James Tam

Presentation software

In this section of notes you will learn how to use the common features of presentation software such as PowerPoint in an effective manner.

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Giving Presentations

•For short presentations that are not overly detailed or complex, the presenter can deliver it purely in an oral form.

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Visual Aids

•Are used for longer, and more complex or detailed presentations.

•Advantages- It allows the audience to follow the speaker (especially for complex or detailed talks).

- The talk can be more structured

•Early types of visual aids:- Blackboards- Handouts- Flip charts- Transparencies and overhead projectors- Slides and slide projectors

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What Is Presentation Software?

•A computer program that provides electronic support for a person giving a presentation.

•It’s often used in place of the older approach of employing visual aids.

•Note: not all software used during presentations are truly presentation software (e.g., a web page used to deliver a lecture).

•Some characteristics of presentation software:- The layout and appearance can be easily configured (not always easy to do with a medium like a web page).

- The material can be broken down into meaningful parts (slides) so the audience is overwhelmed with seeing too much material all at once.

- Special effects such as animations can be added to enhance the presentation.

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Organization Of A Presentation

Slide: each one is shown during the presentation one-at-a-time

Slide show/deck: it’s the collection of slides used during a presentation.

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Organization Of A Slide

Title Header

Footer

Body

Headings

Sub headings

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Designing Slides

•To make it easier for the viewer to find information on each slide and to interpret your slides some simple design rules can be applied:- Contrast- Repetition- Alignment- Proximity

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Contrast

From “The Non-Designers Design book by Robin Williams

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Good Constrast

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Weak Constrast

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Repetition / Consistency

From “The Non-Designers Design book by Robin Williams

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Inconsistencies Make Structure More Difficult To Ascertain

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Alignment (Center)

•Alignment provides structure.

•By not properly employing alignment it can be difficult to determine how things are related and organized.

The structure of headings vs. sub-headings can be inferred but it’s more work than should be needed.

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Alignment On A Consistent Axis

Left alignment of headings and subheadings allows the viewer to quickly determine structure.

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Alignment Makes It Easier To Interpret Your Slides

First representation

A

C D

B

Second representation

A B

C D

Alignment on the left axis: helps group the heading and the image

Alignment on the left axis: helps group the heading and the image

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Changing The Indention Level

Highest level

Second highest level

Lowest level

Increase to higher level

Decrease to lower level

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Proximity

From “The Non-Designers Design book by Robin Williams

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Proximity Is Not Used Effectively

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The Squint Test: A Tool For Evaluating Layout

•Used to determine what stands out or what elements appear to belong together

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Squint Test: Example

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Presentation Views

•The slide show can be viewed in a number of different ways.

•Normal: for editing the slides

•Slide sorter: shows an overview of all the slides (in miniaturized form).

•Notes pages: each page shows on slide and room for notes.

•Slide show: the normal mode used for presenting the slides.

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Presentation Views (2)

•Master view: edit and view the information that will shown up on all slides.- Slide master: edit and view the master view for the slide view of the slide show.

- Hand out master: edit and view the master view for handouts (multiple slides per page).

- Notes Master: edit and view the master view for the notes view of the slides.

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Presentation Themes

•Are pre-created settings that can be applied to all the slides in your slide show.

•This allows for consistency in visual elements such as color, fonts, graphics and layout.

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Formatting Slides

•Many of the text formatting effects of MS-Word are available in MS-PowerPoint.

•Changing the layout of images and text is somewhat easier, arbitrary locations can be chosen.

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Multimedia

•PowerPoint also includes the ability to add audio and video to presentations.

•Audio files (“wav” format) can be directly inserted into a presentation without any issues.

•Video files can also be inserted into a presentation but may pose an additional challenge.- It’s not the video that is actually inserted into the slideshow but instead it’s just a link.

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Inserting Video

My computer: Calgary, Alberta

Slideshow

VideoInserting the video only links the video to the slideshow

My computer: Doha, Qatar

Slideshow

Copying the slide show from one computer to another does not copy the videos.

You must also copy all the videos yourself.

Video

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Creating Master Slides

•Master slides can be used to create a design template which will be automatically followed as new slides are created (for consistency).

•Examples of things to specify in the master slide:- Font information for different parts of a slide.- Layout of slides.- Background images and text to appear on each slide.

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Creating Master Slides (2)

•Example: adding a background graphic to the master slide.

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Creating Master Slides (3)

•Now this graphic automatically appears on every slide.

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Animations

•Objects can be animated in presentations so they appear and disappear.

•Potential benefits:- Controls the flow of information (e.g., if there’s many points then having only one point appear at-a-time makes it less overwhelming).

- Gets the audience to focus on certain parts.- Increase viewer interest.

•However overusing animations may detract from your presentation so they shouldn’t be used as the default but only as needed.

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Animated Images Vs. Words

•Generally animated images should be used when:- A cause-effect relation must be expressed- When a structure is being transformed (e.g., the motion of a hinge) – but complex interactions may not be interpreted correctly.

- A sequence of complex movements (e.g., a detailed medical procedure)

•Generally text or the spoken language should be used when:- In general natural language is so widespread, elaborate and complete that written or spoken language should be used unless there is a compelling reason (above) to do otherwise.

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•Learning a complex sequential task

Example: When An Animation May Be Appropriate

Step 1 Step 2

What happened in between???

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Rules Of Thumb For Using Color In Presentations

•Background color: - White:

•The default, works well if the slides are to be printed.•May not look as good on a projected screen.• It’s versatile, all colors look at least okay on top of it as long as there is sufficient contrast (e.g., yellow on a white background is hard to read).

- Blue:• It’s usually comfortable to view on a computer screen.

- Other colors:•Green and violet also work well but avoid bright florescent greens.

Yellow

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Simple Test Of Background Color

•Put white and black colored text on top of it.

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Using Images For The Slide Background

•Select images with large sections of solid colors so that text typed on top of it is visible.

Background image from: http://www.orionsarm.com/

Two much contrast (poor) Contains solid sections (good)

http://www.computorcompanion.com

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Using Images For The Slide Background (2)

•Avoid using images that look ‘busy’

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/

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Working With Images

•Some MS-Office programs contain simple yet useful features for editing images.- Resizing- Cropping- Duplicating

- Reversing

- Rotating

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Working With Images (2)

•The images can be saved and used in other programs (not just MS-Office).

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Grouping Objects

•Most any object (picture, text box, drawing shape) can be collected together into a group.

•Different graphical effects can be applied to the group:- Resize- Move- Rotate- Reverse- Crop- Fill and line thickness- Animations

•Objects can be ungrouped, regrouped or grouped again as desired.

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Sound Effects

•Used sparingly and subtly they can enhance a presentation.

•Overuse can quickly become tiresome and even jarring.- One may be okay.- Two may be tolerable

•It gets worse if sound and animations are overused.–Using one alone is bad–Using both gets really annoying•To make it even worse WE CAN START SHOUTING IN CAPITALS too!

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After This Section You Should Now Know

•When to visual aids such as presentation software

•How are slides and presentations organized

•Rules of thumb for designing slides: contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity

•How multimedia can be used in conjunction with a slideshow

•What is a master slide and what is the benefit of creating one

•How animations can be used for enhancing a presentation

•Rules of thumb for the use of color and images in presentations

•When animations should be used and what’s the advantage of using them

•How PowerPoint can be used as a picture editor

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After This Section You Should Now Know (2)

•How grouping of objects can be used to increase efficiency

•The potential pitfalls of using sound effectss