1 PowerPoint Presentation Design
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 2/18 Overview Color and font Slide content Purpose of PowerPoint Design Do’s and Don’ts Presentation Do’s
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 3/18 Color Always choose high contrast colors for text and background. Light on DarkDark on Light
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 4/18 Font Decorative fonts are hard to read. Sans-serif fonts are easiest to read. For example: Arial Verdana
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 5/18 Font Big text is easier to read than small text. 32 pt+ for text 24 pt+ for graphics ALL CAPS CAN ALSO BE VERY HARD TO READ WHEN OVERUSED. Don’t underline. It looks like a link.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 6/18 Font Very large type that takes up a whole slide is hard to read and a little overwhelming.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 7/18 Slide Content Use pictures whenever possible. Too many cute pics can be distracting.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 8/18 Purpose of PowerPoint PowerPoint slides should: Organize your talk Focus your audience Summarize your main points PowerPoint slides should not: Contain ALL your content
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 9/18 Design Don’ts Do not put too much information in one slide.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 10/18 Bad Example – Too much info Saving Your Toolbar Configurations If you like to customize your UI, move toolbars around, configure toolbars, etc, then you'll want to know that all this information is stored in c:\windows\application data\microsoft\powerpoint\ppt.pcb By copying this file, you can move your customizations to other machines. Displaying Keyboard Shortcuts in Tool Tips If you'd like to see the available keyboard shortcuts for menus, commands, and toolbar buttons, go to Tools/Customize, click on the Options tab, and click on "show shortcut keys in screen tips". Getting Rid of Short Menus Forgetting user reaction to this feature when it was introduced in Word years ago, the Office team decided to try it again. Unfortunately, it's still annoying. To see all of your options when you click on menus, go to Tools/Customize, click on the Options tab, and uncheck "menus show recently used commands". Preview Fonts in the Toolbar If you'd like to see previews of the actual fonts in the font selection of the formatting toolbar, go to Tools/Customize, click on the Options tab, and click "List font names in their font", click Close.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 11/18 Design Do’s Keep charts and graphs simple.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 12/18 Too much information
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 13/18 Simple is Better
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 14/18 Design Do’s Use a consistent design throughout. Expand one slide into two if it looks busy. Have one concept per slide.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 15/18 Design Do’s Align objects perfectly. Snap to gridlines (View > Grid and Guidelines) Nudge (Arrow keys or Ctrl + Arrow Keys)
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 16/18 Design Do’s Use the Slide Master. Do not break copyrights. Lots of free photos at Write your content, then format.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 17/18 Presentation Do’s Always start with an overview slide. Always end with a summary slide.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Ms. Wear Info Tech 9/10 18/18 Summary How to use font and color How to format slides How to use slides to augment your presentation