Preparing Your Slides and Presentation

1
Preparing Your Slides and Presentation

• Joseph Hughes
• ECE 4000 - Section L00
• March 18, 2002

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Purpose of This File

• Suggestions for planning your slides and talk
• Style guide for effective electronic slides
• Encouraged, but not required, to use
• Electronic template
• Settings, colors and fonts in this file conform
  to the suggested style guide
• Edit this file to create your presentation
• Some material in this file based on an example
  created by Art Downey for presenters at the
  International Test Conference.

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Planning Your Presentation

• Have a definite theme for your talk(What do you
  want people to remember?)
• Adapt paper content for presentation
• Minimize introduction and background
• Focus on your results and analysis
• Dont try to include everything
• Organization is critical
• Introduction, body, conclusion
• Plan your talk first, then create your slides

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Planning Your Slides

• 8 - 10 slides maximum for 7 minute talk
• Use an outline slide to guide the talk
• Emphasize key points, not the details
• Slides should highlight your talk, not be a
  substitute for what you have to say
• Dont copy the text of your talk
• Show only slides that you will talk about

5
Style Guidelines

• Required first slide title of presentation, your
  name, recitation section, and date
• Include a title line on every slide
• 8 or 9 lines maximum on a text slide
• 7 words maximum per line
• Use short phrases, not long sentences
• Avoid borders or logos (except on title slide)
• Number your slides
• Keep slides simple and uncluttered

6
Designing Your Slides

• Avoid backgrounds that obscure your text
• Some backgrounds limit usable space for text
• PowerPoint includes sample designs
• Format - Apply Design menu
• Not all suitable for a professional talk
• In File - Page Setup window specify
• Slides sized for On-screen Show
• Slide orientation Landscape

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Contrast and Colors

• High contrast is very important
• Black text on a light background is good for
  viewgraphs, but not for computer projection
• Light lines and text on a dark background work
  best for projection and/or large rooms
• Text/Lines White, yellow, light cyan
• Background Black, dark blue, dark green
• Caution Red, orange or blue lettering and lines
  may become unreadable when projected

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Choosing a Font

• Use Book Antiqua, Arial or similar font
• This line uses the Arial font
• The rest of this file uses Book Antiqua
• 36 Point Titles
• 28 point text for most lines
• Use italics or color for emphasis
• Bold text (this line) is not effective

9
Display Speed and Special Effects

• Avoid overuse of slow graphics, fonts and special
  effects
• Slow slides and complicated effects distract the
  audience from your talk
• Slide transition effects should not be used
  except in special cases
• Do not use sound effects

10
Using Diagrams

• Keep diagrams simple, easy to understand
• Lines must be thick (2.5 pts or greater) to be
  visible when projected
• Make text large enough to be readable
• Use all space in rectangle
• Use a pointer to guide the audience as you
  discuss the diagram
• Example on next slide

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Backplane ASP Connections
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Presenting Data with Graphs

• Use graphs, not tables, to summarize data
• Keep graphs simple
• Eliminate or subdue distracting grid lines
• Use large font sizes
• Example on next slide

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Fault Coverage
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Giving Your Talk

• 7-8 minutes is a short formal talk
• Not enough time to say everything
• Plan your comments for each slide
• Dont get distracted from your planned talk
• Dont read the slides to the audience
• Use notes if needed, but dont read your talk
• Remember your presentation skills
• Filler words, voice, gestures, eye contact
• Be prepared to answer questions

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Key Points to Remember

• Plan your presentation carefully
• Keep your slides simple and uncluttered
• Slides should highlight your talk, not overwhelm
  the audience with details
• Slide design should not distract from content
• Use large fonts and high contrast colors
• Rehearse your talk until comfortable
• Refer to section 3.7 in the textbook for help