I have been publishing this newsletter electronically for the last 2 years. During that time I have covered some highly technical color slide design issues that have been helpful to some people, but not to others who may be less advanced. Lately, I have noticed that some of our clients have not been using some of the basic design tips that were covered in our early issues of the newsletter, so I thought that this anniversary would be a good time to review some of those basics. Perhaps they have never read those early issues or they've never visited the Newsletters Section of our web site. In any event, their slides need help with the design, so this issue will attempt to help them.
Slides are shown in dark rooms, so always choose a dark background with light colored letters.
Never use a light colored or white background since your text will appear washed out and it will cause eyestrain for your audience. If you like the light colored background with dark letters, then have overhead transparencies made and leave the room lights on. That will drop the background color, make your text black and make your handouts suitable for a copier. O nce you've picked a template, change the default font to something without serifs to make it more readable. A font with serifs is Times New Roman or Book Antiqua.