Making PowerPoint Slides

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides

We may not be experts at public speaking, but we are all experts at listening to talks

What do you want from a talk?

Before planning your talk think about its purpose,

the audience you will be talking to, and the setting.

Don’t assume the audience will all be experts.

Never underestimate your audience!

Check on the time that has been allotted to you.

How big is the room?

What do you think of the following slide?

Emk1 knockdown inhibits lumen formation in MDCK cells:

- RT-PCR: EMK1 is effectively knocked down in MDCK cells 24 hours after transfection with P-SUPER (control) or P-SUPER-siEMK1 plasmid; knockdown confirmed on the right with antibodies to EMK1.

- Collagen overlay assay: cells cultured 24 h on collagen I before being overlaid with additional collagen on the apical surface, analyzed 24 h later. Note the lack of lumen in EMK1-KO cultures.

- Ca switch: control or EMK1-KO cells were plated in low Ca medium 24 h upon transfection with pSUPER or pSUPER-KO. After 12 h, cultures were switched to normal medium for 24 h. Transmission EM of cells sectioned perpendicular to the substratum shows lack of microvilli in EMK1-KO cells.

Of course, it is far too confusing and a clear take-home message does not come across !

This presentation will take you through a strategy for presenting the data in a clear and logical way.

Tips to be Covered

1.Fonts2.Color3.Layout4.Style5.Proofreading

Fonts - Good

This font is Arial.

This font is Comic Sans.This font is Papyrus.

This font is Times New Roman.

This font is Century.This font is Constantia.

Serif fonts take longer to read, use for title…

Use a Sans Serif font for sentences:

Fonts - Good

Some fonts look good in boldface: Arial vs. Arial bold

Comic Sans vs. Comic Sans bold

Papyrus vs. Papyrus bold

Fonts - Good

Type size should be 18 points or larger: 18 point20 point

24 point28 point

36 point * References can be in 14 point font

Fonts - Bad If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written

CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS DIFFICULT TO READ

Don’t use a fancy font that is difficult to read

Color

Dark letters against a light background

work.Best in small room

Color

Light letters against a dark

background also work.

Best in large room

Color - BadUsing a font color that does not

contrast with the background color is hard to read

Using color for decoration is distracting and annoying.

Trying to be creative can also be bad

Powerpoint basics:2. Color

Avoid red-green combinations because a large fraction of the human population is

red-green colorblind.

Lots of people can’t read this –and even if they could, it makes your eyes hurt.

Powerpoint basics:2. Color

Other color combinations can be equally bad:

Layout – GoodWrite in point form, not complete

sentencesInclude 2-4 points per slideAvoid wordiness: use key words and

phrases onlyEvery slide should have a heading

Layout – GoodShow one point at a time:

Will help audience concentrate on what you are saying

Will prevent audience from reading ahead

Will help you keep your presentation focused

Layout - Bad This page contains too many words for a

presentation slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult both for your audience to read and for you to present each point. Although there are exactly the same number of points on this slide as the previous slide, it looks much more complicated. In short, your audience will spend too much time trying to read this paragraph instead of listening to you.

Layout - Bad Do not use distracting animation or sounds

Do not go overboard with the animation

Be consistent with the animation that you use

Don’t animate an object more than once

Layout

Be generous but meaningful with empty

space

LayoutIf you try to cram too much into a slide, and place things too close to the sides, they can get cut off if you’re using a poor projector. In any case, the slide looks all cluttered and junky.

Style - Good

Use graphics occasionally rather than just words all the time (Smart Art)

Always title your graphs

Clipart should match in style

Style – Good - Clipart

With

Style – Bad - Clipart

With

Style - Good

Graphic

Text

Great

Slide

Style - Good

0102030405060708090

100

January February March April

Items Sold in First Quarter of 2002

Style - Background - GoodUse backgrounds such as this one that

are attractive but simple

Use the same background or elements from the background consistently throughout your presentation

Style - Background – Bad Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read

from Always be consistent with the background that you use

Spelling and GrammarProof your slides for:speling mistakesthe use of of repeated wordsgrammatical errors you might have

make

It’s very easy to use Powerpoint poorly

It takes some thoughtand hard work to use

Powerpoint well.