PowerPoint Design

1. PowerPoint Design

3. Principles of Designing Visuals • Avoid using all upper case • Eliminate unnecessary words • Use consistent fonts, sizes and weights • Remember the 666 rule • >Six lines of text • >Six words per line • >Six slides in a row of the same type • Limit type faces and type sizes

4. How big should the letters be? • A transparency held up (no projector) should be readable at six feet. A A A

5. How big should the letters be? • You should be able to read a slide held at arm’s length. A A A

6. How big should the letters be? • For computer generated presentations, use the pre-designed templates in the presentation program • You should be able to see the letters on your monitor at 6 feet • If electronic presentation on television, use a 40+ font, sans serif

7. Serif – has little feet and curlicues on the letters. Times Roman Courier Sans Serif – does not have feet or culicues on the letters. Arial Impact Tahoma Two font families n

8. Color and Design • Use high-contrast colors, avoid pastels • Use no more than three to five colors • Maintain the same background color for the entire presentation • Dark colors make the best background for slides and slide shows • Light colors are best for overheads

9. Background Colors • What background color should one use in their presentation • Depends upon desired effect

10. Color Psychology - Red • Can denote desire, passion, excitement and competitiveness • Can also denote fear, danger, financial loss and “stop” • Red can increase pulse and breathing rates • Encourages risk-taking • Use red with caution

11. Color Psychology – Blue • Cool, calming and conservative • Can slow breathing and pulse rate • Blue is often overused in PowerPoint presentations which could equate to staleness and unoriginal thinking. • If blue is used, combine with other design elements.

12. Color Psychology - Green • Stimulates interaction • Good choice for educators, trainers • Also associated with money

13. Color Psychology - Black • Denotes finality, authority

14. Colors to Avoid • Pure Brown • Uneasiness and passivity • Purple • Immaturity • Unimportant

15. Color Problems • Red and Green besides each other tend to “vibrate” • Avoid blue on black (edges tend to look fuzzy) Vibrate Fuzzy Edges

16. Color Blindness • Research suggests 15-25% of men have some color differentiation deficiencies • Therefore, avoid • Red/Green combinations • Brown/Green combinations • Purple/Blue combinations RED BROWN BLUE

17. Color Order • Use “earth to sky” scheme in displaying colors • darker colors on the bottom • If gradient colors are used • Darker gradient on the bottom or left side

18. Basic PowerPoint Terminology • Template – a pre-designed slide that already contains colors, fonts, graphic elements, etc. from which one can build a PowerPoint presentation

19. Templates • The template selected sets the mood or tone of the presentation • PowerPoint comes with 17+ pre-designed templates created by graphic artist professionals. • The file extension on a PowerPoint template is .pot • PowerPoint presentations end in .ppt

20. Where are Templates Located? • C-Drive • Program Files • Microsoft Office • Templates • Presentation Designs

21. Ho-Hum? • How many times have you been able to identify the template used in a PowerPoint presentation? • Dad’s Tie • Pulse

22. Design your own Template • Professional presenters design their own template • Sometimes easier to customize an existing template • To design a template, open PowerPoint, choose a blank template, and then go to View, Master. Then go to work. Insert graphics, add color, lines, etc. • You will want to design both a slide master and title master. • Click Close when done. • Then click Save As and drop down the menu to get to .pot files. Be and sure to save to the Presentation Designs directory.

23. Finding “other” Templates • http://www.presentersuniversity.com/Multimedia/default.cfm • http://www.howtoconquertheworld.com/powerpoi.htm • http://www.websiteestates.com/ppoint.html • http://www.presentersonline.com/resources/ • http://www.graphicsland.com/powerpoint-templates.htm • http://www.soniacoleman.com • http://www.brainybetty.com

24. A Word of Caution • When you download a template it needs to end up in the presentation designs folder. • Some templates are zipped, and will need to be unzipped and end up in the correct directory. • Sonia Coleman downloads (which are great) actually end up in a new folder under Templates titled SC-Templates. • Some templates are not really templates, but single slide PowerPoint presentations. If this is the case, save the slide as a .pot file.

25. To apply a new template • Click on Common Tasks on the tool bar. • Select Apply Design Template • Templates you have downloaded should show up now – they often don’t when your first open PowerPoint and select a template. • You may need to click the up arrow to get to other template directories.

26. Use Shapes • We learned to see before we learned to read • Use devices that people see to gain attention • bullets • geometric shapes Example

27. Use Graphic Shapes to Focus Attention Agenda 9:30 Sales 11:00 Marketing 12:00 Lunch 1:30 Finance Agenda 9:30 Sales 11:00 Marketing 12:00 Lunch 1:30 Finance

28. Color and Design cont. • Use clip art sparingly

29. Color and Design cont. • Use sound sparingly

30. The Fear of Presenting • PUBLIC SPEAKING 41% • Height 22% • Insects and Bugs 11% • Financial Problems 10% • Deep Water 8% • DEATH 8%