POWER POINT

Design Tips for PowerPoint

• 1st –– Backgrounds – Templates

• Best fonts

• Bullets –– 6 is max

• Content is king!

• Words on a slide –– 25 or less

• Images –– key

Content and layout provided by Professor Keri Stephens

A picture is worth a

thousand words

PowerPoint more visual

than written

PowerPoint rules

Templates &

color schemes

• Match the mood

• Look professional

Pick a good template

• Don’t get the blues

• medium blues

• navy blue OK

Bluesy templates – yikes!

Blue diagonal

Soaring Lock & key

Azure

Bright

on

dark

Dark

on

bright

GOOD GOOD GOOD

EVIL EVIL EVIL

Use high contrast colors

Why high-contrast?

• Your PC screen is hi-res

everything looks great

don’t trust it!

• big displays “wash out” colors

• always TEST on final equipment

• alter template’s defaults as needed

See for yourself

• Which line is easier to read?

• Which line is easier to read?

Which line is easier to read?

Which line is easier to read?

Be font savvy

Serif bad

• Times New Roman

• New York

• Courier

Sans serif good

• Arial

• Arial Black

• Futura

• Tahoma

Which is easier to read?

Once upon a time there lived a yellow bear

named Pooh. He had a cat named Tigger and

a law degree from Texas Tech. He was

allergic to chocolate.

Once upon a time there lived a yellow bear

named Pooh. He had a cat named Tigger and

a law degree from Texas Tech. He was

allergic to chocolate.

Less visual

complexity

Stronger lines

Don’t waste bullets

• use

• no

• more

• than

• 6

• in a list

Observe the limit

words per slide

max

More

looks

busy

Avoid death by cheese…

• Weird sound effects

• Most transitions

• Flying text

• Strange animations

• Bad clip-art

Clip-art Hall of Shame

Content is King!

• Single phrases

• Short lists

• Questions for students

• Quotes

• Photographs

• Video