Creating Effective Presentations in PowerPoint Pamela Conway – Dir. Business Development CompuWorks Systems, Inc.

What Makes a Presentation Effective? Three main elements: Content Design Delivery

Color Background v. foreground Avoid color associations Changing color on the fly Use color to emphasize BeforeAfter

Fonts Types: Serif San-serif Script Decorative Sample of font types

Fonts Size minimums: Title Font – between point Main Body Font – between point First Level Sub-Point Font – between point Second Level Sub-Point Font – between point

Fonts Avoid words with all upper case letters Avoid italics Do not use too much bold text Avoid using too many fonts – no more than 2 BeforeAfter

Bullets Active verbs, no punctuation No more than 5-6 per page No more than 36 words No more than 2 levels 1 line of text per bullet Bullets into graphics? Example BeforeAfter

Animation & Action Settings Avoid too many types of transitions in one presentation Limit to providing highlights or use for emphasis Good motion v. bad motion What are Action Settings? Example

Graphics Graphic file types BMP – uncompressed format created by Microsoft TIFF – uncompressed; used mostly for print purposes; large file sizes GIF – compressed BUT only renders up to 256 colors JPG – optimized for photos; compression adjustable

Graphics Recommendations Use JPG when possible Shrink photo size in other application Photoshop Fireworks GIF may work for medical scan, x-ray images

Thank You! Pamela Conway CompuWorks Systems, Inc.