A non-linear presentation is different from a linear presentation. A linear presentation has all slides and topics in a predetermined sequence. A non-linear presentation has a home slide and the topics can be discussed in any sequence you desire. This is helpful for a few reasons. We will be discussing some of those reasons here.
A Non-Linear Presentation
A presentation where you can decide the sequence of the presentation. You have your audience choose the topic from a menu. They choose the sequence and then you can give them the presentation they decide. It is a very audience centered approach. This interactive and on-demand nature of non-linear presentations may lead to its popularity and more wide-spread use.
How To Make A Non-Linear Presentation
There are three ways to make a non-linear presentation. There include hyperlinking, using modules, and slide numbers . You can use Prezi or Speakflow to make non-linear presentations, but you can also make them using PowerPoint. Here, we will be discussing how you can use PowerPoint to make a non-linear presentation using hyperlinked slides.
Start By Opening the Presentation
Open PowerPoint and open the presentation that you want to convert to a non-linear presentation.
First, you need to make a Home Slide. This slide will be like a Homepage on a website. You can use it to come back to see all the topics again.
Make a Simple Presentation Menu
Go to the Home Slide. This can be any slide you choose, usually the first or second slide. Click Text Box under the Insert tab, and make a Text Box on the Home Slide. Type the name of the topic in the slide. Repeat this for all topics. If there are too many topics, then you can make a slide for the Table of Contents/Presentation Menu instead.
Link Items in the Menu to Slides in the Presentation
Linking Text Boxes to slides is actually the easy part. Just click one of the text boxes, and click Insert, then Hyperlink
(Click here to download the template used in this example)
Select the slide that you want to link to and click OK.
Now, go to the Home slide and repeat this process for all other items in the Home Slide.
After that, view the slide show and click each item in the menu to make sure they are all working.
Make a Home Button at the End of Each Topic
There needs to be a link to the Home Slide at the end of each topic. This one is easy. All you need to do is click Insert, Shapes, and click the Home button under Action Buttons.
Now, draw the Home button anywhere you want. Maybe on the lower-right corner of the last slide. As soon as you draw the home button, you will see a dialog-box asking you where to link it. Select the Home slide.
Continue doing this to the last slide of every topic and you’re good to go.
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