Guidelines for Preparing Slides

Powerpoint

FOR A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION

• Plan carefully• Do your research/ know your subject• Know your audience• Have a clear objective• Time your presentation• Practice your presentation• Speak comfortably and clearly.

PowerPointAdvantages……

• Professional• Portable• Clear Image• Easy to compile slides.

PowerPoint

• Advantages……

• Good for graphs and pictures• Economical• Slides can be modified and re-used• Space for notes.

PowerPointDisadvantages…

• Requirement to be familiar with PowerPoint and its different versions

• Original outlay• Tendency to overuse features ‘death by PowerPoint’.

Your Slides are Not your Presentation

• Your slides are a focus for your presentation• Heighten retention -10%• Improve understandingStudents comprehend 7% of information

delivered verballyThey comprehend 87% of information

delivered verbally and visually.

Attention Span Problem

Students can recall approximately 70% of the content from the first 10 minutes of the lecture but only 20% from the last 10 minutes

• Put your most important facts in your first few slides.

PowerPoint

• Do not set PowerPoint on timer – manual use• Do not stand in front of slide show • Use remote if available• You can use the “custom animation” feature to

make each bullet point appear one at a time.

Powerpoint

• Keep brief• Use to reinforce key points• Use phrases/words not sentences• Number or bullet items• Emphasise points with colour• Use pictures and charts.

USE OF AIDS IN INSTRUCTION

HOW MANY?• Depends on speaker, speaking style and

presentation• Slide 10 to 20 seconds minimum• Slide 2 minutes maximum• Slide average one minute.

PowerPoint

• Outline formats are easier to follow

• No more than one topic per slide

• Kiss- keep it simple and straightforward

PowerPoint

•Use text, animations,graphics, videos, charts and sound effects that promote this theme

•Use the same animation in all slides

•But too many effects are distracting.

PowerPoint• When using models or props or carrying out

demonstrations

• Blank out screen(press B or W on keyboard or slide screen across on projector)

• When finished with prop or demonstration, put away and continue with your presentation.

Use Bullets Not Numbers

• Bullets imply no significant order

• Use numbers only to show rank or sequence.

PowerPoint

Use the 7 X 7 rule:

PowerPoint

• 7 bullets per slide max

• 7 words per bullet max.

ProminenceGreatest

Prominence

LeastProminent

Next Prominent

This point and the title will receive the most attention.

Subsequent points will receive lesser attention.

Final point will receive almost as much attention as the first point.

Fonts

Face -Ariel- Easy to read- Augsburger Initials-hard to read

Type Sans Serif has no “feet”- easy to readSerif has “feet”- harder to read.

Fonts

– Mixed Case. (Sentence case)– NO ALL CAPS – THIS IS HARDER TO READTHIS IS HARDER TO READ

– Stick to the same font on each slide, and throughout the whole presentation

• Attributes

• No more than two fonts.

Fonts

• Left – body text • Left justify bullets

Centre – titles

Alignment

• Avoid abbreviations & acronyms • Limit punctuation.

Use a Readable Typeface and Font

•Sans serif (no curly feet) such as Arial or universal for body text.

Fonts

•Use serif such as Times New Roman for titles only

Select Readable Type SizeThis is 40 point

• Minimum 36 point for titles

• 24 point for body text

• This is 32 point

45 point40 point36 point30 point24 point20 point16 point10 point

Fonts

Adjust Lettering to discriminate or emphasize

• Make titles a larger type size than body elements• Keep same text sizes throughout

Emphasize important statements or words with bold, italic, larger

size ,different fonts or different colours.

Choose Colour Carefully

• Use the same colour consistently throughout the presentation

•Use light letters on a dark background•Or dark letters on a light background.

• Be consistent – use same background colour on every single slide

• Try to stay away from “astrobright” colors - they are hard to read

• Stay away from red/green combinations for people who are color blind.

Colour

Red & Green Should Never Be Seen

Colour• Cool colors (blues, greens) – use for background

• Warm colors (reds, yellows) – use for foreground elements

GOOD This shows warm foreground colour on a cool background color

POOR This shows cool foreground colour on a warm background color

Allow plenty of room around borders and illustrations

• Graphics,clipart and pictures to left hand side of slide

• Do not centre.

Graphics

ClipArt and Pictures

Movie Clips

Animation

Use Solid Colors instead of fill Patterns on Charts

Patterns on bars or pie slices cause confusion.

0

10

20

30

40

50

1st Qtr 2ndQtr

3rd Qtr4th Qtr

Blue Red Hatch Other

Use Solid Colors instead of fill Patterns on Charts

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

East

West

North

Solid colors convey a clear bold message

Graphs and Charts cont….

Incident Commander

Sector 1Commander

CommandSupport

Sector 3 Commander

SummaryFOR EFFECTIVE SLIDES

• Use design templates• Standardize position, colour and

layout• Necessary information• Limit information to essential.

Summary

• Content self evident• Contrasting colour scheme• Consistent effects, transitions,

animations.

Summary

TEXT

• 7 by 7 rule• Avoid long sentences• Font size 18 to 48 point

• Larger font – important information• Text contrast with background.

Summary• Fancy font hard to read• ALL CAPITALS HARD TO READ• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms• Limit punctuation marks.

SummaryCLIP ART and GRAPHICS

• Should balance the slide• Enhance text not overwhelm• 2 graphics per slide max• Kiss.

For more help a tutorial on PowerPoint is available at this web site

http://oregonstate.edu/instruction/ed596/ppoint/pphome.html

The following sites have unique PPT templates:

http://www.presentersuniversity.com (may need to register to

access this site)

http://www.websiteestates.com/ppoint.html

http://www.graphicsland.com/powerpoint-templates.html