Appendix B:
Creating a PowerPoint Poster
Copied from MTSU website: http://etis.web.mtsu.edu/powerpoint_poster.htm Note: You can create and customize your own PowerPoint poster or use a readymade template. Regardless, you need to set the poster width and height equal to 40 inches and 32 inches, respectively [for landscape] or 32 inches and 40 inches, respectively [for portrait]. You may treat this as the new CBAS standard for poster size If you do not know how to set these dimensions, then please follow the instructions under Page Setup. Page Setup When you open PowerPoint program, click File and select Page Setup, you will see a dialog box as shown in Fig. 1. Enter 48 and 36 in the Width and Height boxes and select Landscape, and click OK.
Fig. 1 Free PowerPoint Templates If you want to use readymade poster templates, go to the following website and download the templates you want. http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Free+PowerPoint+templates&fr=FP-tab-webt500&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101527321033.aspx?av=ZPP (Browse “Template Categories”) Open the template in PowerPoint and fill in blocks and boxes with text and pictures by following the directions below.Creating a PowerPoint Poster Note: You can create a plain and simple poster with your text, pictures and graphs. The following tips are intended for those who want to customize their posters with borders, boxes, color fill, fill effects, etc.
1. After starting PowerPoint click File at the top of the screen and select New for a new slide. Click the blank slide layout pointed by an arrow in Fig. 2. Make sure you set the width and height of your slide as shown in Fig. 1 (above). 2. You can insert/paste pictures directly in the slide/poster whereas text can be entered or pasted only after creating a text box. Details are given in the later steps.
Fig. 2
3. You can customize your poster by creating geometric shapes such as rectangle, circles and ellipses as shown in Fig. 2. You can place pictures and text inside these geometrical shapes. The Draw toolbar seen at the bottom of the screen has many tools that you can use to create/customize a poster. 4. If you do not see the Draw toolbar on your PowerPoint screen, then click View at the top of the screen, select Toolbars and check the Drawing box.To change the fill color transparency of your geometrical shapes, double-click anywhere inside the shape and a dialog box shown in Fig. 3 will appear. Move the slide bar (pointed by an arrow) to the right or left to increase or decrease transparency.
Fig. 3 5. You can change the fill color by clicking inside Color box as shown in Fig. 4. You can select any of the colors displayed on the pallet or click More Colors for other options.
6. Fig. 4When you click More Colors a dialog box appears and if you click Standard, you will see a dialog box shown in Fig. 5. You can select any color/hue by clicking the displayed tiny hexagons.
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
8. You can customize further by clicking Gradient, Texture and Pattern in combination with Colors, Transparency and Shading Styles shown in Fig. 6. Additionally, you
can use a picture as background or to fill the geometrical shape(s) of your poster by clicking Picture, Select Picture and selecting the appropriate from your collection (Fig. 7).
Fig. 7 9. Clicking the Textbox tool on the Draw toolbar you can create a textbox in your poster as shown in Fig 8. You can pick with your mouse cursor the first and opposite corners of the textbox. You can also click an edge of the textbox and position it by holding down the left button of the mouse while moving the mouse. You can enter or paste text in the textbox and click anywhere outside to finish the process. You can change the font color, size and style as in MS Word.
Fig. 8
10. You can insert pictures by clicking the Picture tool (Fig. 9) of the Draw toolbar and move them like the textboxes. You change the picture size by clicking the picture, selecting it by a corner and moving the mouse while holding down the left button.
Fig. 9