MARCH 2004
PowerPoint Tips
PowerPoint has dramatically
changed the way we make our presentations in academic programmes and
conferences, and this month's tips are on making good use of PowerPoint in
our presentations.
The Text
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Keep the wording
clear and simple. Use active, visual language. Cut unnecessary words – a good
rule of thumb is to cut paragraphs down to sentences, sentences into phrases,
and phrases into key words.
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Limit the number of words and lines per slide. Try the Rule of Five - five words
per line, five lines per slide.
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Font size for titles should be at least 36 to 40, while text body should not be
smaller than 24.
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Use only two font styles per slide
- one for the title and the other for the text. Garamond Medium
Condensed and Impact are good for titles, while Garamond or Tempus Sans can be
used for the text body. Please
don't use Comic Sans for a serious presentation. Avoid using Times New Roman
in PowerPoint- the font is very commonly used in Word documents.
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Embed the fonts in your presentation, if you are not sure whether the fonts used in
the presentation are present in the system that will be used for the
presentation. To embed the fonts: (1) On the File menu, click Save As.
(2) On the toolbar, click Tools, click Save Options, select the Embed TrueType
Fonts check box, and then select Embed characters in use only.
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Use colors sparingly; two to three at most. You may use one color for
all the titles and another for the text body. Be consistent from slide to
slide. Choose a font color that contrasts well with the background.
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Capitalizing the first letter of each word is good for the title of slides and
suggests a more formal situation than having just the first letter of the
first word capitalized. In bullet point lines, capitalize the first word and
no other words unless they normally appear capped. Upper and lower case
lettering is more readable than all capital letters. Moreover, current
styles indicate that using all capital letters means you are shouting.
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Don't center bulleted lists or text. It is confusing to read. Left align unless you have a good reason not to.
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Run “spell check” on your show when
finished.
The Background
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Keep the background consistent.
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Simple, light textured
backgrounds work well. Complicated textures make the content hard to
read.
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If you are planning to use many clips in
your slides, select a white background. If the venue of your presentation is
not adequately light-proof, select a dark-colored background and use any light
color for text.
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Minimize the use of "bells and whistles" such as
sound effects, "flying words" and multiple transitions.
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Don’t use red in any fonts or
backgrounds. It is an emotionally overwhelming color that is difficult to see
and read.
The Clips
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Animations are best used subtly; too much flash and motion can distract and
annoy viewers.
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Do not rely too heavily on those images that were originally loaded on your
computer with the rest of Office. You can easily find appropriate clips on any
topic from the
Internet. For e.g., you may go to the Images section of
www.google.com , and search for clips on any particular topic. While
searching for images, do not use long search phrases as is usually done while
searching the web - use specific single words.
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You
may use clips without distracting the viewers by preparing opening slides
containing an appropriate clip and the subtitle when you start a new section
of your topic. For e.g., if you are presenting some research data, you can
start your hypotheses section with a slide similar to one shown in the
example, and
the subsequent slides in the section may be kept free of clips.
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Using photographs of individuals mentioned in the presentation helps to make
the slides attractive. For e.g., if your presentation is on course and outcome
of schizophrenia, you can use a photograph of Emil Kraepelin when you share findings of his study. A Google
search will provide you with enough number of good photographs of almost all pioneers in
Psychiatry and allied disciplines.
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When importing pictures, make sure that they are smaller than 2 megabytes and are
in a .jpg format. Larger files can slow down your show.
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Keep graphs, charts and diagrams simple, if possible.
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Use bar graphs and pie charts instead of tables of data. The audience
can then immediately pick up the relationships.
The Presentation
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If
you want your presentation to directly open in the slide show view, save it as
a slide show file using the following steps.
1. Open the presentation you want to save as a slide show.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. In the Save as type list, click PowerPoint Show. Your slide show file will be
saved with a .pps file extension.
When you double-click on this file, it will automatically start your
presentation in slide show view. When you're done, PowerPoint automatically
closes and you return to the desktop. If you want to edit the slide show file,
you can always open it from PowerPoint by clicking Open on the File menu.
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Look at the audience,
not at the slides, whenever possible.
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If using a laser
pointer, don’t move it too fast. For example, if circling a number on the
slide, do it slowly. Never point the laser at the
audience.
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Black out the screen
(use “B” on the keyboard) after the point has been made, to put the focus on
you. Press the key again to continue your presentation.
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You can use the shortcut command [Ctrl]P to access the Pen tool during a slide
show. Click with your mouse and drag to use the Pen tool to draw during your
slide show. To erase everything you've drawn, press the E key. To turn off the
Pen tool, press [Esc] once.
Miscellaneous
Master Slide Set-Up
The "master slide" will
allow you to make changes that are reflected on every slide in your
presentation. You can change fonts,
colors, backgrounds, headers, and footers at the "master slide" level.
1. First, go to the "View" menu.
2. Pull down the "Master" menu.
3. Select the "slide master" menu.
You may now make
changes at this level that meet your presentation needs.
Preparing the Handout
In PowerPoint, choose File | Send To | Microsoft Word. In the Send
To Microsoft Word dialog box, choose Outline only to create a text-only
document, and click on OK. Minor modifications on this
document will give you a handout that can be distributed to the audience.
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