Presentation software

Presentation software
***- Presentation software CONTENTS: Presenting information is an important skill Introduction and general guidelines for developers of presentations Creating charts Specialized presentation software (and Microsoft PowerPoint in particular) Creating a scientific poster Presentations through the WWW or through an intranet

***- Presentation software Presenting information is an important skill

Some types of presentations in science
***- Some types of presentations in science Live presentations supported by a series of projected slides Series of slides made available through an intranet or through the WWW Live presentation and discussion with a printed poster as starting point

Why are presentations and presentation skills important?
***- Why are presentations and presentation skills important? To present / report activities or findings or suggestions to superiors or colleagues To educate / train / teach people (for instance in science, use of information, applications of computers…) To explain your ideas / work / activities / projects To convince other people of the value of your ideas To ask for opinions To ask for support / co-operation / contributions / …

***- Presentation software Introduction and general guidelines for developers of presentations

Media for presentation: overview
***- Media for presentation: overview Overhead projection of transparencies Slide shows (using classical, hard copy 35 mm slides) Direct computer-controlled projection ...

Media for presentation: transparencies
***- Media for presentation: transparencies There are various types of plastic transparencies for overhead projection: For writing with suitable pencils For Xerox machines (can resist the heat in the machine) For laser printers (can resist the heat in the machine) For ink-jet printers (ink sticks well on the rough side; see that the printer prints on the suitable, rough side!) Price goes up!

?? Question ?? 8 ***- Which types of transparencies do you know?
Can you distinguish them? How much do they cost in comparison with each other?

Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 1)
***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 1) What is the aim of the presentation? What are my main points? What are my sub-points? What is my conclusion? What is the summary? Which questions from the audience can I expect and which answers should I give?

***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 2) Who will be my audience? What size will be my audience? Which kind of visual aids will be useful? What handouts will be useful? Which is the appropriate language and terminology for my audience? Where will I do the presentation?

***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 3) Will the following be available in the room: a whiteboard, a flipchart, an overhead projector, a slide projector, equipment for projection directly from a computer… ? Can the room be darkened well enough for projection?

***- Planning an oral presentation: a brief check list (Part 4) Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse,… Be totally familiar with your introduction. Test also on the pc + projector that you will actually use in the real presentation to avoid lost images wrong fonts (in particular symbol and icon fonts) a video included in a slide is not projected …

13 **** ?? Question ?? Which is the most common, classical structure of papers and presentations in a scientific environment? ANSWER: Introduction Problem statement etcetera…

?? Question ?? 14 **** Which structure will YOU use in your
dissertation presentation slides

Live presentations: some tips (Part 1)
***- Live presentations: some tips (Part 1) Show confidence. Know that to feel nervous is to be human. Channel your adrenaline into positive energy. Breathe deeply before you start your presentation. Look at the audience and pause before you start to speak

***- Live presentations: some tips (Part 2) Concentrate on your message, not on yourself. Stand erect. Begin with a powerful introduction to catch the attention of your audience; for instance: Present an agenda/summary slide that lists the key-points of your presentation Ask a question Excite Tell a story OR: present your conclusion to start with

***- Live presentations: some tips (Part 3) Apologies are NOT needed. S p e a k c l e a r l y. Speak with authority. Use some silent pauses. Look at everyone. Deliver the message with dynamism; use movement to maintain attention.

***- Live presentations: some tips (Part 4) Do NOT look at the projection screen. Use humor if possible. End with a powerful conclusion, challenge or appeal.

19 *--- !! Task - Assignment !! Use suitable and cheap transparencies with suitable colour pens and prepare 1 transparency for a short live presentation. (No computer involved.) Tips: write readable text and exploit colour ink pens.

!! Task - Assignment !! 20 **-- Read Lee, I.
Presentation tips for public speaking. [online] In A research guide for students. Available from:

Software packages that are useful for presentations
***- Software packages that are useful for presentations To create transparencies: (Word processing programs) Presentation software packages! To create hard-copy slides: For direct computer-controlled projections: (Hypertext editors + WWW browsers)

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: readability (1)
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: readability (1) Keep texts short. Use less than 10 lines of texts on a slide, because people hate reading long texts and listening at the same time. Use maximum 3 levels of headings per slide. Like this heading at level 2 for instance And like this and the next heading at level 3 This is just another example of level 3

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: readability (2)
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: readability (2) Create your slides so that they are well readable even when printed or copied smaller and in black and white only This is important for instance for printed handouts.

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: bullet points
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: bullet points Use bullets or numbers to start each item in a text list. Use a contrasting colour for the bullets if possible. Do NOT use bullets as well as numbers on the same line, like in 1 blablabla 2 more blablabla 3 even more blablabla Do NOT start a title with a bullet

?? Question ?? Used in the first printed books. Very efficient. 25
**-- ?? Question ?? Black text with red bullets on a white background is a “classical” combination. Why? Used in the first printed books. Very efficient.

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: typography (1)
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: typography (1) Use fonts that are present on most computers, so that the slides can also be shown with the right, appropriate, correct fonts, using the fonts on almost any computer. Use large characters, so that the people in the back of the room can also read your message.

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: typography (2)
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: typography (2) Bold text is better readable in slides than normal text. (This is certainly so in the case of light characters or lines on a dark background.) Avoid a lot of italic text, because it is less well readable. Use maximum 2 fonts per slide.

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: contrast
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: contrast Foreground and background colours need high contrast for visibility.

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: contrast demo
***-Examples Some tips for developers of presentation slides: contrast demo Dark characters on a very light background Dark, bold characters on a very light background Light characters on a very dark background Light, bold characters on a very dark background Light characters on a light background Light, bold characters on a light background

?? Question ?? Consider: Readability
30 ***- ?? Question ?? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using -- light characters on a dark background -- dark characters on a light background Consider: Readability Beauty; how attractive is the result? Printing costs Robustness; resistance to water

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: tables
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: tables Use tables whenever possible, for instance when comparing systems. Use small tables; avoid detailed, big tables with small characters and numbers, because nobody will be able to read them.

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: enhancements
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: enhancements Instead of text, try to use whenever possible: flow charts, schemes, charts (pie charts or others), pictograms such as arrows to indicate a sequence, and J L

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: visualize
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: visualize Instead of writing, try to visualize your ideas and messages.

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: titles
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: titles Make the title stand out clearly from the body text lines. Do not use the same title on several slides, because this may confuse your audience. Instead, use variations or subtitles or insert terms like “continued” or “cont.” or “part 1” / “part 2” / …

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: the mouse
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: the mouse Try NOT to use the mouse during your presentation, because it may be distracting from your message. Instead, use simply the keyboard to show the next slide or to go to a slide with a specific number use your arm and hand or a long stick to point to some items on your slide

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: interaction
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: interaction Avoid a long introduction without slides. Interact with your slides. Point to a relevant element on a slide when speaking. See that your speaking correlates well with what you show on the projected slide.

***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: interaction Make clear to your audience the relevance of your research or in general the contents of your presentation, in particular in your introduction again in your conclusion In other words: Make a clear distinction between scientific research results and the relevance of those results and the conclusion(s)

***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: interaction Make sure that the audience knows you. Avoid reading from slides. Avoid speaking to slides. No apologies. Learn to navigate through slides (arrows etc…)

Some tips for developers of presentation slides: the final slide
***- Some tips for developers of presentation slides: the final slide Use the last slide well, for example: To repeat an important message or address To thank the audience To ask for something (for instance: a participation or a contribution or an approval or a comment) In other words: do NOT show an empty or meaningless or confusing or distracting screen during the final part of your presentation.

Thank you for your attention
***-Example Thank you for your attention Any questions?

41 **-- ?? Question ?? How should you set up a program for word processing in order to use it rather well for presentations directly from a computer with a projector? This can be useful for example to report clearly a text that is the result of a workshop/meeting. Before developing the presentation, change the page size so that the ratio corresponds to the typical size ratio encountered on computers (noted as 3x4 or ¾, for instance 600x800 pixels ). During the presentation, -- remove window borders = full screen display of the text area -- remove disturbing formatting marks such as spaces and end of paragraphs -- use big characters --use outline view to show the structure of the text

42 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! If YOU have to prepare a workshop or tutorial with slide presentations, then you can learn how to do this better for instance by having a look at a set of concrete, practical documents in the form of computer files that form a manual that is available free of charge.

!! Task - Assignment !! 43 ***- Read the following article:
Bourne, P.E. Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations [online] Available from: doi: /journal.pcbi [cited 2007]

***- Presentation software Creating charts

!! Read !! 45 **-- Read How to display data.
Freeman, Jenny V., Walters, Stephen J., and Campbell, Michael J. How to display data. Blackwell, BMJ Books, 2008. 1. Introduction to data display 2. How to display data badly 3. Displaying univariate categorical data 4. Displaying quantitative data 5. Displaying the relationship between two continuous variables

!! Read !! 46 **-- Read Matthews, Jane R. and Matthews Robert W.
Successful scientific writing. (Third edition) Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008, 239 pp. 3. Visual support for the written word 4. Visual support for the spoken word

Charts and data display are important
***- Charts and data display are important Charts are in many cases needed in a Printed report / document / paper Printed poster Digital report / document / paper, offline on a computer or distributed by or on the WWW… Presentation (series of slides)

Charts and data display: keep it simple
***- Charts and data display: keep it simple Simplify. Simplify again. Mark the essential point(s):

Tips for developers of charts: programs to create charts
***- Tips for developers of charts: programs to create charts A new chart can be inserted and further created for instance in a document created with Microsoft Word, using Insert | Object | … in a slide created with Microsoft PowerPoint, using Insert | Chart

Tips for developers of charts: type of chart
***- Tips for developers of charts: type of chart Use a well suited type of chart to show your numerical data. For instance: Use pie charts to show proportion, such as market share.

Which chart do you prefer, to show the same data?
51 **-- ?? Question ?? Which chart do you prefer, to show the same data? Word processing programs work mainly with flowing text. Presentation programs work mainly with separate pages or slides. In other words: contents normally determines position in word processing, whereas in presentations, the position is decided by the user. In other words: word processing programs are document oriented, while presentation programs are slide/page oriented. As a consequence, presentation software allows the user more control over transitions among slides, about sounds accompanying transitions, changing the position of a slide in a presentation,… For instance: compare print preview in Word with a view on all your slides in a presentation in PowerPoint; then PowerPoint is much more convenient to rearrange the show and to insert extra slides. Also: slide transitions flying bullets

Tips for developers of charts: 2 versus 3 dimensions
***- Tips for developers of charts: 2 versus 3 dimensions Use simple 2-dimensional charts instead of more complicated 3-dimensional charts, if possible.

Tips for developers of charts: bar chart or line chart?
***- Tips for developers of charts: bar chart or line chart? Make a good choice between line and bar charts, when you want to represent a change over time. or ?

54 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Prepare the creation of a slide, using a simple sheet of paper and colour pens or pencils: the slide should present 1 chart/graph that shows both the average temperature at noon and the average rainfall/precipitation for the 12 months of the year, for the place where you live. (In this exercise, not the exact data are important, but the way they are presented.)

55 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Create a slide using some computer program, with 1 chart/graph that shows both the average temperature at noon and the rainfall/precipitation for the 12 months of the year, for the place where you live. (In this exercise, not the exact data are important, but the way they are presented.) Advice: make a chart of the type “combined” with 1 line chart and 1 bar chart combined in one chart Why should line charts be preferred for temperature and bar charts for rainfall? (because the rainfall is additive, for instance the rainfall during all the months gives you the rainfall during the year; this is NOT so for temperature.)

56 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Improve the readability and impact of a chart that you make, for instance by choosing appropriate colours for lines or bars and characters, by choosing related colours for related lines or bars and characters, by choosing appropriate colours for the background, by adding symbolic icons, in the case of a line chart: by showing or not showing data points with bullets, in the case of a bar chart: by adjusting the space between the bars by smoothing line charts (when the individual data points are not important while they may make your message less direct and strong)

Tips for developers of charts: importing a chart in a document
***- Tips for developers of charts: importing a chart in a document Chart created in program 1  Document created in program 2 Example: chart in spreadsheet program  poster created in a program 2 ?

***- Tips for developers of charts: importing a chart in a document Chart created in program 1  Document created in program 2 Method 1: Copy in program 1 and Paste special in document in program 2 as object still linked to program 1 so that efficient editing is still possible Advantages: Easy, fast Further editing within the chart is efficient Disadvantage: Formatting is not always preserved well.

***- Tips for developers of charts: importing a chart in a document Chart created in program 1  Document created in program 2 Method 2: Copy in program 1 and Paste special in document in program 2 as bitmap (in ping file format) Advantage: Easy, fast Disadvantages: Formatting is not always preserved well. Further editing within the chart cannot be done in program 2.

***- Tips for developers of charts: importing a chart in a document Chart created in program 1  Document created in program 2 Method 3: Use operating system with a print screen in program 1 and paste in document in program 2. Advantage: Formatting is preserved well. Disadvantages: Resolution is limited by the number of pixels on the computer screen during the print screen procedure. Further editing within the chart cannot be done in program 2.

61 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Assume that you have a number of outcomes/results of observations or experiments and that you make a partition of these in 3 parts: Part Q 12, Part D 39, Part P 23 Assume also that the sequence of the parts has no meaning. To display these results visually, create 1 chart that you can use well in a poster, in a slide and in an article that is printed with black ink on white paper. Make 2 printouts on white paper of the chart, one with black ink only and one with colours.

***- Presentation software Specialized presentation software

Presentation software packages for Windows
***- Examples Presentation software packages for Windows Presentation software strictu sensu: (Harvard Graphics) Lotus Freelance (part of the Lotus Office software suite) Microsoft PowerPoint 95, 97, 2000, XP=2002, (part of the Microsoft Office 95, 97, 2000, XP=2002, 2003 software suites) the module for presentations in Open Office, a freeware office software suite …

?? Question ?? Word processing programs work mainly with flowing text.
64 **-- ?? Question ?? What are the differences between a word processing program and a presentation program? Word processing programs work mainly with flowing text. Presentation programs work mainly with separate pages or slides. In other words: contents normally determines position in word processing, whereas in presentations, the position is decided by the user. In other words: word processing programs are document oriented, while presentation programs are slide/page oriented. As a consequence, presentation software allows the user more control over transitions among slides, about sounds accompanying transitions, changing the position of a slide in a presentation,… For instance: compare print preview in Word with a view on all your slides in a presentation in PowerPoint; then PowerPoint is much more convenient to rearrange the show and to insert extra slides. Also: slide transitions flying bullets

65 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! When you prepare a slide show, move to slide sorter view and copy a slide to another place in the show as the basis for an additional slide.

Presentation software packages: learning to use them (Part 1)
***- Presentation software packages: learning to use them (Part 1) Ways to learn using presentation software: computer-assisted introduction / tutorial / instruction coming with the software package!! in-context hypertext help built into the software package! books or chapters of books, about the software package manual and documentation for the software package …

Presentation software packages: learning to use them (Part 2)
***- Presentation software packages: learning to use them (Part 2) computer-assisted introduction / tutorial / instruction available online Usenet groups about the program: for instance, about Microsoft PowerPoint: news:microsoft.public.powerpoint

68 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Have a look at the computer-based tutorial for the presentation software that you will use. For instance a tutorial about PowerPoint is available from (in the form of a PowerPoint show file),

69 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! If you are not satisfied with other methods to learn PowerPoint, you can have a look at a tutorial about PowerPoint that is available free of charge through the WWW:

70 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! If you are not satisfied with other methods to learn PowerPoint, you can study a book such as How to use Microsoft PowerPoint (Visually in full colour) by Daffron, Susan C. Indianapolis : SAMS, 1999, 290 pp.

Tips for developers of presentation slides: icons
***- Tips for developers of presentation slides: icons Try to insert a small image (icon) or a border on each of your slides, that symbolizes / summarizes the contents of the presentation. Note: in most cases the result will be better when the logo is placed IN the corner and not NEAR the corner.

Tips for developers of presentation slides: logos
***- Tips for developers of presentation slides: logos In your title slide, insert a logo or a few logos that refer to the organizations / institutes / universities /... that you are associated with. Use an existing, official logo as it is; in other words: do not change its colours, shape…

73 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Learn to select clip art and to insert it in a slide.

Tips for developers of slides: frames
***- Tips for developers of slides: frames Avoid unnecessary frames/borders on the slide, even when these are suggested by the program that you use, because the border of the slide already serves as a frame for your message.

Tips for developers of slides: frames demo
***- Tips for developers of slides: frames demo This slide shows/demonstrates that a frame on a slide eats up space that cannot be used anymore to show your message and text.

Tips for developers of slides: images
***- Tips for developers of slides: images Use images or photos instead of text, or together with text, whenever possible.

Tips for developers of slides: image example
Example of a photo + text in a suitable colour, inserted in a slide: Fishes on the market

**-- !! Task - Assignment !! Make or find relevant photographs or images. If they are not yet in digital format, then digitize them. Save the data to files without loss of information.

!! Task - Assignment !! **-- Select a digital photograph.
Crop it. Improve its quality. Save it as a file from which we can derive photos to insert in a presentation afterwards.

**-- !! Task - Assignment !! Select a big, detailed photo that is already made usable, and resize it to use it as a background covering a whole slide. TIP: Work for the number of picture elements that will be used normally to view the slides: crop to a ratio 4/3. Then resize. Insert the resulting file in your presentation file. (Do not use your presentation program for resizing, because this may decrease the sharpness.) Put some text on top of this photo background.

**-- !! Task - Assignment !! If Microsoft PowerPoint XP (2002) or a more recent version is available to you, then check that you can save a presentation file that contains a picture with Save as | Tools | Compress picture… to compress the file resulting in a file with an appropriate quality and size.

Tips for developers of slides: templates for slides = slide masters
***- Tips for developers of slides: templates for slides = slide masters Try to avoid modifying the formatting of each individual slide in a presentation. Better: improve the template slide = slide master, on which your presentation is based Advantages: Less work for you More uniform / consistent formatting

Tips for developers of slides: working with a slide master
***- Tips for developers of slides: working with a slide master Improve the layout of the slide master if required in View | Master | … (Do NOT edit the contents of your slides in this view.) Edit the contents of your slides in View | Normal. (Avoid editing the layout of your slides in this view.) Slide show !

84 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Get some experience with switching from normal slide view to viewing the master slide.

85 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Get some experience with editing the master slide.

86 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! When you prepare a slide show, switch to slide view and try to find or create a better template = master slide, for your presentation.

Tips for developers of slides: motion and transitions
***- Tips for developers of slides: motion and transitions Effects are possible: Motions / animations can be added to the contents of a slide. Transitions from one slide to the next can be animated. A sound can be added to slide transition. Keep all these effects to a minimum; use them efficiently and effectively only.

Tips for developers of slides: motion and transitions
***- Tips for developers of slides: motion and transitions The differences among the many programs and hardware set-ups that may be used to show your slides, make that a completely perfect show with complicated animations is unlikely. Therefore, consider to use a simple sequence of slides that give the impression of a motion or building-up, instead of a ‘real’ animation in 1 slide.

Example of a poor-design- slide
89 ***-Example Example of a poor-design- slide The slide title is not placed well. A colour background may result in too much gray when printed. There is not enough space in front of the text on this slide. There is no margin on 1 side of this slide, so that text falls off this slide. There is no logo on this slide. Animation effects can be distracting!

Another example of poor-design- slide
90 ***-Example Another example of poor-design- slide This following lines can be improved: This line is in a different colour, without reason. This line does not end with a full stop, but all other lines do The size of the characters in this line is different. The character font in this line is different, without reason. Italic text is not well readable in this line.

91 *--- !! Task - Assignment !! Use a program for word processing or presentation software to prepare and to print 1 black on white master and use this to make 1 transparency to support a presentation, using a Xerox photocopy machine.

92 *--- !! Task - Assignment !! Create 1 colour transparency using a presentation program and a colour inkjet with suitable (expensive) transparencies.

!! Task - Assignment - Exercise !!
93 **-- !! Task - Assignment - Exercise !! Create a new presentation or choose an existing one. Choose a movie/video file, for instance from the WWW site ; save this movie/video file to your computer in the same folder as the one where you keep your presentation files and insert this movie/video in a slide of your presentation, so that a frame of the movie/video is visible on the slide and so that the video can be started in the slide by clicking. With most software packages, such as Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, the video information is not really inserted into the presentation file, but only a link is made. Therefore keep the movie/video file always together with the presentation file.

94 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! Try to find an animation or video file that is interesting, relevant, suitable for your presentation; insert this in a slide of your presentation.

95 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! Create a slide show for direct projection from a computer, using a presentation program.

96 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! When you have created a slide show, print an audience handout for every person in your audience.

97 **-- ?? Question ?? What is the difference between the file formats created by Microsoft PowerPoint, that have the file name extensions .PPT and .PPS?

98 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! Activate a .PPT file directly from the operating system (NOT using the program Microsoft PowerPoint) Do the same for a .PPS file. Observe the difference.

99 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! Practice using a .PPS file for your presentation. (That is better than starting your presentation in editing mode with a .PPT file.)

100 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Learn to navigate in your presentation slides with the program that you will use during the projection: moving forward AND backward moving to a the slide with number N moving back to the starting slide at the end

101 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Test the projection from the computer that you will use for your presentation. Match the resolution on your computer with that of the projector. In case of a notebook pc: learn about the key combinations that trigger the projection in the particular pc that you use.

102 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Practice your live presentation with the slides that you have prepared. See that there is a clear correspondence between what you explain and what is shown on the slide that is projected at the same time.

Williams, Simon Perfect presentations. (PowerPoint tips.) Personal Computer World UK, November 2003, pp

Wall, Terry PowerPoint pitfalls that can kill an audience’s will to stay awake. [online] Available from: [cited 2005]

Paradi, David When technology fails, be ready. Available from: [cited 2005]

!! Task - Assignment !! 106 ***- Read: Stein, Karen
The dos and don’ts of PowerPoint presentations. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 2006, pp

!! Task - Assignment !! 107 ***- Read: Lagendijk, Ad
Survival guide for scientists: writing – presentation – . Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2008, 260 pp. Part 1: Writing guide for scientists Part 2: Presentation guide for scientists

***- Presentation software Creating a scientific poster

Tips for developers of a poster: follow guidelines
***- Tips for developers of a poster: follow guidelines Follow many of the guidelines for writing a scientific paper and developing slides to support a presentation

Tips for developers of a poster: follow the instructions
***- Tips for developers of a poster: follow the instructions Follow the instructions of the organisers of the event/conference, mainly regarding the orientation of the poster (portrait or landscape ) the dimensions of the poster

Tips for developers of a poster: the title
***- Tips for developers of a poster: the title Consider using the title of a poster to state the conclusion of the investigation/work/research/study, rather than the process of what was done.

Tips for developers of a poster: mention the purpose
***- Tips for developers of a poster: mention the purpose After using your poster in a poster presentation at a conference, you may want to show the poster also in another place (such as the wall of your laboratory or office). Therefore consider to mention the original purpose of the poster ON the poster. For instance: name, place and date of the conference where the poster was used.

Tips for developers of a poster: avoid long lines
***- Tips for developers of a poster: avoid long lines Avoid long lines of text that are hard to read; for instance, like newspapers do: Avoid long lines by using 2 or 3 or 4 short columns. Insert frames, boxes.

Tips for developers of a poster: frames / boxes
***- Tips for developers of a poster: frames / boxes You can give each box a different pastel colour background. You can choose the colors so that they follow a well-known sequence, such as the rainbow. In this way you indicate in subtle way also a sequence, for instance from Introduction to Conclusion. You can link boxes with arrows, again to indicate a sequence or a flow or work.

Tips for developers of a poster: shadows
***- Tips for developers of a poster: shadows Let each box throw a (virtual) grey shadow on the underlying paper, to create a 3-dimensional effect. Watch out: combining fills of frames that are partly transparent with shadows does not work well, as the shadows under characters and frames that should be invisible become partly visible due to the partial transparency.

Tips for developers of a poster: readability on paper of small size
***- Tips for developers of a poster: readability on paper of small size In some cases, posters are printed by the conference organisers at a smaller size (A4 or letter format) and only black on white (that is without colours) in conference proceedings. Therefore, try to create your poster in a program that can create a file suitable for the editor and printer of such a type of proceedings in portrait, not in landscape in such a way that is still readable, usable and attractive in the reduced format

Tips for developers of a poster: computer programs
**-- Tips for developers of a poster: computer programs To prepare a poster, you can use a computer software package for Word processing Desktop-publishing Presentations ! Graphics …

Tips for developers of a poster: prints
***- Tips for developers of a poster: prints Prepare and print 1 big poster with an expensive, special printer, or prepare and print several smaller pages (for instance A3 format with a more affordable printer) and assemble these pages to a poster. A0 = 2 x A1 = 4 x A2 = 8 x A3 = 16 x A4 A4 = 210 mm x 297 mm A3 = 2xA4 = 2x210 mm x 297 = 420 x 297 mm A2 = 2xA3 = 4xA4 = 420 mm x 2x297 mm = 420 mm x 594 mm A1 = 2xA2 = 4xA3 = 8xA4 = 2x420 mm x 594 mm = 840 mm x 594 mm A0 = 2xA1 = 8xA3 = 840 mm x 2x594 mm = 840 mm x 1188 mm

Tips for developers of a poster: software page-setup
**-- Tips for developers of a poster: software page-setup If you use software to prepare the poster, then go first to File | Page Setup (in most cases) and fill in the size of the paper and margins that you will use.

Tips for developers of a poster: templates
**-- Tips for developers of a poster: templates For big 1-page posters, some PowerPoint templates can be downloaded free of charge from [accessed 2005]

Tips for developers of a poster: working on the screen
**-- Tips for developers of a poster: working on the screen Realize that the poster will be much bigger than your computer screen. Therefore: Avoid using low resolution pictures (for instance copied from the WWW) that will be printed large. Look at your work on the screen at a high magnification once in a while. Realize that in most cases a display size of 100 % as indicated in your program does not correspond strictly to the size that will be printed.

Tips for developers of a poster: printing
**-- Tips for developers of a poster: printing Some print services prefer that your file is converted to a PDF file and that this is used to realize the printout. Warnings: Not all programs convert to PDF well. For instance: PowerPoint 2003 may not convert PPT to PDF well, while PowerPoint 2007 does convert the same file well to PDF. A file that is displayed well on the computer screen is not always printed out well, even when the same program is used.

!! Task - Assignment - Exercise !!
123 **-- !! Task - Assignment - Exercise !! Test the meaning of 100 % size in your program by comparing it to the size of a printout. For instance, choose a page setup for A4 paper and a display size of 100 %; then compare the size of the virtual paper on your display with the size of a real A4 sheet of paper.

!! Read !! 124 **-- Read Wolcott, Thomas G.
Mortal Sins in Poster Presentations or How to Give the Poster No One Remembers. [online] Available from: [accessed 2007]

!! Read !! 125 **-- Read Erren, Thomas C., and Bourne, Philip E.
Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation. [online] Available from: [accessed 2007]

!! Read !! 126 **-- Read Davis, Martha
Scientific papers and presentations. Academic Press, 2005, 356 pp. 14. Communication without words 15. Visual aids to communication 16. The oral presentation 17. Poster presentations Appendix 13. Sample slides and slide set Appendix 14. Oral presentations at meetings

!! Task - Assignment !! 127 **-- Read
Matthews, Jane R. and Matthews Robert W. Successful scientific writing. (Third edition) Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008, 239 pp. 3. Visual support for the written word 4. Visual support for the spoken word

***- Presentation software Presentations through the WWW or through an intranet

Making presentations available through a web: introduction
***- Making presentations available through a web: introduction A presentation in the form of a series of slides made by a presentation software package like Microsoft PowerPoint can be made available (can be published) through a local web (an intranet) or through the WWW

Making presentations available through a web: how does it work?
***- Making presentations available through a web: how does it work? The software package allows you to save (convert) a presentation file in a more suitable format for this method of publishing: HTML files + linked graphics files + linked multimedia files +…

Save a presentation in a web version.
131 **- !! Task - Assignment !! Save a presentation in a web version. Then look at that presentation, using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (or a more recent version) as a viewer/browser (and NOT PowerPoint or another presentation program).

Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: how?
**-- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: how? Microsoft PowerPoint 97 allows saving a presentation as an HTML file, with each complete slide in the form of an image that is stored as a GIF or as a JPG file, with a high fidelity.

Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: advantages
**-- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: advantages J The user does not need the full PowerPoint program or a program to view a PowerPoint file, but can view the presentation with any web browser! A table of contents is provided automatically in a frame to the web browser. Graphical user interface elements are offered to the user automatically such as a button for: Show next slide.

Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: far from perfect (1)
**-- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: far from perfect (1) L When users save slides as JPG file, the characters become less sharp. Slides with PowerPoint animations can NOT be saved and hinder saving of slides further in the presentation file. The resulting presentation takes more disk space than the original presentation, as text is converted to images in GIF or JPG format.

**-- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: far from perfect (2) L Images or parts of the text on a slide can NOT be copied and pasted from the web browser window to another document. The full text of the slides is available for indexing by search engines. When a search engine has indexed the text of a presentation, the slides can be retrieved by using that search engine, even through the WWW, BUT ONLY in a text version without graphics, which can be confusing.

**-- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 97: far from perfect (3) L The saved web version can NOT be saved back in the original PowerPoint file format. Working hyperlinks can NOT be incorporated in the slides. …

Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : how?
***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : how? Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 and more recent versions allow saving a presentation as a set of HTML/XML files, using one of various methods, to be selected in the program.

Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : options
***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : options A screen capture of the various options for saving/converting/publishing:

Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages
***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages J The user does not need the full PowerPoint program or a program to view a PowerPoint file, but can view the presentation with a web browser! The resulting slides are resized together with the window of the web browser! (if the appropriate option has been chosen before saving the slides in HTML/XML format)

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages J The slide show can be seen with a browser in full screen mode, that is without distracting window frame and buttons of the browser! A table of contents is provided automatically in a frame to the web browser. Graphical user interface elements are offered to the user automatically for Show next slide, Show full screen,…

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages J Viewing a large presentation with slides in HTML/XML format is less difficult than downloading the corresponding file in the classical PowerPoint file format, when a small network bandwidth is a problem. The reason is that the HTML version consists of many files that are each smaller than the single corresponding file in PowerPoint format.

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages J Notes added to slides by the author of the presentation can be shown in the web browser window under each slide. Parts of the text or images on a slide can be copied and pasted from the web browser window to another document.

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages J Working, active hyperlinks can be incorporated in the slides. + Broken links can be detected with Microsoft FrontPage working with the slides that form part of a FrontPage web.

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages J The full text of the slides is available for indexing by search engines that index html files. So when a search engine has indexed the text of a presentation, each slide can be retrieved by using that search engine, even through the WWW!

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : advantages J Summarized: When you work in this way, you use PowerPoint as an advanced program for the creation of web documents.

Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations
***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations L In our experience, making a presentation available through the WWW or an intranet offers a high and acceptable fidelity, when the option is chosen to save in a format that is only suitable for the Internet browsers Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or higher.

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations L Saving for other browsers than Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or higher, for instance for Netscape browsers, results in slides that can indeed be viewed with Netscape, but in which text and pictures are placed in a different way in comparison to the original PowerPoint presentation. This should be avoided in most cases.

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations L Even when an acceptable method is used, the result is not ideal. For instance: When the window occupied by the browser is small, the characters take too much space and they are not well integrated in the slide. The relative sizes of characters can be distorted (for instance the size of the characters in the title can show up smaller than those in the body of the slide).

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations L A computer works slower with the web version of a presentation than with the proprietary, normal, classical Microsoft PowerPoint PPT or PPS file formats. Not all users are able to download the web version to their local, personal computer system. For downloading, file formats like the more classical PowerPoint or PDF work better.

***- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations L At least up to PowerPoint version 2003, in the case that presentation is made in the proprietary, specialised PowerPoint file format and converted to an HTML-version, then the transitions from one slide to the next do not work in the same way as in the original presentation and not as nicely. For instance: smooth fades are not smooth anymore.

**-- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations L At least up to PowerPoint version 2003, in the case that presentation is made in the proprietary, specialised PowerPoint file format and converted to an HTML-version, and if background music was present, then this can be lost.

**-- Presentations through the WWW with PowerPoint 2000,… : limitations L A presentation in PPT or PPS file format can be contained in only 1 file. However, in HTML/XML format the presentation data are spread over many files. This makes storage, management and transfer to a web server more complicated and slower.

153 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! Now that you have learned more about slides coded as HTML/XML, look closer at a presentation created with PowerPoint 2000 or a more recent version, using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or a more recent version as a viewer/browser (and NOT using PowerPoint). Check that you can look at the table of contents and at the slides full screen.

Warning: Do not confuse this with editing and saving XML files.
154 **-- !! Task - Assignment !! When you have created a slide show, use your presentation program to publish a version to your web site in the form of a collection of files, including files in HTML/XML format. Warning: Do not confuse this with editing and saving XML files.

155 **-- ?? Question ?? What are the advantages of making a series of presentation slides available through the WWW or an intranet as a number of HTML/XML pages, plus images, and not simply as one file in a PowerPoint file format.

Presentations through the WWW: conclusions
***- Presentations through the WWW: conclusions Powerful method to make series of presentation slides available to create web pages that are adapted well to the limited size of a video display Not simple to achieve acceptable results; not yet perfect. J L

157 ***- ?? Question ?? Which file formats can be used to make a series of slides available through the Internet and the WWW or through an intranet? Ppt Pps Html / xml with microsoft schema for powerpoint slides Pdf New microsoft format since 2007 based on xml + compression

Presentations through the WWW: alternatives
***- Presentations through the WWW: alternatives Directly as PPT or PPS or similar single file (and simply create a link to that single file) Save for web site as a set of many smaller files (and make link to basic start-HTML/XML-file) “Print” or “Save” as PDF file (and simply create a link to that single file) Check setting of quality of the conversion to PDF; higher quality gives also a larger file; make a compromise.

Presentations through the WWW: tip on file sizes
***- Presentations through the WWW: tip on file sizes When images, sounds, videos… are part of the presentation, then keep their file size small, so that downloads through the Internet / WWW are fast. More concretely for images: use appropriate file formats like GIF JPG with an appropriate degree of compression, taking into account that more compression gives lower quality (This is less important in a live presentation directly from a computer without download from a server.)

160 ***- !! Task - Assignment !! Convert a presentation that you have created to a PDF file. Check the conversion settings in the program that you use. Check the size of the resulting file and the display quality.

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