POWERPOINT SLIDE PRESENTATIONS
A basic guide to set-up and presentation
The Photographic Unit, Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. ph: (04) 385 5999 x 5619 medimage@wnmeds.ac.nz 1. PAGE SETUP Before starting any presentation it is important to specify the page set-up/format. If you intend to get a set of 35mm slides made from your presentation you should go to file - page setup and then select 35mm from the pop-up menu.
If the presentation is only going to be used on a data projector - select On-screen show 35mm Slides must be in Landscape format 2. SLIDE MASTER Any background, text formatting, reoccuring graphics etc should be set up in the Slide Master, not on each individual slide as this only increases the file size of your presentation. Go to view - master - slide master. In the Slide Master any formatting will occur on every slide. This makes editing easy and keeps file size down.
To return to your slides go to view - slide.
3. TEXT Choose your typeface wisely! Serif typefaces like Times New Roman have 'feet', while sans serif like Arial have none. The default typeface for most applications is Times New Roman. For reasons of clarity we thoroughly recommend a sans serif typeface like Arial or Helvetica. Remember to set this up in the Slide Master.
Keep bullet points to six or less if you can. This is not a hard and fast rule but keep in mind that an audience tends to switch off when presented with a mass of information on one slide. 4. COLOURS PowerPoint has a huge number of colours and backgrounds available which tends to encourage people to use the most complex and often garish options available. The tried and true high-key text (white, pale yellow etc) on a sympathetic background like blue is simple but effective. By all means be creative but try not to make your slides over complicated, as they become difficult to interpret. It is worth noting that some of the more complicated templates do not convert to slides at all well, and often with unpredictable results. 5. IMPORTING IMAGES AND GRAPHICS To import an image or clip art graphic go to insert - picture and choose from Clip art or from file (if you are inserting a picture or scan). Simply locate the relevant file and click OK.
Be wary of images acquired from the internet as these tend to be only 72ppi (screen resolution) which is inadequate if you intend to turn your presentation into slides. The image can be scaled and moved in PowerPoint. We recommend placing a border around images/scans by selecting the image and going to format - colours and lines and choosing a line colour and width in tune with your colour scheme.
It is vital to insert images of a correct file type, especially if the presentation is to be written to a slide. For data-shows a JPEG image is fine. For slides, a PICT file is required if using a Macintosh and a JPEG file if using a PC. All images must be RGB (Red Green Blue) not Greyscale. File size should not exceed 1 or 2 megabytes with less than 1 meg being preferable. We cannot guarantee that complex graphics created in packages other than PowerPoint will come out as they appear (eg rotated text in imported graphs is not recognised by PowerPoint as text). 6. PHOTOSHOP, SCANNING and DIGITAL CAMERAS
When scanning an image for PowerPoint it is important not to over scan. Large file sizes will simply slow down or even crash the computer running the data show or film recorder. A resolution of 200ppi is ample and a total file size of not more than 1 meg is preferable. Images can be sized in image editing software like Adobe Photoshop by going to image - image size and then selecting resolution and pixel dimensions that will result in an appropriate file size. Remember, web images at 72ppi are useless - adding resolution later doesn't work, it's better to source an image from elsewhere.
Image mode should be RGB (Red Green Blue) for all images if the presentation is to be made into slides. Greyscale images do not render correctly through the film recorder but are fine for data shows. If you have a greyscale image go to (in Photoshop) image - mode and select RGB colour.
Using a digital camera is much the same as scanning. Keep file sizes down while remembering to achieve a reasonable resolution. If you have a Macintosh, convert JPEG files to PICT's in Photoshop. For any complex file conversions, levels, hue, saturation or colour balances etc - by all means bring the raw file or original work to us and we can do it all for you.