1. Slide title at least 1.25” tall or at least 125 pt The following information may assist you in preparing an informative and professional poster display: Please see the excellent article at http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm. http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm Your audience is Taylor faculty and students. This is an opportunity for you to make know your efforts to the university community. You and your faculty advisor may have an upcoming technical meeting where your poster will also be displayed. Feel free to customize your poster for that audience. Make sure your poster is visually pleasing. It should have a good mix of text and figures. Your figures should really present the material. Be clear and succinct. Your figures and text should have a point. Zoom in to read text, and figures. Zoom out to look at complete slide layout. Light refreshments will be provided. Print TITLE and authors in extra large characters (over 1.25 in. high) across the top of your display. Display your material in large print so it may be read from a distance. For the Main text, 28 point font is a good choice. For headings, use something bigger. A guide to use is 100 point font is 1” high. You can use a ruler to see how high your text will actually be. Content Suggestions Formatting Suggestions Here are some suggestions for easily creating a poster using PowerPoint. Decide on Poster Size To set your poster size, go to “File” -> “Page Setup” choose “custom size” and set your desired size. For the height do not go larger than 36” if you want us to print your poster. With special permission, sizes up to 42” can be accommodated. Set the width to whatever you want, but power point will only allow a page width up to 56”. You may want to go smaller than this. Warning: Changing poster size after you have pictures on the poster will effect the aspect ratio of the pictures. Use a Blank Slide I think starting with a blank slide works best for large posters. To set this, go to “Format” -> “Slide Layout” From there you can Choose a blank slide or a slide with title only. Use the Guides You can display guides from “View” -> “Grids and Guides”. The guides will help you align your poster and are also useful for measuring distances on your poster. Use the Ruler Under the View menu is “Ruler”. Making the ruler display will help you get your text boxes formatted the way you want them. Use the Zoom To work on the details of your poster, setting the zoom to 66% works well. This will allow you to see the text. To see the whole poster, set the zoom to fit to see how the overall layout is going. When you zoom back in, click the portion of the poster you want to edit before you zoom in. This way PowerPoint will zoom into this area. Printout on 8 ½ x 11 to Preview This size of print will tell you what your poster will look like as well as give you a printed version to proof-read. A good rule of thumb is that everything on your poster should be small but readable when the small version is held about a foot to two feet away. When printing to a regular printer, make sure you click the “Scale to fit paper” check box on the print command dialog box. Don’t Spend too Much Time Finding a Background White works fine. If you do want a picture for a background, try to find one that is somewhat uniform in color so that all your text can be seen. Creating a watermark is also an effective technique (http://office.microsoft.com/en- us/assistance/HA010797741033.aspx). This will give you a subtle background, not one that dominates your poster.http://office.microsoft.com/en- us/assistance/HA010797741033.aspx Power Point Suggestions