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PowerPointAdvanced~75 min practiceLesson 20 of 20

Build a complete support-review deck

Bring the story, chart, notes and handout together in one presentation.

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In this lesson

Build and rehearse a six-slide leadership review, then check its audience handout.

Practice material

Compare the worked answer

Start with the practice file. Open the worked answer after trying the exercise. CSV and text briefs are also available. All resources and import notes →

Example

Dana’s support-review capstone

Audience: leadership. Time: ten minutes. Ticket data: Jul 1,240; Aug 1,610; Sep 1,180; Oct 1,050. Dana proposes a four-week weekend rota pilot and two draft self-service articles; their outcomes are not measured. Required six-slide story: review purpose, monthly evidence, interpretation limits, proposed pilot, measurement plan, decision requested. Optional download presentation-brief is a starter reference; all required facts are supplied inline.

How it works

Make the decision easy to find and support it with the supplied figures. State where the evidence stops. Design, animation and AI can help explain the story, but they cannot supply missing cost or causal data.

Check the deck while editing, during Slide Show and after export. Open the handout and notes PDF separately. A correct slide can still be cropped in a PDF or hard to read on the meeting-room screen.

Steps

  1. Open presentation-capstone-starter.pptx, or create six slides using Section B of presentation-brief.md: Review purpose, Monthly evidence, Interpretation limits, Proposed pilot, Measurement plan and Decision requested. Keep the real title placeholders. Use sections Context, Evidence and Decision for editing organisation; choose built-in layouts before placing extra objects.

  2. Insert a native clustered-column chart with the four monthly values. Keep a zero baseline, label units as Tickets and emphasise August only. Verify July 1,240 and October 1,050 in the underlying chart worksheet.

  3. On Interpretation limits state: Ticket volume declined after August; causes and cost effects are unverified. On Proposed pilot name Dana, four weeks, a weekend rota and two draft articles without labelling either intervention successful.

  4. On Measurement plan list weekly ticket volume, repeat-contact rate and coverage observations as proposed measures. On Decision requested ask approval to run the pilot; add no invented budget, staffing requirement or guaranteed reduction.

  5. Apply a consistent theme and check title/body hierarchy, chart labels, alt text and reading order. Keep decorative animation optional; provide the same conclusion when motion is absent.

  6. Write two to four note cues per slide and rehearse all six within ten minutes. Check the audience display, then export a slides-only PDF and, if required, a separate notes copy. Open both and confirm their different contents before distribution.

Try it yourself

  1. Calculate the total for all four months and the August-to-October fall; add the calculation to your notes so another reviewer can reproduce the trend statement. Keep the four-month total distinct from the July-to-September quarter total.
  2. Use this checklist: six real titles, four correct chart bars, proposed interventions labelled, no unsupported causes/costs, readable design, checked alt text/order, rehearsal within ten minutes and a six-page notes-free handout. Work through the items with the finished files open and record what you find.
Show expected result
  • Four-month total: 5,080 tickets. July-to-September total: 4,030. August-to-October fall: 560, approximately 34.8% of August.
  • The editable deck has six slide titles and four correct chart bars; the public handout has six slide pages without presenter-only notes.

If something goes wrong

The deck title claims Q3 but the headline total includes October.
Call the four-month view Jul–Oct, or show the separate Q3 total of 4,030. Check that the period in the heading matches the rows in the calculation.
The handout is correct but the live show is hard to follow.
Rehearse on the display you will use. Shorten crowded slides and read the chart labels from the audience’s position. Ask someone to explain the takeaway; use their answer to find parts that need a clearer title or less detail.

Quick check

Try these questions after the exercise. Check the result in your app before marking the lesson complete.

1. What is the four-month ticket total?
2. Which total belongs to July through September only?
3. Which evidence verifies a notes-free audience handout?

Choose an answer for all 3 questions to check your understanding.

Optional: try it with Copilot

If you have Copilot, try this after the exercise. Keep the original file and compare its suggestions with your own result.

Review this six-slide support deck against the supplied four-month data and proposed pilot. List incorrect numbers, unsupported causes, unlabelled proposals and missing decision criteria. Do not certify success without actual checks.

More from Microsoft

These Microsoft guides cover the tools used in this lesson.

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