GUIDELINES FOR POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS FOR ALL PRESENTERS

Text Slides

• Sans-serif preferred font for PowerPoint slides (e.g., Arial, Calibri, or Tahoma)
• Font size of title fonts should be 44 pt. or greater
• Text fonts should be 36 pt. or greater
• Ideally, each slide should contain no more than 6 – 8 lines of text (excluding columns)
• Check color and contrast (don’t trust your monitor)
• Think large room, back row
• Avoid ALL CAPS, they are hard to read
• Avoid screenshots for highest resolution
• Don’t try to include too many slides into your presentation
• Give your audience time to read your slides

Graphs and Figures

• Clearly differentiate variables by a legend
• Minimize the coordinate lines: enough to be clear, but not too many to clutter
• Assure that scale is appropriate for data
• With multiple graphs, scale should be the same
• Indicate scale divisions, scale breaks, units of measure
• Create a clear and concise title
• Define abbreviations and symbols used
• Consider providing a printed copy of graphs and figures to attendees (coordination and copies are the responsibility of the presenter)

Issues to Avoid

• Slide transitions
• Busy slide backgrounds
• Chart filler patterns
• Over-crowding text
• Color schemes providing low contrast
• Charts without text descriptions