using the new powerpoint templates - university of reading · 2 using the new powerpoint templates...

The new PowerPoint templates are available to all staff from the Reading branding website at: www.reading.ac.uk/branding/henleyStaff at Greenlands can also access them from the T:drive

Contents About the PowerPoint templates 1

Four versions for different circumstances 1

How bullets appear 2

Where to store your templates 2

Notes about fonts 3

Starting a new presentation 3

Importing old slides into the new template 4

Colour schemes 4

Autofit 4

PowerPoint best practice guidelines 5

Using the new PowerPoint templatesA guide to building presentations from scratch, and converting your existing files

For more information about these guidelines, please contact:

James Lloyd University Designer

[email protected] Tel (0118) 378 6314

www.reading.ac.uk/branding/henley

http://www.reading.ac.uk/branding/henley

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.reading.ac.uk/branding/henley

1

Using the new PowerPoint templates

About the PowerPoint templatesOur new range of PowerPoint templates are designed to make it easy for all staff to adopt Henley Business School’s look and feel when they give presentations on- or off-campus.

The main purpose of the templates is to provide a common framework for presentations that promote Henley Business School. ‘Promotional’ activi-ties can be broad-ranging: presenting to potential and current programme participants, potential clients and partners or even new members of staff.

The table below show the situations in which you should (or should not) use the new templates.

Presentation type Use new template?

Presentation for potential/new students 4

Presentation for staff 4

Presentation for clients, partners and sponsors 4

Presentation teaching materials/lecture slides 4 all postgraduate and corporate learning programmes, otherwise only if useful

Two versions for different circumstancesWe offer the two slightly different templates:1 Coloured background

2 Off-white background (background will print as pure white)

Coloured background or off-white background?• Off-white background templates feature black (and some coloured) text

on a white background. This offers good legibility where the ambient lighting in a room is still quite bright, however, some audiences may find stark white backgrounds are too bright.

• Coloured background templates feature white text on a coloured back-ground. This offers good legibility where the lighting in a room is dark.

We have two variations on our templates: which one you use depends on your audi-ence, and on the lighting conditions in the room you are going to present in.

2


How bullets appearPowerPoint offers a lot of flexibility in the way that bullets appear on the screen. In the new version, bullets instead appear one by one, ‘on-click’. In other words, each click of the mouse reveals another bullet, rather than all of them appearing at once. If you want to change this setting, you can edit the Slide Master by choosing View > Master > Slide Master and selecting the main text box on the page. Then, choose the ‘Custom Animation’ panel in the Task Pane to edit the settings the way you like them.Rdg Vesta is the only font that we use in our

PowerPoint templates.

You can edit the way that bullets appear by choosing View > Master > Slide Master and then View > Task Pane > Custom Animation . This lets you choose whether you bullets will appear all at once or one at a time. You can also choose whether you want to click individually to reveal each bullet

Where to store your templatesWhen you want to use a template, the easiest thing to do is simply double-click it. This creates a brand new file with all the preset characteristics of our new templates. However, if you regularly work in PowerPoint and want quicker and more direct access to the templates, you need to save them to a special folder.

Different versions of PowerPoint store user-created templates in different places. The best way to determine where your version stores them is to:

1 Open one of our new templates

2 Go to File > Save as… and set ‘Save as type’ to ‘Design Template’. PowerPoint will them automatically select the correct directory to save into.

3 Press the ‘Save’ button.

Once a template is saved to the correct ‘Templates’ directory it will be accessible from within PowerPoint’s Format > Slide Design… menu or task pane, allowing you to switch your presentation from one template to another with ease.

3


Notes about fontsThe University fonts are embedded into all our PowerPoint templates. This means that even if the host computer does not have the fonts installed, you can still edit and present your presentations from that computer while retaining the correct fonts.

If you want to check that your presentation is embedding fonts, go to Tools > Options > Save and look for the checkbox

NB Fonts will only embed correctly on Windows PCs. Mac and Unix users must install fonts on any machine that needs to use the new templates.

Starting a new presentationThe templates are completely empty of any guidelines or background information, so you can start producing a new presentation from scratch immediately.

It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the way that master slides work before you begin. You can find out more in Powerpoint’s help system. The only time you should need to access the master slide is to enter your unit name in the top left of the title slide. Everything else should be setup to work without intervention.

You can start a new presentation in one of two ways:

1 If you followed the instructions in ‘Where to store templates’ above, you can go to File > New > From design template and select one of out templates form the list in the Task Pane

2 If you have stored the templates elsewhere (on your desktop for example) you can simply double-click them to launch a new presentation

NB Double-clicking a .POT file will only work correctly on Windows PCs. Mac and Unix users should always install the files in their templates folder and access them that way.

Using third-party logosIf you are working in collaboration with a partner institution, you can insert their logo at the top-right of the page next to the Henley Device

If you want to promote an accreditation or endorsement you have received from a third party, you can put it in the footer area of the title slide, usually in the bottom right.

There is no need to put any logo other than the Henley Device onto the normal presentation slides, only the title slide.

In any Microsoft Office application, go to Tools > Options > Save to find the option to embed the new fonts in your Office documents

4


Importing old slides into the new templateImporting old slides into the new templates should be straight-forward, but can generate some unexpected results, depending on how your original file is set up.

A) Open your original and change the slide designIf your original file has the standard PowerPoint textboxes in there normal positions, you can update to the new templates very easily in one step.

1 Go to Format > Slide Design and choose one of our templates from your templates folder.

B) Open a new presentation and import old slidesIf you open a new presentation in the new templates, you can choose Insert > Slides from File to import existing slides. This method will probably create the correct colours place graphics accurately, but may not update the fonts.

1 Insert > Slides from File and choose the file you want to import.

2 If the fonts do not appear correctly, you may have to change them manually. The only font we use is ‘Rdg Vesta’. Go to Format > Replace Fonts … and replace all your fonts with ‘Rdg Vesta’

C) Copy and paste text form an old fileThe safest way to make sure that the new template is properly applied is to create a new file from scratch and manually paste in graphics and text from an old file. This method is quite fast for short presentations, but can be difficult if you have more that 10 slides.

Colour schemesYou can change the colour scheme of your slides at any time by choosing Format > Slide Design and then clicking on the Colour Schemes link in the Task Pane (the tool palette on the right of the screen). This works much better than trying to change the colour of every object individually.

AutofitBy default, Auto-fit is switched on in our templates. This means that if you write too much text on a slide, powerPoint will shrink it down to fit in the available space. It is recommended that you learn to spot when PowerPoint is auto-fitting your text, as it is a useful reminder that you may be trying to force too much information on to one slide. Consider using an extra slide rather than allowing text to be illegible.

If you want to switch Auto-text off, you can find the option in Tools > AutoCorrect Options.

Use the Slide Design – Colour Schemes palette to change the colour of your poster

5


PowerPoint best practice guidelinesBelow are a series of slides on creating clear, simple slides that get key mes-sages across with the minimum of effort.

4To put your footer here go to View > Header and Footer

1: About the new design• Our new design aims to be

– simple– easy to use– flexible in places . . .

. . . but firm in others

• Your new presentations should be– more consistent with those of your colleagues– more professional-looking– easier and more pleasant for your audience


3: Colours• This template is available in a range of colours

and configurations– You should never alter the colour scheme of the template– You can change the colour scheme in

Format > Slide Design – Colour Schemes– you can add additional custom colours for graphs and diagrams,

but it’s often best to use the preset colours.


5: The Autoformat feature• Putting too much on a slide will result in

PowerPoint Autoformatting your text.– this will mean your text will be:

• shrunk, squashed and squeezed• inconsistent with the rest of the document

• To stop this being a problem you can:– turn it off when it does happen by selecting the

Autofit menu button that automatically appears– use more concise wording– split the information over multiple slides


6: Applying layouts• PowerPoint comes with a number of preset layouts.

– these are used for:• organising your text• integrating images and graphics• keeping elements from clashing with one another

– this template has been designed to use these layouts– remember, using layouts does not mean you can

ignore the other guidelines in this template


4: Keep it simple• Bullet points should be

– short– plainly written– not used as a script

• If you have complicated topics to discuss . . .– think of your slides as a mnemonic, not a thesis!– build up ideas slowly, over several slides– point towards complexity, don’t spell it out


2: Fonts• The template uses the new Reading font; Rdg Vesta

– you should install this if you haven’t already– Even if you don’t have the font installed, it should still

display correctly because it has been embedded into this file.– if Rdg Vesta isn’t available it will revert to Arial

• Why use Rdg Vesta?– because it’s central to the brand– it will give your presentation the ‘Reading’ feel

Henley font; Rdg Vesta

‘Henley’ feel


7: Placing images• Some basic guidelines for using images

– use images functionally, not just decoratively– never let text flow on top of an image– there are two good ways to arrange images

• 1: Align them to something else on the page– align them to something that they relate– if they relate to the whole page, align them to

the page margins• 2: Use a full screen image

– you can come back to discuss it on your next slide


9: Placing images; a better way• Try not to interrupt the

flow of your bullets– aligning images to the right

edge usually works best• use the device as the

right edge• use the top of a capital

letter as your top alignments


11: If you’ve got a GREAT image• Use it!

(see next slide)


But be careful about how you place text on it …

Not like this

Not like this

This is finePoor colour choice

Background is too varied

Good contrast here!


10: Placing images• Don’t scatter images around

– if you need multiple images, find a neat way to arrange them . . .– notice that the gaps between the images are all equal


8: Placing images; examples …• Try not to interrupt the flow of your bullets

– if you place images in a way that disrupts the bullet text or forces a change in standard left to right reading patterns,

your audience may loseconcentration or becomeneedlessly distracted.

Essentials of Management at Henley

School of Management

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