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In
need of some help with your presentation skills ?
This section contains great tips on presentation design and
delivery, information about equipment and terminology, free
powerpoint templates, and our useful file download section where
you'll find many helpful free resources! |
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Digital
Presentations - A Manifesto |
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| Time:
10 minutes |
Associated resources: |
The 5 minute Typeface (PowerPoint presentation) Download
The 5 minute Design & Layout (PowerPoint presentation)
Download
The 5 minute Template (PowerPoint presentation) Download
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Typefaces:-
2 styles - Sans-Serif and well... don't use anything else!
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Fonts with serifs, the 'flicks' and embellishments at
the ends of each character, work great as blocks of text in
printed media eg. books or magazines, however they don't work
well in presentations. |
Try our PowerPoint
example files
out on your computer and you'll soon realise why, in the world
of digital presentations, fonts with serifs suck! |
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A
font has to be
readable at a distance
easy on the eye and
appropriate to the
format
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| Sheep
all look the same |
Don't be
tempted
into accepting the standard fonts in a standard PowerPoint template.
Choose the fonts wisely for your presentation, in doing
so you'll separate yourself from the amateurs. |
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| More
than 2 is, or is it are, toooo many |
Choose only
ONE, sans-serif font
for the main text eg. Arial. Utilise different sizes
of this font to show headings and subheading.
If you choose more than TWO fonts, you could cause confusion
and your message may be lost. |
| Emphasize
with care |
Use italic
and bold sparingly for emphasis, and NEVER use
underline.
Underlined text is much harder to read. |
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Science
Lesson A
DON'T
TYPE IN UPPERCASE. TESTS HAVE SHOWN THAT IT TAKES 57%
LONGER TO READ than text written in sentence case like this.
Science Lesson B
Be consistent in your use of initial capitals, inconsistent
TESTS Have Shown high Levels of Schizophrenia.
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| N.B.
Fonts Technical Lesson - the only one you NEED TO REMEMBER! |
Ensure your
presentation DOES NOT
include a non-standard system font that can't be accurately
reproduced on either your hosts computer if you are just taking
a file to your presentation, or if you are having your files
made into 35mm slides.
Ask yourself, is the font original to the operating system
or Microsoft Office? If you're not sure, click
here for a list of standard system fonts.
You may click here
for detailed instructions on how to check for this in PowerPoint!
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Rule
1A
For screen based presentations/output to 35mm slides
- use dark backgrounds/light text.
Rule A1
For printed presentations for paper/overhead acetates
- use light backgrounds/dark text.
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| Blue
is the Colour |
You will have noticed the predominance of dark blue
backgrounds on the lecture circuit.
Well that's because they're visually the most effective.
To human's, blue appears to be further away than other colours,
and is therefore a sound choice for a 'background'.
Using colour appropriately in presentations can increase
audience awareness and comprehension by more than 70% - this
means your business proposal will receive a more favourable
response.
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| Red
on Green should never be seen |
Most colours
can be used for text, however avoid using red as a text colour
except maybe to highlight a word.
Red text is difficult to read for most people, but for
some individuals with colour blindness (predominantly a man
thing), it is almost impossible especially if it is presented
on a green background. |
| By
Popular Demand |
So, on
dark backgrounds,
white and yellow are good choices for text and lines. They
stand out best against a blue background. Cyan, followed by
bright green, are the next best colours for text. |
| SlideTime™
PowerPoint Templates - Quality, Quality, Quality! |
If you're
finding this confusing,
and why shouldn't it be, take a look at our professionally
designed collection of PowerPoint Templates - SlideTime™.
We've created them with you in mind, this simple
click will save you hours of work, and enhance your
presentation prowess at the same time as saving you money.
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Fact:
Microsoft PowerPoint allows the creation of competent
looking slides in a short period of time.
Fiction: Using self-built templates rather than
those supplied by Microsoft PowerPoint is complex.
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Templates
are constructed
around these simple building blocks:
a background,
a colour scheme,
a font scheme and,
a set of predefined page layouts incorporating content elements. |
| The
4-6-7 Rule - You need to know when you're offside! |
This
refers to the MAXIMUM
'allowance' per slide of Main Points (4), Words Per
Line (6) and Lines Per Slide (7).
If you exceed this in any one slide you must try
to either simplify the slide or split it into 2 or more
slides.
Use 1 word instead of 4 on the screen, and talk about
your concept, remember your audience are there to listen
as well as watch! |
| Creating
a fuss |
Your
template must,
look consistent from start to finish, be unfussy, and
contain as much 'White Space' as possible.
Simplicity creates visual clarity!
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| Clip
Art is an anagram of what? |
Ask yourself, if the clip art you're using is completely
relevant.
If you have clip art on every slide, then YOU ARE DOING
SOMETHING WRONG.
I apologise for shouting, but, 'White Space' around
the text is important, it isn't there to be filled up! |
| Photographic
Traffic |
Everybody
puts photographic images into their presentations, so
will I.
Well if you're going to, then listen up: Your files could
be HUGE.
Use an image editor such as Adobe PhotoShop® to crop
the image to the exact dimensions, colour depth and resolution
before saving it as a JPEG and embedding it into your
presentation.
If the last sentence didn't make much sense to you, then
you could benefit from reading our
Jargon Buster Section, or better still read our
section on 1:1 PowerPoint training.
We can demonstrate efficiencies you didn't know existed. |
| Big
screen shots miss their lines |
Many people include screen grabs/shots in their presentations,
to demonstrate particular points about an application's
interface. (Print Screen or ALT+Print Screen
on a PC; APPLE+Shift+3 on a MAC)
These not only pose the same problems as photographs,
but also DO NOT lend to being re-sized. In doing
so, text will become unreadable, and thin lines will disappear.
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Effects,
Animation & Sound |
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| Got
to keep them awake... Yes I'll use the LASER |
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Transition, build and reveal.
Transition, build and reveal.
Transition, build and reveal...
How many times have you seen them? Never, well please
take note, everyone else has! |
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Transition
effects will...
take you from one slide to another by wipes, dissolves,
fades, slide-ins, zoom-ins, twist-in .... is anybody
in? We would respectfully suggest that to retain your
position at the podium for the planned duration of
your presentation, then you should ignore these features
or if you really have to, then limit yourself to a
simple wipe for the entire presentation.
Build and reveals, as the terms imply, reveal
sections of text at a time, for bullet points, this
does works well but if you ever use that LASER effect
again...
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| Animate
and be damned! |
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This
is a confusing term.
You've probably seen logos or graphics that animate
with every slide change (see above for good reasons
not to).
You may also have seen video footage being
played back from a lap-top. Doing the latter successfully
moves you into the realms of the 'technically' accomplished,
and may be worth the hassle for the kudos that it
bestows.
However, the over-riding caveat has to be,
only use equipment which you have personally tried,
do not rely on that of your host. Believe us when
we say, when it hits the fan it makes one heck of
a mess!
Email our development team (DVTexpress @ slidesdirect.com)
if you need this done in a hurry, we've already found
our way through the techno-fog and have solutions
that will work on Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh.
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| The
sound of silence |
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You can insert sound into your presentation,
but why would you, give me a good reason?
If this manifesto has left your comprehension gene
numb, then check out our Advanced
PowerPoint Training options, and you may also
find our Jargon Buster
useful in clarifying some terminology.
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