Basic rules for making Powerpoint Presentations

Some tips to make your presentations presentable

Basic rules for making Powerpoint Presentations

Some tips to make your presentations presentable

Connect with Audience

• Who is your audience?

• Relevance• Appropriate Knowledge

Keep it simple

• Make bulleted points easy to read and understand.

• Use concise wording.• Bullets are focal points – The presenter

provides elaboration.• Keep font size large.

Bullet points

• Generally, left-justify bullets• Easy to follow• Neat

Background

• Stick to a single background• It is the stage for your information

Use Contrasting Colors

• Light colors on dark background.

• Dark colors on light background.

Contrast

• Contrast is important• Light text on a semi-dark background• The eye is attached to the light

Graphics and Style

• Graphics or Style – keep it simple• The medium is not the message• The information is the message

Clip Art & Graphics

• A few excellent graphics are better than many poor ones.

• Use sparingly!

No Information Overload

• Too much information will overload audience capacity to understand and remember

• Rule of Four- Group items by 4• Example- a table with 12 Items should be

displayed in 3 groups of 4

Follow the Rule of Four

Don’t list: more than four items likethiscolumnhere

If necessary:makegroups of4 items

makegroups of4 items

Proximity

Viewers group elements into units, which they can attend to and rememberWords that move together are understood to belong togetherLabels that are closer to object are seen as belonging together

Words compatible with image

• Blue, Red,Green, or Yellow

• Blue, Red,Green, or Yellow

Fonts

• Employ only a few - stick to familiar fonts• Stay away from gimmicky fonts unless for a

theme.• Keep type sizes consistent.• DON’T USE ALL CAPS.

Perceptual Differences

• Attention is drawn to large perceptual differences

• Different colors, font sizes, styles will draw attention

• Emphasis on important points, graphics etc.

Perceptual Differences

• Use Bold, italics, or a change in color for emphasis

• Two properties must differ by a large enough proportion, or they will not be distinguished.

• Typically applies to font styles and colors, and backgrounds that interfere

Do’s and Don'ts

Do

Use visually simple fonts

Do

vary font for emphasis or to group words together

Don’t

Avoid Text OverloadHaving too much text on the screen can defeat the purpose of using PowerPoint. The slides begin to look like a jumble of text, making slides difficult to read and unrecognizable from each other. People will either try to read everything or copy everything down or they will lose interest. List only the key points. If you have more info to include use more slides or create handouts.

Don’t

Don’t underline because words that contain letters like g, p, y will get

cut off

Your Assignment

Make a Powerpoint

Your Assignment

The slide should contain examples of the following elements

Your Assignment

1. Background Contrast

2. Word Transitions3. Object transitions4. Bullet Points5. Word amount

6. Background7. Font8. Graphics9. Lists10.Font effects (bold,

underline, italics, etc)

See Handout

Your Assignment

Alternate a “good” example with a “bad” example.”

E.g.

Slide 1: Clear Background

Slide 2: Busy Background

Your Assignment

1. Upload it to Slideshare

2. Embed it on your Webpage