Perfecting PowerPoint Presentations Gareth Johns IT Skills Development Advisor

Course Aim To introduce tools, techniques and concepts for creating professional, accessible presentations.

Objectives By the end of this session you should be able to: Describe design ideas that should be considered when creating a PowerPoint presentation. Apply design themes and customise colours, fonts and background colours appropriately to suit the material and audience. Use the layout feature to align material neatly. Add multimedia content to your slides to create interesting and memorable slides. Use appropriate animation effects to enhance your presentation. Create memorable, well-designed presentations that enhance your presentation, rather than detract from it.

PowerPoint Slide Design Tips Keep It Simple. Consider your material and audience. Consistency in design. Short bullet points. Don’t overuse bullet points. Less is more Use whitespace. Crowded slides can distract your audience. Keep a good signal to noise ratio. Present the material, use the slide as an aid. Don’t use it as handout. E.g. if you’re displaying figures and statistics, charts may be more appropriate than text. The audience will get bored with walls of text that is read out. Consistency = design principle of repetition. Use colours, fonts and design elements consistently to create a sense of unity and cohesiveness – more professional A few words per bullet point and max 5-7 bullet points per slide. Death by PowerPoint – 2013 – several layouts no longer include bullet points as standard

“While long bullet points are not very effective as a visual enhancer, displaying quotations…can be a very powerful technique.” Reynolds (2008) Presentation Zen – Garr Reynolds Backing up your point with quotes from valid sources can add authority and credibility to a presentation. Use short quotes though. One of Reynolds other suggestions is…

A picture… Pause on this slide for a few seconds.

Is worth a thousand words Tower Bridge (built 1886–1894) is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name. Contrary to popular belief, the song "London Bridge is Falling Down" has nothing to do with Tower Bridge. They are completely different bridges.[1] It has become an iconic symbol of London. Is worth a thousand words Which slide did you find more informative/useful? Easy to interpret/remember? Text is more informative, but how can else can we deliver that information? [Verbally, supported by a handout] Use images that are relevant to the presentation and that enhance it. Use them to tell the story or prove a point. Don’t use them as decoration. Images are powerful and memorable.

Accessibility Issues Consider your font Background Size 28+ Sans serif Contrast Use correct punctuation & case. Background Light room – light background Dark room – dark background Consider glare The design elements have to be balanced with accessibility issues. A visually impressive slide may be difficult for people with poor sight to read. Guess the minimum recommended font size? What does sans serif mean? Can anyone name any sans serif fonts? What is another advantage of creating slides using bullet points? [Answer: quick and easy]

Or not! Animation Effects Animation can be subtle Animation controls the entrance… and exit of text. Or not! It can be used to emphasise Or focus the audience On the relevant point. Animation can be subtle Which type of those animation effects do you think are appropriate for presentations? [Answer: usually subtle, but more exciting animation may be appropriate occasionally.] Objects can be animated too.

Animation Subtle = professional Don’t distract audience. Progressive disclosure & fade to emphasise Know your material/audience. Animation should have a purpose Fancy animation will distract from what you are saying Progressive disclosure won’t bombard the audience with a wall of text. Fading previous points again focuses the audience on the point you are making. There may be cause for fancy animation. E.g. a product launch, but even then use it sparingly and to for a specific purpose. Next slide shows a purposeful animation

“Conditional Formatting is a method of formatting cells based on their value” (Answers.com) Example of slide with animation that has purpose – to draw user’s to area of the slide that’s being talked about.

Recap By the end of this session you should be able to: Describe design ideas that should be considered when creating a PowerPoint presentation. Apply design themes and customise colours, fonts and background colours appropriately to suit the material and audience. Use the layout feature to align material neatly. Add multimedia content to your slides to create interesting and memorable slides. Use appropriate animation effects to enhance your presentation. Create memorable, well-designed presentations that enhance your presentation, rather than detract from it.

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Additional Information Session hand outs and other resources available at: tsr.cardiffmet.ac.uk/Learning/Help/Training/ Upcoming training sessions: Course 1 title goes here – Date of sess Course 2 title goes here – Date of sess Course 3 title goes here – Date of sess

Contact Us training@cardiffmet.ac.uk 029 2041 7000 7000 Live Chat available on Help Centre. Visit the IT Advisors in the Learning Centres. Visit an IT Advisor in the Learning Centres