PowerPoint Presentations …..made easy! Class: I have put together a presentation to illustrate the basics of developing a proper PowerPoint. There are several points that you will need to follow in order to meet guidelines regarding professional PowerPoint presentations. PowerPoint is used in the health care field to help convey information in a concise manner. Good presentation skills are required to convey the message effectively. Professional presentations must begin with information that will keep the audience’s attention, which ensures a positive interaction. The main body of the presentation needs to be accurate, informative and structured. The final slides need to give a summation of the topics covered along with a Q & A and reference slide. While each slide reflects main points you want to make about the topic, speaker notes are used to explain the points you are trying to make about the topic. Speaker notes are the narrative piece to your presentation. They are information you will be discussing more in-depth about the topic. The content must be customized to the intended audience for the most effective results. Presentations can be an effective tool for teaching and learning. There are several points that you will need to follow in order to meet guidelines regarding professional PowerPoint presentations.

PowerPoint Basics Formatting slides Speaker notes Clipart/Images What to include? APA citations Reference Slide In this presentation I will be discussing how to format your slides, what is the purpose of speaker notes and the inclusion of clipart/images. In addition, I will be discussing the content and flow of a professional PowerPoint as well as APA guidelines for citations (in speaker notes and on the slide itself), as well as the reference slide. The goals is to provide you with the basics of developing a professional PowerPoint, which includes helpful tips and required elements to be a successful writer/presenter. Besides the basics, I will be discussing the flow of your presentation as well as the main slides that must be included for the final project. I have also included, several websites that can help you learn how to use PowerPoint as well as APA guidance.

Formatting Slides 5 – 7 bulleted points Keep it simple No narratives Back ground color Font Size, color and alignment Clipart/Graphics/Images (more details on Slide 5) Limit animation Creating slides that grab viewers’ attention is not about fitting as much as you can on the screen. It is about using the space on your slides effectively. Don't crowd your slides, and only include elements that contribute to the points you want to make. It is recommended to have between 5 - 7 bulleted points; not to say that you cannot have more, but in the case of an eye-catching slide, too much information can overwhelm your audience. Do not write a paragraph (narrative) or long sentence on the slide. Remember to keep it simple. You will be using speaker notes to explain each bulleted point. Using bulleted points allows the audience time to read the slide while still listening to your presentation, which is your ultimate goal. Choice of the background color is critical. Bright colors are not practical. In fact, the brighter the color, the harder it is for your audience to read the slide. Choose a background color that is more muted, avoid the use of “neon” type colors or bright reds. This includes the font as well. The slides should be consistent in font size and color throughout the presentation. For easy readability, use larger size, San Serif, Arial, Calibri or in this slide presentation, I have chosen Candara-type font. The text color should contrast with the background color without the “glare” of bright colors. You can choose your font, size, and color under the home tab. Use a dark text on a light background or vice versa. Again, this is easiest to read. If you must use a dark background due to your organization’s colors, ensure that the text is light. Using white, cream, light grey, or pastels is easily readable on a dark background. You may also want to increase the font size two or three notches or use the bold function. Example: I have used Candara font, size 40 for the titles and 32 for the bullets. In addition, I have used bold face in order to make them more visible to a reader. Avoid using shadowing or other effects on the font. Remember that choosing the right background, and font (such as Candara) enhances the success of pleasing the viewers. Align text left or right. Do not center the text on the slide. It is harder to read and looks amateurish. Line up all your text to a right-hand or left-hand baseline. It is more pleasing to the eye and easier to follow. When you use graphics on a slide, choose images that serve a purpose (such as a chart or diagram that displays a direct benefit of your idea). Charts and graphs can be entered into a PowerPoint easily. Excel spreadsheets can be imbedded and then converted to a graph with a click of a button. There are many tutorials available on Microsoft.com on how to incorporate graphs and charts. In addition, remember that if you include an image, you must have the right to insert it into your presentation. Just as you have to cite written work from your research, images have to be cited as well (This is done on the slide itself and will be covered later in this presentation). Avoid copyright issues by only using images that are copyright free. When in doubt, don’t use the image. To emphasize your points without overwhelming your audience, limit animation to key points and use consistent animation choices throughout the presentation. It is not recommended to have too much “flash” in a presentation. In fact, professional PowerPoint presentations usually avoid animation altogether. Again, keep it simple.

Speaker Notes Narrative to explain bullet points Comprehensive and accurate Choose “normal” view to insert Include APA-formatted in-text citations and Reference list. When a PowerPoint presentation is developed for a class assignment, the speaker notes provide the instructor a method to evaluate the ability of the student to apply course concepts to practice and explain the bulleted points. The content should be comprehensive and accurate. Key points should be noted and presented logically. How to view speaker notes: The speaker notes appear directly under the slide when in “Normal” view of PowerPoint. Click on the View tab and choose “Normal”. Choosing the “Notes Page” (under View on the toolbar) allows you to not only see the slide and notes page but also acts and looks like a Word document with the ruler at the top of the screen. Formatting speaker notes: The ruler lets you indent paragraphs or references, just like in Word. This allows you to double space your notes, set the style and spell check. The next slide will show you what the “Notes Page” has available to you for formatting purposes. Content: Speaker notes provide space for information you would like to include but is too long to put on the slides. Speaker notes should contain more detailed content of the actual presentation and not just repeat the slide’s content. Content of slides and speaker notes should be free of grammatical, spelling, punctuation, proofreading, and other errors. In addition, all intext citations are placed in the speaker notes for any information that you obtain from your research. This is done exactly the same as in an APA formal paper. If you use material verbatim (word-for-word), you will need to place the information in quotations and cite appropriately by including the author’s last name, year of publication and page number in parentheses. However, if you paraphrase the material, the citation includes the author’s last name and year of publication only. We will review this later in the presentation as well.

Clipart/Images Less is more! Few graphics or special effects Sound Convey Professionalism Cite borrowed graphics – (not needed if use Microsoft Clip Art) Remember your audience Animated slides such as the use of swirling and fading or sound effects can be quite fun to experiment with in a presentation. Our tendency is to include clip art, sound, transitions, or charts to make it spectacular. However, too much activity throughout a presentation is a bit much. We have to remember that less is more in a professional presentation. I am not saying that you cannot utilize these fun tools. However, less is more! Using simple graphics, changing background color for effect, and animation should be limited. Graphics and images should relate to the content and set a professional tone. Make sure they do not distract from the content itself as you want your audience to understand the material you are presenting. Sound and other animated effects can be fun but we must remember our audience. For instance, if you were presenting to children, it might be a good idea as long as the message remains clear. However, if you are presenting information to a group of professionals, too many animated effects can come across as “cheesy”. Therefore, I recommend avoiding the use of animation of any kind in professional presentation unless it is needed to prove a point. Remember, you want the audience to remember the material presented. Note: If you decide to utilize these tools, do not incorporate in every slide. It is recommended that these tools are not to be used more than once per every five slides. Using pictures, photos and multimedia elements can enhance the visual appeal and typically make a presentation more effective. However, users should ensure the graphics relate well. Adding labels, arrows or captions on charts can further call attention to the important elements, but if used too often can be distracting. We want to convey professionalism to our audience otherwise they may not believe the information we are trying to present. Always remember your audience.

Flow and Main Slides to Include Title Slide Introductory Type Slide/Overview Body of Presentation (main content) Summary Slide Q & A Slide Reference Slide in APA format & style As you can see from the bulleted points, a PowerPoint presentation’s content is the same as a formal APA written paper. You will need to include a title slide, an overview slide, the main slides to convey the content you are presenting, a summary slide, a question and answer slide as well as a reference slide. These main titled slides need to be included to ensure flow and quality throughout the presentation. I will review each of these elements in the next few slides.

The Title Slide Main Topic Name of presenter Organization or College Date The Title slide is important in a professional presentation. It depicts the main topic to be presented and begins your introduction to the audience. In addition, your audience is able to see the organization you represent (The next slide is an example of a title slide). When you first open PPT, it opens to a title slide automatically. You will click on the boxes and add the information. The first box is always for the title of your presentation while the second box is for your name, organization, date. Make sure to include these items in any PowerPoint you develop whether it is for work or college.

Diabetes….everything you wanted to know and more Fara Dyke, RVT, MS Kaplan University Anatomy & Physiology 1 November 7, 2012 Example of a title slide for a college course. If you are presenting for the organization you represent, you would type this in the space “Kaplan University”. You would remove the course information.

Overview or Introduction Slide Bulleted points of the slides Conveys to audience content of presentation Conveys professionalism Illustrates organization and thought to flow Your overview slide (introductory slide) should be bulleted points of each of the headings that you choose for each slide. The narrative in the speaker notes for the Overview slide is your time to tell your audience what you will be discussing, the points you will be making and an announcement that you will be holding a Question & Answer period at the end of the presentation. The next slide is an example of an overview (introductory slide).

Diabetes… Introduction What is Diabetes? How is it diagnosed? What are the body systems affected? Education and Treatment Options Care of the Diabetes patient Summary Questions & Answers This is an example of an introduction slide. This would be the second slide in your PPT. It informs the audience about the topics your will be discussing in reference to the main topic.

Content slides of Presentation Main body of the PPT Covers each area of the content Allows for separation of ideas Usually 10 – 15 Topic Slides Titles on each conveys subject covered No more than 5 – 7 bulleted points Speaker Notes for each slide The main body of your presentation are called topic slides. These are the main content of your presentation. Each slide typically contains bullet points that are related to a single main idea with a heading of that particular slide’s content. This allows a separation of ideas that you want to present. For example: If the title of your presentation is Diabetes, the first slide after the introduction slide might have a heading: Diabetes – what is it? Then you would describe Diabetes in your speaker notes, while the slide itself would have bulleted points about Diabetes. Usually the PowerPoint will have a specific number slides that are required for educational purposes. Follow the assignment directions. As for a professional PowerPoint, the rule of thumb is 1 slide for 1 -2 minutes you are presenting. Therefore, a 20 minute presentation would probably contain 10 to 20 slides. Each slide should contain a heading. For example: this slide’s heading is: Content slides of Presentation. The bulleted points under the heading, should contain the main points you want to discuss about that particular heading. You will insert bullet points under the heading. The bulleted point are not complete sentences. They should convey a basic thought that is expanded upon in your speaker notes. Speaker notes are used as your narrative to explain each of the bulleted point on the slide. We already reviewed speaker notes in detail. Refer to slide # 4.

Summary Slide Bulleted conclusion or summation of the points made Last opportunity to convey your message or persuade your audience Your conclusion(or summary) slide is a list of the key points from your presentation. It is also your last opportunity to remind your audience of the message you want to convey and/or persuade your audience. On the next slide, I have described an easy way of developing a summary slide.

Building a Summary slide Diabetes affects many body systems Maintaining optimal blood sugar levels Medical Management Importance of following physician orders You can create a summary slide from the titles of other slides in the following manner. The above slide is an example of a summary slide on the topic of Diabetes. Open the completed presentation you want to add a summary slide to…. On the View menu, click Slide Sorter. In the slide sorter view, select the slides with the titles you want to use. To select multiple slides, hold down CTRL and click the slides you want. (Be sure to select the slides that will best summarize your presentation.) Hold down the Alt key, Shift key, and S key all at the same time. This will put a Summary Slide with bulleted titles from the selected slides in front of the first selected slide. Double-click the new slide to edit it if needed. You can change the title, edit existing bullets, or add new ones, etc. Once your slide is the way you want it, just move it to the end of the slides and before the reference list. In conclusion, this brief presentation is an example that demonstrates how to develop a PowerPoint presentation in three easy steps: organizing the project, using speaker notes and slides effectively, and finishing touches. PowerPoint presentations can be fun for the presenter and the audience. At the same time PowerPoint presentations demonstrate the ability to apply knowledge learned to practice.

Q & A Slide Questions & Answers Ask your audience if they have any questions? Be prepared to answer them or take their contact information in order to follow-up on their question. State your contact information Hand out any additional information to your audience In conclusion, this presentation is an example that demonstrates how to develop a PowerPoint presentation in easy steps: organizing the project by developing an overview slide, using bulleted points and speaker notes to convey your message effectively, and flow. PowerPoint presentations can be fun for the presenter and the audience. At the same time PowerPoint presentations demonstrate the ability to apply knowledge learned to practice. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I have also included websites that can help you learn PowerPoint and formatting guidelines for APA on the last slide.

Reference Slide Author, A. & Author, B. (YYYY). Title of article. Title of Periodical, XX (xx), xxx-xxx. Thibodeau, G., Patton, K. (2008). Structure and Function of the Body, (13th ed). St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier Publishing . The last slide is an APA formatted list of all the references for each citation used on the slides or in the speaker notes. Make sure you have the minimum number of references as listed in the presentation guidelines for our final project; remember, more is not necessarily better or needed. It is permissible to use a smaller size font for your reference list. Use the ruler to be able to indent the reference page according to APA guidelines.

Websites to help you Learning PowerPoint (PPT) http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/ For videos about using PowerPoint http://www.ehow.com/video_4973231_use- powerpoint.html Learn APA http://www.apastyle.org/ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ This is a list of websites that can assist you in learning APA as well as Microsoft PowerPoint. You can also use the Writing Center’s APA guides to help you with citations and referencing. I am also available for any questions via email or during my Live tutoring hours within the Science Center. http://www.plattsburgh.edu/technology/it/help/powerpoint/index.php www.clark.edu/Library/Powerpoint/how_to_use_powerpoint.ppt Learn APA