distracting and not very effective.
A better approach is to break the image into pieces and build the entire image by showing each piece one at a time. This way you can give context and additional detail about each piece without the rest of the image distracting the audience.
You can do all of this within PowerPoint using the image cropping tool and the animation feature. The easiest way for me to show you is by demonstrating it in the video below.
If you want the audience to understand your explanation of a complex image (picture or diagram) and to allow the slide to print or PDF correctly, break it apart using the steps in the video above.
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don’t overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.