1. Pick a background color
Avoid bright colors
Medium Tones
Dark tones OK
Blues, black and white work best
Avoid angry or excited colors like red and yellow

2. Avoid pictures for background unless muted or used only for first slide.

3. Backgrounds make things too busy

4. Bluesy templates – yikes!
Azure
Blue diagonal
Lock & key
Soaring

5. Bright on dark Dark on bright
Use high contrast colors
GOOD
GOOD
GOOD
Bright on dark
Dark on bright
EVIL
EVIL
EVIL

6. Why high-contrast? Your PC screen is hi-res everything looks great
don’t trust it!
big displays “wash out” colors
always TEST on final equipment
alter template’s defaults as needed

7. See for yourself Which line is easier to read?

8. Be font savvy Arial Arial Black Futura Tahoma Times New Roman New York
Sans serif good
Arial
Arial Black
Futura
Tahoma
Serif bad
Times New Roman
New York
Courier

9. Less visual complexity
Which is easier to read?
Less visual complexity
Stronger lines
Once upon a time there lived a yellow bear
named Pooh. He had a cat named Tigger and
a law degree from Texas Tech. He was
allergic to chocolate.
Once upon a time there lived a yellow bear
named Pooh. He had a cat named Tigger and
a law degree from Texas Tech. He was
allergic to chocolate.

10. Don’t waste bullets
use no
more
than 6
in a list

11. Observe the limit 25
More
looks busy
words per slide max

13. Avoid death by cheese…
Weird sound effects
Most transitions
Flying text
Strange animations
Bad clip-art

14. Clip-art Hall of Shame

15. Content is King! Single phrases Short lists Questions for students
Quotes
Photographs
Video

16. Design Tips for PowerPoint
1st –– Backgrounds – Templates
Best fonts
Bullets –– 6 is max
Content is king!
Words on a slide –– 25 or less
Images –– key
Content and layout provided by Professor Keri Stephens