Guidelines for Preparing PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint & Presentation Tips for Speakers

Important Information and Requirements for PowerPoint Presentations must be:     Presentations will be:   Please note:  PowerPoint ‐ files sometimes do not transfer correctly. If you’ve used any new or unusual fonts, please ensure it is correctly transferred from your computer (C:\Windows\Fonts) to your memory device.  Video and Audio Files – please ensure you have provided any video or audio files in addition to your PowerPoint Presentation. Even though they may appear to be embedded in the PowerPoint file they frequently drop off when transferred to another device. When you submit your presentation please note the slide number that any video or audio files link to so that we can ensure these have been tested and are ready to go for you on the day of your presentation  Mac users ‐ When creating a PowerPoint presentation on a Mac, images need to be imported by clicking on the ‘insert’ button on the menu. If you drag and drop images into PowerPoint on a Mac, it will not convert to a PC platform of PowerPoint. Checked for compatibility Loaded onto computers prior to your arrival Created as a standard 4:3 presentation Saved as PowerPoint 2003 or 2007 Submitted to the Conference secretariat by Friday 22 August 2014 Brought to the conference as back up on a laptop or memory device (USB Drive or CD)

Updated 30 September 2013

Guidelines for Preparing PowerPoint Presentations

Some Useful Tips for creating a Presentation The graphics projected on the screen to support what you say, should help clarify ideas, emphasise key points, show relationships, and provide the visual information your audience needs to understand your message. Here are a few suggestions: 1. Keep the wording clear and simple: • Abbreviate your message, don’t use complete sentences and outline the thought to provide a memory trigger. • Try to follow and remember the Rule of 7. Create up to seven words across, seven lines down. Don’t hesitate to continue the same title on the next slide with more information. The more you break this rule, the less the audience will see. • Use only two (2) font styles per slide. A typical design might be to use Times‐Roman for your titles and Arial for the text below. • Upper and lower case lettering is more readable than all capital letters. Current styles indicate that using all capital letters means you are shouting. • In bullet point lines, capitalise the first word and no other words unless they normally appear capped. 2. Keep the design consistent and appealing to the eye: • Use colours sparingly; two to three at most and be consistent from slide to slide, for example, use one colour for all of your titles, another for the text body, etc. • Light backgrounds work, however, white can be too bright depending on competing light levels in the room. Light browns and blues work well also. Lettering should be black, dark blue, dark purple or dark green. • Dark backgrounds work, too, the most effective background colours are blue, turquoise, purple, magenta, teal, etc. Lettering in this case should be white, yellow, cyan, pink and lighter versions of most other colours.

Updated 30 September 2013

Guidelines for Preparing PowerPoint Presentations

• Don’t use red in any fonts or backgrounds. It is an emotionally overwhelming colour that is difficult to see and read. • • Graduated backgrounds are more interesting than plain ones. Textured backgrounds can add style to your presentation; however, simple, light textured backgrounds also work well. Complicated textures make the content hard to read. • Graphics, illustrations, cartoons, artwork and photographs will bring another dimension to your presentation. Determine your comfort level and match the graphics with your message and your speaking style. • A note about photographs: when importing pictures, be sure they are no larger than 2 megabytes and are in a .jpg format. Larger files can slow down your show. • Experiment with animating the transition between slides as well as animating the content within the slide. 3. Keep graphs, charts and diagrams simple, if possible. You have been staring at your data for months. The audience only gets a minute. Simple graphs, etc. are absorbed more quickly than complex, cluttered ones. • Use bar graphs and pie charts instead of tables of data. The audience can then immediately pick up relationships. • • 4. General hints • If using a laser pointer, don’t move it too fast, for example, if circling a number on the slide, do it slowly. • • • Don’t point the laser at the audience. Look at the audience, not at the slides, whenever possible. Most slide programs are made to be user friendly so that everyone can make their own slides, however, if possible, don’t hesitate to ask a professional slide production person to go over your show and offer hints. • Run ‘spell check’ on your show when finished. Place labels outside pie charts. Simplify scales on the X‐ and Y‐axis.

Updated 30 September 2013

Guidelines for Preparing PowerPoint Presentations

Your goal is to design a presentation that delivers your message clearly, efficiently and in an interesting manner. How you design your show will reflect your speaking style and your personality. You efforts will pay off in the long run and ensure that each presentation will communicate the importance of the content and the passion you have talking about it to your audience.

Updated 30 September 2013