While we recommend that you create content directly in Tribal Habits, it is possible you or your staff may already have content in PowerPoint (or similar) slide decks. You may want to transfer that content into Tribal Habits, either internally or by requesting that service from Tribal Habits.

It's also possible that you may have an expert who, for whatever reason, would prefer to create their content in Power Point and then have someone transfer it into Tribal Habits. We do not have the ability to 'import' slides to create a topic in Tribal Habits as there are far too many variables to make sense of the content.

That being said, here is our recommended approach to preparing your slides to make transferring into Tribal Habits a quick process.

NOTE: If you actually want to display your slide deck in Tribal Habits, this article has information and ideas on how to best achieve this.

Topics in Tribal Habits are broken into ‘chunks’.

First, there are points, which represent the biggest chunks – the broad table of contents headings for your topic. Each point is then broken into sections – the sub-headings within that point.

Ideally, each topic should be 15-45 minutes in length. This means that each point should be 5-10 minutes in length to improve the experience for people exploring that topic.

We strongly recommend that each point should have at least three sections, once again to make each point easy to digest.

So in summary...

If you can think of your slides as being sections (or several slides per section), then you can group your slides into points with your entire presentation representing the grouping of all your points into one topic.

Note that each topic has a maximum of 12 points (with each point containing 3-6 sections). That should be plenty of structure for each topic.

We also recommend adopting a point structure to give consistency and make the content easy to group. We typically use one of these structures in Tribal Habits topics.

1. Ideas – This is like a ‘best of’ list and is the default choice if none of the others fit. Usually each point represents one major idea with the sections providing details. A common section breakdown is (a) Describe the idea in detail, (b) Summarise tips/tricks/mistakes, (c) Give a working example. However, sometimes each point can be a collection of ideas on a theme with each section representing a smaller idea in that theme.

2. Rules – A do/do not structure. Usually each point is one rule. Then your sections are (a) Here’s the rule and how to follow it, (b) What happens when you don’t follow the rule, (c) 2-3 Examples of the rule in application to clarify understanding and (d) Highlight any exceptions when you might want to break the rule.

3. Steps – A step-by-step process. Usually each point is a major step. Then your sections are sub-steps or tasks within that step. Alternatively, each point is a step and the sections are (a) How to do that step, (b) Tips/Tricks/FAQs/Mistakes about that step, (c) examples of that step in action.

4. Facts – Similar to ideas but now its purely facts (product knowledge, technical knowledge). This is basically a text book. So points are major headings and sections are sub-headings.

5. Parts – Like an instruction manual for a tool. Each point refers to a part of the tool – like menu items in software or pages in a client document. Your sections might then be sub-choices within that point (various items within a menu; various parts of the page). Or your sections become (a) Introduce the part and its function, (b) tips/tricks/mistakes in using it and (c) examples of it in action or when to use it.

With all of the above in mind, we recommend your slides follow this flow to make it very easy to transfer into Tribal Habits.

Then for each of your big points...

Provide as much detail as possible. If you have bullet points on the slide, be sure to include far more explanation and detail in the notes of that slide. Provide enough detail so that someone can completely understand your content without you having to be there to explain any of it. Your presentation needs to be entirely stand-alone.

Your topics in Tribal Habits can also have optional on-the-job activities for explorers to complete after they have examined the content.

To make these activities easy to create in Tribal Habits, you should use 1 slide per activity as follows.

In the end, you should have a presentation which uses slides and title pages to easily split your content into appropriate 'chunks'. It should be quick for someone to transform that content into a draft Tribal Habits topic. You can then finalise your topic.