Designing PowerPoint Presentations

Beginning a PowerPoint Presentation (in Bison Library) Turn on the computer. Type username: teacher’s last name and teacher’s first initial. (For example: SmithJ Type password: bison, teacher’s initials. (For example: bisonjs Hit Enter

Starting PowerPoint Click the green start button in the lower left-hand corner of your screen. Select Microsoft Office, click. Select: Microsoft Office PowerPoint, click. Click, Add Title, then title your PPT presentation. Click Add Subtitle, then add your full name, next line add Mrs. Bohannon, next line add your class period, i.e. Period One. (See next slide.)

The Guillotine Mike Scally Mrs. Bohannon Period 1

Before We Go Any Further… LET’S SAVE OUR FILE! Click on, My Computer, My Network Places, Novell Connections, Gfhs_ibm_lab, Media2, Staff folder, Teacher’s Name folder, Class Period, Drag your Desktop file into this Class Period folder. Click Save. You may now work! Start

Change Font, Size, and Color  In the upper left-hand part of your screen, place your cursor on the arrow next to the font type. o Try a different type of font.  Next to the types of font, change the size of the font.

Change Font,Size, and Color (continued) Pull down the arrow next to the capital A along the top tool bar.  Choose a different color. RULES OF THUMB 1. For PowerPoint Presentations, use Verdana or Trebuchet MS fonts. - They look best in presentations.

Rules of Thumb (continued) Font size should be about 30. This is size 28. Select B (Bold) to highlight your font. Use a white background with black font, or use a light background with a dark font. For a professional look, use the same text layout for each slide.

Rules of Thumb (continued) Keep animations, sounds, and colors to a minimum in an “official” presentation. (Experiment with them, but save all the “bells and whistles” for other, less official presentations.) Minimize your use of graphs, pictures, and videos, as well.

Rules of Thumb (continued) Please MINIMIZE all these things BECAUSE They can be very distracting to your audience! They can hurt the eyes of your audience! They can hurt the ears of your audience! They can RUIN your presentation!

PowerPoint Basics Copyright Michael Scally All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents 6 X 6 Rule Background Colors Color Evolution of Literacy Font Styles New Literacy PowerPoint is… References Text Colors Text Size Wait Time

A New Literacy We are experiencing a new literacy. “According to Time Magazine, for example, the vocabulary of the average 14 year-old dropped from 25,000 words in 1950 to only 10,000 words by 1999.” (Burmark, 2002, p. 8)

Why? Television was invented in the 1940’s. World War II created a technology explosion. Computers were invented in the 1960’s. Television replaced the radio as the main form of family entertainment.

Since Then... Technology was been increasing at a incredible rate over the past 7 decades. Today, new technology becomes obsolete in as little as 18 months. So, the world is changing and the world of education is changing with it.

The Evolution of Literacy Society Type of Literacy Tribal Oral Tradition Scribal Phonetic Alphabet Typographical ---- Mass-produced books (1490’s) Cybernetic Telegraph (1860’s) & Computers (Today) Thornburg, 1999, p 30 – 44)

During My Lifetime Pen/Pencil and Mimeographs Manual Typewriters Electric Typewriters Word Processors Computers The World Wide Web

PowerPoint is … A presentation software to HELP speakers give presentations. The PROBLEM with PowerPoint is that too often the media has become the message.

Design Basics The most important ingredient of PPT slide design is COLOR. Slide Background Colors The three best colors for backgrounds are the cool colors Blue, Green, and Purple

Text Colors The two best colors for text are the warm colors Red and Yellow (depending on your background color). As you can see, white works well too. Text colors should contrast with background colors.

Font The two most important things to remember about typography are: 1. Type is on the page to serve the text, and 2. There are no good and bad typefaces: only appropriate ones.

Font on the Web Consider using fonts like Georgia (with serifs) or Verdana (without serifs). Both fonts were designed specifically for the web.

6 x 6 Rule Each slide should have NO MORE than six words across and six words down (with size 28 font). The human eye becomes fatigued with more words on a slide.

Background Colors The best background colors for your Presentations are: Purple, Blue, & Green.

References Burmark, L. (2002). Visual literacy: Learn to see, see to learn. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Thornburg, David D. (1998). Brainstorms and lightning bolts: Thinking skills for the 21st century. San Carlos, CA: Starsong publications. Thornburg, David D. (1996). Campfires in cyberspace. San Carlos, CA: Starsong publications.