PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts

Graphic Design Issues Use Contrasting Colors Use Readable Fonts Limit Text Per Slide Use Bright Background Colors Use Simple Muted Background Images Avoid Excessive Motion Down with Cutesy Sounds

Use Contrasting Colors Good Bad Good Bad ! Good Bad Good Bad Good

Use Readable Fonts San Serif fonts are most legible on screen Cursive fonts fall out of legibility quickly Cutesy fonts aren’t easy to read either A different font that has bold letter strokes can work well Serif fonts can be used but are harder to read especially from the back of the room Not all computers have the same fonts

Limit Text Per Slide Large font size increases legibility and forces the issue of limiting text per slide

Use Bright Background Colors To sleep perchance to dream… Dark background colors with the lights off makes it hard to take notes and easy to sleep Light background colors make it easier to take notes and harder to sleep Think about trying to find your seat at the movies…in a night scene or day scene

Use Simple Muted Background Images

Avoid Excessive Motion When your slides have too much motion The point your are trying to make Can get lost In all of the commotion

Down with Cutesy Sounds I can’t even bring myself to make an annoying sound to go here. ‘Nuf said

Technical Issues

PowerPoint File Size PowerPoints can be very small if there are no images, or sounds or video PowerPoints can be huge if you insert uncompressed images PowerPoints can be small if you insert compressed images Local computer use file size is not an issue as long as you can transport the file Web access file size is a huge issue 1mb = 5 minutes download on a modem

Don’t work off of a floppy disk Microsoft Office files automatically make a backup as you work—this backup is the same size as your file You need file size x 2 available on your working drive Largest file possible reading and writing from floppy is 700kb when this is exceeded the crash is often unrecoverable Floppy disks are prone to lose data independent of all else

Images – compress outside of PowerPoint PowerPoint does not compress images Work in some other graphics package to compress your images before inserting them into PowerPoint Microsoft has a tool for Windows XP called Image Resizer which will allow you to compress your images The Gnu Image Manipulation Program will let you compress and edit your images this is open source software and is available for free

Audio – embedded or linked Small audio clips will automatically be imbedded in PowerPoint Large audio clips will be linked Be sure to include linked clips when transferring a PowerPoint with externally linked files otherwise your presentation will lack that which will not exist on the computer to which the presentation has been transferred

Video – always linked PowerPoint can run video PowerPoint links to video move the video with the PowerPoint Make sure the computer to run the presentation has the codec to run the video Test the PowerPoint before hand to avoid fix or be aware of problems

Using PowerPoint on the Web Small PowerPoint files can be linked directly Export to HTML doesn’t do a good job—proprietary XML in frames which is not ADA compliant UNCW official solutions OpenOffice can read and write PowerPoint files it creates clean HTML and is easy to use (open source) PDF files are a viable alternative Adobe Acrobat PDF Creator (open source) Open Office (open source)

Pedagogy Issues

Giving out your PowerPoints: yes or no? Personal preference Concerns over class attendance Learning requires multiple passes at information Don’t undervalue your “performance” as a lecturer

Not just a lecture tool--can be used as a prompt with group discussions Make a slide that poses a question and have the next slide answer the question Can make slides that have multiple choice question and link to correct/incorrect answers with explanations

Can be used to keep record of group brainstorming Remember the same program that presents was used to create Seek input and record Post to the web as a record of class conversation

Don’t over pace your presentations Once you have all of your information clear in your head and down on slides it is easy to tear through at a breakneck pace Nervous presenters go too fast Check your audience for comprehension Let their note taking hands have a little rest Include time for discussion

Contributors Dr. Charles Ward Dr. James Reeves Dr. Russ Herman Dr. Gabriel Lugo Dr. Ron Vetter Shane Baptista