Presenting Architecture Diagrams

One canvas, many slides

Architecture talks are best when each step zooms into the same picture rather than switching to a new one. In ArchBoard every frame on the canvas is a slide. Draw a frame around the whole system for the overview, then a frame around the part you discuss next, and the presentation follows them in reading order, top to bottom and left to right.

Notes and navigation

Open Tools, then Slides and notes, to type speaker notes for each frame. While presenting, the arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down and Space move between slides, Home and End jump to the first and last, N shows or hides your notes, L toggles the laser pointer and Escape leaves the presentation and restores your previous view.

Handouts

Export the deck as a PDF with one page per frame for people who want to read at their own pace. The PDF keeps vector graphics, so diagrams stay sharp when zoomed. For a document, export a single frame as SVG instead.

Keep slides sparse

Reveal complexity gradually. Duplicate the page, add the next layer of detail, and let the frames show the progression. If a slide needs more than about a dozen labelled boxes, split it. The audience should be looking at you for part of the time.

Rehearse with the real thing

Run through the presentation once before the audience arrives. Check that every frame fits its content, that the notes make sense out of context and that the order is what you intend. Because the slides are the live canvas, you can fix a typo on the spot and carry on, which is a good reason to keep a second window with the editor open while you talk.

Try it with a template

• Three-Tier Web Application
• Multi-Region Active-Passive