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 the presentation 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 your computer 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 to your 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 have sufficient contrast with the background Keep in mind that the font colors have sufficient 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 going to present, but keep in mind that a long title does not help to comprehend it’s content. Speaker’s name Research team Logo or small picture The first slide (The eye-catcher)

About showing text…..

1. Avoid too much text, it doesn’t work

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 where you 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 it in all other slides. Be consistent.

4. If you present figures ….. Break them down in individual components

Glial cells contain a nAChR sensitive to  -Bungarotoxin EC50 4  M Here your audience gets data all at once so where should they focus at? ?

Glial cells contain Acetylcholine receptors EC50 4  M Here you take them through the figures, which makes it much easier to follow your textual explanation

Glial cells contain Acetylcholine receptors 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 then the conclusions, up to you….

Last slide, thanking your ‘collaborators’ In many instances supervisors, granting organizations and external collaborators need to be acknowledged. Affiliate them appropriately! Where? Institutes? You may add a few logo’s or pictures institutes or of people Involved Add your address for if someone wants to contact you

Check if the presentation is written to the destination (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!