Backup Backup daily! Back up your files regularly! Email to yourself – can use GoogleDrive for larger files. USB flash/jump drives (32GB for ~$20) external USB hard drives, 1000GB for <$100 use synchronization software to replace only the files that were changed on your computer hard drive or your external USB drive Software: for PCs try: SyncBack Freeware) or Allway Sync For Mac: Time machine on the Mac or Carbonite DropBox 2 GB are free! Backup daily!

Keep file sizes manageable large files are difficult to e-mail (size limits!) take up lots of space on your computer (depends on your disk size) backups are slow File size issues can often be avoided by using reasonable image sizes: typical print resolution is 200dpi (dots per inch), screen/projector resolution 96 dpi size of projector image at most  1920 x 1200 = 2.3 mega pixels: use image software to reduce image size/resolution

Provide high quality images the graphics in your thesis proposal/thesis need to be of high quality images taken from the web often do not have high enough resolution, => you might need to redraw the image many journals now provide high resolution images on their websites, (example) if you copy graphs from Adobe Acrobat, the resolution of your image depends on how large it appears on the screen you may scan images from printed materials in case you have trouble lifting images from electronic sources => you can take a screen dump and paste it into an image processor (e.g. such as Paint or Photoshop or IfranView) In Powerpoint, you can compress images to a certain resolution (click image and then go to Format/Compress) use the drawing toolbar to make cartoons yourself

PC/Macintosh compatibility issues files created by the same applications on a Macintosh and PC are not always compatible, although they should be common problems: images are not transferred correctly or fonts are not recognized -> use basic fonts (e.g. Times Roman, Arial) -> use common image formats (e.g. png, JPEG), avoid tiff (convert images if necessary) projection equipment at BC is PC based, if you create a file on a Mac, make sure it works fine on a Windows PC before you give the presentation another possibility is to store the presentation as Adobe PDF file, that format seems to be the most compatible between different operating systems.

PowerPoint issues Slide dimension: -> new versions default to widescreen but our projector uses standard -> use Standard (4:3) format

Bad and good PowerPoints Lots of examples on the web Avoid text-heavy slides (posters also) Avoid complex Tables (e.g., don’t need most stats in presentations) Keep plots neat and simple Use Animation carefully

Avoid distracting text annotations and/or images inside the graph pane. Animations are useful, in moderation: Avoid silly entry and effects

Avoid overly complicated Tables

See also: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35038429

Remote Control you will use a remote control for flipping from slide to slide The remote control has a timer which will vibrate when you have 5 minutes and the again when you have 2 minutes left. The remote has a laser pointer as well

File Naming and Transfer Don’t use Prezi!!!!  Only PDF or PowerPoint files are accepted Deposit your PPTX and/or PDF file on the CourseWorks web page of EESC BC 3800/01 (under ‘shared files/mini conference’) before noon of the day of your presentation Use LastnameF.ppt as filename and add your Lastname, Firstname  under ‘title’ when you post the file PLEASE don’t bring your presentation on a USB drive to class or download it from your mail account to the presentation computer in the front – WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! During the mini conferences we will ask you to make comments on each other presentations in writing; your advisor will channel those comments plus those of faculty back to you in writing