the art of preparing slides

8/4/2019 The Art of Preparing Slides

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- 6 -T h e Ar t o f P rep ar i n g S l i d es

As soon as you know you are go ing to speak, beg in byprepar ing your s l ides. Choose t i t les, key words, graphics,c i ta t i ons , and th ink about co lo r and des ign . Every th ing w i l lbecome eas i e r once you have p r epa r ed t he s l i des . Unknownto you, a l l the t ime you are prepar ing s l ides, your mighty sub-consc ious mind i s p repar ing the ground fo r the words w i thwh ich you w i l l exp la in your s l i des . As you c rea te your s l i desyou are l i ke a fa rmer p lan t ing seeds f rom wh ich a gardenwi l l grow.Today most sc ien t i s t s des ign and prepare the i r s l i des byus ing a so f tware program, such as M ic roso f t ' s PowerPo in t , t oprepare e i ther 1 ) a se t o f i nd iv idua l t ransp arenc ies , wh ich w il lbe p laced by hand on an overhead pro jec to r , o r 2 ) a se to f t ransparenc ies on a CD or a f l ash s t i ck , wh ich w i l l bep r o j ec ted t h r ough a compu te r . Wh i ch way you choose t op r esen t i s un impor t an t . Choose wh i cheve r way f ee l s mos tcomfor tab le to you. Each s ty le has i t s advantages, and eachis equal ly good. A wise presenter , however , car r ies a set o fi nd iv idua l t ransparenc ies as a p ro tec t ion aga ins t e lec t r i ca lfa il u re o r unexpe cted com pu ter i ncompa t ib i li ty .

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The Art of Prepar ing Sl ides

BEING AN ARTIST

Computers permit us to make beautiful sl ides: They let ususe color, insert photographs, and even add motion.However, please be gentle with your audience. Such addi-tions such as color, photographs, or motion are good only ifthey h elp your sl ides be:9 clear9 legible9 easy-to-understand.Unfortunately, software programs for creating slides have not,as we hoped, solved the problem of poor slides. However,such programs have made it much easier to create an excel-lent and memorable set of slides.You are a scientist, and, when you make slides about yourwork, you also become an artist. Your aim is to create slideswhich add to, not distract from, your message. To make artis-t ic sl ides you need to give as much thought to the sizeand placement of areas of space as you do to your use ofprint and color. In the end you want your slides to show thatyou care enough about your work to produce slides that areclear and pleasing to the eye but do no t look like ga udy com-mercial advert isements. The audience appreciates a goodset of slides but they are interested in your research not inhow capable you are of using bizarre colors or images

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Chapter 6

revolving or shooting in or out of the screen. Challenge your-self to make attractive but scientific looking slides.

Use of ColorInternational conferences yield both good and poor examplesof the use of color. Next t ime you attend a conference notehow color is used on the sl ides that are easiest for your eyesto understand. Make notes of ideas for your next set ofsl ides, especial ly techniques that invite your sl ides to looklike a set rather than a random assortment of sl ides.Each computer program has background colors for sl ides.Pale colors, such as pale yellow, make a more interestingbackground than a plain screen, but choose a backgroundcolor that does not interfere with the clarity of the informationon the slide. Notice that a bright-colored background makesseeing the information on the slide difficult. Backgrounds comein the form of 1) templates that can be used on all or selectedslides, and 2)'fi l l ' colors by which you can vary the backgroundor effectively leave the screen white in areas behind print.Furth er any of the colors can be toned brighter or paler.

LMany of the programs for specific sciences, such asChemDraw, have a l imited and rather glaring choice of color,but the main program has a wide and tasteful assortment. So

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T h e A r t o f P r e p a r i n g S l i d e sw h e n u s i n g p ro g ra ms f o r s y mb o l s s p e c i f i c t o y o u r s c i e n c e ,sw i t ch back i n to the ma in p rog ram, i n o rde r t o app ly co lo rtha t p leases the eye and doesn ' t c lash . H igh l i gh t i ng wo rds i np r imary co lo rs o f b r i gh t red and b r igh t b lue , f o r examp le , i sl ess p leas ing than us ing the same co lo rs bu t i n a red w i thsome o range o r p ink i n i t , and a b lue w i th some g reen o r redin it. Th e pa le t te o f co lo rs ava i lab le is exce l len t ; take s om et ime to f i nd good co lo rs .Too many co lo rs , say a to ta l o f 5 and up , on one s l ide isusua l l y no t on l y l ess p leasan t bu t l ess e f fec t i ve than 2 -4 .Howeve r a t a recen t i n te rna t iona l con fe rence one h igh l ye f fec t i ve s l i de used 9 -10 co lo rs be tween the f i l l co lo rs andthe p r in t co lo rs . So , do i t your way, bu t be k ind to the eyes o fyou r aud ience . Pu rp le and red , f o r examp le , a re usua l l y no tp leas ing on the same s l i de , espec ia l l y when the shade o f redi s t owards the o range .Backg round f i l l co lo r can he lp c la r i f y i n fo rma t ion when i t i snecessa ry to have a l i s t t ha t f i l l s t he s l i de . A band o f a s ing lepa le f i l l co lo r beh ind one i t em on the l i s t a l t e rna tes w i th aband o f t he sc reen co lo r beh ind the nex t i t em. Th is i s e f fec -t i ve when a g rea t dea l o f i n fo rma t ion mus t be l i s ted on ones l ide a nd o n ly a to ta l o f two co lo rs a re used beh ind the p r in t.

C H O O S I N G F O N T S T Y L E S A N D S IZ E O F P R IN T

F o n t s

On s l i des the s imp le r f on ts , such as 'A r ia l ' , a re eas ie r t o readon a sc reen than more t rad i t i ona l f on ts w i th se r i f s , such as'T i me s N e w R o ma n ' . G e n e ra l l y u s i n g b o l d t h ro u g h o u t i s

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C h a p t e r 6easiest to read, especia l ly i f you have both a large screenand a large audience. At any rate avoid us ing a var iety ofser i f and non-ser i f fonts on the same s l ide in order to avoiddis t ract ing the eyes of the audience in ways that h inder thei rreading and understanding of the s l ide. Lower-case let tersare ea sier to read than a ll capi ta ls .

Pr in t S izeKeep the s ize o f p r in t fo r words and numbers as la rge asposs ib le . In most p rograms anyth ing smal le r than po in t -18cannot be read on the screen by a l l the aud ience. Th is maymean you need to make a la rger number o f s l ides and putless in format ion on ea ch s l ide. You w an t the peo ple at theback of the room to be able to read a l l the in format ion,inc luding the c i ta t ions. To do th is you must 1) l im i t the num-ber of words on each s l ide, and 2) d isc ip l ine yoursel f to putas l i t t le in format ion on each s l ide as possib le, us ing yourvoice to f i l l in the information.An aud ience a t a con fe rence becomes annoyed w i th aspeaker when there is so much in format ion on a s l ide tha tthey cannot fo l low the speaker 's log ic . Unfor tunate ly th isbecomes par t i cu lar ly t rue when the aud ience a lso has t rou-b le understanding the speaker 's Engl ish.

A D D IN G E M P H A S ISAdd emphas is to you r s l i de th rough the use o f co lo r andby put t ing the most impor tant in format ion in a la rgerpr in t s ize , down to the leas t impor tant in smal le r s ize .

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T h e A r t o f P r e p a r i n g S l i d e sTake care tha t even your sma l les t p r in t can be read by theaud ience , mak ing use o f abb rev ia t ions w he re necessa ry .Then make you r cho i ces cons i s ten t t h roughou t t he se t o fs l ides.I ta l ics are somet imes used ef fect ive ly to add emphasis .However under l in ing is not e f fec t ive. A form of emphasis thatis se ldom cons idered to be in good taste is the use of exc la-mat ion po in ts . A to ta l o f one exc lamat ion po in t might occuron an ent i re set o f s l ides wi thout appear ing to add an unpro-fess ional touch to the presentat ion.You wi ll decreas e you r need for em pha sis i f you avo id pu t tingwho le sen tences o r leng thy phrases on your s l ides andinstead us ing on ly key words or br ie f phrases. Th is permi tsyou to g ive e f fec t i ve emphas is by what words you choose ,your tone o f vo ice , where you pause , and the words youst ress. The audience wi l l apprec ia te your s ty le and under-stand your s l ides better .

N U M B E R I N G I T E M S

Be caut ious about number ing i tems on your s l ides that donot require numbers. I f you are only indicat ing a l is t of pointsor detai ls avoid label ing wi th numerals: 1, 2, 3 . . . ; I , I I , I I1. . . ;i, ii, i i i . . . o r im p lie d nu m e ra ls : a , b, c . . . N u m b e r i n g isshou ld be used on ly when you a re emphas iz ing chrono logyor pr ior i ty . Otherwise number ing is embarrass ing ly meaning-less and should be rep laced wi th bu l le ts , dashes, or someother appropr ia te symbo l .

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C h a p t e r 6D E T E R M I N IN G T H E N U M B E R O F S L ID E S

H e r e a r e t h e s t e p s f o r d e t e r m i n i n g h o w m a n y s l i d e s y o un e e d :9 F i rs t , ass em ble the s l ides you have .9 S e c o n d , a r r a n g e t h e m in to a g o o d s e q u e n c e .9 Th i rd , p rac t i ce exp la in ing them .9 Fou r t h , t im e y ou rs e l f as y ou ex p l a in eac h : Idea l l y eac h

s l i de i s exp la ined in a s low care fu l vo i ce i n a m inu te (o rmuch less ) .

9 F i ft h, add , s ub t rac t , o r c om b i ne s l ides s o t ha t eac h c an beex p l a i ned i n a m i nu t e o r l es s A N D t he t o t a l c om e w i t h i nyour a l l o t t ed t ime.

C H O O S I N G T IT L E S A N D W O R D S

T i t l es a re impor tan t . A t i t l e s ta tes the top i c o f t he s l i de ass imp ly and as b r ie f l y as poss ib le . T i t l es shou ld l ook l i ke t i t l es :Perhaps yours w i l l be enc losed in co lo red boxes , w r i t t en i nla rger p r i n t o r i n a l l caps . A t any ra te , i n some way your t i t l esm us t s i gna l c l ea r l y t ha t t hey a re t i t l e s and t ha t t he i n f o rm a-t i on they con ta in i s v i t a l t o unders tand ing the s l i de . T i t l es a rec l ea re r and m ore e m ph a t i c if t hey a re w r i t ten as top i c s , no ta s c o m p l e t e s e n t e n c e s .R a r e l y i f e v e r d o g o o d s l id e s c o n t a in c o m p l e t e s e n t e n c e sa n y w h e r e , e v e n i n c o n c l u s i o n s . C o m p l e t e s e n t e n c e s o n as l i d e p u t a p r e s e n t e r i n a n e m b a r r a s s i n g p o s i t i o n , b e c a u s et h e s p e a k e r i s t h e n f o r c e d t o r e a d a l o u d t o a n a u d i e n c e .R e a d i n g s e n t e n c e s a l o u d t o a l i t e r a t e a u d i e n c e i s i n s u l t i n g

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T h e A r t o f P r e p a r i n g S l i d e sto them. A l i te ra te aud ience has a l ready seen the wordsand read them fo r themse lves be fo re you have f in i shedsay ing them . Your vo ice then so und s repe t i t ious and un in -te res t ing , and the a t ten t ion o f the aud ience wanders a t theve ry t ime you mos t wan ted them to pay a t t en t i on . So wha ti s the so lu t ion? The so lu t ion i s to use key words andphrases on the s l ides and le t your vo ice comple te thein fo rmat ion , add ing in te res t and de ta i l s . Otherw ise , espe-c ia l ly in the conc lus ion, you wi l l end on a s l ight ly bor ingnote . No one wants to comple te a p resen ta t ion on a bor ingnote.

C O M P L E T IN G Y O U R S E T OF SL ID E ST h e C r e d i t S l i d eAn imp or tant s l ide is the one in which you g ive cred it to thosewh o have worked w i th you o r f inan ced you r research. I f thereis t ime, read these names a loud to g ive honor . Usual ly thes l ide conta ins on ly the i r names and your vo ice adds t i t les orother informat ion, such as the inst i tut ion and country. Oftenthis s l ide is last , but i t can also be f i rst . Placement is unim-portant. What is important is that the credi t s l ide is theresomewhere so that o thers a lways rece ive appropr ia te cred i t .

The F i na l Re s u l tYou want to make every e f for t to complete your s l ides so thatthe f inal resul t looks l ike a set . Perhaps you are using severals l ides you have used in the past. Fine, but now redo them sothat they m atch the others in th is presen tat ion.

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Chapter 6Fortunately the abil i ty to scan in material and the help ofcomputer software make it easy to redo old sl ides so thatthey b ecom e a professional-looking part of a set. So, take thet ime to make your s l ides have some common elements thathelp them look like a set. Ideally throughout the set you havealready used the same style of font, varieties of color, andemphasis techniques on each slide. Perhaps you have cho-sen to use the same background f i l l of pale color throughout,or you may have invented some other distinctive but stil ltasteful touch to make it clear that your slides are a set.The best result will be a set of slides that serves informationkaiseki style. 'Kaiseki' is a quietly impressive way of servingfood at elegant banquets in Japan . Many, small, attractive, we ll-prepared dishes, are served sequentially and with grace. Thinkof your presentation as a banquet and your slides as the food.Then serve your information by putting only a small, tasty dishon each slide. Ideally you will have many slides, each requir-ing less than a minute of explanation. This way the informa-tion on your slides will be clear, and the minds of theaudience can feast happily on your well-prepared information.

Now, you have a complete and tasteful set of slides, and nowall you have to do is to become master of your slides. You willsho w the aud ience you are the master, not the vict im, of yourslides by the music of your voice and by your body language.

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the art of preparing slides

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