**Creating A PowerPoint Presentation**

The industry and government standard presentation program for the PC is
Microsoft PowerPoint. Designing your own PowerPoint presentation really
can be a pleasure and not a chore if you follow these few helpful tips.

-   Projector resolutions are now commonly at 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768.
    If your presentation is not the right size on the projection screen,
    then you may need to change the display settings on your laptop to
    match the projector resolution.

-   It is also best to set your monitor at thousands or millions of
    colors to prevent banding of gradations and harsh color separations
    in photos and graphics. Any imperfections in your image will be
    greatly magnified on a big screen. One recommendation is that if you
    need to use a low quality or "bad" photo or graphic -- use it small.
    A bad photo looks worse on the big screen and can be hard to
    decipher. Using a bad photo or graphic in a smaller size (or even in
    black and white) will actually make it look better on a big screen.

-   Be sure to always use high contrast colors (dark vs light) in your
    presentation. That will assure that your presentation looks good and
    is readable in any light situation. The new projectors are very
    bright and audiences generally prefer to leave some lights on during
    presentations.

**Using Fonts**

Presenters are surprised to find that the rules for smaller screens
still generally apply to using a big screen. A big screen does not mean
you can use a lot of tiny type on a PowerPoint frame.

-   Use size 40 to 60 point type for simple headers and titles with few
    words, 36 points for multiple line headers and titles.

-   For body text, 36 points is average. The smaller the type size and
    the more lines of text, the harder it will be to read. If necessary,
    split the frame onto a "continued" frame.

-   A good guide is no more than 8 lines of text to a frame...10 is
    maximum. Of course there are always exceptions to the rules. If you
    have a frame that is impossible to split and will be difficult to
    read, please provide a handout of that frame for the audience to
    refer to.

-   Use an upper and lower case mix for body text. Large amounts of all
    upper case text can be difficult to read. A serif font (such as
    Times Roman) is considered easier to read in large amounts than a
    san-serif font (such as Arial). But a san-serif font often looks
    better and is easier to read if using light text on a dark
    background. You can vary bulleted line spacing at "Format/Line
    Spacing". And since we are no longer using typewriters with those
    evenly spaced typeface styles, we don't need to use a double space
    between each sentence anymore. Generally, one space is adequate and
    allows the eye to flow over a page of text smoothly.

Keep font styles to a minimum, no more than 3 different fonts on a
frame, and it is best if they are related in style. If you want to make
an impact and use a really wild font, that's great, but keep it to a
minimum. In most cases, it is best to choose readability over "artsy".

**Color**

There should be a good contrast between the background and the text or
graphics. If you are using a photo as a background, watch for split
areas of light and dark, such as a pale sky with dark ground areas. This
can present a problem when choosing consistent text colors for your
presentation. A solid color background will eliminate this problem, but
you may consider that choice a little bland. Again, choose for
readability.

-   The color gray is one of the most difficult colors to contrast with.

-   Bright red is difficult for the eye to read for any extended period
    of time. Use bright red for emphasis only -- avoid blocks of red
    text. Deeper shades of wine or brick would be better.

-   10% of your audience will have some sort of color perception
    impairment. The following combinations should be avoided:

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-   Red text on blue and vice versa

-   Red text on brown and vice versa

-   Red text on green and vice versa

-   The same value of green and blue together. A better choice would be,
    for example, light lime green text against a navy blue background.

Remember that color projected onto the screen will not be as bright as
the color lit from behind on your small computer monitor.

**Use of Line Weights**

Lines or the combination of lines, direction arrows, or sweep arrows
need to be big enough to be seen well without overpowering the image. As
stated previously, red may actually be hard to see. Soft pale colors,
when used small, may not show up well either. Underlining of words and
phrases does not work well in presentations because the underlining
blurs out the word\
or cuts off the descender letters. Again, choose for readability. Use
bold or italic text and/or\
a contrasting color for emphasis, not underlining.

**Templates**

Templates are provided in the PowerPoint software package. Some of these
are very nice and, well, others are not. You must remember that the
audience has probably seen some of these backgrounds many times already.
Be creative and try designing your own! As an alternative, there are
many commercial CDs of different templates, backgrounds, and textures
that you can use as they are or change to suit your own style. Try a
search on the internet. You can find free PowerPoint backgrounds,
textures, banners, bullets, clip art, fonts, gif animations, etc., to
download for use in your presentation.

**Final Tips**

-   Always make and take a backup copy of your presentation --
    **always.**

-   Be aware of and respect copyright laws.

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-   Remember that a PowerPoint presentation should only *support* what
    you have to say.\
    Do not read aloud every word of every frame in your presentation.
    The audience can read it themselves. It is possible to have a
    presentation with no text whatsoever.

-   Be conservative with animations, sounds, and whiz-bang effects.
    There is a fine line between enhancing and distracting.

-   Always make and take a backup copy of your presentation. Things do
    happen.

-   To reduce file size, use the master page to place or color your
    background. Also, format full frame size photos and graphics into
    the background instead of just "Insert Picture" -- go to
    "Format/Background/Fill Effects/Picture". This takes a little longer
    but is worth the effort.

> Use photos and graphics at 72 dpi for PowerPoint. (Usually matches
> screen resolution.)

-   Most universal PowerPoint file formats: *bmp, gif, jpeg, tiff, avi*
    for video files, and *wav* for sound files.

-   And, of course, don't forget to always make and take a backup copy
    of your presentation.

-   Be creative, try new things, make the presentation yours, and have
    fun!