(By Eileen Fry,
download printable version in Microsoft
Word format
TEN BASIC RULES FOR MAKING IMAGES LOOK GOOD IN
POWERPOINT
1) Don’t
use any of pre-designed templates. USE A
BLANK PRESENTATION AND A BLANK LAYOUT
2) Use
a dark or black background. Most images
look best against black. Use FORMAT
BACKGROUND- APPLY TO ALL- to do this.
Black is not one of the popular colors, so go to “more” to find it.
3) To
make a text box, click on the icon AND THEN DRAW A BOX AND START TYPING. The box will expand to include whatever you
put in. You can change size, color, and style of text as you do with Microsoft
Word. You can make the boxes colored by using the fill bucket.
4) Use
a color for your text that will work on either black or white backgrounds, like
red, bright green, bright blue. Don’t
use fancy fonts, as other computers may not display them. Stick to Arial, Times New Roman, etc. Plain, sans serif fonts…
BASIC RULES FOR MAKING IMAGES LOOK GOOD IN POWERPOINT
5) Start
with the best and biggest images you can as LONG AS THEY ARE JPGS. Don’t use tiff images in Powerpoint, as they
can cause the program to slow down or freeze.
6) You
can make a big image smaller by grabbing a corner and moving it. Be sure to use the corner. Moving the top, bottom, or sides will change
the aspect ratio of your image and make it look distorted, but DON’T MAKE SMALL
IMAGES BIGGER THAN THEY ACTUALLY ARE.
This will make them very fuzzy.
The exception is that sometimes very large images will be inserted at
postage-stamp size. These you have to
enlarge. When in doubt about whether an image will look good when projected,
use your Slideshow icon to see how it will look to your viewers
7) You
can make many types of corrections to images in Powerpoint, cropping,
brightening, some color improvement, etc.
But you can’t sharpen an image in Powerpoint. For that you have to use something like
Photoshop, or Google’s new Picassa 2.
8) You
can put any number of images on the same screen. Try to think about the points
you actually want to make and create a screen that works best for each point:
single big images for important pieces, multiple images for concepts, big or
mutiple details, quotes, graphics to highlight particular areas, etc. As side-by-side horizontal comparisons are
the most difficult thing to do with a single data projector, use those only
when you are making true comparative points.
9) You
can repeat screens as needed. You can repeat elements in screens as
needed. You can use INSERT FROM FILE to
pull in screens you have created in other presentations and modify them
10) Don’t
be afraid to be creative with size, number and arrangement, but also watch out
for screens that are too cluttered.
Focus on the point you are making and the image itself. For large venues, like conferences, use large
images and simple screens. You can’t count on having more than ½ the screen
size you are used to