How to present scientific information, supported by slides?

1. How to present scientific information, supported by slides? Paul Nieuwenhuysen • Vrije Universiteit Brussel • Information and Library Science, University of Antwerp(en), Belgium Lectures presented in universities in Linfen and in Ningbo, China, March 2003. These slides are available from http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/nieuwenhuysen/presentations/

2. Contents / summaryof this presentation • Why is presenting information important? • Pictures on computers • Guidelines for developers of presentations • Creating charts • Presentation software

3. **** How to present scientific information, supported by slides? Why is presenting information important?

4. **** Why is presenting information important? • Presenting scientific information to a live audience can be important, for instance • in teaching / education / training of students • in showing new results of scientific research • in making a research project proposal • Therefore, the capability to create an attractive, high-quality presentation is a useful skill for any scientist and teacher/educator.

5. **** Pictures on computers

6. **** Why learn the basics of pictures on computers? • Pictures / graphics / images are often inserted in • word processing documents • presentations with slides • web pages • So it is interesting to know how to acquire and improve pictures. • As documents are more and more made available through the Internet, it is important to make the file sizes small while preserving an appropriate image/picture quality.

7. **** How to obtain computer files with images/pictures? • from the collection of clip art delivered with the software to create presentations • from printed material (by scanning) • from the WWW or an intranet (by saving to disk) • by making photographs yourself • …

8. ***- How to create digital photographs for use on computers? • To obtain digitized photos to insert in your presentation file, you can • use a classical, chemical camera and digitize the results, • by scanning the printed photo by using a page scanner • by using a specialized scanner to scan the photo film • by using the Kodak PhotoCD service through a good photo shop • use directly a digital camera

9. The drawing module that is available to all application programs in the suite Microsoft Office 97, 2000, 2002=XP… The drawing module that is available to all application programs in the suite Microsoft Office XP (2002) Microsoft PhotoEditor (part of Microsoft Office 97) Microsoft PhotoDraw2000 NOT suitable to create appropriately compressed files saving in PowerPoint XP with Tools | Compress pictures allows appropriate compression suitable to create JPG files, but an obsolete program suitable to create JPG files; easy to use program **--Examples Software suitable to edit image files, produced by Microsoft: examples

10. JASC PaintShop Corel PhotoPaint Adobe PhotoShop ! Adobe PhotoShop Elements suitable to create JPG files; shareware suitable to create JPG files; commercial software suitable to create JPG files; powerful, expensive, and complicated program suitable to create JPG files; powerful program, much cheaper than PhotoShop ***-Examples Software suitable to edit image files, independent of Microsoft: examples

11. ***- !? Exercise !? Task !? Problem !? Which program will YOU use to improve your digitized photos?

12. ***- Creating pictures on computer for printing (1) • Scanning orPhotoCDor digital photography • Save (lossless) as a (big) master file (for instance in TIFF format) 

13. ***- Creating pictures on computer for printing (2) • Use a graphics program and if required: 1. rotate, 2. crop, 3. adjust simply the brightness and contrast (or adjust dark and light levels using the more complicated manual histogram method) • (Do NOT decrease size, to keep high quality) • Sharpen (if appropriate) (always as last step) • Save (lossless) (for instance in TIFF format) • Print

14. ***- Creating pictures on computer for a presentation or web (1) • Scanning or PhotoCD or digital photography • Save (lossless) as a big master file (for instance in TIFF format) 

15. ***- Creating pictures on computer for a presentation or web (2) • Use a graphics program and if required: 1. rotate,2. crop, 3. adjust simply the brightness and contrast (or adjust dark and light levels using the histogram method)4. resize/resample5. Sharpen (if appropriate) (always as last step)6. Save (lossless) (for instance in TIFF format) 7. Save as JPEG file at an appropriate level of quality or as a GIF file

16. ***- Creating pictures on computer for a presentation or web (3) • Finally: Insert in a slide or in a web page

17. ***- !? Question !? Task !? Problem !? • What is an important difference between creating pictures on computer • for printing • for a presentation or for a web

18. ***- !? Exercise !? Task !? Problem !? Use a raw picture (a photograph) to include it in a presentation or a web. Edit this and resize this, so that the resulting picture covers a complete typical projection screen. (See the example that follows.)

20. ***- Developing web documents: guidelines related to graphics • File formats used mostly on a web are GIF, JPG, PNG, because the common browsers include viewers for the file formats. • For each image/picture, use an appropriate graphics file format. • Graphics/images/pictures take long to download. To speed things up, compress JPG (or PNG) files to make them as small as possible, while preserving an appropriate quality.

21. ***- !? Question !? Task !? Problem !? For which applications is the GIF file format appropriate? For which applications is the JPEG/JPG file format appropriate?

22. Maximum number of colours in one image  of bits per pixel Compression of file size without loss of quality Maximum no. of pixels per image Multiple images in 1 file Animation is possible GIF 256 8 LZW + (but colours can be lost) 65535 x 65535 + + **-- Graphics formats for bitmap pictures: a comparison BMP RLE 256*256*256 = 16 777 216 24 RLE + 65535 x 65535 - - JPG 256*256*256 = 16 777 216 24 JPEG - 65535 x 65535 - - PNG more 24 + - more - - TIF 256*256*256 = 16 777 216 24 + + more + +

23. ***- !? Exercise !? Task !? Problem !? Which programs do you know and which program do you use to save images as JPEG/JPG files?

24. **-- !? Exercise !? Task !? Problem !? Select or create an appropriate photograph bitmap file. Save this file as a JPEG file under a different name. Repeat this at about 3 very different levels of compression and thus of image quality(always starting from the appropriate original photo file, because JPEG is a final storage format). Load all the resulting photo files in a program to edit such files; zoom in to 400% for instance;use tiling to display the photo files simultaneously on the screen; compare their quality. Determine also the file size of each photo file. Decide finally which compression level is appropriate or your aims.

25. **-- Maximum number of colours displayed by computers: introduction • The number of colours (including shades of a colour also) that can be displayed simultaneously on a computer screen/display is limited. • This limitation is primarily caused by the limitations of the video/graphics card used by your computer.

26. **-- Maximum number of colours displayed by computers: examples • Examples of limitations / maximum numberof colours on a computer display: • 8-bit = 2**8 = 256 typical for older systems • 16-bit = 2**16 = 65536 = “thousands of colors” = “High Color” • 24-bit = 2**24 = (2**8)*(2**8)*(2**8) = 256*256*256 =“True Color” • 32-bit = 2**32

27. **-- !? Exercise !? Task !? Problem !? What is the maximum number of colours that your computer can display simultaneously with the appropriate settings of the software? (If you do not know, then check it with the software for the display settings.)

28. **-- Maximum number of colours displayed by computers: consequences • The computer system that is asked to display a graphics file with more colours than can be displayed simultaneously by the system will • dither the image to display it with less colours • shift colours to nearby colours that the system can display • The result will depend on • the type of computer, and on • the particular application software that is used to display the file.

29. ***- How to present scientific information, supported by slides? Introduction and general guidelines for developers of presentations

30. ***- Media for presentation: overview • Overhead projection of transparencies • Slide shows (using classical, hard copy 35 mm slides) • Direct computer-controlled projection • ...

31. ***- Media for presentation: transparencies There are various types of plastic transparencies for overhead projection: • For writing with suitable pencils • For Xerox machines (can resist the heat in the machine)For laser printers (can resist the heat in the machine) • For ink-jet printers (ink sticks well on the rough side; see that the printer prints on the suitable, rough side!)Price goes up!

32. ***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 1) • What is the aim of the presentation? • What are my main points? • What are my sub-points? • What is my conclusion? • What is the summary? • Which questions from the audience can I expect and which answers should I give?

33. ***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 2) • Who will be my audience? • What size will be my audience? • Which kind of visual aids will be useful? • What handouts will be useful? • Which is the appropriate language and terminology for my audience? • Where will I do the presentation?

34. ***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 3) • Will the following be available in the room: • a whiteboard, • a flipchart, • an overhead projector, • a slide projector, • equipment for projection directly from a computer… ? • Can the room be darkened well enough for projection? • Be totally familiar with your introduction.

35. ***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 4) • Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse… • Test also on the pc that you will actually use in the real presentation (when this is not your own pc) to avoid • wrong fonts • slides that do not show up • lost images • images that are not animated…

36. ***- Software packages that are useful for presentations • To create transparencies: • (Word processing programs) • Presentation software packages! • To create hard-copy slides: • Presentation software packages! • For direct computer-controlled projections: • (Word processing programs) • (Hypertext editors + WWW browsers) • Presentation software packages!

37. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: readability (1) • Keep texts short. • Use less than 10 lines of texts on a slide, because people hate reading long texts and listening at the same time. • Use maximum 3 levels of headings per slide. • Like this heading at level 2 for instance • And like this and the next heading at level 3 • This is just another example

38. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: readability (2) • Use bullets to start each item in a text list; use a contrasting colour for the bullets if possible. • Create your slides so that they are well readable even when printed or copied • smaller and • in black and white only.

39. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: typography (1) • Use fonts that are present on most computers, so that the slides can also be shown with the right, appropriate, correct fonts, using the fonts on almost any computer. • Use large characters, so that the people in the back of the room can also read your message.

40. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: typography (2) • Bold text is better readable in slides than normal text.(This is certainly so in the case of light characters or lines on a dark background.) • Avoid a lot of italic text, because it is less well readable. • Use maximum 2 fonts per slide.

41. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: contrast Foreground and background colours need high contrast for visibility.

42. ***-Examples Some tips for developers of presentation slides: contrast demo • Dark characters on a very light background • Dark, bold characters on a very light background • Light characters on a very dark background • Light, bold characters on a very dark background • Light characters on a light background • Light, bold characters on a light background

43. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: tables • Use tables whenever possible, for instance when comparing systems. • Use small tables; avoid detailed, big tables with small characters and numbers, because nobody will be able to read them.

44. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: enhancements Instead of text, try to use whenever possible: • flow charts, • schemes, • charts (pie charts or others), • pictograms such as arrows to indicate a sequence, and J L

45. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: titles • Make the title stand out clearly from the body text lines. • Do not use the same title on several slides, because this may confuse your audience.Instead, use • variations • or subtitles • or insert terms like “continued” or “cont.” or “part 1” / “part 2” / …

46. ***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: the final slide • Use the last slide well, for example: • To repeat an important message or address • To thank the audience • To ask for something (for instance: a participation or a contribution or an approval or a comment) • In other words: do NOT show an empty or meaningless or confusing or distracting screen during the final part of your presentation.

47. Thank you for your attention! Do you have any questions?

48. ***- Presentation software Creating charts

49. ***- Tips for developers of charts: programs to create charts • A chart can be inserted for instance • in a document created with Microsoft Wordusing Insert | Object | … • in a slide created with Microsoft PowerPoint using Insert | Chart

50. ***- Tips for developers of charts: type of chart • Use a well suited type of chart to show your numerical data. For instance: Use pie charts to show proportion, such as market share.