How to make a Proper PowerPoint

Bullets BAD• Don’t place your bullets on this side

• Don’t• Put• Lots• Of

• Small bulleted• Points• In one• Big • List• And • be

• consistent.Don’t overload one bullet point with a lot of information, you want spacing to be consistent and not look like like nonsense

Bullets GOOD

• Neatly organize your bullets• Justify them on the left side• Make sure size is consistent and large• Use concise wording• Bullets are key words elaborated upon by

speaker

Background BAD

• A chaotic background takes away from your message

Background GOOD

• Backgrounds should be simple• Backgrounds should not be distracting

Contrast BAD

• Writing with two like colors is bad• It makes your slides hard to read

Contrast GOOD

• Colors should be opposites• Background dark=light writing• Dark writing = light background

Graphics BAD

Too many graphics makes your presentation less effective

Graphics GOOD

• Graphics should be well chosen• They should support your points• Graphics should be on the right when possible• Koalas are very cute but they are very lazy

Rule of Four BAD

• Do• No• List• A• Ton• Of • Things• People

• Can • Only• Remember• About• 4• Things• At• A• time

Rule of Four GOOD

• People can only remember so much• Grouping in 4’s is a good way to avoid

overload• The rule of four sets good guideline• Elaboration should be done by speaker, not on

the slide

Proximity BADRemember: Viewers group elements into units, which they can attend to and remember

Words that move together are

understood to belong together

Labels that are closer to object are seen as belonging together

Baby Koalas hang out in the pouch until they can hold on!

Baby and Momma Koala share kisses!

Proximity GOOD

• Remember: Viewers group elements into units, which they can attend to and remember

• Labels that are closer to object are seen as belonging together

Words that move together are understood to belong together

Word Pile

FoNTs BAD

• Only Use a Few Fonts• Gimmicky fonts are no good

•Don’t use too many different Sizes• WHEN YOU USE ALL CAPS IT LOOKS LIKE

YOU’RE YELLING!!!!

Fonts Good

• Employ only a few - stick to familiar fonts

• Stay away from gimmicky fonts unless for a theme

• Keep type sizes consistent

• Stay away from all capital letters

Perceptual Differences Bad

• RAINBOWS ARE AMAZING BUT IF YOU FILL YOUR SLIDE WITH TOO MANY DIFFERENT COLORS OR FONTS OR BACKGROUND YOUR AUDIENCE WILL NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT INFORMATION IS IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE NOT CONSISTENT.

PERCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES: GOOD

• Rainbows are beautiful • Rainbows appear after rain showers• Rain drops split light into the 7 colors of white

light spectrum• We see this splitting of colors as a RAINBOW