Microsoft PowerPoint

Successful Slide Presentations

Overview

1. Why we use slides

?3. Readable Slides

2. Potential Pitfalls 4. Memorable Slides

Why we use slides

• More convenient than transparencies or physical slides

• Reinforce key points

• Visualize important information

• Present visual arguments

?

Potential Pitfalls

• Projecting slides that no one will read

• Projecting slides that no one will remember

• Using good slides ineffectively

Readable Slides

• Typography

• Color

• Layout

• Style

Readable Slides

Typography

– Use a sans serif font– Use a sans serif font

– Boldface your font

– Use type size of 18 points or greater for most text

– AVOID USING ALL CAPS

Readable SlidesTypography – Font Size

Remember that your audience is far from the screen.

Tahoma

32 pt28 pt24 pt20 pt18 pt16 pt14 pt12 pt10 pt

TNR

32 pt28 pt24 pt20 pt18 pt16 pt14 pt12 pt10 pt

Courier

32 pt28 pt24 pt20 pt18 pt16 pt14 pt12 pt10 pt

Comic

32 pt28 pt24 pt20 pt18 pt16 pt14 pt12 pt10 pt

Lucida Sans

32 pt28 pt24 pt20 pt18 pt16 pt14 pt12 pt10 pt

Readable SlidesColor

Use dark text on a light background

Or use light text on a dark background

Never use red text on a green background

Never use green text on a red background

Colors have emotional effects. This combination is known to cause agitation in audiences

Blue and green backgrounds are more soothing

Red backgrounds can have a similar effect.

The layout of readable slides

Layout– Use sentence headlines on most slides– Keep text blocks to less than two lines– Lists

• Keep lists to under four items• Use parallel structure for list items• Avoid sub-lists if possible

– Be generous with white space

The style of readable slides

• Include a relevant image on each slide

• Limit the number of items on each slide

• Limit the number of slides

Memorable Slides

• Presentation Structure

• Slide Content

Memorable PresentationsUse organization slides for structure

• Introductory or mapping slides define the structure for the audience

• Transition slides signal shifts between each major section

• Summary slides reiterate key points

An example of a mapping slide

Overview1. Why we use slides

?3. Readable Slides

2. Potential Pitfalls 4. Memorable Slides

Memorable Slides

• Short statements are easier to remember than long statements

• Use grammatical parallelism to aid in the readers comprehension

• Images and graphs are more memorable than words or raw data

Memorable Slides

• Use short statements

• Edit for concision

• Use parallel constructions when possible

• Use graphics to present important points

Memorable SlidesGraphs are more memorable than raw data

Figure 11. Blood glucose levels for normal individual and diabetic [Carlson, 1982].

Hour

12:00 6:00 am 12:00 6:00 pm 12:00

BloodGlucoseLevel(mg/dl)

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

BreakfastLunch Dinner

Normal

Diabetic

Time(hour)

midnight2:004:006:008:00

10:00noon2:004:006:008:00

10:00

Normal(mg/dl*)

100.393.688.2

100.5138.6102.4

93.8132.3103.8

93.6127.8109.2

Diabetic(mg/dl)

175.8165.7159.4

72.1271.0224.6161.8242.7219.4152.6227.1221.3

Table 2. Blood glucose levels [Carlson, 1982].

* decaliters/milligram

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41

Series1

Series2

Series3

Series4

Series5

Memorable SlidesOverly complicated graphs might not be memorable

Memorable SlidesImages are sometimes more memorable than words

A tsunami is a big wave.

Using slides effectively

• Your presentation should be more than you slides. Don’t just read them.

• Use blank screens or placeholder screens to bring attention back to you.

Summary

• Use design elements to make your slides readable

• Use organization slides to give your presentation structure

• Use visuals for presenting important data and arguments

• Remember that the slides are only part of the presentation