Organising information

Using outlines to organise information

Level of difficulty: Intermediate

As a principal you may want to organise information that you have gathered for a presentation. You can list your ideas in a word processor document outline. An outline is an easy way to collect information and organise it so that it can be used to create a document in Microsoft Word, or to create a PowerPoint presentation.

Outlining helps you to prevent plagiarising information from other sources. Collect the ideas in an outline, using your own words. The outline helps you to concentrate on ideas and the structure of those ideas, rather than on less important aspects such as graphics, animations, etc.

By exporting the outline to PowerPoint you can convert the ideas to a presentation in a few easy steps.

Create your own outline - one which you will find useful. Alternatively, follow this example. To do so you would typically work through the following steps:

	Description	Resources
1	Start Microsoft Word	How to start Microsoft Word
2	Insert text: Type any ideas you found from your discussion or research - put every idea on a new line.	How to collect ideas
3	Switch to outline view: You can see your document as an information structure in outline view.	How to switch to outline view
4	Identify main headings: Select 4 or 5 main ideas and promote them to Heading Level 1.	How to use the "Promote to Heading 1" button
5	Identify sub-headings: Identify sub-headings from your outline points and place them under the headings.	How to use the Up and Down buttons
6	Use the promote and demote buttons: Using these buttons enables you to move the outline items to the appropriate level.	How to use the Promote and Demote buttons
7	Export your outline to Microsoft PowerPoint: Exporting your outline to Microsoft PowerPoint format will enable you to create an instant presentation. If you want to continue to work in Microsoft Word then skip to point 10	How to export to Microsoft PowerPoint
8	Use the outline tools in Microsoft PowerPoint: complete the information structure of your presentation	How to use outline tools in Microsoft PowerPoint
9	Use formatting tool: Introduce formatting to complete your presentation.	Quick Tips to finish off your presentation
10	Save your presentation	How to save a presentation