Formatting

= Formatting =

I for one am terribly guilty of many powerpoint blunders - Too many sounds, loopy font choices, tiny script sizes, and distracting transitions.We learned a lot from our Powerpoint workshop on how to approve the quality and aesthetic appeal of our presentation. Here is a sampling of some of the useful tips and tricks we learned

Text
‍Some text choices may be distracting to your audience and take away from your presentation's content. To combat that, stick to a few basic rules (remember there are always exceptions)
 * ‍ Make sure all text is large so even the audience members in the back of the room can see it
 * ‍ Use dark colored text colors so your message stands out
 * ‍ Keep abbreviations to a minimum



Titles and Slides
 ‍When creating your presentation, keep a few asthetic factors in mind while crafting your titles and slides - ‍
 * Titles, but no other text, should be centered
 * ‍ If you break a slide in half do not change the title or add continued to the exsisiting title
 * Balance "white space"
 * ‍Try to stick to the rule of six (meaning no more than six words per bullet)
 * Add contrast between your words and the background for readability
 * If you capitalize the first word in a line, do the same for all lines - be consistent!
 * Preferably do not write sentences (ending with .'s)
 * Remember to use a title on every slide
 * Borders can be adjusted to fix the zoom on each slide

Images and Citations
‍Pictures and other external sources can really spice up a presentation, but only if you present them in a legal manner. Keep these tips in mind while formatting -
 * ‍Pictures that have watermarks on them smell of copyright infringement even if they were obtained legally
 * ‍ Put the URL of the pictures origin tiny and lighter in color, but still visible under, over, or next to the picture
 * ‍ Reference your picture with your other citations on the final slide
 * ‍ Make sure to keep your references large and legible
 * To utilize all the space in the slide, use a soft return (Shift + Return/Enter) on the URLs in the citations



This and That
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">‍We learned a lot of great formatting tricks from our workshop, but some of them just don't fit comfortably into a definitive category, so here is a little of this and that -
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">‍ Sounds, transitions, and effects may help draw attention to a certain part of the presentation, but if done in abundance may be a distraction.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">‍ Use either all bullets or hyphens throughout your presentation; don't switch back and forth
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">‍ Don't center bullets
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">‍ Keep orphans to a minimum