Step away from the bullet point and visualise your presentations

Transcription

1 Step away from the bullet point and visualise your presentations Using this guide This tutorial contains descriptive text, instructions and accompanying online content from lynda.com. Read the text and click the lynda.com links to view the online videos. The first time you click a lynda.com icon, you will need to login with your UCLan username and password. Each lynda.com video is just a few minutes long. You'll also notice that you can download accompanying lynda.com exercise files so that you can practice alongside the video. Contents What frustrates audiences about PowerPoint presentations?... 2 Further web resources... 2 Set up the story... 2 Use sections to organise your slides into groups... 3 Visualise your slides... 3 Where to find images... 4 Inserting an image... 4 Tips for working with images... 4 Inserting a text box... 4 Insert a chart... 5 Insert a SmartArt diagram... 6 All about handouts... 7 What should handouts consist of?... 7 Default handouts in PowerPoint... 7 More powerful PowerPoint handouts... 8 Creating and printing notes pages... 8 Sending handouts to Word... 8 Package your presentation... 9 Tips for delivering your PowerPoint presentation... 9 Further resources IT Skills@UCLan Learning and Information Services itskills@uclan.ac.uk 1

2 What frustrates audiences about PowerPoint presentations? When you prepare to deliver your next PowerPoint presentation, your audience should be first on your list of considerations. Unfortunately, too many presenters frustrate their audiences. An online survey of people who regularly see PowerPoint presentations revealed the following top annoyances (item and what percentage of the respondents cited that item as one of their top three annoyances): The speaker reads the slides to us 72.0% Test so small I couldn t read it 50.6% Full sentences instead of bullet points 48.4% Overly complex diagrams 30.8% Poor colour choice 25.8% Moving/flying text or graphics 24.8% Video Good presentation design Video Choosing the right colours Video Choosing the right fonts Video Using the less is more principle Further web resources The five most common PowerPoint mistakes Presentation Zen what is good PowerPoint design PowerPoint slides - Before and after Set up the story Creating a storyboard for your presentation helps you manage the big picture of your presentation so that no individual slide detracts from your primary message. Simply use Post-it notes, or use PowerPoint's storyboarding capabilities: Slide Sorter view Click View, and then click Slide Sorter. In this view, you can see the complete story as a sequence of thumbnail images that flow evenly from one slide to the next. Notes Page view Click View, click Master, and then click Notes Master. View a specific slide at any point in the flow of the presentation while you write out the words that you'll speak when you display that slide. Normal view Click View, and then click Normal. In this view, you can add a visual element to each of the slides in the storyboard. Video Creating a storyboard 2

3 Use sections to organise your slides into groups Much like you would use folders to organise your files, you can use sections to organize your slides into meaningful groups, especially useful if you are working collaboratively with others. 1. To add a section, right-click between the two slides where you want to add a section, and then click Add Section. 2. To rename an existing section, right-click the Untitled Section, and click Rename Section. Enter a meaningful name for the section, and then click Rename. 3. On the View tab, click Slide Sorter. In Slide Sorter view, you ll see thumbnails of all the slides organized into sections. Visualise your slides The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it. And more importantly, they will remember you. 1 PowerPoint slides should help us to gain and hold the audience s attention; they should provide supplementary information and visual impact rather than be there to remind us of what to say. They should help us to: engage in communication convey complex ideas and relationships place ideas into (our audience s) short term memory interact with our audience If we do want our audience to have lots of text, we can create handouts and keep our slides simple. Before After 1 Arden, Paul in Reynolds, Garr (2012) Presentation Zen: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery, 2 nd Ed, Pearson Education, Berkley 3

4 Where to find images Images are a powerful and direct way of communicating our message. The best ones are generally found online (avoid Microsoft Clipart!) and will usually cost a small amount, such as You can also find free (and royalty free) photos on Flickr: 1. Go to 2. Search by keyword (top right of screen) 3. At the top of the search results, change the License to Creative Commons only 4. Click on image to select and download (check file sizes, if you want to cover an entire slide you will need a large image) Inserting an image 1. Go to the Insert tab 2. In the images group, choose pictures 3. Browse to where you have saved your chosen image 4. Select the image and click Insert Tips for working with images Always use the corner handles to resize an image Use high quality, high resolution images in a suitable size (don t simply stretch things to fit they will distort and blur) Keep things simple and try not to get carried away with styles, glows and shadows Please note: Some of the videos below refer to Keynote rather than PowerPoint but the principles (i.e. which images to use and how to use them) are the same. Clipart is no longer available in Microsoft products. Video Choosing the right images Video Using images as background Video Adding pictures Video Aligning objects using guides Video What are focal points? Video Creating image focal points Inserting a text box 1. Go to the Insert tab 2. Choose Text Box and draw your text box on the slide 3. With your text box selected, go to the Text Box Tools tab to change specific elements, for example: change the outline or fill colour bring the text box forward (e.g. in front of an image) 4

5 Insert a chart 1. Go to the Insert tab 2. Choose Chart and select the appropriate chart for your data 3. Enter your categories and series data into the data sheet (you can remove/add both series and categories by dragging the lines around the data) 4. Close the data sheet To change the chart layout: 1. Click on any area of a chart to activate the Chart Tools tabs 2. Click on the Layout tab and then use the available buttons to change the way elements of the chart are displayed, or click the relevant quick tools To add titles to a chart: 1. Click on any area of an existing chart to activate the Chart Tools tabs 2. On the Layout tab, click Chart Title or Axis Titles and then choose an appropriate title position To change the horizontal or vertical axes: 1. Click on the Layout tab and then click on the Axes button 2. Select the axis you wish to modify 3. Make appropriate selections from the menu or axis dialog box To edit or select chart data: 1. Click anywhere in an existing chart 2. Under Chart Tools select Design and then click on Select Data or Edit Data 3. Make any changes and then close the worksheet to return to the chart To format elements of a chart using the Format tab: 1. Select the element you wish to format 2. Click on the Format tab under Chart Tools 3. Use any of the available formatting options to change the appearance of the selected element To change the fill of a selected chart element: 1. Select the chart element 2. Click on the Format tab and then click the Fill button Alternatively, you can right mouse click on the element and then choose Format from the shortcut menu. 5

6 To create a pie chart: 1. Insert a new slide based on the Title and Content layout 2. Click on the Insert Chart icon, select Pie from the chart list and then an option from the subtypes list and click OK To change the chart type: 1. Click anywhere within the chart 2. Click on the Design tab and click the Change Chart Type button 3. Select a new chart type and sub-type and then click OK Tips for working with charts Double clicking on a chart element will open the formatting pane with options for the element, for example, double click on a bar to see series options such as change gap width Create a focal point of the data you want your audience to remember, e.g. select one bar (maybe the highest value) and recolour it in the formatting pane Keep charts as simple as possible avoid glows, shadows, blurs and too much text. Check Hubspot Blogs for a quick look at how to keep your charts simple and meaningful. Insert a SmartArt diagram 1. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click SmartArt. 2. In the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog box, click the type and layout that you want. 3. Enter your text by doing one of the following: Click Text in the Text pane, and then paste or type your text. Type/paste your text directly into the relevant shapes Convert Bullets to Smart Art 1. Right-click the bullet text and choose Convert to SmartArt Video Working with text boxes Video Exploring data visualisation Video Creating and formatting charts Video Using SmartArt to create diagrams 6

7 All about handouts How many times have you referred to handouts that you received at a presentation, only to find that they didn't contain enough detail for you to recall what the speaker said? This is a typical experience when the handouts consist only of pictures of Microsoft Office PowerPoint slides with bullet points. For a handout to be useful when the presentation is but a distant memory, the handout must contain enough detail for it to stand on its own. Let that sink in for a minute: The handout should stand on its own. For this to happen, you must augment the PowerPoint slides with additional supporting material (assuming that every word of your presentation does not appear on the slides to start with which is not ideal). The purpose of a PowerPoint presentation is to provide the audience with visual cues to help them digest and recall the key points of your verbal presentation. The purpose of the handouts, then, is to provide the audience with the additional materials that they need to support and act on the key points of your verbal presentation. What should handouts consist of? Although the exact content of handouts varies with the type and purpose of the presentation, you can follow these general guidelines for most presentations: The length of the handouts should match the length and complexity of the presentation. A short presentation of 10 to 15 minutes may require only one to three pages of handout material. Longer presentations of an hour or more may call for four to six pages or more of handout material. Handouts should be attractive, easy to read, and comprehensive. At a minimum, handouts should contain the following information: o Speaker's name, title, and organisation o Title and date of the presentation o Speaker's contact information, including phone numbers, business address, and e- mail address o Outline of the presentation, including key concepts o Background information, documents, spreadsheets, and so on, to support the speaker's assertions o o List of recommendations, if applicable Statement about what the speaker expects the audience to do as a result of the presentation Default handouts in PowerPoint PowerPoint has built-in tools to create handouts from the presentation's slides. You can choose to print from one to nine slides per page. Only the layout with three slides per page includes blank lines for handwritten notes next to each slide. 7

8 If you choose to print slides, include them as part of a packet that also includes the other supportive materials described in the preceding list. More powerful PowerPoint handouts PowerPoint has two options that give you more flexibility to include additional supportive material: Notes pages Exporting to Microsoft Office Word Creating and printing notes pages The first option involves not printing handouts at all but instead printing notes pages. With notes pages, you can include all of your supporting documentation, references, and additional materials with the PowerPoint presentation. Although you can enter as much text as you want in the notes pane, limit yourself to about 40 lines so that a picture of the slide and its corresponding notes will fit on one page: By entering notes in the notes pane, you can print handouts that contain a picture of the slide and the corresponding notes. Sending handouts to Word To have the ultimate in flexibility with your handouts, export the PowerPoint slides to Word and then modify the Word document as much or as little as you want. The following example shows an attractive Word document that includes pictures of each of the PowerPoint slides. With a little modification, you can create great-looking handouts of your PowerPoint presentations in Word. If you want to create a Word document from your PowerPoint presentations: 1. Create the presentation in PowerPoint. Add notes in the notes pane. You can switch this off so they are not immediately visible. The notes button is on the status bar at the bottom of your presentation. 2. If you prefer, you can add notes after you export the slides to Word. 3. When you have the presentation in final form, Go to File and then Export. 4. Choose Create Handouts. 5. Select the page layout that you want. For the most flexibility when adding your own text to the document, click Notes below slides. 6. Click OK. PowerPoint sends the slides and notes to Word and creates a document that contains a picture of each slide followed by its corresponding notes. 7. Save the Word document. You now have a handout that is completely customisable. You can add headers and footers, resize the graphics, add additional graphics, insert page numbers, add additional text, and include whatever other content you want to supplement the presentation. 8

9 Video Adding speaker notes Video Editing and printing handout masters Video Rehearsing a presentation Package your presentation If your presentation contains embedded objects such as video and audio, you need to be sure that these will play wherever you present. If you are distributing your presentation to other people, you might also want to inspect it for hidden data and information e.g. comments, names etc. Package to CD 1. Go to File and Export 2. Choose Package Presentation for CD and then Package for CD 3. Enter a name 4. Choose to Copy to CD, or Copy to Folder (e.g. for a networked drive or USB) 5. Choose Options to add a password or Inspect the presentation for hidden information. Tips for delivering your PowerPoint presentation Playing Navigating Pausing Annotating Press F5 to play your presentation from the start To play your presentation from a slide that s already selected, press SHIFT and F5 Stop or restart an automatic slide show by pressing S or PLUS SIGN End a slide show by pressing ESC, CTRL+BREAK, or HYPHEN Go to slide number by pressing number+enter (e.g. 1+ENTER) Display a black screen, or return to the slide show from a black screen by pressing B Display a white screen, or return to the slide show from a white screen by pressing W Erase on-screen annotations by pressing E Show or hide ink mark-up by pressing CTRL+M Remove or hide annotations To hide, go to View and click Show Markup on or off To remove, go to File and Check for issues, then select Inspect Document Video Running a slideshow Video Packaging your presentation to run on another computer 9

10 Further resources If you'd like to take your skills further with PowerPoint, you can complete the entire lynda.com courses: Designing a presentation PowerPoint 2016 Essential Training Presentation Fundamentals Once you've completed a course, you'll receive a certificate of completion which you can share with others or upload directly to your LinkedIn profile. You can also complete a Microsoft Office Specialist Certification in PowerPoint. MOS certifications are completely free whilst you're a student at UCLan - you'll find more information on our certifications web page. 10