PowerPoint Tips

1. PowerPoint is for pictures.

If you have a lot of text, consider

distributing an outline as a handout

instead

22. Avoid pre-made “themes” and other

canned or banal graphic elements.

3. Avoid patterned backgrounds.

Meaningless graphic elements

create cognitive load, distract

attention from your story and can

make text harder to read.

4. Instead, use meaningful images

where appropriate, as in the next

title slide.

Achaemenid Persian Empire

5. A black background makes

pictures “pop.”

White creates glare and

detracts from pictures.

6. Text on a glaring white

backround is also hard on the

eyes.

Which is easier on the eyes?

Which is easier on the eyes?

7. If you must use a colored ground,

crank up the contrast.

Low contrast

High contrast

8. When using text over an image,

enhance contrast with a tinted

textbox fill or a full-size tinted

screen.

Make these by inserting a textbox or

a rectangular “shape.” “Fill” with

black, then adjust the

transparency for good contrast.

Picasso in His Studio

Picasso in His Studio

Picasso in His Studio

9. Use color sparingly, for emphasis.

(Three colors are probably too many).

Try out different colors and see where

your eye goes and how legible the color

is from a distance.

Which color is most effective? Which

one “reads” at the back of the room?

Red is an angry, hostile color

10. Use a large-size typeface –

at least 28-point or greater

This is 44-point type

What seems just right (or even too

big) on your computer screen is

too small in most rooms.

11. Prefer a sans-serif typeface (Arial, Calibri, Trebuchet MS…)

Not a serif typeface (Century, Palatino Linotype, Times New Roman)

Avoid fancy fonts

12. Less text on screen is

better.

Three points is plenty per slide

_______________

_______________

_______________

13. Use PowerPoint’s Shapes

and Fill to make transparent

colored shapes – handy over diagrams and maps.

“Pilgrimage” style plan

“Pilgrimage” style plan

Nave

“Pilgrimage” style plan

Transept (with aisles)

“Pilgrimage” style plan

Choir (screened off)

“Pilgrimage” style plan

Ambulatory

“Pilgrimage” style plan

Radiating chapels

Monks’ choir (green)

Reliquary statue Altar

14. Pictures pack an emotional

punch that drives a message

home.

But visuals are more impactful

when the emotional arousal level

varies across the presentation.

Provide “resting” places – no

pictures, or calm pictures.

Still from a video disseminated by Isis, documenting the destruction of Assurnasirpal II’s palace in Nimrud, Iraq (March-April 2015.) (BBC)

Isis militants dynamiting Assurnasirpal II’s palace

Reliefs from Assurnasirpal II’s palace in the

British Museum

15. Avoid creating cognitive

overload. Every slide needs ONE

main focus, or a comparison

between two things.

A viewer cannot read + listen or read

+ examine a complex image + listen,

all at the same time.

Use 1 channel at a time.

Not good: 3 images,

too much text,

competing information,

type size too small

Better: 1 comparison,

two images, less text

Papyrus stalks are peeled, then cut into

thin slices, soaked in water and rolled with

a rolling pin to flatten them.

The strips are put into a press. Under

pressure, the natural gums in the papyrus

make the slices stick together. Once

pressed and dried, the sheet is polished with

a stone to make a smooth writing surface.

Sheets are glued together to make longer

scrolls.

Making

papyrus

sheets

After flattening, strips are

arranged in two layers , one

at right angles to the other.