1. Making posters using PowerPoint These slides give you some ideas – they may not be the best slides ever but contain some ideas and techniques that may be of help! The first two are set up as posters might be, the last slide has some links to web resources.

2. PowerPoint techniques that might help. Put text in individual text boxes so it can be altered to wrap round pictures Avoid fully justifying text when it is in columns, some long terms may make the layout look terrible (especially if using 3 columns rather than 2). Switch on the ruler (from the View menu) and also use the guides to help line text boxes up. (If the guides aren't displayed, click Grid and Guides on the View menu and select the Display drawing guides on screen check box. ) Guides can be copied so you have two visible on screen, just drag on but hold the Control (Ctrl) key at the same time. PowerPoint also has an option called "snap to grid", this can aid alignment. Grids and guides are not printed so you can leave them on. You can override the "snap to grid" by holding the Alt key while moving objects. Pictures can be placed behind the text, perhaps after editing if they are from clipart. There is an extended clipart gallery online. Scanned pictures should be scanned at about the size they should be for the A4 version of the poster at about 300dpi and saved to disk in JPG format to keep storage space down. New text boxes can be created by dragging an existing one with the control key down or by clicking the "Text Box" tool and dragging in the poster. Pictures can be used in the background, first get the size right then select "Washout" in the image control, finally send the picture behind the text (Draw, Order, Send to back.)

3. 22-24 Point HEADLINE Your name 18 pt Work address 14pt Coloured backgrounds can work – but do check on a proof. Generally work in columns. Avoid fully justified text. Pictures need to be.JPG to keep file size down typically scanned at 300DPI Use guides to line up columns. use View, Guides and line to switch them on. Use File, Page Setup to change the size and orientation of the slide to A4 Portrait. HEADINGS 12-14 point BODY TEXT 8 OR 12 point Do this before anything else. You can zoom in to see a bigger view of your work. Typically for a projected PowerPoint we would go no lower than 18 point for a font size, but when creating an A4 poster to be printed at A1 or A0 we would go down to 12 or 14 point – it will be blown up when printed large.

4. A really good poster resource site can be found at; http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/CAPLE/poster/ http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/CAPLE/poster/ General ideas & Examples; http://www.biology.lsa.umich.edu/research/labs/ktosney/file/PostersHome.html http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/research/vt/postertips.html http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/Dept/Tips/present/posters.htm The link below is an in-depth resource about planning and making posters – looks very useful! http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Poster_Presentations/PstrStart.html To download this poster as a PowerPoint presentation go to; http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/hcs/teaching/ag/powerpoint/pptdownloads.html http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/hcs/teaching/ag/