1. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Preparation of Effective PowerPoints PowerPoint tips for inexperienced speakers and those with lots of experience too.

2. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Acknowledgements The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has reproduced, in part, this educational PowerPoint presentation, with the kind permission of Peter Greenhouse, Susan Butler and Pacific Coast Reproductive Society

3. American Society for Reproductive Medicine The following slides may be of some assistance to those who are preparing their first, or 100 th, presentation. You’d be surprised…

4. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Please Note: ACCME compliance requires all presentations contain a disclosure slide. Additionally, please refrain from using company trade names, logos, or institution logos.

5. American Society for Reproductive Medicine PowerPoint tips for inexperienced speakers and those with lots of experience too. There are few hard and fast rules about what makes a good presentation. Yet, most people know when they’ve seen one, and have switched off shortly after the start of a poor offering. Your presentation style is an extension of your personality and creativity. The most important rules are: 1 – Keep it short 2 – Make it legible. The following slides may help to illustrate some pitfalls and potential improvements to aid legibility and assist the flow of the talk. Some of the points are a matter of personal taste, but most are self-explanatory…

6. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Beware: Conference rooms can be up to 110 feet deep, so small, or indistinct, typefaces, charts with large amounts of numerical data, or graphs, with very thin lines, will not be legible from the back of the room.

7. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Lighting varies, room to room and venue to venue. Keep in mind a light background, with contrasting type, will work best under most conditions. Backgrounds:

8. American Society for Reproductive Medicine a Very Boring Slide Let’s start with…

9. American Society for Reproductive Medicine DON’T do this…

10. Very Boring Slide Lots of text or technical information In very small, serif typeface With poorly contrasting colours Difficult to read from the back of the room Solid block of text appearing all at same time Only one minor point worth emphasizing Almost impossible to spot the relevant bit Laser pointer waving vaguely… revealing severe hand tremor from nervous speaker Let’s start with a… NB: Don’t use red text against a blue background (red lines are OK)

11. American Society for Reproductive Medicine an Even Worse Slide Now here’s…

12. American Society for Reproductive Medicine DEFINITELY… DON’T do this!

13. Even Worse Slide This slide has even more text than the previous slide. No attempt has been has been made to précise the sentences by removing the definite or indefinite article or excising unnecessary verbs. The sentences spill over the lines creating ‘orphan’ words (as shown above) taking up more space and decreasing legibility. Is there anything MORE annoying or distracting than having the bullet points fly in? The slide has been written in an even smaller serif typeface. This black on white ‘Times’ typeface is almost impossible to read from halfway down the room. It would be unimaginably tedious if the speaker then proceeded to read the entire slide verbatim !!! By now, the audience has gone to sleep or is reading the next speaker’s abstract – especially if their first language isn’t English. A laser pointer is virtually invisible when projecting at distance on a white background – but nobody’s looking by now anyway… Now here’s an…

14. American Society for Reproductive Medicine a Slightly Better Slide And now… Remember: The room could be too dark for a black or blue background…

15. Slightly Better Slide Precise sentences wherever possible Avoid ‘orphan’ words by condensing text to fit single line Increase typeface size Don’t bother with full stops Fancy slide transformations & fly-ins distract severely Simple ‘appear’ or wipe down / across is neater Don’t read quotes on slides if you can avoid it because…audience will be seriously annoyed – especially if their first language is English If you MUST use white on black (NOT PREFERABLE), dark red contrasts best Slightly (Not Much) Better Slide

16. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Less Boring Slide And an even…

17. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Less Boring Slide Brighter background Better contrasting colors Line spacing appropriate to page Most relevant part highlighted Brighter background Better contrasting colors Line spacing appropriate to page Most relevant part highlighted Less text Sans Serif typeface

18. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Even Less Boring Slide Another…

19. Another Less Boring Slide Less text Larger, sans serif typeface Better contrasting colors Condensed text where needed to fit Most relevant part highlighted

20. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Graphic Presentations Alternate… The following two slides contain the same information. One is legible, the other is not… Can you tell which is not?

21. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Cases of gonorrhoea seen in GUM clinics England and Wales, 1918 to 1998 Original Source: PHLS Slide Set

22. Gonorrhoea (E+W) 1925 - 2000

23. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Present Graphics Effectively Present Graphics Effectively Other ways to…

24. SEXUAL INFECTION Feel - WELL See -NOTHING Partner - SAME Had it before you met? Fancy slide transformations (eg. the following ‘checkerboard’ pattern) are only useful when words, or a diagram, are very similar, with different text – such as in translation Fundamental point of information in health promotion about STI* *from: Greenhouse P. Destigmatising sexual health clinics Brit J Sexual Med 1996; 23 (5): 12-16

25. Tubal Damage Vaginal Abnormal Discharge Bleeding Pre-menopause Hormonal Milieu Infection

26. Tubalni Šteta Vaginalni Abnormalno Iscjedak Krvarenje Pre-menopause Hormonalna Sredina Zaraza

27. American Society for Reproductive Medicine DON’T… read your slides DON’T… read your slides A tip… rather, look at your audience, while you elaborate on the content.

28. American Society for Reproductive Medicine DO... know your slides DO... know your slides Another tip… duplicate a slide, instead of scrolling back to refer to a previously viewed slide.

29. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Two Ways to Finish Two Ways to Finish In conclusion…

30. American Society for Reproductive Medicine DON’T do this…

31. American Society for Reproductive Medicine Don’t try to write the full text of your conclusion on the slide. Please don’t read your conclusion verbatim from the slide. Don’t spend ages thanking all your co-workers by name as in an Oscar acceptance speech– a simple credit slide at the beginning or end will do. Do practice the talk & its timing in front of colleagues Do précis data & text on slides wherever possible Remember – you’ve only got 35 or 45 minutes Get a colleague to think of some difficult questions & work out brief answers yourself. If you don’t know the answer – just say so! It’s a great way of disarming the questioner & you can move on to the next point quickly… Don’t fly text in… Don’t cram too much onto one slide… Don’t follow all this advice to the letter…!

32. American Society for Reproductive Medicine DO do this…

33. Better Conclusion Slide Summarize with bullet points Don’t read from slide Don’t use full sentences on slide Speak full text over slide bullets Finish with most significant finding …or raise an unanswered question

34. Finally Leave a blank slide at the end to help the switch-over to the next presentation Like this…

35. American Society for Reproductive Medicine We appreciate any suggestions, or additions, to this presentation that you think will improve the learning experience and the quality of faculty presentations. Please e-mail suggestions or comments to pfenton@asrm.org Please e-mail suggestions or comments to pfenton@asrm.org