Kinetic Typography in PowerPoint

“Kinetic typography” means animated text.  The designer Saul Bass is often credited with the first use of kinetic typography in the title sequence for Hitchcock’s North by Northwest; the titles for Psycho are also Bass’s work.  Kinetic text in film titles is intended to establish a mood, in addition to listing the credits.

Animated text is now commonplace in television, often with sychronized voice; the Ford F-150 commmercial with Denis Leary’s voice-over is a classic example.  In fact, it is rare today to see text that stands still on television or in a movie title.

And there are thousands of examples on the web; “You Start the Girl Effect” is a nice example without a narration.

Animated Text in PowerPoint

Kinetic typography is possible using PowerPoint text effects and animation; sound effects, music and narration can be added.  But is it a good idea?

There’s no doubt that animated text is powerful; combining attention-grabbing motion with information chunking, it is almost hypnotic.  With properly synchronized narration, it captures both auditory and visual channels, which mutually reinforce the message.

Also, studies have shown that when text is displayed one word at a time in a fixed position, reading speed and comprehension improve since scanning eye movements are unnecessary.

Finally, researchers say that “time-based presentation of text can be used effectively to capture and manipulate a viewer’s attention.”

This is clearly a powerful tool for presentations.

I often use simple animation to present text in “chunks.”  This keeps the audience’s attention on what I intend, rather than on reading ahead.  Of course, this is a general principle, applicable to objects other than text.

For this purpose, I use simple effects, usually a Wipe/From Left or similar.

However, the more elaborate kinetic typography may not be suitable for the usual conference room presentation, certainly not without some rehearsal to acustom the presenter to the technique. In small doses, however, it can effectively support emphasis points in the presentation.   It is most effective for kiosk/tradeshow displays and on the web (created in PowerPoint and typically converted to video).

Text Animation Effects

What tools are available in PowerPoint for kinetic typography?

The usual animation Entry, Emphasis, Exit and Motion Path effects apply to text boxes as objects.  The usual animation issues apply; in particular, the poor resolution that can result from applying Grow/Shrink.  You can get acceptable results if you don’t expect or attempt too much.  Here are some tips to “punch up” individual words (demonstrated in the companion video – created in PowerPoint).

• Use Text Effects/Transform to “shape” text along with animations – see the “fat” and “tall” examples in the video.
• Create each letter as a separate text block and animate the letters – see “rising,” “unify” and “stand up.”
• Animate parts of words separately – see “break” and “open.”
• Animate fill and outline separately (see “fill,” “empty” and “leaky.”  This uses two versions of the text, one with fill only and one with outline only.
• Combine text animation with animation of other objects – “leaky,” “erosion” and “vanish.”
• To control the pivot point when using Spin, group the object with an invisible circle, centered at the desired pivot point . The circle must be larger than the object.  Here’s how the “falling” example is constructed (the red lines indicate the pivot point – they are not part of the object):

You can combine these kinds of effects with simpler animation to present attention-grabbing messages.  Pay attention to timing, relative position, size and color as in the examples.

• “Flashing” the words quickly in the same location provides a sense of urgency (see “you can’t ignore this” in the companion video).
• A slower pace can have a different effect (see “it was over” and “did you hear something?”).
• Use the text effects described above within your message for emphasis.
• Use color and size to emphasize or de-emphasize parts of your message.

Text-only Effects

PowerPoint provides several animation options and effects that apply only to text objects.  You might think these would be useful in the present context but I have generally found them not to be.

• Under Effect Options… in the Text Animation tab there are options to animate a text block as One Object, All Paragraphs at Once or By nth Level Paragraphs.  These are intended for hierarchical (bulleted) lists – and are occasionally useful when the PowerPoint default is not what you want.
• In the Effect tab there are Animate Text options that cause the selected effect to apply to the text object all at once or by word or letter.  Unfortunately, the By Word option creates a jerky effect since each word is effected with a fixed duration, regardless of the length of the word, and single punctuation characters are treated as “words.”  Generally, I have found it more useful and flexible to create words as separate blocks and animate them individually.
  The By Letter option creates a typewriter (remember those?) effect that is sometimes appropriate.

• Finally, some Emphasis animation effects are available only for text objects (e.g., Faded Swivel).  I have not found these to be useful – you may have a different opinion.

So What?

Kinetic typography (animated text) is a powerful tool and is commonplace in television, film and web videos.  PowerPoint provides adequate tools for its creation as long as your expectations are not too high.  However, animated text may not be appropriate for the typical conference room presentation, except in small doses.  But it can add a lot of impact to web and kiosk videos, prepared in PowerPoint and converted to video.

How to Disarm PowerPoint

I have recently been alarmed by statements like this:

“..PowerPoint forces presenters to dumb down their arguments to bullet points, eliminating logical structure in favor of lists where everything carries the same weight.”

“… PowerPoint trains the presenter to be lazy.”

“PowerPoint boxes the presenter into “working, designing, thinking in a certain way,”

“PowerPoint, by its very nature, forces presenters to create bad presentations.”

“…mediocrity really is built into the functionality of PowerPoint itself.”

I had no idea.  I’ve used PowerPoint for twenty years, and apparently, I have been brain-washed and everything I’ve done is crap.

What is it about PowerPoint that forces, trains, boxes in, etc. and generally destroys the will of the user?  Well, I’m deeply familiar with PowerPoint and I find it difficult to find anything that forces anything.  As far as I can see, everything is optional.  That’s not to say that PowerPoint is perfect and that it can’t be used badly.  I don’t know of any tool that can’t create disaster when used poorly, including a hammer or an airplane.

However, there is one thing I am suspicious about:  bullets.

Nobody likes bullets.  I don’t like bullet lists and rarely use them.  Nobody among the hundreds of gurus and advisors out there recommends bullets.  Bulleted lists are a common target for PowerPoint critics.  Clearly, a bullet list is deadly boring and restrictive and everybody knows there are better ways.

Yet, what happens when you open PowerPoint?  First, you get a title slide.  OK, you can probably use that.  Next you get an empty bullet list!  The next “new slide” is also an empty bullet list!!  My God! Is this the serpent’s fang?  Is this the hypnotic, brain-washing trap that forces everybody to write bullets lists, over and over??

Although I personally find it difficult to believe that everyone is so weak-willed, the alarms expressed by corporate and government leaders are very serious.  So, in the interest of the future of the nation and our children, I have decided to reveal how to create a safe version of PowerPoint.

So here’s how to disarm PowerPoint (the 2007 version, at least).

1. Open PowerPoint from scratch.  You will see a title slide.

2. View/Slide Master. The left pane will look like this (I have added notations):

These are the default slide layouts that Microsoft, in its great wisdom, has decided will meet all your needs for slides — and then some.

If the left pane does not appear, click the Normal slide view button twice, and then View/Slide Master.

3. Make sure the Slide Master is highlighted in the left pane; the Slide Master appears as the current slide.  Click on the bullet list placeholder  (outlined in red below) and delete it.  

4. Right click on the Title and Content Layout and delete it.  Repeat for all layouts except Title, Title Only and Blank. 

5. Exit and save the presentation.

Now you have a benign presentation that will not “force” you to use bullet lists; that is, the default new slide is not a bullet slide.  You can, if you want, create bullet lists using the Bullets button on the Home ribbon.  Since this is clearly an option (and not “forced”), I think it should be safe.

If you are among the one percent who actually uses the one or more of the various default Layouts, you can go through each one and delete the bulleted list placeholder.  On the other hand, you may be beyond help.

If you use Themes (and you should), these changes will show up in saved Themes.

If you are uncomfortable making these changes yourself, let me know and I will send you a “safe” presentation.

I hope you will disarm PowerPoint immediately.  If you don’t, your future, and the future of the nation, is apparently at risk.

———————————————————————————–

Here are links to the sources for the quotes; dozens more are easy to find:

Does PowerPoint make you stupid?
Top 10 reasons to dump PowerPoint
PowerPoint is guilty but redeemable

The Uses of PowerPoint

There’s a lot of stuff about PowerPoint out there, ranging from thoughtful, constructive tutorials to passionate pleas for outright banishment.  But PowerPoint is used in a lot of different ways.  Sometimes, advice or criticism may be inappropriate for your presentation scenario.

Examples are easy:  strategy and technique for a motivational “ballroom” presentation are different than for a sales pitch.  And the sales pitch differs from a technical, fact-finding report.  The approach will vary depending on the audience, objectives and venue.  And there are situations where PowerPoint is not a good idea.

As a contractor/consultant, I have created PowerPoint “decks” for a lot of different situations, including conventional business “boardroom” (or conference room) presentations.  I have also used PowerPoint for “applications” that are not conventional presentations at all.

To suggest some of the variability in PowerPoint applications, here are some common scenarios.  You can probably think of others.

I’m inspired in part by Speaking PowerPoint – the New Language of Business by Bruce R. Gabrielle (2010, Insights Publishing).  Gabrielle focuses on the internal corporate pitch and contrasts “boardroom” and “ballroom” presentations.  Gabrielle also references an interesting paper by Susan Kaplan studying strategy-making inside one organization, using PowerPoint as a collaborative tool.  Kaplan says “Results from a genre analysis of PowerPoint use suggest that it should not be characterized simply as effective or ineffective as current PowerPoint controversies do.”.

External business presentations

The first group includes many of the common business situations where your company is presenting to someone outside your company.  The venue is usually a boardroom/conference room or a web meeting.  The audience is usually relatively small.  Interruptions and discussions are expected and supporting documentation (handouts) is required.

• Sales (early stage) – the first (or at least early) presentation to a prospective customer, usually an executive.  In most situations, the goal is not actually to make a sale but to get a buy-in to the next step in the sales cycle.
• Sales (later stage) – a follow-up presentation to a prospect and/or his subject-matter experts.  The objective is to inform about details of products/services and to overcome objections.  Detailed support documentation is important.
• “Seminar”/webinar – the audience is usually individual prospects (often specifically invited).  One or more “marquee customers” may present/participate.  The objective is to gain further interaction with prospects.  The venue may be a tradeshow/conference or the web.  A formal Q/A session is usually provided rather than free discussion.
• Investor pitch – the audience is a potential investor in your company; the objective is to gain buy-in to further discussions and due diligence.  The potential investor may be impatient and place restrictions on time and number of slides.  Obviously, a complete business plan is expected.
• Analyst briefing – the audience represents a person or organization that is influential in your market and may recommend you to prospects.  The objective is to impress and gain recommendation.  The audience is knowledgeable and may be skeptical.
• Partner briefing – the audience represents a potential partner to your organization; the objective is to impress and gain further discussion.

Some observations about this group:  First, there are a lot of slides that are common to each type. (corporate overview, value proposition, etc.)  Second, these are all basically sales presentations.

Warning: some web meeting/sharing environments do not support some PowerPoint features; e.g., animation and on-screen navigation.  Test your presentation ahead of time to avoid embarassment.

Trade Show and Conference Presentations

Tradeshows and business conferences provide opportunities for presentations to potential customers, partners, investors and competitors.  In addition to the kinds of presentations outlined above, two scenarios are common:

• Conference track session – This is a “thought leadership’ opportunity where your company has been invited to present on a subject important to your industry or your potential customers.  The goal is to present your company as a trusted authority in the market.
  Subject matter is often set by the conference organizers; overt sales/marketing content may be forbidden.  Interruptions are usually not expected; a specific “Q and A” period will follow the presentation.

• Ballroom – An invited presentation to a large audience; the goal may be to motivate, inform and/or sway the audience.  The speaker is important and/or skilled in presenting.  High “production values” are usually expected.

Internal Business Presentations

Many organizations use PowerPoint presentations for nearly every internal meeting; thousands of such presentations are given daily.  I will list a few situations here; I’ve probably missed some.

• Internal pitch – the goal of this presentation is to gain approval/funding for a project or other activity.  The audience is your boss and other decision makers.  This is a form of sales pitch but the audience may not tolerate an overt sales approach.
• Report on activity – this is a common “progress report” on a project, campaign or other activity. The audience is management and peers; the goal is clarity (although persuasion may be called for).
• Report on research – reporting on information gathering and analysis, relating to strategy, development or other business activity.  This may be combined with a pitch if you are recommending a particular course of action.  Content is usually detailed; clarity is key.
• Training – this may be an informal update on product features or a detailed technical training session.  The audience is usually your peers but may include decision makers; the audience is often well-motivated.  Again, clarity is essential.
  Specialized training features are available as adjunct software for PowerPoint.

The audience for these scenarios (except training) may be your board of directors, an executive committee or other high-level decision makers.  Obviously, the stakes are higher in these situations and will require more intense preparation.

Collaboration

PowerPoint is often used in business as a vehicle for collaboration – a group developing a plan or strategy uses a PowerPoint file as a repository for notes, data, images, sketches, diagrams, graphs, etc., used during the development process.  Meetings center on the file as additions and changes are made.  The file is shared and managed as a record of the development process.  A formal presentation (probably an internal pitch for approval) usually results from the process but the file itself is more informal.  PowerPoint Review tools or other sharing protocols may be used.  See Kaplan for a detailed analysis of PowerPoint in strategy development.

I think the reason for this type of usage is that PowerPoint is widely available and understood, to some degree at least, by most persons in business.  As a “scrapbook,” PowerPoint makes it easy to create, collect, delete and organize (and re-organize) text, images, spreadsheets in a file.  Its “style” may be conducive to freer, less constrained thinking than a document or spreadsheet.

Applications without a Presenter

Some applications of PowerPoint do not involve a presenter; the presentation “runs” automatically or under control of the viewer.  Usually, the presentation is in a video format, converted from the PowerPoint presentation.  Occasionally, PowerPoint is used in “show” mode.

Obviously, guidelines for legibility and content change for this kind of presentation compared to the typical boardroom scenario.  Since there is no presenter, the presentation must carry the message, although the message is usually concise and the duration is short.

• Web/kiosk interactive – usually presented on a small screen to a single viewer.  The viewer navigates through the presentation and may interact in other ways.  The presentation may use an audio/narrative track.  With adjunct software, data (e.g., viewer contact info) may be collected.  Usually, this is a short sales pitch with the goal of qualifying and gaining further interaction with the viewer; although it may be informative or tutorial.

Warning: If you use video conversion software, you will need to assure that the software and the web environment supports navigation or other interactions.

• Web/kiosk video (non-interactive) – as above, without interaction.  Venues like your web site, YouTube and SlideShare are typical.  In a kiosk/tradeshow situation, the presentation may run continually.
• Tradeshow booth display – Using a large video screen, this type of presentation runs continually and typically makes use of animation effects.  Since a viewer will typically see only a few seconds of the presentation, it is organized as a series of short vignettes.  Audio may include music;  narration would probably be lost in the noise of the show.

Non-Business Environments

PowerPoint presentations are used in schools, law courts and religious institutions.  Motivational presentations are given for a variety of organizations.  I have no direct experience in these areas but it is clear that the audience, the venue and the presentation objectives will vary widely.

It is worth noting that a lot of the complaints I see about PowerPoint originate with college students.  Faculties may not be doing a good job with PowerPoint.

PowerPoint as a Graphics Tool

Occasionally, a graphic object that I have created for a corporate presentation will also be used on the company website or in sales collateral.  I have also used PowerPoint to create web/collateral graphics, posters, trade show booth graphics and similar items “from scratch.”  Objects are usually converted to “pictures” (image files like jpg or png) for these applications.

PowerPoint is not a powerful (e.g., high-priced) graphics tool but it does have the advantage of being widely available and understood, to some degree, by a lot of people.  I have found that, with a little imagination, I can create acceptable graphics material that has the advantage that it can be edited by my clients without special software or skills.

Documents

One of the cardinal rules about presentation design is “a presentation is not a document.”  But what about making documents with PowerPoint?

PowerPoint lacks chaining text from block to block and some other useful features.  And PowerPoint will not create output formats that are expected by some printing companies.  However, I find it easier to use than Word, when there are a lot of graphics.  Short documents (collateral, handouts, etc.) are relatively easy with PowerPoint.

Hints: use Portrait mode and use several Guides to help layout text and images.  Create pdf output.

The Moral

PowerPoint is used for a lot of things; presentations vary widely in audience, objectives and venues.  Understand the context before you give or accept advice.

Death by PowerPoint is Your Fault

Dave Paradi conducts an annual online survey on what annoys audiences most about your PowerPoint presentations.  The latest survey reports the top five annoyances:

The speaker read the slides to us – 73.8%
Full sentences instead of bullet points – 51.6%
The text was so small I couldn’t read it – 48.1%
Slides hard to see because of color choice – 34.0%
Overly complex diagrams or charts – 26.0%

Big surprise?  Hardly. The results have not varied much since the first survey in 2003.  By the way, nearly 20% of the respondents see one or more presentations every day.  Poor bastards.

Paradi and others can provide lots of advice on mechanically correcting these problems and have done so for years.  But, I’m beginning to think that you have a couple of underlying character flaws that lead to these misdeeds:

Failure to respect your audience – Through lack of imagination or simply negligence, you can’t put yourself in a seat in the audience.  If you could, you would not abuse them this way.  For example, you apparently don’t understand that the audience is not 12 inches away from a 20 inch screen.  As a consequence, most of these “annoyances” result from simple lack of legibility at the presentation venue.

Failure to take responsibility for delivering your message – Since you are apparently unable to stand up, face your audience, and deliver your message directly, you rely heavily on crowded PowerPoint slides (even to the point of reading them) and hope, somehow, that your audience will “get it.”  Good PowerPoint slides will help, but you deliver the message, not PowerPoint.

Maybe your exuse is that you’re confused about the difference between slides used to support your presentation and the “handout.”  Sorry; it’s not that hard:  a handout is meant to be perused at some length without the benefit of your presence.  If your slides look like a “handout” document, do your audience the favor of not showing up.

Bad PowerPoint is your fault.  Stand up to your responsibility or sit down.

Typography in Presentations – Text Effects

Herewith, a can of trouble is opened; with what I’m going to tell you now, you can do terrible things.  I trust you will follow my advice and be careful.

PowerPoint text has formatting options like other PowerPoint objects,  including shadows, glows and “3D” effects. Although this post demonstrates some of these effects, you are strongly advised to use  sparingly and with purpose.  Nothing can demonstrate your PowerPoint naiveté like circus poster text effects.

Here are line and fill examples:

Here are shadow, reflection and glow examples:

The “transform” text effects distort the text in various ways.

The simplest of these (“warp”) lets you squeeze or stretch text vertically or horizontally.  Note: turn off text wrap.

Text effects offer a lot of opportunities for circus poster-like excess.  Combinations of effects can create some pretty awful results. These awful examples combine 3D, transforms, gradient/picture fills and shadows:

Remember: if it doesn’t contribute to the message, leave it out.  Bizarre combinations of “cool” fill and effects will distract, not contribute.  Consistent, professional appearance will also suffer.

There are some cases where text effects can be used (sparingly) to help with your message.  I can think of four kinds of application:

1. Style –Fonts combined with text effects may reinforce the meaning of the text.

2. Figurative – in drawings containing text, text effects and font choices can make the object more convincing.

3. Visual concepts – the shapes that make up some concepts (pyramids, wheels, etc.) may make it difficult to include legible text. The example shows how “arched” text makes it possible to clearly label the segments.

4. Emphasis – in an earlier post in this typography series, I suggested that size can be used as an emphasis tool; that post contains this comparison:

Using the “warp” effect is an easy way to scale text like this.

Text in Shapes

This is one of series of posts on typography in PowerPoint.

Text always comes in a shape, although the shape may be invisible (that is, with no fill and no outline).  The default shape is a rectangle although any shape can contain text.

Text box options control the relationships between the shape and the text; they are:

• Layout – vertical alignment and text direction.
• “Autofit” and text wrap – these interact.  I don’t use the options that automatically change the size of the text or the size of the text; I want to control both.  Turning text wrap off is useless.
• Internal margins.
• Multi- column format – occasionally useful for a list that you want to extend to two columns; tables are easier for most other cases.

PowerPoint provides “shape effects” and “text effects” (the next post will cover text effects).  For example:

All of the usual effects may be applied to the shape containing the text (fill, line, shadow, etc.).  These attributes behave as you might expect and do not usually affect the text.

However, when you apply a shadow to the shape (a “shape effect”), the text is shadowed as well as the containing shape fill and outline.  This text shadow is not usually visible if the shape is filled.  Applying a shadow to the text separately (a “text effect”) can lead to some unexpected results:

The shadow offset (distance) has been exaggerated in these examples to make the results clearer.  The extra shadowing is usually not a problem with filled shapes and modest offsets.

There is another case where the text is affected by a shape effect:  when you apply a 3D rotation to a shape containing text, the text is also rotated.  However, there is an option to keep the text “flat.”

The text in a shape is always rectangular, regardless of the shape – for example, the text for a triangle shape is a rectangle that fits in (mostly) the triangle.  Depending on the shape, this can be troublesome because you can’t take full advantage of all the space in the shape.  For example, the corners of a triangle can’t be used for text using the associated text box.

Here are some examples; autofit is off, wrap is on and margins are zero.  The small numbers compare the number of characters that will fit inside the shape boundaries:

Sometimes, the text collides with the shape:

You can overcome some problems with text fitting in shapes by adjusting the margins and the character spacing.  It may be simpler in some cases to create the text separately and overlay the text on the shape.

Here is a simple but typical design problem that demonstrates the techniques:

Suppose your client wants to present his typical project management timeline at the top of several slides and provide the details of each step on each slide.  We want to fit the timeline within the width of the slide and leave room for the details below.  Of course we want to keep the text legible.

Our first attempt at the timeline is shown below:

We would like to avoid hyphens and abbreviations if possible.  Adjusting the margins helps a little:

Making the shape a little less pointy gains some additional space:

It’s clear we’re not going to make it with a uniform shape size, so we “cheat” the sizes a little:

This approach can be an issue since size can denote importance – an object should be big because it is important, not because it has a big label.  This size adjustment doesn’t seem to be excessive.

Next, we adjust the character spacing in some of the shapes:

Finally, this will look a little better without the outline and we can highlight the appropriate step on each slide:

Typography for Presentations – Bullets and Numbering

This is one in a series of posts on text in presentations.

Bullets

There is no more maligned glyph in PowerPoint than the bullet, associated as it is with endless slides of dense, bulleted text.  As a good presentation designer, you will find other ways to present your message and avoid overusing bullets.  However, bullets do clarify the organization of lists and, if you do PowerPoint for others, a few bullets are usually unavoidable.

Bulleted text is created by using a master slide place holder, or manually applying bullets to text.  Using a placeholder promotes consistency, a good thing.

You do not have to use one of the default “content” layouts to use the placeholder; the placeholder from a content layout slide can be copied to other slides.

Here are my guidelines on bullets:

• Don’t use the default bullets.
• Use a simple bullet.  Avoid elaborately shaped and colored bullets; they are distracting.  I almost always use the classical round bullet and occasionally use a checkmark or a ballot box “x” if it seems to help the message.  Don’t use dashes, asterisks or other punctuation marks for bullets.

Commercial or free “templates” may come with elaborate bullets.  This is another reason these are usually a bad idea (see this post).

• Use your theme colors for bullets, a different color for each level.
• If you like, omit the bullet at the first level.
• Avoid more than two levels; never, ever more than three.
• Pay attention to the size of the bullet, relative to the text size; smaller bullets tend to disappear.
• Pay attention to indents; adjust the indent for different font sizes (this is not automatic).
• Use line spacing to emphasis the text organization (see previous post).

Numbering

I think I have used 1-2-3 numbering once or twice in my illustrious career.  I have never used the more elaborate PowerPoint numbering options and I suggest you follow the same course.

Multi-level numbering schemes are used ostensibly to help the reader navigate through long and complex documents (usually legal/governmental).  If this seems right for your presentation, you should start again.

The next post in this series will discuss text in shapes.

Typography for Presentations – the Size of Calibri

Illegibility of text is a common problem in bad presentations.  In an earlier post, I advised a minimum font size of 18 pts in a pinch, and larger in general.

However, since Calibri is now the default font for PowerPoint, it’s worth revisiting this dictum.

Because of the history of typesetting, two fonts of the same point size may not have the same visual “height.”  Here’s an example:

 

Calibri at 18pt is visually smaller than 18pt Arial or Verdana.  In fact, 20pt Calibri is about the same visual size as the other fonts at 18pts.

 

Historically, point size describes the height of the piece of metal upon which the typeface is embossed, not the actual height of the characters.

Here’s a picture; the dimension “c” is the point size:

There are some other fonts like this that are common to Office installations; Gil Sans and Garamond, for example.

As you might expect, the apparent line spacing is also affected for these ”smaller” fonts; in the example below, the Calibri 20pt paragraph is taller that the Arial 18pt:

To my eye, adjusting the line spacing to .9 (multiple option) makes the Calibri paragraph less “spacy:”

By the way, I do not intend to treat Arial as the gold standard here; it is, in fact, overused.

So here’s the deal: pay attention to the visual size of fonts since you can’t depend on the point size.  For “small” fonts, use a minimum of 20pt and see the previous post for other considerations.  Adjust the line spacing if you like the more compact appearance or have space problems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typography for Presentations – Text Layout

This is the third of a series of posts on text in presentations; layout and line spacing are discussed.

Text Layout

As I noted in an earlier post, presentations use short blocks of text that may not be grammatical paragraphs or even sentences.  “Layout” determines the appearance of these blocks of text on a slide.  Here are my guidelines on layout:

• Use relatively compact blocks of text:

• Use left aligned (“ragged right”) blocks:

 

• A word by itself in the last line of a paragraph is called an orphan.  In print, orphans are avoided since they create too much space at the end of a paragraph.  This is an issue with text pages but not in presentations using relatively narrow blocks (shorter lines).
• You can use End-of-line (shift-enter) to approximately shape text around images or other objects.  PowerPoint, unlike some other publishing software, does not provide this as a layout option.

Line Spacing

The space between lines of text can be adjusted.  This is useful for fine-tuning the appearance of text, grouping and separating paragraphs for better comprehension and dealing with text within shapes (the subject of a later post).

There are two kinds of spacing available:  “line spacing” that affects every line in a block and spacing that occurs before and/or after a paragraph mark.

There are 4 ways to specify line spacing:  single, 1.5 lines, double, “multiple,” and “exactly.”  For the multiple option, you set spacing as multiples (or fractions) of the single line default.  The “exactly” option requires that you provide a value in points.  I prefer the “multiple” option since it “scales” with changes in overall font size (as contrasted with the “exactly” option).

To my eye, the default line spacing (1) looks a little “open,” so I often use .9 spacing.  Spacing of .8 begins to look a little crowded:

 

Before/after spacing accepts only a point value (unfortunately).  Using before/after spacing is more flexible than the common practice of inserting paragraph markers and is generally better practice.

Before/after spacing can be used to clarify the organization of text; this example compares a default layout to one (on the right) that uses .9 line spacing and “after” spacing to visually separate the two topics:

The next in this series of posts on text in presentations covers bullets (shudder!)

 

 

 

Typography for Presentations – Basics II

This the second in a series of posts on text in presentations.  Emphasis, text effects and kerning and spacing are covered.

Emphasis

Sometimes you will want to emphasize or highlight a word or phrase to make the point of the text clear, even at a glance.  I often highlight key words in quotes or testimonials; since these are usually concocted for print (e.g., press releases), they are too texty for presentations.  Unfortunately, it’s bad form to edit quotes too severely.

Traditionally, boldface or underlining has been used for emphasis.

Underlining is for typewriters – it reduces legibility and there are better options for emphasis.

I usually don’t like PowerPoint “bold.”  I think this is because boldface is generated in Office products by simply thickening the strokes of the original font.  Use a “black” or “heavy” version of the font rather than the bold function since these fonts have been specifically designed as boldface.

I often use a larger font size, maybe bolded or upper case, for emphasis.  I find this more effective and attractive than boldface alone. This comparison (from here) demonstrates the effect:

Text color is also a tool for emphasis – but make sure you recognize the need for contrast with the background and the emotional aspects of color (e.g., red for danger).

Pay attention to ads and commercials for examples of text emphasis.

Other Font Effects

Additional effects are provided that modify the appearance of individual characters in text; here is a list with comments on usage.

Font style (regular, italic, bold, bold italic)

I discussed “bold” above.  I do use italic occasionally when a little variety is called for.  It’s more subtle than bold and other emphasis techniques.

Like bold, an italic version of a font is sometimes available that is better looking than Office-generated italic.

Underline, underline style

Not used, even with 16 goofy variations.

Strikethrough, double strikethrough

Useless.

Superscript, subscript

Used for exponent, “nth,” trademark symbol, registration mark, etc.  Sometimes automatic.

All caps

Used for emphasis; this sets a property of the text, rather than performing a one-time conversion (see Case conversion below)

Small caps

Useless

Equalize character height

Pointless.

Case conversion (sentence case, lower case, upper case, capitalize each word, toggle case)

These functions are one-time conversions.  “Capitalize each word” creates a format (sometimes called “title case”) that is distracting and unnecessary in presentations; “toggle case” is useless.  The others are moderately convenient.

Text Effects

You can apply shape effects to text, including fill, outline color and style, shadow, “3D” format and rotation.  These are usually augmented text applications which I will cover in another post.

Using “cool” effects to change the appearance of text, especially to something like a 3d rainbow, does not usually contribute to the meaning and clarity of the text, and can obscure it.

However, a shadow effect can be used to increase legibility of text against a busy, multi-color background; here’s an example:

A much better plan would be to select a simpler background or one that has a large monochromatic area for text.

Spacing and Kerning

The space between characters in text (“tracking”) can be adjusted in PowerPoint.

Altering the space between characters is useful in presentations only if text must be fit into a small space (preferable to reducing the text size); this is sometimes an issue when text is used in shapes.  This is the subject of a later post.

“Kerning” reduces the apparent space by slightly overlapping certain characters.  This is an issue in dense blocks of text, where these optical “white spots” can be distracting.  This is not usually a problem in presentations; however, kerning for all but tiny text sizes is the default.  Here’s an example (note that the pair “Eo” is not kerned).

The next post in this series will discuss text layout in presentations.