Making PowerPoint Slides

1. Making PowerPoint Slides Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides

2. We may not be experts at public speaking, but we are all experts at listening to talks

3. What do you want from a talk?

4. Before planning your talk think about its purpose, the audience you will be talking to, and the setting. Don’t assume the audience will all be experts. Never underestimate your audience! Check on the time that has been allotted to you. How big is the room?

5. What do you think of the following slide?

6. Emk1 knockdown inhibits lumen formation in MDCK cells: • RT-PCR: EMK1 is effectively knocked down in MDCK cells 24 hours after transfection with P-SUPER (control) or P-SUPER-siEMK1 plasmid; knockdown confirmed on the right with antibodies to EMK1. • Collagen overlay assay: cells cultured 24 h on collagen I before being overlaid with additional collagen on the apical surface, analyzed 24 h later. Note the lack of lumen in EMK1-KO cultures. • Ca switch: control or EMK1-KO cells were plated in low Ca medium 24 h upon transfection with pSUPER or pSUPER-KO. After 12 h, cultures were switched to normal medium for 24 h. Transmission EM of cells sectioned perpendicular to the substratum shows lack of microvilli in EMK1-KO cells.

7. Of course, it is far too confusing and a clear take-home message does not come across ! This presentation will take you through a strategy for presenting the data in a clear and logical way.

8. Tips to be Covered • Fonts • Color • Layout • Style • Proofreading

9. Fonts - Good Serif fonts take longer to read, use for title… • This font is Times New Roman. • This font is Century. • This font is Constantia. Use a Sans Serif font for sentences: This font is Arial. This font is Comic Sans. This font is Papyrus.

10. Fonts - Good Some fonts look good in boldface: • Arial vs. Arial bold • Comic Sans vs. Comic Sans bold • Papyrus vs. Papyrus bold

11. Fonts - Good Type size should be 18 points or larger: 18 point 20 point 24 point 28 point 36 point * References can be in 14 point font

12. Fonts - Bad • If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written • CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS DIFFICULT TO READ • Don’t use a fancy font that is difficult to read

13. Color Dark letters against a light background work. Best in small room

14. Color Light letters against a dark background also work. Best in large room

15. Color - Bad • Using a font color that does not contrast with the background color is hard to read • Using color for decoration is distracting and annoying. • Tryingtobe creativecan alsobe bad

16. Powerpoint basics:2. Color Avoid red-green combinations because a large fraction of the human population is red-green colorblind. Lots of people can’t read this – and even if they could, it makes your eyes hurt.

17. Powerpoint basics:2. Color Other color combinations can be equally bad:

18. Layout – Good • Write in point form, not complete sentences • Include 2-4 points per slide • Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only • Every slide should have a heading

19. Layout – Good • Show one point at a time: • Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying • Will prevent audience from reading ahead • Will help you keep your presentation focused

20. Layout - Bad • This page contains too many words for a presentation slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult both for your audience to read and for you to present each point. Although there are exactly the same number of points on this slide as the previous slide, it looks much more complicated. In short, your audience will spend too much time trying to read this paragraph instead of listening to you.

21. Layout - Bad • Do not use distracting animation or sounds • Do not go overboard with the animation • Be consistent with the animation that you use • Don’t animate an object more than once

22. Layout Be generous but meaningful with empty space

23. Layout If you try to cram too much into a slide, and place things too close to the sides, they can get cut off if you’re using a poor projector. In any case, the slide looks all cluttered and junky.

24. Style - Good • Use graphics occasionally rather than just words all the time (Smart Art) • Always title your graphs • Clipart should match in style

25. Style – Good - Clipart With

26. Style – Bad - Clipart With

27. Style - Good

28. Style - Good

29. Style - Background - Good • Use backgrounds such as this one that are attractive but simple • Use the same background or elements from the background consistently throughout your presentation

30. Style - Background – Bad • Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from • Always be consistent with the background that you use

31. Spelling and Grammar • Proof your slides for: • speling mistakes • the use of of repeated words • grammatical errors you might have make

32. It’s very easy to use Powerpoint poorly

33. It takes some thought and hard work to use Powerpoint well.