PowerPoint
The Good, The Bad and The
Downright Ugly!
Christopher Reddy
Christopher.reddy@gmail.com
PowerPoint
The Good, The Bad and The Downright Ugly!
PowerPoint “Slide Rules”
– Secrets to success
– Reasons for failure
Sources:
– Terrible Presentations (and how not to give one)
– Making Presentations That Audiences Will Love
– Excellence in Oral Presentation for Technical
Speakers (Part I)
Slide Structure – Good Practice
• Plan to use 1-2 slides per minute of your
presentation
• Write in point form, not complete sentences
• Include 4-5 points per slide
• Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases
only
Terrible Presentations
(…and how to not give one)
Katherine Compton
Dept. of ECE
UW-Madison
Mark L. Chang
Dept. of ECE
Olin College of Eng.
Bullets & Cueing
• Bullets allow you to “cue” the audience in on
what you are going to say.
• Cues can be thought of as a brief “preview.”
• This gives the audience a “framework” to build upon.
Caps and Italics
• Do not use all capital letters
– Makes text hard to read
– Conceals acronyms
– Denies their use for EMPHASIS
• Italics
– Used for “quotes”
– Used to highlight thoughts or ideas
– Used for book, journal, or magazine titles
Colors
• Reds and oranges are high-energy but can be
difficult to stay focused on.
• Greens, blues, and browns are mellower, but
not as attention grabbing.
Backgrounds
• A white on a dark background is used for this
presentation as:
– The author assumes most users will view the
presentation on their own computer.
– Having a darker background on a computer
screen reduces glare.
– White on dark background should not be used if
the audience is more than 20 feet away.
To make a slide stand out,
change the font and/or
background
Creating Your Visuals (How)
• Consistency is a must
• Use colors appropriately
– Never use the color red for your main text, title or labels, red color is
difficult to read from distance
– Use red as a highlight color, indicating problem area
– Use green as a highlight color
– Two of the most common and readable colors are blue and black
– Blue color (especially light blue) is the most soothing color on an eye.
• Visuals Must be organized
– Your visuals must have introduction, body and closing
Font Size
• You are close to your monitor
• Your audience is far from the screen
Tahoma
TNR
Courier
32 pt
32 pt
32 pt
28 pt
28 pt
28 pt
24 pt
24 pt
24 pt
20 pt
20 pt
20 pt
18 pt
18 pt
18 pt
16 pt
16 pt
16 pt
14 pt
14 pt
14 pt
12 pt
12 pt
12 pt
10 pt
10 pt
10 pt
Comic
Lucida Sans
28 pt
28 pt
32 pt
24 pt
20 pt
18 pt
16 pt
14 pt
12 pt
10 pt
32 pt
24 pt
20 pt
18 pt
16 pt
14 pt
12 pt
10 pt
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Logos
•
•
•
•
We know you had support
Don’t need to list all of them every slide
If on first slide, don’t obscure title/authors
Maybe save it for last slide
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Bullets Aren’t Everything
• How many
– Levels of
• Hierarchy do
– You think
» You need
* To express
- Your point?
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Speelchick
• How samrt will poeple thikn yuo are?
• Watch for:
– there/their/they’re
– too/to/two
– its/it’s
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Picture This
• There are exceptions, but in general
– Don’t have only text on most of your slides
– Try to draw diagrams wherever applicable
• (Well-drawn) pictures easier to understand
System Architecture
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FPGA
32
main
memory
CPU
data cache
There’s a CPU, a RAM and an
FPGA and they’re all connected
- The FPGA connects to the
CPU’s data cache
- The bus is 32 bits wide
- Blah blah blah blah
You have to visualize it yourself
System Architecture
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Example Diagrams
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Source code
FPGA
• Compute-intensive sections on hardware
• Hardware reconfigured for each
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Example Diagrams
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Source code
FPGA
• Compute-intensive sections on hardware
• Hardware reconfigured for each
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You are not Pixar Studios
• Previous slide(s) used “animation”…
Animation
Can
Be Very
Distracting
Use it sparingly
(it can be annoying)
• Use only where it is USEFUL
• Know if presentation system will handle
– Different versions of PowerPoint, Macs, etc.
• Or use multiple slides to safely animate
– Flip-book style
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The Art of Suspense
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The Art of Suspense
• Don’t
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The Art of Suspense
• Don’t
• Be
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The Art of Suspense
• Don’t
• Be
• A
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The Art of Suspense
•
•
•
•
Don’t
Be
A
Tease
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Fonts – Good Practice
• Use at least an 18-point font
• Use different size fonts for main points and
secondary points
– this font is 28-point, the main point font is 32point, and the title font is 40-point
• Use a standard font like Times New Roman,
Arial or Tahoma
Fonts – Bad Practice
•
If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
• CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS
DIFFICULT TO READ
• Don’t use a complicated font
Fonts – Good Practice
• Use at least an 18-point font
• Use different size fonts for main points and
secondary points
– this font is 28-point, the main point font is 32point, and the title font is 40-point
• Use a standard font like Times New Roman,
Arial or Tahoma
Fonts – Bad Practice
•
If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
• CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS
DIFFICULT TO READ
• Don’t use a complicated font
Graphs – Good Practice
Title of Graph
Series 1
Series 2
Graphs – Bad Practice
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
“The problem
with
communication
...is the ILLUSION
that it has been
accomplished”
—George Bernard Shaw
Background – Bad Practice
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Overall format and color schemes
Decide on a simple format and stick to it:
1. Light background and dark letters or vice versa.
2. Make sure there is good contrast.
3. Be consistent in font placement, size and style.
4. Be careful of certain color combinations.
Red on blue is hard
to read
Blue on red is hard
to read
Yellow on white is
hard to read
Thank You
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