Some tips to make your

presentations

presentable

Basic Power Point

Guidelines

Basic Rules for Presentations

Contrast is important.

For paper

Dark text on a light background.

Basic Rules for Presentations

For projection

Light text on a semi-dark

background.

The eye is attracted to the light

on the screen.

Basic Rules for Presentations

Stick with a single

background.

The background is the stage for

your information.

Set the stage and leave it alone!

Basic Rules for Presentations

Dont try to dazzle the audience

with graphics or stylebut with

the information.

The medium is not the message.

The information is the message.

Basic Rules for Presentations

Balance.

Do not center bullet points.

It makes the text ragged.

And hard to read and follow with your eyes.

Basic Rules for Presentations

Balance.

Generally, left-justify bullets.

This keeps things neat..

and easy to follow.

Basic Rules for Presentations

Balance.

Centered graphics leave little room for text.

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.

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.

Use Restraint With Fonts

Employ only a few..stick to familiar fonts

Stay away from gimmicky fonts unless for a

theme.

Keep type sizes consistent. Serif vs San Serif.

DONT USE ALL CAPS.

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)

Fonts

Font Style Should be Readable

Recommended fonts: Arial, Tahoma,

Veranda

Standardize the Font Throughout

This presentation is in Tahoma

Do !

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.

Font Size

The larger, the better. Remember, your slides must be readable, even at the back of the room.

Dont !

Font Size

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

Combining small font sizes with bold or italics is

not recommended:

16

Font Size

You are close to your monitor

Your audience is far from the screen

Tahoma

32 pt28 pt24 pt20 pt18 pt16 pt14 pt12 pt10 pt

TNR

32 pt

28 pt

24 pt

20 pt

18 pt

16 pt

14 pt

12 pt10 pt

Courier

32 pt

28 pt

24 pt

20 pt

18 pt

16 pt

14 pt

12 pt

10 pt

Comic

32 pt28 pt24 pt20 pt18 pt16 pt14 pt12 pt10 pt

Lucida Sans

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

cant 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.

Fonts

Dont Sacrifice Readability for Style

Dont Sacrifice reaDability

for Style

Dont Sacrifice Readability for StyleDont Sacrifice

Readability for

Style

Dont !

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.

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 speakerjust like you are now. Audiences are much more receptive to the spoken word.

Basic Presentation Mistakes.

Too much information.

Reader gets distracted

Audiences are much more receptive to the spoken word.

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.

Basic Power Point Guidelines

Use buildsdont 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.

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.

Use Contrasting Colours

Light colours on dark background.

Dark colours on light background.

Usually cant read this

This is a good mix of colours. Readable!

Background ColoursRemember: Readability! Readability! Readability!

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

Clip Art & Graphics

A few excellent graphics are better than

many poor ones.

Photographs can be powerful.

Use sparingly!

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

Dont !

Graphics and Charts

This graph contains too much information in an unreadable format.

10

Dont !

These are examples of

good graphs, with nice

line widths and good

colours.

Good Graph

Do !

Charts and Graphs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

North America Europe Austrailia

Mode A

Mode B

Mode C

Dont

Charts and Graphs

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

NorthAmerica

Europe Australia

Mode A

Mode B

Mode C

Do !

34

ResultsA B C D E

0.78799174 0.87677244 0.99348605 0.23781547 0.24437526

0.24910355 0.79708654 0.39825661 0.4894876 0.22079456

0.65729261 0.46901063 0.36471191 0.04697233 0.63468059

0.48205396 0.52657506 0.70503426 0.35280176 0.40935313

0.46328137 0.0774365 0.71517444 0.9394662 0.46843638

0.09762717 0.70884867 0.81407539 0.24571711 0.72497819

0.00773315 0.39906447 0.42344939 0.90776976 0.22209006

0.15857663 0.4181197 0.56488165 0.91405841 0.3578349

0.59242455 0.17894389 0.61926672 0.02978346 0.50789172

0.41285757 0.71470398 0.31906988 0.79658426 0.21587647

0.8855586 0.46534556 0.3701164 0.12452538 0.33415497

0.28231467 0.17509894 0.85801024 0.72984635 0.94731238

0.82370951 0.03235362 0.95622299 0.27726297 0.76619879

0.86245578 0.21094811 0.93272287 0.48265505 0.04960646

0.38953201 0.3665743 0.33754918 0.28178635 0.39637009

0.80522838 0.63509032 0.43333321 0.97677807 0.96198172

0.35928212 0.14878634 0.44201417 0.23251612 0.83375154

0.72099806 0.75212293 0.81061259 0.23756284 0.48518996

0.13329065 0.31602317 0.87489249 0.5304632 0.26191565

0.2588109 0.89039838 0.81380512 0.59139955 0.48488759

0.99314419 0.34635186 0.73292414 0.25933239 0.29230491

0.88041055 0.11473455 0.01934078 0.15717245 0.93780676

0.72332226 0.80195173 0.1792961 0.07832254 0.41154579

0.95925002 0.41696749 0.24905812 0.2111233 0.00256536

0.00580885 0.65322119 0.49666074 0.91641276 0.40573275

0.26004883 0.3010126 0.45604195 0.99935168 0.91271048

0.1508427 0.84418604 0.96241158 0.05548096 0.94093154

0.63750743 0.08979734 0.11100042 0.34646613 0.09994533

0.17176871 0.85518113 0.94522781 0.29368901 0.77444161

0.15186964 0.53105474 0.69991523 0.07876247 0.0023978

0.72306385 0.73755246 0.71402806 0.68090612 0.76015636

0.42140074 0.39036871 0.02247591 0.94725973 0.70692042

You have

lots of cool

results

No one can

read this

No one can

understand this

Graphs are

your friend

Religious leader

Civil rights

activist

Author/poet

Labor activist

Minister

Antiwar activist

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 dont read the title anyway

Should have been Long Slide Titles

38

Know Slide Boundaries

People cant read text that runs off the side of the slide

39

Bullets Arent 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/theyre

too/to/two

its/its

41

Bad Presentations

Audience wont see your work is great

But will make fun of you from back row

zzz

What does that slide say?

Dunno, Im playing minesweeper

Those are some NASTY

coloursHey it

matches my tie.Please let it be OVER

43

Good Presentations

Interesting topic, explained at audiences level

Slides are understandable and easy to see

Good presentations reflect well on speaker!

Interesting

I understood this one!

You shouldwith a PhD

I wonder if this technique would

work for my problem

Lets talk to them at the

breakI never thought

of that!

But its outsidemy main area

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

Do !

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 themverbatim. 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.

Dont