Text Dos

Keep slides concise. Experts vary but generally agree on no more than 5-7 lines (not bullets!) per slide and no more than 5-7words per line Depending on the size of the room, font size should range between 48 for titles to 24 for subtitles and lists. Discipline yourself to eliminate words instead of shrinking font size. Use sans-serif fonts that are easy to read, such as Arial.

Did you know? Non-standard fonts may not be supported by the facilitys computer setup and their default font may change your layout with disastrous consequences!

Use uppercase letters for the first letter Leave space between the lines of text Use statements or lists, not sentences Use keywords to help the audience focus on your message

Hint! Remember that slides are just a visual aid -- if you overload them, the audience may end up trying to make sense of the slides and not pay attention to you. Worse, they will feel overwhelmed and lose interest entirely. Use the space limitations of the slide format to keep you on message and focused on what is most important for the telling of your story. Donts

Include too much details and data (7 words per line and 7 lines per slide) Crowd the information. Use flashy or curvy fonts. Use all uppercase letters (hard to read and can be perceived as yelling). Avoid obscure abbreviations. Skip punctuation marks for bulleted items on slides.

Color Dos

Limit the use of color to 2 to 4 colors/shades. Use your institutions PowerPoint template if available. Use colors that will stand out and be easy on the eyes (dark backgrounds and light text is best). PowerPoint offers many professionally designed color schemes and design templates. Use colors to highlight important words or concepts within the text, but dont overdo it.

Donts

Don't mix multiple color schemes in the same presentation. Don't use dark colors on a dark background. For example, red, blue and black should not be used together as text and background. Avoid overly bright background colors that will strain your audience's eyes. Remember that colors projected from a data projector will look different than colors on your computer screen, so avoid using nuanced (low-contrast) shades in charts and graphs.

Hint! Keep in mind that your audience might include people with partial sight or color deficiencies. This Lighthouse International webpage on Effective Color Contrast contains basic guidelines and explanations of the three perceptual attributes of color hue, lightness and saturation as they are used by vision scientists. Images and Shapes Dos

Include images that make the issue you are presenting more true to life, so your audience will understand and identify with it. Include only 1-2 images per slide. Look for images that reflect the demographics and characteristics of your audience to create a sense of connection. Use shapes to illustrate complex topics.

Donts

Don't use too many graphics, which can be distracting. Don't use low-quality images. Images should not be pixilated as they will appear grainy and unprofessional on a large screen. Avoid using cartoonish images or at least use them with care. They can undermine your credibility.

Graphs and Charts Dos

Use only appropriate graphs, charts and images that closely follow or complement the concept expressed in each slide. Include graphs and charts that show relationships, comparisons and change. Illustrate your point by verbally discussing the graph or chart.

Donts

Avoid meaningless graphs that are difficult to read.

Examples of the Best and Worst of Statistical Graphics. Sound and Animation

Dos

Use sounds only if they help convey, complement, or enhance the message. Use animation only to make a point and not to make your presentation more interesting use content and delivery style to do that!

Donts

Avoid using sounds when they aren't appropriate. Sounds can be distracting and can make your presentation less effective. Dont use too many animation effects.

Transitions Dos

Use transitions to help your presentation make more of an impact by varying the way one slide replaces another. Keep transitions to a minimum. Use the same transition or a variation of the transition.

Donts

Avoid flashy transitions, as too much movement will distract your audience. Most experts recommend against using PowerPoints Random Transition option as being distracting

What to do and What to avoid with PowerPoint Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint has now become a ubiquituous tool for making presentations. PowerPoint presents a number of advantages over conventional methods for presentation.

Saves printing on plastic. Enables more vibrant slides because of the free use of colour, clip-art and different font styles. Allows for dynamic content on slides, in the form of animations, multi-media inserts, etc. Enables changing slides right up to the last minute.

While most people appreciate these and other advantages, often PowerPoint presentations are unsatisfactory. Below, I have chronicled a number of DOs and DON'Ts for such presentation. 1. DO show up early for your talk. Check whether your equipment works properly. A PowerPoint presentation involves more complex equipment than a 100-watt bulb on which you slap plastic. The equipment is not complicated, but requires you to ensure that connections are firm and that they interface properly.

2. DO check whether the projector's resolution is the same as your laptop's. If they aren't, then your slides may be cropped, may jump or may lose scan lines. Match the resolutions. 3. DON'T leave Standby Power Management on your laptop on. Go to Control Panel -> Power and make sure your laptop does not turn off if you're inactive for a while during your talk. Usually, coming out of Standby takes a while, and may even necessitate a reboot. 4. DON'T leave your ScreenSaver on. In my experience, every speaker who has had the ScreenSaver come on has had to apologise for it. Why go on the defensive unnecessarily? 5. DON'T require frequent mouse or keyboard interaction on a slide. One click per slide is necessary, of course. Think hard about each click you add to slide. Do you really need it? It's ugly to put up a slide that has just the title on it and then bring something on with every click. It forces the reader to be in sync with you even though they may not want to. It requires you to do more on a slide instead of concentrating on getting your point across. It's much more elegant to put everything you want to say on slide, then anchor your talk to parts of the slide when you need to by pointing. 6. DON'T use the mouse as a pointer. Moving a mouse on a slide show will cause a pointer to appear. It's usually hard to point to exactly what you want with that pointer. Moreover, some mice are confusing (touchpads, joysticks) and may may require you to hunch over your keyboard or look down at the mouse while the pointer moves disembodiedly behind you. It's faster, more accurate and more natural to just point with your finger. 7. DON'T use the edges of the slide. Some projectors crop slides. Besides, using the edges is an indicator that you probably have too much on the slide anyway. 8. DO use large fonts. Small fonts are hard to read and may be projected poorly by a low-resolution projector. A rule-of-thumb with plastic slides used to be that if you drop the slide on the floor and can read them easily while standing, you're in good shape. In PowerPoint, that translates to about 24pt (Times-Roman), no smaller. 9. DON'T use dark fonts on dark backgrounds or light fonts on light backgrounds. Incredibly obvious as this injunction may seem, people do violate it often. 10. DON'T use dark backgrounds in a poorly-lit room or light backgrounds in a well-lit room. It's hard to read off such backgrounds. 11. DON'T use annoying/animated/busy backgrounds. These detract from the talk, and can make slides hard to read. 12. DON'T use silly/gratuitous animations/clip-art, especially in a technical talk. For every animation you put in, ask yourself whether you really need it, and whether the slide can be explained without it. In my experience, the only good use for animation is to show a progression of events. In other words, if you want to say "Initially, the doodad is red, but when a full moon appears, the doodad turns green." then animation may be a good way to present it. Animation is attractive, but often unnecessary for presenting steps of a process or algorithm. It's completely unnecessary for backgrounds, individual bullets, comments, the first thing to appear on a slide, and so on. 13. DON'T assume your presentation will work on another person's laptop. Disk failures, software version mismatches, lack of disk space, low memory, and many other factors can invalidate your assumption. If your host has a laptop on which you will be expected to make your presentation, at the very least ensure that that laptop has adequate disk space (so you don't have to present off your slow floppy), adequate

memory, no screen saver or standby turned on, and the appropriate versions of software that you need, including PowerPoint. Good luck!