If your organization works in PowerPoint, you’ve likely accumulated hundreds or thousands of PowerPoint presentations. As presentations typically start with existing content, efficiently searching your repository to find specific slides can drive significant productivity gains. In this post, we’ll share 6 tips to manage your PowerPoint repository or slide library.
6 Tips to Manage your PowerPoint Repository or Slide Library
#1: Assign a shared location to store your presentations
Often presentations are stored across server locations and personal computers. Set a shared and secure location where your team can store their presentation. Check to ensure all members can seamlessly access the location and that your team is actively using it. This will consolidate all your content and prevent users from having to unnecessarily email presentations to each other.
#2: Define a file naming convention
Setting a standard file naming convention will allow users to quickly sort through presentations. Some best practices for file names include:
- Start file names with a date that starts with the year. For example: 20200501 Strategy Review. This ensures that files will always appear in chronological order. If two versions are created on the same date indicate a version number: 20190501-02 Strategy Review. Note that ‘02’ was used instead of ‘2’ to allows double-digit versions.
- For large teams include the initials of the person who created the presentation: 20200501 Strategy Review KS.
#3: Build a folder structure that reflects the business
If you support numerous business units in a large company, create folders for each business. Or if your projects are more functional use the project type as the folder names.
#4: Create a best hits presentation
If you have a set of slides that are used on a regular basis, collate them into one presentation. This can include templates, visual elements, charts, and even important pieces of text.
#5: Assign somebody to continually manage the repository
For manual repositories, you can’t just ‘set it and forget it’. Consistently clean and keep your library up-to-date to maximize its benefits. Give your library manager the authority to ensure team members are compliant with the established rules.
#6: Manage versions of your presentation
During the course of a project, several iterations for a presentation may be created. Ensure that at the end of the project the final version is clearly marked and that older versions are saved in a related but separate folder.
