Basic Power Point Guidelines

1. Basic Power Point Guidelines Some tips to make your presentations presentable

2. Basic Rules for Presentations • Contrast is important. • For paper… • Dark text on a light background.

3. Basic Rules for Presentations • For projection… • Light text on a semi-dark background. • The eye is attracted to the light on the screen.

4. Basic Rules for Presentations • Stick with a single background. • The background is the stage for your information. • Set the stage and leave it alone!

5. Basic Rules for Presentations • Don’t try to dazzle the audience with graphics or style…but with the information. • The medium is not the message. • The information is the message.

6. Basic Rules for Presentations Balance. • Do not center bullet points. • It makes the text ragged. • And hard to read and follow with your eyes.

7. Basic Rules for Presentations Balance. • Generally, left-justify bullets. • This keeps things neat.. • and easy to follow.

8. Basic Rules for Presentations Balance. Centered graphics leave little room for text.

9. Basic Rules for Presentations Balance. • Place graphics off-center. • More room for text. • Better balance. • More pleasing to the eye. • Left placement leads the eye to the text.

10. Basic Rules- Capitalization • AVOID ALL CAPS – VERY HARD TO READ. • First Cap - More Formal. • Harder To Type And More Decisions. • This is an example of capitalizing the first word. • Less formal. • Easier to type and fewer decisions.

11. Use Restraint With Fonts • Employ only a few..stick to familiar fonts • Stay away from gimmicky fonts unless for a theme. • Keeptypesizesconsistent. • Serif vs San Serif. • DON’T USE ALL CAPS.

12. Choose Fonts Wisely • Italics are more difficult to read. • Use bold when you want some words to stand out. • Font size • Easy to read (18 pt) • Easy to read (24 pt) • Easy to read (32 pt) • Easy to read (48 pt)

13. Do ! Fonts • Font Style Should be Readable • Recommended fonts: Arial, Tahoma, Veranda • Standardize the Font Throughout • This presentation is in Tahoma

14. Font Size • The larger, the better. Remember, your slides must be readable, even at the back of the room. • This is a good title size Verdana 40 point • A good subtitle or bullet point size Verdana 32 point • Content text should be no smaller thanVerdana 24 point • This font size is not recommended for content. Verdana 12 point.

15. Don’t ! Font Size • Combining small font sizes with bold or italics is not recommended: • What does this say? Garamond Font, Italic, Bold 12pt. • This is very difficult to read. Times Font, Bold, 12pt. • This point could be lost. Century Gothic Font, Bold, Italic, 14pt. • No one will be able to read this. Gill Sans Font, Condensed Bold, 12pt

16. Font Size • You are close to your monitor • Your audience is far from the screen • Tahoma • 32 pt • 28 pt • 24 pt • 20 pt • 18 pt • 16 pt • 14 pt • 12 pt • 10 pt • Comic • 32 pt • 28 pt • 24 pt • 20 pt • 18 pt • 16 pt • 14 pt • 12 pt • 10 pt • Lucida Sans • 32 pt • 28 pt • 24 pt • 20 pt • 18 pt • 16 pt • 14 pt • 12 pt • 10 pt • TNR • 32 pt • 28 pt • 24 pt • 20 pt • 18 pt • 16 pt • 14 pt • 12 pt • 10 pt • Courier • 32 pt • 28 pt • 24 pt • 20 pt • 18 pt • 16 pt • 14 pt • 12 pt • 10 pt

17. Squint City • If you find yourself saying “you probably can’t read/see this, but…” • Then you probably have a BAD SLIDE! • There are exceptions, but very few • Test on real screen in conference room • Not just your computer screen.

18. Don’t ! Fonts • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style • Don’t Sacrifice Readability for Style

19. Avoid Text Overload Having too much text on the screen can defeat the purpose of using PowerPoint. The slides begin to look like a jumble of text, making slides difficult to read and unrecognizable from each other. People will either try to read everything or copy everything down or they will lose interest. List only the key points. If you have more info to include use more slides or create handouts.

20. Basic Rules That You Must Have to Have a Good Presentation. • One of the most common mistakes in creating a presentation is to place too much information on the screen. This can cause the reader to become distracted from the speaker…just like you are now. Audiences are much more receptive to the spoken word.

21. Basic Presentation Mistakes. • Too much information. • Reader gets distracted • Audiences are much more receptive to the spoken word.

22. Basic Rules Keep it simple.. • Make bulleted points easy to read. • Keep text easy to understand. • Use concise wording. • Bullets are focal points. • Presenter provides elaboration. • Keep font size large.

23. Basic Power Point Guidelines • Use builds…don’t give them too much info at once. • Stick with the same transition. • Be creative but leave some colour choices to professionals. • Six words per line. • Six lines per page.

24. Choosing a Colour Scheme • Stick with power point defaults. • What may look good on your computer may be unreadable in the classroom. • Remember to use strong, contrasting colors.

25. Use Contrasting Colours • Light colours on dark background. • Dark colours on light background. • Usually can’t read this…

26. BackgroundColours Remember: Readability! Readability! Readability! • This is a good mix of colours. Readable! • This is a bad mix of colours. Low contrast. • Unreadable! • This is a good mix of • colours. Readable! • This is a bad mix of • colours. Avoid bright • colours on white. • Unreadable!

27. Mommy, my eyes are burning! • Can you look at this for 45 minutes? • Colours look different on every LCD projector • Colours look different between transparencies and projector

28. Clip Art & Graphics • A few excellent graphics are better than many poor ones. • Photographs can bepowerful. • Use sparingly!

29. Graphics and Charts • Don’t ! • Avoid using graphics that are difficult to read. In this example, the bright colours on a white background and the small font make the graph hard to read. It would be very difficult to see, especially in the back of a room. • 8

30. Don’t ! • This graph contains too much information in an unreadable format. • 10

31. Do ! Good Graph • These are examples of • good graphs, with nice • line widths and good • colours.

32. Don’t Charts and Graphs

33. Do ! Charts and Graphs • 80 • Mode A • 70 • 60 • Mode B • 50 • 40 • Mode C • 30 • 20 • 10 • 0 North Europe Australia America

34. Results • You havelots of coolresults • No one canread this • No one canunderstand this • Graphs areyour friend…

35. Martin Luther King Jr. • Religious leader • Civil rights activist • Author/poet • Labor activist • Minister • Antiwar activist

36. Martin Luther King Jr. • Religious leader • Civil rights activist • Author/poet • Labor activist • Minister • Antiwar activist

37. This is a really long title for this single slide, I should have just summarized • Hard to read • Many people don’t read the title anyway • Should have been “Long Slide Titles”

38. Know Slide Boundaries • People can’t read text that runs off the side of the slide

39. Bullets Aren’t Everything • How many • Levels of • Hierarchy do • You think • You need * To express - Your point?

40. Speelchick • How samrt will poeple thikn yuo are? • Watch for: • there/their/they’re • too/to/two • its/it’s

41. Bad Presentations • Audience won’t see your work is great • But will make fun of you from back row • What does that slide say? • Those are some NASTY colours… • Dunno, I’m playing minesweeper • Hey – it matches my tie. • Please let it be OVER… • zzz

43. Good Presentations • Interesting topic, explained at audience’s level • Slides are understandable and easy to see • Good presentations reflect well on speaker! • I understood this one! • I wonder if this technique would work for my problem • You shouldwith a PhD… • Let’s talk to them at the break • But it’s outsidemy main area • I never thought of that! • Interesting

44. Do ! Points to Remember • Keep bullet points brief • Use the same background for each slide • Use dark slides with light colored text in large hall events

45. Don’t Avoid the “All Word” Slide • Another thing to avoid is the use of a large block paragraph to introduce your information. Attendees do not like to have what is on the screen, read to them verbatim. So, please use short, bulleted statements and avoid typing out your whole presentation on to the slides. Also, it is difficult for some to listen and read a large amount of text at the same time.