power to powerpoint guus smit & keimpe wierda some hints to improve your powerpoint presentation
TRANSCRIPT
Power to PowerPoint
Guus Smit & Keimpe Wierda
Some hints to improve your powerpoint presentation
Considerations before even starting…….
Design template
When starting to make the powerpoint presentation you might select a design template. They couple the slides and make thepresentation more continuous
However be careful, some of them are pretty distracting For example: movement in template when slide is first shown.Very distracting for the audience!
Font size and font style
Choose a font style that is easy to read and use it throughout your presentation. Do not change between font styles in a single powerpoint.
Make sure you can read the text even when you are at 10 meters distance of the screen (step back some distance from yourcomputer screen to see what happens)
Trying to read small text AND listen to a presentation is very difficult for the audience
Choosing the appropriate background is often crucial toyour lecture, certainly with a fatigued audience…
This is an extreme example but…
Some background Issues
This background is used a lot
the point is that the further we go down on the slide the worse the visibility of the text gets
Use gradients only if they have a function
the point is that the further we go down on the slide the worse the visibility of the text gets
You can think of using a textbox with background color on gradients...
If you use a continuous background color then
Keep in mind that the font colors havesufficient contrast with the background
Keep in mind that the font colors havesufficient contrast with the background
In organizing the Powerpoint…
• Introduce your work (background, aim)
• Then briefly show how you technically went along (you may give this also along with the results, up to you).
• Show the results, be brief. Show the major findings, Leave details, leave detailed methods
• Conclusions, perspectives
• Title: a short and eye-catching title for your presentation(re)-focuses the audience on what you are goingto present, but keep in mind that a long title does nothelp to comprehend it’s content.
• Speaker’s name• Research team• Logo or small picture
The first slide (The eye-catcher)
About showing text…..
Over the years many brain areas and transmitter systems have been implied in attention, butas concerns sustained and executive attention the role of the prefrontal/anterior cingulatecortex stands out. Therefore this area has been selected for those projects assessing attention-related processes by neurophysiological, molecular-biochemical, pharmacological andbehavioral measures. Of the major modulatory transmitter systems in the brain, dopamine,acetylcholine and noradrenaline have been implied most strongly and consistently in themodulation of attentional processes. While certainly not less interesting for attention ingeneral, the noradrenergic system has been especially implied in the control of wakefulness,vigilance, arousal and reactivity to salient stimuli. Dopamine appears more strongly involvedin orienting and attending to salient stimuli and in executive aspects of attention such asswitching and attentional set shifting.
1. Avoid too much text, it doesn’t work
Over the years many brain areas and transmitter systems have been implied in attention, butas concerns sustained and executive attention the role of the prefrontal/anterior cingulatecortex stands out. Therefore this area has been selected for those projects assessing attention-related processes by neurophysiological, molecular-biochemical, pharmacological andbehavioral measures. Of the major modulatory transmitter systems in the brain, dopamine,acetylcholine and noradrenaline have been implied most strongly and consistently in themodulation of attentional processes. While certainly not less interesting for attention ingeneral, the noradrenergic system has been especially implied in the control of wakefulness,vigilance, arousal and reactivity to salient stimuli. Dopamine appears more strongly involvedin orienting and attending to salient stimuli and in executive aspects of attention such asswitching and attentional set shifting.
If you really need it, then highlight
Quote, Jansen et al.(2001) J.Neuroscience 121,345
‘Of the major modulatory transmitter systems in the brain, dopamine, acetylcholine and noradrenaline have been implied most strongly and consistently in the modulation of attentional processes’
Quote: Jansen et al. (2001) J.Neuroscience 121,345
or even better extract the quote:
2. If you address various issues
Issue 1. This is what I want to say
Issue 2. This is what I want to say now
Issue 3. This is what I want to say
If you address various issues
Issue 1. This is what I want to say
Issue 2. This is what I want to say now
Issue 3. This is what I want to say
Highlight the issue of interest (but only that one!)Another advantage is that your audience will see whereyou are in your talk as the other issues are also depicted
3. Informative Title
• A title on a slide briefly gives the major message or finding
• Give it a larger font than the rest of the text
• If you are using the above title box, then keep using itin all other slides. Be consistent.
4. If you present figures …..
Break them down in individual components
.
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-Bungarotoxin sensitivity
Glial cells contain a nAChR sensitive to -Bungarotoxin
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nicotine
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acetylcholine
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Acetylcholine (M)
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ACh dose response
EC50 4 M
Here your audience gets data all at once so where should they focus at?
?
.
0.0
-0.1
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-Bgt
wash
control
0 2 3 41time (s)
curr
ent (
nA)
-Bungarotoxin sensitivity
Glial cells contain Acetylcholine receptors
.
0 2 4 6 8 10
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nicotine
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acetylcholine
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Acetylcholine (M)
norm
aliz
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ACh dose response
EC50 4 M
Here you take them through the figures, which makes itmuch easier to follow your textual explanation
.
0.0
-0.1
-0.2
-Bgt
wash
control
0 2 3 41time (s)
curr
ent (
nA)
-Bungarotoxin sensitivity
Glial cells contain Acetylcholine receptors
.
0 2 4 6 8 10
0.2
0.0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
curr
ent (
nA)
time (s)
nicotine
.
0 2 4 6 8 10
0.2
0.0
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curr
ent (
nA)
time (s)
acetylcholine
.
100
75
50
25
010-8 10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4
Acetylcholine (M)
norm
aliz
ed c
urre
nt %
ACh dose response
EC50 4 M
If you present figures one by one then let them ‘appear’instead of ‘flying in’…..less distracting….
5. What else about figures?
• As you might have noticed, every sub-figure on the previous slides has it’s own title. If a viewer misses your comments he or she has at least a clue to what is depicted… that helps.
• Leave out large legends, they cannot be read in a short time frame
• Do explain color use in the figures, e.g., --- = chocolate, --- = sugar
• Make sure that if you copy a figure that there is a description on the axis, and it is readable.
• Using someone’s data? Give source (in small font).
Second but last slide
• Conclusions, main findings. What you will summarize as the take-home message will be remembered!
• Give them one by one. However if you have more than 3 points, you can be sure that a large part of your audience does not remember these a minute later!
• Use one slide for conclusions. Several slides will distract and main finding(s) will not be remembered.
One but last slide
• Give your audience a perspective. What will you or your research team do as a next step.
• What promises are ahead of us…
P.S. You might want to present first a next step, and thenthe conclusions, up to you….
Last slide, thanking your ‘collaborators’
• In many instances supervisors, granting organizationsand external collaborators need to be acknowledged.
• Affiliate them appropriately! Where? Institutes?
• You may add a few logo’s or pictures institutes or of peopleInvolved
• Add your e-mail address for if someone wants to contact you
Check if the presentation is written to thedestination (e.g. CD) completely!!
• Check presentation on other computer(s)• Save as a ‘Pack and Go’-file This method will include all the necessary data in a self-extracting file (figures, font styles, special symbols etc)
Course ‘Pack and Go’:- Go to File, select ‘Pack and Go...’- If function is not installed: insert MS Office CD (auto-installation)- Follow instructions in ‘Pack and Go’ Wizard- The .exe file AND the .ppz file that are created by ‘Pack and Go’ are needed for extraction on another machine!! Copy them both to CD or disk.- Double-click on .exe file to extract presentation to destination folder. Now you are sure that all data/files of your presentation are available!