Making an engaging presentation requires providing comprehensive information to the audience while avoiding cramming too much information in your slides. This ensures that your audience can remain engaged and follow the information you are presenting. This is why an appendix slide can be helpful. In this article, we will explore the purpose of appendix slides, how to use them effectively, and cover the steps to create them.
What do we call Appendix Slides?
Appendix slides are supplementary slides included at the end of a presentation to provide references, additional details, or supporting material related to a presentation. This information might be less relevant for the main slides and can be shared at the end for further reading without cluttering the main presentation.
Understanding Appendix Slides
When considering the various aspects regarding how to make a presentation professional, with proper references and complementary information, using one or more slides as an appendix can enable you to add such information. This might include data tables, research findings, citations and references, charts, and technical specifications.
Appendix slides can help you to maintain a flow in your slides without disrupting key content with less relevant details and references in the key part of your presentation.
How to Use Appendix Slides Correctly
When using an appendix in a presentation, consider the practices mentioned below:
Add appendix slides at the end: The appendix should always be added at the end of a presentation. Whether you’re making a presentation from scratch or using PowerPoint templates or Google Slides templates, make sure that you add the appendix at the end.
Label appendix slide(s) correctly: You should label any slides with such information as an ‘Appendix’ to make them easily identifiable.
Include necessary details: Ensure only necessary information is added in the appendix.
Use Hyperlinks: You can use hyperlinks to link your appendix slides to the main slides so you can navigate quickly between them. This will also help you jump to and from important information and references.
Make the appendix accessible: If you’re sharing your presentation later, such as in handouts or via an online link, ensure your appendix slides are well-organized for reference.
Benefits of Using an Appendix in PowerPoint Presentations
There are a number of benefits of using an appendix at the end of a presentation. The following is a list of the many benefits of using an appendix for presentations:
Enhances credibility: An appendix at the end of a PowerPoint presentation can provide additional data to help you reference key information from credible sources, boosting your authority and preparedness.
Reduces slide clutter: Appendix slides can keep your main slides concise while offering extensive details if and when required.
Improves audience engagement: The audience can focus on your key messages without being distracted by excessive details, such as references to key information.
Serves as a reference: If audience members need more information, they can refer to the appendix later using handouts or the shared presentation slides.
Provides flexibility: You can tailor responses based on audience queries by instantly navigating to the relevant appendix slide. In such a case, it’s best to link appendix slides to main slides using hyperlinks for quick access.
How to Add Appendix to PowerPoint
You can add one or more PowerPoint appendix slides at the end of your presentation to include the required information related to your presentation topic.
Step 1: In the first step, insert a new slide via Home -> New Slide -> Blank.
Step 2: Add a text box to label the slide and another to add the main body content. You can insert a text box in PowerPoint from the Insert tab.
Step 3: Add a title to the Appendix slide. The title can be called ‘Appendix,’ or you can also label it as ‘Supplementary information’ or ‘Additional Information’ for clarity.
Step 4: Organize the content within the slides by formatting the text size and font and placing it so that it is legible and not too small for the audience to read.
Step 5: Add links (if applicable) to your references so that people in your audience can read them for further details.
Appendix Slide Example
Below is an example of an Appendix slide with a few key sections mentioned and supporting information for a presentation. If you have one appendix, label it as ‘Appendix’; however, for more than one appendix, label your slides as Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, etc.
Another great example of an Appendix Slide is the one shown below, which is part of a Biochemistry PPT template and follows a structured layout to present supplementary information in a clear and concise manner. This slide design includes bullet points to highlight key details, maintaining readability while ensuring that supporting information remains accessible at the end of the presentation. Such a format is particularly useful in professional and academic settings where additional references, FAQs, or extended explanations are necessary.
By using well-designed Appendix Slides, presenters can keep their main slides focused on key messages while providing extra information for those who need it.
You can also create eye-catching appendix slides by adding color to your appendices using Appendix PowerPoint Templates or diagrammatic designs to highlight key information in an Appendix.
Use our Professional PowerPoint templates and create Appendix Slides that appeal to global audiences.
Difference Between Appendix, Table of Contents, and Agenda Slides
Appendix Slide
Appendix slides include additional information added at the end of a presentation. This might include an analysis, references, charts, FAQS, or other supplementary data to support the main content of a presentation. Appendix slides can be accessed to provide further clarification or in-depth details. You can add one or more slides with appendices to presentations to avoid cluttering the main content of your presentation.
Table of Contents Slide
A Table of Contents lists an outline of the content. As is the case with documents, slides use a Table of Contents as outlines for the sections of a presentation. This slide is usually placed at the beginning of a presentation and provides an organized structure by listing the titles of different sections. Its primary purpose is to enhance the navigation and provide a clear roadmap of the presentation flow. You can also hyperlink your Table of Contents to link them to various slides to quickly navigate between them, or use Table of Contents PowerPoint Templates to design this section in your PowerPoint presentation. You can learn more from our tutorial about how to create a table of contents in PowerPoint.
Agenda Slide
An Agenda Slide sets expectations by outlining key discussion points in a proper structure. Like the Table of Contents, an Agenda Slide is usually placed at the start of a presentation. Unlike a Table of Contents slide, which lists all sections, an Agenda Slide focuses on the key areas of discussion, or it might include the agenda for an event. This might be a good method when wondering how to start a presentation for an event. For example, Agenda Slides might be included before the start of keynote speeches or upcoming presentations or to inform the audience regarding the event schedule.
FAQs
An Appendix Slide is a section added at the end of a PowerPoint presentation with supplementary information such as charts, references, FAQs, hyperlinks, or other types of additional data to support the main content of the presentation.
You should include an Appendix Slide when you have extra information that might be useful or necessary for your audience. This way, you can keep your core slides concise while providing supporting information to an audience.
To create an Appendix Slide, add a new slide at the end of your PowerPoint presentation, title it “Appendix,” and add relevant information. If you have more than one appendix, you should label slides accordingly, such as Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, Appendix D, etc.
Like an Appendix in a document, Appendix Slides usually contain charts, detailed data analysis, references, sources, FAQs, research findings, and supporting documents that help reinforce the information in the main presentation.
Unlike regular slides that present key discussion points, an Appendix Slide contains additional information that is not included in the main slides to avoid clutter or simply because the referenced information is too detailed to be included in the main slides.
Yes, you can have multiple Appendix Slides if you need to include a variety of supplementary information; however, you should ensure they are well-organized and clearly labeled for easy reference.
To make an Appendix Slide easy to navigate, use clear headings, bullet points, and hyperlinks (if applicable) to help your audience easily find important information. You can also use QR codes and short URLs to make the information available online.
Depending on the structure of your presentation, Appendix Slides can be mentioned in a Table of Contents slide.
It depends on the purpose of the appendix. Hiding them is useful to maintain a clean and focused presentation while keeping additional details accessible for Q&A. However, if the appendix contains essential supporting data, it’s best to keep them visible.
Final Words
An appendix, when used correctly in a presentation, can keep your audience engaged, provide in-depth insights and additional information for clarity to your audience. You can also use URL shorteners or QR codes in your appendix slides to end a presentation.
By strategically integrating appendix slides, you can ensure that your audience can look for supplementary information using handouts, digital copies of your shared presentation, or review it to make notes at the end of your presentation.
1. Dashboard to Create Appendix Slides
Create Professional Appendix Slides using a Dashboard layout that will help you devide the messages across the slide using an homogeneous design.
2. Professional PowerPoint Templates for Business with Appendix Slides
Create your business presentation using pre built templates ready to edit. Do not waste time creating visuals or aligning content. Just use SlideModel.com PowerPoint templates to complete your presentation. Use Appendix Slides in your presentation following the steps described above.
