PowerPoint Design Guide

1. PowerPoint Design Guide District 52 Toastmasters Leadership Institute 23 January 2010 Toastmasters Where Great Communication Develops With Practice Scott Crandall Miller District Governor

2. Table of Contents • Audio-Visual Equipment • Equipment Set-up • Creating your Presentation • Viewing the image on a screen • Layout, Fonts, Images sizes • Presenter Tips • Controlling your Environment • Most Common Complaints

3. Audio-Visual Equipment • Some general A-V equipment that is needed: • A computer: Laptop or a Desktop • Data projector • LCD – Liquid Crystal Display • DLP – Digital Light Processing • VCR • Overheard projector • Slide projector • Internet access • Easel, paper and fresh pens or makers

4. Audio-Visual Equipment (cont.) • Standards for data projectors use • SVGA (800x600) resolution • XGA (1024x768) resolution • Best comprise use if possible. • SXGA (1280x1024) resolution

5. Equipment Set-up • Making your presentation run smoothly • Load all speakers’ presentations onto hard drive of one computer • Have a back-up disk or CD-ROM of all presentations

6. Creating your presentation • Avoid an illegible projection • View your presentation on your computer screen from a distance of 10 feet. • If you are having trouble reading your monitor, the effect will be the same when projected.

7. Creating your presentation (cont.) • Layout • Simple and bold is best • Do not use busy backgrounds • Make sure there is good contrast between the text and background • Do not overfill your slide with information overload

8. Creating your presentation (cont.) • Layout (cont.) • Keep intense colors to a minimum • Text placement should be consistent • Don’t over-animate with transitions • Select colors that are easy on the eye for several minutes of viewing

9. Creating your presentation (cont.) • Fonts • Select simple bold styles • Delicate serif fonts are difficult to read • ALL CAPS is very difficult to read • Try to keep subtext to 7 lines

10. Creating your presentation (cont.) • Font Size line size example • Headline text 32-36 <= 36 • Sub-text 28-32 <= 32 • Second level text 24-28 <= 24

11. Creating your presentation (cont.) • Images • DO use images to supplement your message • DO use images to emphasize your point • DO NOT use an image as space filler • DO NOT use redundant images

12. Creating your presentation (cont.) • Image file size • For your presentation to run smoothly, image files must be a reasonable size • Image file sizes are 18.4 Kb and 21.2 Kb

13. Creating your presentation (cont.) • Image file size (cont.) • Save Image as • JPEG or GIF when possible • 72-300 dpi • Hint: • Save image to desired size prior to inserting in presentation. • Decreasing image size in PowerPoint does not shrink actual file size.

14. Presenter tips • Arrive early as possible • Check out the equipment, lights, and set-up • Get oriented to rooms, lighting, and A-V • Brush up on giving your presentation • Give yourself time to feel prepared and confident

15. Controlling Your Environment • Work the room • Be prepared to deal with problems • Getting the room prepared • Meet Audio-Visual staff if applicable • Recruit help, from audience if needed • Distribute handouts

16. Most Common Complaints • The Speaker is unfamiliar with the equipment • Presentations not calibrated for laptop or projector • Graphics illegible • Unrehearsed presentation

17. Where to Go for More Help Web items dealing with PowerPoint used at the 23 January 2010, TLI• Toastmasters International• District 52 Toastmasters website• Using Charts for Speech.pdf• Focus on the Journey to Success• Thame Toastmasters• ShowStoppers PR Tips Newsletter… plus others • http://www.district 52.org/documents/powerpoint • All PowerPoint presentations are at the District 52 Website.