DESIGN BASICS
From http://www.colorslide.com/instruct/newsletr.html
1.) USE A TEMPLATE
Most of the slide presentation programs like PowerPoint have built-in templates that incorporate a complete "look" for your slide show. It includes a nice background, text style and color, font and different pages for titles, bullet slides and charts/graphs. Try to use one of those so you don't waste your time fooling around with the design instead of writing your presentation. Pick one that you like, but there are a couple "rules of thumb" to follow. Slides are shown in dark rooms, so always choose a dark background with light colored letters. Never use a light colored or white background since your text will appear washed out and it will cause eyestrain for your audience. If you like the light colored background with dark letters, then have overhead transparencies made and leave the room lights on. That's the "rule of thumb" for overheads - use a light colored background with dark letters.
POWERPOINT TIP: If you need handouts to copy and pass out to your audience, create the slide show for your color slides with a nice colored background. Then, print your handouts using the "Pure Black & White" printing option. That will drop the background color, make your text black and make your handouts suitable for a copier.
2.) USE A FONT THAT'S MORE READABLE
Once you've picked a template, change the default font to something without serifs to make it more readable. Serifs are the neat little "feet" that stick out on either side of the letters. A font with serifs is Times New Roman or Book Antiqua. A font without serifs or "sans serifs" as they call it, is one like Arial or Helvetica. It is much more readable since the letters are bolder and they have a more uniform thickness. The serif fonts like Times New Roman have skinny letters that don't show up well on slides. Those fonts are made for paper printing, not for slides. Do your audience a favor and use a font that's easier to read. Other TrueType fonts that look good on the screen are Verdana and Tahoma.
3.) SETUP YOUR PAGE SIZE FOR 35MM SLIDES
If you are using PowerPoint, the program is set to default to a page size suitable for an on-screen show. That's a rectangle shaped to fit your computer screen and printer that measures about 10.5" x 7.5" with a 0.5" margin all around. Color slides correspond to a wider rectangle of 11.25" x 7.5" with no margins (11" x 7.33" in some programs). Make sure that you set your page size to 35mm slides by going to the File Menu and down to Page Setup. Other programs like Corel Presentations and Freelance Graphics 97 have their own method of setting the page size. It's easy to change it. But if you're using Harvard Graphics, you have to change the margins from 0.5" all the way around to 0.5 inches on the right and left and 1.0 inches on the top and bottom.
If you don't set your page size properly, then your slides will print with a black border on the left and right side of your slides. We wouldn't want to produce crummy slides like that, so we have to change the page size for you. That conversion can change your design and it may bump some of the design elements on your page out of its place. Then, we have to check all of your slides for problems and this runs into extra design time that we need to charge you for. All of this can be avoided if you simply use the proper page size when you begin designing your slide show.
4.) SAVE YOUR WORK
After picking a template, choosing a font and setting up your presentation for slides, immediately save it before beginning your typing. That way your efforts will not be lost if your computer crashes. Thereafter, save your work every 10 minutes or so. In addition, if you are using PowerPoint, save your customizations as a PowerPoint Template. Your choices of font and background can be used again later without repeating all of the steps. Please see our Feb. 1998 newsletter for tips on how to create a PowerPoint Template.
5.) APPLY THE K.I.S.S. RULE
The "Keep It Simple Stupid" rule definitely applies to slide shows! Slides are most effective when you keep them brief and to the point. Keep your bulleted lists short - 5-6 lines maximum, and limit your sentences to just a few words. Only use keywords and phrases on your slides. As you speak you can fill in the blanks in the information you want to convey to your audience. Keeping your slides short and simple will let you make the words BIG and BOLD. That will increase the readability of your slides.
6.) AVOID LONG SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
There's nothing worse than attending a presentation with a speaker whose slides consist of huge paragraphs of little words on a screen. The words can't be followed or read since they are too small, there's no bullets to break-up the points and the boring speaker is simply reading the slide to the audience. If he/she is a slow, stumbling reader, then you are in for a long afternoon! Long sentences and paragraphs are suitable for handouts, but not for slides. Your slide should change each minute or so to keep your presentation moving. Never insult your audience by reading the slide to them. Let your slide make a point and you expound on the point by using a verbal sentence to expand the point. As stated above, use big keywords and phrases on your slides.
7.) LIMIT YOUR IDEAS
Limit your ideas to just one or two key points per slide. That way, you can expand the idea verbally and your audience will receive the point you want to make twice. Once by reading it themselves on the screen and secondly by listening to you reinforce it verbally. This will also allow you to change slides often. People have been trained by TV to expect a constantly changing barrage of images. While you can't change your slides that quickly during a presentation, you can keep them changing every minute or so. If your slide is on the screen longer than a few minutes your audience will begin to wander their visual attention onto something else. One of your goals should be to keep their attention. Do that by changing slides often.
8.) AVOID TYPING WITH ALL CAPS
Although I am using ALL CAPS to type these little titles, you want to avoid typing in all capital letters on your slides. It slows down a person's eyes as they read it and it appears like you are SHOUTING your information at them. It also makes your text appear like the typist is too lazy to properly capitalize the words. First impressions are everything and this is not the kind of first impression you want to make on your audience.
9.) ADD SOME PICTURES AND CLIP ART
After typing up your slides into key words and phrases, re-check your slides for ones that are too long and split them up into two or three shorter slides. Then, put a little extra effort into your design and add some relevant pictures and clipart to your slides. Clip art collections are inexpensive artwork that can add a lot of visual interest to your slides. While you don't need a clip art image on each slide, having something on every few slides is a good idea. It breaks up the monotony of all words and it can create a favorable impression of you in the minds of your audience. If you can scan a few pictures and add them then that's even better. People are used to seeing thousands of images on TV, so they expect a few on your slides. The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words," is true!
10.) ADD A SUMMARY OR CONCLUSION PAGE
Summarize your main points on a conclusion slide to give yourself one last opportunity to reinforce your information to your audience. That way your audience will see a summary of what they have just learned and it will be the information that sticks in their mind as they leave the room.
11.) ADD A TITLE SLIDE AT THE BEGINNING AND THE END
Add a title slide at the beginning and the end of your slide show. It should include the title of your presentation and your name. In the beginning it will introduce you and your topic and at the end it will give closure to your presentation.
12.) REVIEW YOUR SLIDE SHOW
When you're all done designing your slides, step back and read it with a critical eye. Imagine yourself being in the audience. Are your slides short and to the point? Do your clip art images or scanned photos make sense with the words? Did you add a little humor where possible? Is your show too boring - can you make it more interesting? Does your show move along nicely, or does it linger too long in spots? Split the slides that linger into two or three slides.
With a little extra effort, you can create a great slide show that may not "wow" the audience, but it will give them a great first impression of you. It will also create a memorable experience for them and they will remember you as a person who is clear, concise and to the point. They may even learn the points you wanted them to leave the meeting with! tekst