How to Setup your PowerPoint
1.
USE A THEME WITH COLORS AND DESIGN WITHOUT BEING DISTRACTING.
2.
USE LARGE TEXT, COLORED OPPOSITE FROM THE BACKGROUND.
3.
BULLETS SHOULD BE ONE LINE OF TEXT—MAX OF TWO LINES.
4.
BULLETS SHOULD APPEAR ONE AT A TIME.
5.
YOU SHOULD SAY EXACTLY WHAT APPEARS ON SCREEN.
6.
YES—HAVE PICTURES! VIDEOS ARE COOL TOO.
TWO
MORE TIPS–CITING EXPERTS, INSERTING COMMENTS
1. SETUP FOR YOUR POWERPOINTS
INTRODUCTION
First,
include a Title Page with your Speech subject and your name
Then,
have your attention getter slide (this is what you actually start your speech
with)
Then,
in an order that makes sense to you, include slides for:
–the
thesis
–your
expertise/involvement with the topic
–how
the topic connects to people’s experiences
–as
is needed, briefly define or explain key concepts in your speech
–optional–a
preview of your points
THE BODY
·
Make slides
that cover the items you need to support and address your thesis.
·
Skip slides
that are not about your thesis–and instead are just about your topic.
·
Include
pictures, videos, etc.
·
Keep bullets
short and concise
·
Include
interesting supporting material and well documented points.
CONCLUSION
·
Include at
least one slide.
·
Sum up
·
Explain the
usefulness of the material you presented
·
Give closure–often,
connecting back to your attention getter.
·
Include a
blank slide (to show when you answer questions/finish up)
·
Include a
slide with citations at the end (like the title slide, you don’t show that
during your presentation).
THE LOOK OF YOUR POWERPOINT
1. USE A THEME WITH COLORS
AND DESIGN WITHOUT BEING DISTRACTING.
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Black and White and similar
bland color schemes tend to be boring. They have no zip. |
While this may look cool,
it is so distracting, you won’t notice the bulleted information. |
This is about right. It has
some color and at the same time, you’ll pay attention to the information
presented. |
Want some cool themes?
·
PowerPoint
includes some themes though not many—see Format, Slide Design.
·
Check out the RFS
110 Examples Web Page for links to pages with free PowerPoint Templates.
·
PowerPoint 2007
and 2010 have new templates that look great.
·
Type in
PowerPoint Templates into Google.
2. USE LARGE TEXT, COLORED OPPOSITE FROM THE BACKGROUND.
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Text that is near the same
color as the background is hard to read. |
Light text on dark
background works well. So does dark text on light background. |
Want text over a picture? Test
it out. Here you can see mixed results. Consider moving the picture. |
3. BULLETS SHOULD BE ONE LINE OF TEXT—MAX OF TWO LINES.
Otherwise,
your audience starts reading and does not pay attention to you.
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This PowerPoint slide is for
reading—not speaking. It will overload the audience; the audience will read
and not pay attention to the speaker speaking. Not good. |
This is great. The focus
will be on the speaker as the speaker explains the bullets. |
4. BULLETS SHOULD APPEAR ONE AT A TIME.
Pictures should appear ONE at a time also.
Otherwise, it causes distraction as the audience reads
ahead of what the speaker is saying.
Click
here for how to make bullets and pictures appear one at a time.
AND WHEN THE BULLET APPEARS:
5. YOU SHOULD SAY EXACTLY WHAT APPEARS ON SCREEN.
Not what is going
to appear; Not things that are not on screen.
After you say what
the bullet says, you should explain it. Look at the examples below.
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When this bullet appears,
the Speaker would say: “Keep your bullets short. This keeps the audience
from being overwhelmed with information and reading while you speak.” |
When this bullet appears,
the Speaker would say: “And, this keeps the focus on the speaker.
Because the audience is just momentarily looking at a few words, they can concentrate
on the speaker.” |
When this bullet appears,
the Speaker would say: “That happens because the speaker explains the
bullets—orally. So, the audience needs to listen to the speaker.” |
6. YES—HAVE PICTURES! VIDEOS ARE COOL TOO.
Otherwise,
the Powerpoint is too texty and gets boring.
Suggestion:
Have a picture on almost every slide.
Click
here for how to make pictures and bullets appear one at a time.
Have a frame and want your
bullets/pictures to appear one at a time? If
you select "appear" on the animation schemes and then select apply to
all slides, it will mess up the custom animation of the other slides. In order
to avoid this problem, you need to inactivate the "appear" on the
slide you want to customize. After you do this, you can customize the order of
appearance on that specific slide. Make sure not to select "appear"
for all slides if you have already done custom animation- it will deactivate it.
TWO MORE TIPS–CITING
EXPERTS, INSERTING COMMENTS
CITING AN EXPERT?Use a bullet for his/her name and
qualifications. Then, the next bullet should state what he/she said.
You would say something
like “Edward Miller, John Hopkins
Medicine Chief Executive Officer, has noted that Stem Cell Research Benefits
include . . .” (Typically, you would have bullets for what the benefits are) |
INSERTING A COMMENT/THOUGHTWant to write a
comment to yourself or to your professor but don’t want viewers to see? At
the top of the PowerPoint Screen, Click Insert, Comment.
(the yellow note below).
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