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.

 

 

Typography for Presentations – Basics I

This is the first in a planned series of posts on text in presentations.  Rationale for the series and some font options are covered.

Typography originated as the art and technique of printing with movable type.  It’s about the design and use of type to make text legible and visually attractive.  Typography is concerned with typefaces, font sizes and attributes as well as page layout.

So what?  Good presentations are supposed to use very little text so why do I care?  Here’s my rationale:

1. Since you’re using less text, the appearance of that text is important.
2. There are applications of PowerPoint where a presenter is not involved; these products are intended to be read and naturally use more text.
3. The reality of preparing business presentations for others (my job) is that more text is used than the experts recommend for “ballroom” presentations.
4. Finally, I’ll at least make you familiar with typographic options in PowerPoint so that you can escape the defaults.

Typography is traditionally about print; but obviously, the presentation designer also deals with legibility, readability and the layout of text.  On the other hand, there are some different concerns.

Good presentation design does not involve large continuous blocks of text like book pages.  Paragraph layout and even sentence punctuation are rarely a concern.  Text is used in short blocks, usually in combination with images, diagrams or as labels.  “Display typography,” used for signs and ads, is probably closer to presentation usage than traditional typography.

Before I look at some details, I should point out that I am not an expert in typography.  Also, I will use PowerPoint terminology which is not consistent with traditional typography.

Text Usage

In presentations text is sometimes augmented to add to the meaning conveyed by the text.  Examples include using currency green to color the word “money” or to animating the word “grow” so that the word stretches upward.  Otherwise, text is what it is – the meaning is conveyed by the words themselves with little decoration, like conventional text.

This post will concentrate on the “simple” style, leaving “augmented” text for later.

Fonts

Font choice is a great opportunity for abuse by PowerPoint users – unfortunately, there are so many “cool” fonts to choose from.

Here are a few guidelines:

• Fonts have feelings.  We have learned to associate certain typefaces with certain emotional connotations.  You can change the impact of text by using one of these fonts carelessly, as in these examples :

For business presentations, it’s usually advisable to use neutral fonts for “simple” text.

• Avoid the circus poster/ransom note syndrome – using several fonts is distracting, as are random text color and effects.  In print, several fonts may be used to distinguish headings, captions, etc., but this is usually not necessary in presentations.
• There is no agreement on serif versus sans serif fonts.  For years, I believed the common lore that serif fonts are more legible; it turns out that there is no conclusive research on the issue.  See this post for an excellent review of the subject.  Business users seem to expect sans serif fonts in presentations, believing them to be “clean” and modern.  There is no value in disappointing this expectation.

In short, use a single, neutral, sans serif font.

Embedding Fonts

Embedding a font allows you to successfully distribute your presentation to others who may not have that font installed.  If you don’t embed the font, PowerPoint will use a substitute; this can change layouts and cause other problems.

So, embedding sounds like a good idea, right? Unfortunately there are a number lf “gotchas” associated with embedding, mostly because fonts are licensed software and there are PowerPoint issues.

All this is complicated but very important  if you prepare presentations for others.  You must read this excellent explanation of embedding on the pptfaq website.

You can avoid some of these problems by sticking to fonts that are likely to be installed on your clients PC (i.e., fonts installed automatically with Office.)  There is information here.

Converting an object containing an “odd” font to an image (e.g., png) will make it portable but, of course, not editable.

Font Size

Probably the most critical aspect of a presentation is simple legibility.  If the text cannot be read in the presentation situation, what, pray tell, is the point other than irritating the audience?  I am continually surprised by the failure of presenters to recognize this issue.

Font size, along with contrast, determines legibility.  Usually, I work with a minimum font size of 18 points.  This seems to be the lower limit on size in the usual conference room situation with a projector where the projected image is 5 or 6 feet wide.  Recently, companies have started to use 40-50 inch flatscreen monitors in conference rooms; this obviously demands a larger minimum.  Also, kindly remember that some members of the audience may not have perfect 20/20 vision.

If you have problems using a large font size, you have too much text.  Do your audience the favor of fixing that rather than reducing the font size.

Some writers demand a larger minimum – 30 points in the case of Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule.  This is as much a cry for brevity as it is legibility by a person who sees thousands of investor pitches each year.

PowerPoint applications including “kiosk” or web videos are intended to be read by a single user on a desktop or laptop screen.  Obviously, smaller fonts (and more text) are appropriate here.

Please learn to consider text legibility when you display a spreadsheet, a chart or graph, or a screenshot.  There is no excuse for disrespecting your audience with illegible material.

This series continues with the next post, which will cover emphasizing words or phrases , some text effects and kerning and spacing.

The Trouble with Presentation Handouts

Almost every time you present, you will be expected to provide a “handout” or you will be asked for “a copy of your presentation.”  This usually means a paper copy of your slides.

Here’s the trouble with this kind of handout:

• If you have created a well-designed presentation, a copy of your slides will not be a useful handout since the slides will be fairly meaningless without your narration.  Remember, for a good presentation, the presenter delivers the message, not the slides.
• The need for a handout may tempt you to create a “deck” that can be used for both presentation and handout – this will always result in a bad presentation or a bad handout or both.  This, in fact, may be the hidden cause for a lot of bad presentations.

I suspect that the handout request/requirement is often just a formality and that the handouts become corporate sediment, never to see the light of day again.  However, since there is a slight chance that your handout will be used for individual review or recall, internal discussions, “re-presenting” or distribution to others not attending the original presentation, maybe you should give the handout some attention.

Here are some ideas on dealing with the handout request:

• Prepare a well-written and -designed companion document that parallels the slides and captures the messages you have delivered in the live presentation.  This is a good answer but involves about as much effort as the original PowerPoint presentation.  This may only be justified for repeated or important situations like sales calls or investor/analyst briefings.
• If you are very lucky, you may be able to use your company’s sales collateral to meet the handout request for your sales presentation.  For some reason, this is not the usual case – disconnect between marketing and sales, I wager.
• Use the “Speaker Notes” PowerPoint feature as a framework for the companion document.  The format includes the slide image so that the narrative is tied to the slides and can refer to graphics elements.  This can be “printed” as a PDF for sharing.  This is not intended as actual notes for the speaker.
• Create a highly annotated/static version of the presentation. Since this is designed to be individually read you can use a lot of text in smaller font sizes.  Eliminate animations and re-design for a static format.
  This is a reasonable solution for the conference situation where (clueless) conference organizers want to print and bind the conference presentations together.  Just make sure that the two versions don’t get confused.
• Enter the 21^st century and create a “kiosk version” that can be published on your website or any of the several sharing sites.  This is intended to be read (like the static version above) but is viewed at the reader’s pace and can include animations and on-screen navigation (if allowed by the sharing site or video converter).  No dead trees.
• Record your narration of the original presentation and add as an audio track; convert to video for sharing.
• Record your presentation as a video; publish on your website or a sharing site.

You can limit access to specified users when you share any of these versions.

Nearly all presentations are customized to some extent; that is, the presentation contains material exclusively for the particular audience/situation.  This is generally good practice even though it complicates the handout.  You may need to touch up your companion document or provide a supplement.

Occasionally, someone may want a “copy of your presentation” in order to present it to someone else.  In sales, for example, your “champion” may want to present your proposal to his management.  Although you might suggest that one of the variations above (e.g., the kiosk version) be used rather than “re- presentation,” you have will probably have no choice but to provide your PowerPoint file although you may want to edit for the particular situation or to accommodate the presenter.  I hope you will be able to coach your “champion!”

A final dire warning: NEVER provide a handout to your audience before your presentation.  Since it is inevitable that someone will read ahead, this is a sure way to distract your audience and kill any story line you have developed.  Repeat, NEVER.

(This post was inspired by Ellen Finklestein’s post here.)

How to create image transition effects

Clients sometimes suggest that I should “morph” something into something else as a way to dramatize a change or transition.  This is a useful idea but PowerPoint does not support a true morph effect that seamlessly changes one object into another.

However, there are a couple of ways to simulate this kind of transformation using animation effects:

• Position one variation over the other and use an Exit effect on the overlayed object to reveal the second object.    You can also use an Entrance affect to “cover” the original object.
• Position one variation over the other as before and use simultaneous Exit and Entrance effects to reveal the second object.

Here is a snapshot of the results; the upper transition uses the Wedge effect and the other uses Dissolve.

You can look at the video called “Image Transitions” at http://www.pptcraft.com/pptcraft_downloads.htm to see these effects in action or contact me at konrad@pptcraft.com to get a PowerPoint version.

These effects work best when the objects are about the same size and shape.  Try a transition between different shapes to see what I mean.

Here are some other ideas (demonstrated in the video referenced above):

• Focus effect – prepare a blurred version of a photo using separate image processing software, overlay the original, sharp image and use an Entrance effect on the sharp image.

You don’t have to have PhotoShop to create the blurred image; I use Corel Paint Shop (about $40) and there is freeware available.  PowerPoint 2010 also has a built-in blur image function.

A snapshot:

• Experiment with other effects – Wipe or Blinds, for example.
• Blur out effect – reverse the process to transition from sharp to blurred and then apply an Exit effect to both images.

You can use this technique with native PowerPoint objects (drawings); convert the objects to pictures first.

• Create grayscale-to-color transitions.  Experiment with high-contrast or low contrast grayscale images.
• Transform text or WordArt – change “failure” into “success.”
• Use multiple transitions to create a “3-2-1” countdown.
• Use slower timings to make the effect more obvious.

Breaking Out: Nonlinear PowerPoint

One of the raps against PowerPoint is the inexorable presentation of slides, from slide 1 to the end, without variation.  The audience (and, often, the presenter) feels trapped in this unstoppable sequence.

The linear presentation of ideas may or may not be appropriate but it is clearly a bad idea to lock yourself into an invariable sequence, ignoring your audience needs or responses.

Prezi, a cloud-based “zooming” presentation tool, is lauded for its non-linear capabilities; see prezi.com.

Aspire Communications (aspirecommunications.com) promotes “relational presentations” incorporating navigation.

On-screen navigation in PowerPoint allows the presenter to select specific sequences in the presentation, reacting to the pre-determined profile or actual behavior of the audience.  You can always select slides in advance of the presentation; obviously this is a less responsive approach.  It is also possible to exit slideshow mode and select slides to be shown but this is clumsy.  Presenter View (with multiple monitors) also allows the presenter to select slides and modify the order of presentation but this can interrupt the flow of your presentation.

Navigation works by associating hyperlinks with objects on the slides.  During slideshow mode, the presenter can click on the object and execute the link.  Links can be internal to the presentation (i.e., to a specific slide) or to an external file or web page.  This is precisely like navigating on a web page and is familiar and natural to most people.

CAVEAT: The presenter must use an actual pointing device to click on the linked object.  An “air mouse” (with motion sensing technology) can be used but a “wireless presenter” that only has “next slide” capability will not allow the presenter to click on a specific object on the slide.  You could also use a desktop mouse but this is clumsy when you need to present to several people with a large monitor or projector.  Googling “air mouse” will yield several models appropriate for a presentation situation.

Obviously, your client should understand this need and be willing to use (and practice with) the air mouse.

Let’s consider a practical example.  Suppose you want to show your sales prospect some success stories involving customers that are similar to the prospect (sounds like a good idea).  Your company serves several market segments (healthcare, education and hospitality, for example) and your prospect happens to be a hospital.

Here’s the idea: present a “logo swarm” of your customers, organized by market segment. By clicking a specific logo – a hospital like your prospect’s – you navigate to a success story sequence, including juicy testimonials.  At the end of the sequence, you return to the swarm and select another example.  Your prospect sees a company he is familiar with and asks about that one; you respond by showing the success story (luckily, he picks one that you have a story for).  Following this discussion, you move on to the next part of your presentation.

Here’s how this looks diagrammatically:

Here are the details:

• We want a company logo on the “swarm” slide to be a link to the first slide of the corresponding story sequence.  This is easy: select the logo, select Insert/Hyperlink and pick Place in this Document and the appropriate Slide Title.  This link will work even if intervening slides are inserted later on.  It’s also a good idea to fill in the Screen Tip so the presenter knows he’s picked the right logo before he clicks.

To test, pick Slide Show and mouse-over the logo.  The cursor changes to a finger and the screen tip appears. Clicking shows the first slide of the story sequence.

If the finger icon doesn’t appear, your presenter should recognize that no story exits for that customer.

• You can use the normal click order to present the slides in each story sequence.
• On the last slide in the sequence, create an object (a small oval, for example) and insert a hyperlink as above pointing to the swarm slide.  Remember, any object can be a link so you can make the linking object unobtrusive (it’s not part of your message!).

Fill the object you use for a link; otherwise, only the outline (and any text in the object) will be “active” as a link.  The fill can be partly or completely transparent (invisible) and still work.

It’s a good idea to put a “return” link like this on every slide in your story sequences.  This lets the presenter return to the swarm slide whenever she needs to.

• On the logo swarm slide, add an “escape” link so that the presenter can continue to the part of the presentation following the customer section.

You should be aware of an odd relationship between navigation and animation in PowerPoint.  The first time you link to a slide, the animations on that slide work as expected. However, the animations do not occur in subsequent visits to the slide during the show.  Exiting slide show mode resets the animations.

I have no idea why this is the case.  If you are concerned about this, make sure that the slide is at least readable if the animations don’t occur.

You may have noticed the Custom Shows option in the Insert Hyperlink pane. Briefly, a custom show is a sequence of slides within the current file that you can define and name.  The idea is that you can create a “master deck” and use parts of it for specific purposes (e.g., a short sales presentation, a long one, an investor pitch or a partner briefing).  By setting up links on the first slide, for example, the presenter can pick the type of presentation appropriate for the situation. Another application is to create “details” custom shows that you can use if the audience wants (you guessed it) more details on a particular topic.

Access the custom show feature in the Slide Show tab (Custom Slide Show); use New… to select slides for a particular custom show.

Some additional notes:

• These techniques are obviously applicable for a “kiosk” application where the viewer navigates through a sales or instructional presentation.
• It’s important that your presenter practice with the navigation and the pointing tool.  Of course, rehearsals are vital in any case.
• Be careful when you update presentations with navigation so that you preserve the links and order.

Why PowerPoint is Brilliant!

The so-called intellectuals and military/industrial “leaders” are beginning to think PowerPoint is bad and they want to get rid of it!

For a recent example, see We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint by Elisabeth Bumiller, April 26, 2010, in the New York Times.

They’re dead wrong – PowerPoint is brilliant and here’s why.

You rule!

First, think of the presentation situation: you get to dominate the meeting!  It’s true!

Like a preacher, college professor or big shot executive, you get to stand up front, maybe with a lectern, and no one will tell you to stop!

Even if you loose control and the meeting degenerates into “an exchange of ideas” or “a meaningful discussion,” you can get control back again with your next slide.

And nearly everybody will stay until you’re done!  You can waste a whole afternoon!

You’re brilliant!

You really get to show off with a presentation.  You don’t even have to know the material!  Put it all on the slides and read it!  You’ll never get lost!

Don’t worry about editing – Put it all in there!  Nothing is more impressive than loads of stuff – it shows you’ve really been working hard!

Include all your best stuff, even if it’s not relevant.  This shows “outside the box thinking” and will really impress your boss.

This way, your presentation will be a good thick handout.

Be funny! Show your incredible sense of humor!  Comedy is easy and it will really lighten the mood.  Check out clip art! Dilbert is always good.

Gurus will tell you to use meaningful visuals – this is hard!  What does “meaningful” mean, anyway?  So don’t worry too much about visuals – you think in text, don’t you?

You can have fun with PowerPoint!  At work!

It’s much more fun to play with PowerPoint than to create a really “informative” presentation.  Besides, PowerPoint is really easy – your 9 year old can probably do it.

Don’t worry, nobody will restrict you.  There is no corporate control when it comes to PowerPoint – you can use cartoons and even music!

Here are a few tips:

• Fill up your slides – blank space is wasted space.
• Decorate your text with bullets – this can make it look organized, even if it’s not.
• Use a lot of bright color so people won’t be bored.   Check out the gradient presets – rainbows!
• For the same reason, use several different fonts – you probably have a lot of them you haven’t even tried.  Some of the script and decorative fonts are really great.   And try out WordArt.  Make your text really different!
• Check out all the really cool free backgrounds and stuff on the web.  Microsoft provides backgrounds and templates so you know they’re good.
• Animation is really fun! Use it at random to perk things up – there’s even a “random” animation effect.  And always pick from the “exciting” animation effect category.
• Photos of your kids or your car (or better yet, kittens) will add a personal touch and improve any business situation.
• If you show data, spreadsheets, etc., Use a lot to impress and make it small so you won’t have to answer questions.  More is more!
• Complexity is your friend – it shows how smart you are and inhibits those annoying questions.  Here’s an excellent example from those smart guys at the Pentagon:

The best thing of all is that presenting this way puts you right in the corporate/military/industrial mainstream.  Everybody does it!

And if there’s trouble, you can always blame PowerPoint – it made you stupid!

Why you need a wizard

Organizations of all sizes hire specialists for their website design and construction, sales and marketing collateral, and advertising.  Yet, it’s fairly unusual for a company to hire a presentation specialist, even for critical needs like selling products and romancing investors or potential partners.

I’ve heard several rationalizations for this:

• “Our presentations are fine.”
• “Presentations are not important in our business.”
• “My 9-year old can do PowerPoint – I’ll do it myself.  No big deal.”
• “Stella (an admin or ‘marketing person’) always does our PowerPoint.”
• “I just call that designer guy.”

In the first place, 98% of business presentations suck – and you know this.  Even though audiences are usually polite, nearly everyone complains about boring, deadly PowerPoint.  Maybe your competitor’s presentations are better than “fine.”

You’re the best judge of the importance of presentations in your business and it is perfectly reasonable that you may not use presentations in some activities.  But, make sure you remember investor pitches, board meetings, analyst briefings, webinars, conferences and trade shows.

The remaining excuses (DIY, Stella and the designer guy) come from the assumption that presentation development does not require any special skills and practices.  I beg to disagree; here are some ideas on what a specialist should bring to the party:

• A specialist should understand the dynamics of the presentation situation:  the speaker, the audience, the PowerPoint presentation and their multiple interactions.  Experts agree that a presentation is not a document; it is also not a brochure, ad or video.

Graphic designers often fail this test:  strategies based on print or web experience don’t usually create good presentations (although graphic design principles do apply).

• A specialist should recognize the symptoms of “Death by PowerPoint” and know how to avoid them.

The specialist should know the extensive literature available on this subject, much of which  is based on cognitive theory.

• The specialist should be able to use both halves of his or her brain – analytic to understand your enterprise, its products, your strategy and your business environment,  and creative to present your message engagingly.

• The specialist should be demonstrably fluent in PowerPoint and know how to select from the hundreds of PowerPoint features and effects to create effective, painless (maybe even entertaining) PowerPoint presentations.

Take another look at your presentations.  And who creates them.

Background Checks

Is your presentation dull and uninteresting?  How about a spiffy new slide background?  They’re available from hundreds of sources on the web (including Microsoft) and are sometimes free.  Or you can hire a designer to build a custom background, using your corporate “look and feel.”

Will this save your presentation?  Is this even a good idea?   I don’t think so.

Here’s what’s wrong with typical commercially available or “custom” backgrounds (I have collected some examples below):

• Irrelevant and/or distracting graphics – If the graphics don’t contribute to your message, they become noise and degrade your message.

Commercial backgrounds have to be fairly generic; this leads to clichés like pictures of money for financial applications, images from nature (clouds, waterfalls, etc.) or abstract geometric objects (spheres, “swoops,” etc.).  Although these may be attractive, they don’t add anything to your message.  And remember, these will appear on nearly every slide and can quickly become boring.

Even background graphics that are relevant to your business (e.g., trucks for a transportation business) quickly become noise through repetition.

• Clutter – Obtrusive graphics can make it difficult to add slide content (your message!) without contrast or color problems.  It is often difficult to make your slide content clear against the space occupied by a colorful background graphic.  Typically 15% and up to as much as 60% of the available slide space is obscured in this way.

This problem may force you to make your content smaller and less legible to your audience – a bad thing.

• Color conflicts – the color(s) of the background will dominate the slides but they may not be consistent with your corporate scheme.  However, some commercial backgrounds are available in a range of colors.  A custom background should be consistent with your scheme.

I’m purposely using the term “background” which is only part of a “template” or “theme” which include color scheme, fonts and other things as well as the background(s).  Some themes or templates available on the web are not complete and may only provide a couple of master slides.

I think the reason for these problems is that graphic designers are inclined to create “eye-catching” designs as they would for print or web applications; this is clearly NOT what you want for your presentation background.  The content of your slides should not be obscured or overpowered by the background.

Of course, you need some unifying elements so that your presentation looks like it was designed and not cobbled together from random bits and pieces.  I’ll give you my thoughts on this after I show you a few examples of typical commercial and custom backgrounds.

By the way, the background on a particular slide is determined by: (1) the background on the Master Slide plus any objects on the Master Slide, and (2) the background on the Layout (e.g., Title, Blank) for that slide, plus any objects on that Layout.

(Maybe this deserves another post…)

Examples – Commercial Designs

These examples were, unfortunately, easy to find; they resulted from an hour or so of browsing sites that sell “templates” or offer them free.  Typically, you get a title slide design and one or more content slide designs.

For the most part, these backgrounds may include attractive graphics but also demonstrate the problems described above.

Gears

This set is offered in a “business” category and features a gear motif which is presumably meant to represent industry; title and content slide layouts are included.

The graphics are attractive but irrelevant (unless you sell gears) and obscure nearly 30% of the slide space on the content slide.  Note also how the blue color dominates the slide – this may not be consistent with your color scheme.

Abstract

This is a similar approach except a more abstract graphic is used; this may be less distracting than the gears – or maybe more boring.  The faded graphic relieves the obstruction slightly but about 20% of the space is still obscured.

Atomic Bomb

This is a particularly bad example; at least two thirds of the space is obscured and the images are irrelevant (unless you’re selling atoms).

Right or Left Bar

This has become a cliché; a graphic forms a vertical bar at the left (or right) margin.  If you want your presentation to be quickly forgotten, this is a good way to start.

The image is distracting and more than 20% of the space is obscured.

Top and Bottom

This is also very common – the background consists of a “banner” and sometimes a similar image at the bottom of the slide.  The geometric image is probably irrelevant and the design obscures about 25% of the available slide space.

Her Face

There is probably nothing more distracting than an image of a person’s face.  In this example, eyes will be drawn to the woman’s face (not your content) until it has appeared a few times – and then it will be boring.  The image obscures about 30% of the space.

This is an example of a design that might work well for an ad or a web page – not a background.

Mob Madness

This is a terrifically bad and awful example, even if it’s free; your content has no chance against this background.

Under the Rainbow

This design obscures more than 30% of the space and is ugly, to boot.

Greenie

This would be very difficult to work with.  Even if you could tolerate the color, the slide space is obscured by distracting graphics.  Also, the medium color value (not light, not dark) makes it difficult to get clear contrasts.

Corporate (Custom) Designs

These have been selected from the web and represent designs custom-made for corporations.  The content has been intentionally blurred.

Transportation

This represents a common approach: a composite image representing operations and attributes of the company (a transportation company), along with the corporate color scheme.   The title slide is workable but the content slide is about 15% obscured by a distracting image.

Racy

I’ll bet the corporate marketing guys loved this one – it’s aggressive and manly.  What the racing scheme has to do with anything is anyone’s guess; the racing theme is not related to the content. This is an enterprise software company.

The images are distracting and, for the content slide, obscure about 15% of the space.

Extravaganza

This is a graphic designer’s masterpiece and a corporate extravaganza.  There are faces and even a butterfly in there!

The content slides are 24-28% obscured.  Multiple content backgrounds are provided to allow a little (but highly restrained) variety.

Banner

This is the banner cliché – the banner obscures 14% of the slide (I don’t know what the image in the corner is supposed to be).

Neat and Clean

This is a nice try – very clean, non-distracting appearance.  Unfortunately, 40% of the slide space is unavailable for content.

Observations and Guidelines

These backgrounds are not going to save a boring, vacuous presentation.  And you shouldn’t want to give up 15-50% of the space available to you to deliver your message (unless you really don’t have anything to say).

Concentrate on your message, how to present it, and design (or have designed) engaging, compelling slides, not backgrounds.  Use consistent color schemes, fonts and graphic styles to achieve unity.

For backgrounds, use a full size gradient (ranging from two relatively close values) with no graphics.  The gradient is not as flat as a solid color but the gradient should be subtle.  Use gray or one of your corporate colors.  Use light or dark values – mid-range values make it difficult to achieve contrast with slide content.

Your company or client will probably insist on including the corporate logo on each slide; put it at the lower right corner to balance the slide title which you put at the upper left.  Make it as small as you can but still legible.  Leave as much space as you can for content – that’s what matters.

The title, content and logo arrangement is suggested by the “Gutenberg diagram;” see Universal Principles of Design, Lidwell, Holden and Butler, Rockport Publishers, 2003.

Use a small slide number for reference, especially during the design, but try to avoid dates, privacy notices and other irrelevant texts on the background or slide master.  Here’s an example – a nearly blank slate:

Since your slides will be filled with exciting and engaging images rather than repeated irrelevancies, boredom will be minimized.

Size Matters: Scaling Points and Inches

Some PowerPoint measurements are in “points;” examples are text/font sizes, line widths and shadow offsets.  Other measurements are in inches (shape dimensions, for example).  You can’t change this (surprised?) – you can’t decide to specify line width in inches, no matter how convenient this might be.

Different Strokes

These two kinds of measurements behave differently when scaled (when you change the size of an object); basically, point measurements do not change when scaled.  I have no idea why this is the case; I reluctantly refrain from Microsoft bashing.

You can see what this means in this example:Notice that the text, line width and shadow offset do not change when the original object (a group) is resized.  The effect may not bother you for small changes (unless you really want one object to look like a smaller or larger version of the original).  The 50% and 25% examples show what can happen for larger changes.

To scale precisely, launch the dialog box under Size in the Format/Tools tab and set the size or percentages.

Fixes

To fix the text scaling, the Text Box Autofit option to Shrink text on overflow looks promising; this is what happens for our example:

This helps the text (except when enlarging) but, of course, the other elements are not scaled.

Another approach is to convert the object to a bitmap/raster format before scaling.  This will obviously scale all aspects of the object properly.

Use Copy and Paste Special to convert the object.

Here’s the result after conversion to PNG:

Obviously, the scaled version cannot be edited but it is not difficult to edit the original and convert it.

What about JPG or GIF?  Here are those conversions (a red line is shown behind each converted object):

First, JPG doesn’t support transparency so there is always a white (or other) box around the object – this creates layout problems because a JPG will obscure other objects (see the red line above).

Although GIFs support transparency, the PowerPoint conversion is flaky – note that the red line is not visible through the semitransparent shadow and there is a white “halo” around the object.

What’s wrong with editing the scaled object to change the line width, etc.?  Nothing except time.  I just finished a presentation that had about 25 icons (PowerPoint objects) that had to appear in two sizes.  Converting to PNG saved a lot of time, even with some re-edits.

Zoom, zoom

Both inch-measured and point-measured attributes scale properly when the object changes size when animated.  However, there are other problems.  This will be the subject of another post.

A Question of Color

Your presentation will appear more unified and professional if you consistently use “theme colors” (“color scheme” in PowerPoint 2003).

“Theme colors” are shown in the top row of the color selection panel; the idea is that you will select these colors for consistency as you build your presentation.

An array of variations of the theme colors are presented below the theme color row – more about this later.

Microsoft and others provide tons of advice on color and a bewildering array of predefined theme color sets; I’m sure you can find hundreds of other choices on the web.

But how do you decide what colors to use?

Your guess is as good as mine on how to choose one of these predefined schemes.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to define your own theme colors; of course, you still have to pick colors.

In the face of these difficulties, I have developed a formula that works pretty well for the work that I do.  It may help you, too, or at least provide a starting point.

My Biases

I am pessimistic about theories that assert an inherent link between emotions and colors, and some authorities agree, saying that individual reactions to colors are largely determined by cultural background and context (for another view, see colorvoodoo.com).

Often, color likes and dislikes are intensely personal, usually because of a past experience.  Your boss or your client may be a victim of this.

I find it hard to create a consistent look using 6 or 8 different colors (hues) – so I am inclined to work with a small number of hues and variations on those hues.

I do serious business presentations for others.  Fortunately, this usually makes the color problem easier since the company will likely have a complete “look and feel”/branding scheme which includes color guidelines based on one or a few colors.  Even small companies without explicit guidelines often have a logo, website, and printed collateral that reflects a color scheme.

Your client or company may even have a standard PowerPoint “template” although it may not include a consistent color palette.  My experience with existing “standard” corporate templates has not been good.  I’ll discuss issues with templates in another post.

So, for your company or a corporate client, you need a palette that is consistent with the corporate scheme and is flexible enough for variety and emphasis where needed.  I suggest you try my recipe and then create your own variations as you gain experience with it (just like cooking).

Theme Color Basics

The Colors button on the Design tab includes the Create New Theme Colors… option at the bottom of pane; this pane will appear:

There are 10 colors available:

Text/Background Dark 1 and 2
Text/Background Light 1 and 2
Accent 1 through 6

Two additional colors (hypertext and followed hypertext) are available for definition but these are not available in the top row of the theme colors pane.

PowerPoint 2003 provides 8 colors in a “color scheme,” similar to the theme colors.  The recipe given here can be applied (with obvious changes) with PowerPoint 2003.

The variations presented in the color selection pane (below the theme colors) are created from the theme colors by varying the luminance by certain percentages, relative to the luminance of the associated theme color.  These are occasionally useful when you need a color with a slight contrast to one of the theme colors (for example, a shadow or gradient).

For creating and adjusting colors, the HSL (hue, saturation, luminance) color model is more intuitive than the RGB model.

Theme colors are used automatically by PowerPoint for various objects, ranging from simple shapes to SmartArt and WordArt objects and charts.  For the more complicated objects, a range of “styles” are offered, using the theme colors in different variations. In all cases, you can change the colors automatically selected by PowerPoint.

The Recipe

Companies typically have one or two corporate colors that they use with white, or occasionally black.  The basic recipe assumes two corporate colors:

1. Choose pure black for Text/Background Dark 2 and pure white for Text/Background Light 2.  I have found that I always need these colors, so put them in the palette for convenience.
2. Choose a dark gray for T/B Dark 1 (e.g., HSL = (51,51,51).)  Choose a very light gray (248,248,248) for T/B Light 1.

These are the default colors for dark text on light backgrounds and light text on dark backgrounds.  Using these grays rather than the pure black and white for text is a little more elegant to my eye.  You may not agree.

1. Set Accent 1 and 2 to the corporate colors.
2. Set Accent 3 and 4 to variations of the two corporate colors.  You can increase the luminance to “lighten,” adjusting the saturation if the color is too bright.  Occasionally, if the corporate colors are light, you will want darker (less luminance) variations.  Make sure these colors are clearly different than the base colors.  You can use these colors and remain consistent with the overall scheme.
3. Set Accent 5 and 6 to colors that contrast (usually opposite on the color wheel) with the corporate colors. These colors will be used sparingly as accents.  If possible choose both a dark and light accent.

Examples

Here’s an example based on a client (see Acme logo) with blue and green corporate colors.  The two corporate colors are included along with a lighter (higher luminance) version of each.  Red and orange are high contrast accent colors.  Of course, the accent colors will be used sparingly.

The background in these examples is a light gray gradient.  The subject of backgrounds will be treated in another post.

Here’s a more subtle variation that replaces one accent color with a lighter shade of the corporate blue, and selects a bright green for the remaining accent:

Here’s a very restrained version that uses only variations of the corporate colors:

Here’s a variation for single corporate color (blue) – I added grays and a third variant of the corporate color, along with a contrasting accent.

Use these ideas as a starting point and don’t be afraid to modify the theme colors as you work through the early stages of presentation design.  Don’t select theme colors and get them approved without trying them out.

Caveat

Try your scheme with the end display device. What looks good on your desktop or laptop may look a lot different on other devices, particularly portable projectors.  If your target device is a computer or TV display, you’re probably in good shape.  Projectors, on the other hand, may have problems accurately producing particular ranges of colors, particularly near the red end of the spectrum.