A client recently asked me to work on a video tutorial for a presentation template I designed for her earlier this year. Her colleagues had never taken the time to take a class to learn how to use PowerPoint and she felt a tutorial would be the best way to help them use the new template. This project was an interesting blend of the knowledge and experience I’ve gained over the last few years.
I started out by asking my client what topics she wanted covered, since she is the best judge of what people at her company feel they need help with. The next step was to write a script for the tutorial, including sample screenshots. It wasn’t difficult to write the content for the script since I have over five years of experience as a presentation specialist (keyboard shortcuts, anyone?) I also found myself drawing on my previous experience creating storyboards: it feels like second nature to me to find visuals that illustrate the written content for scripts.
Once the script was approved, I started recording the series in segments. Each topic my client had requested was its own segment. Breaking a big project down into manageable sections is a useful carryover from my years working on new business pitches for an advertising agency.
When I started recording, I made a conscious decision to talk in the most natural way possible, as if I was doing a live training. My previous voiceover recording experience as an actor came in handy. When I occasionally flubbed a line, I paused and started again so it would be easy to edit out. After I recorded a segment I found my previous experience in editing motion graphics was helpful as well.
We went through a round of edits, I added three new segments and also rewrote and re-recorded two segments. When I provided the final 19 sections to my client, I made sure they were all numbered so it would be easy to put together a playlist for people who want to watch the tutorial in its entirety. The segments are also titled based on the content so that it’s easy to choose an individual segment (or segments) to watch.
The video below is a generic version of one of the segments I provided to my client. It covers how to bring data from Excel into PowerPoint to create a bar chart.
If you need video tutorial training for your staff or colleagues, please be in touch. I would be happy to provide a proposal and estimate for your project.
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Categories: Case studies, Communication, Digital Marketing, Technology and the Internet, Training
