Guidelines for Creating PowerPoint Presentations

This information was forwarded by Diane Balkin (5/25/05) and came from Jim Dedman, Director of Academics, National College of District Attorneys, National Advocacy Center

General Presentations 

1. Use dark background; avoid light backgrounds.  The lighter backgrounds reflect a lot of light and create a problem of having the speaker standing in front of a brightly lighted screen.  The best backgrounds are black and very dark navy.  To get the best navy background select the darkest navy from the color palette, then select CUSTOM and move the slide down to an even darker navy.

2. Avoid template formats especially those with any images in the background.  The images create visual noise and present problems in video sessions.  Templates can also reduce the content surface area of the slide.  If a presentation is already in a template format, you can create a blank slide with the desired background (black or navy), then save that blank slide as a template rather than a ppt. file.  You can then INSERT the slides from the other template file into the blank template and have the desired result.  You save the blank template as “BLANK BLACK” and “BLANK NAVY” for future use.

3. Avoid any text animation especially any animation effect where the text moves onto the screen.  Most PowerPoint gurus remind us that the eye can’t focus on the text until the text comes to rest and the fastest effect in PowerPoint is one second.  They say moving text in bulleted-slide text boxes is a waste of audience time.  For video recording purposes, we don’t have split screen, so the video tech will not capture the animation.

4. Avoid clip art.  Sending a CD or a disc with clip art is sending the actual clip art which is a violation of copyright (the receiver now has a free copy of those clip art images).  Many PowerPoint professionals consider clip art to be unprofessional in most settings. 

5. With the black and dark navy backgrounds use contrasting colors for text or other designs.  Good colors are white, bold white, yellow, bold yellow, bright green, and bold bright green.  Sometimes Columbia or Cobalt (light) blue with work.  Absent special situations, limit content colors to two.  Use a second color rather than italics for emphasis.

6. Avoid any combination of primary light colors (red, regular blue, green).  Mixing primary light colors causes significant focus problems.

7. Be economical with content.  Try to limit bulleted points to 3 or 4.  Use a run-over slide for additional points rather than heap content on the slide.  Be economical with words by not using complete sentences—the slide should be consider as much a “cue” for the speaker as anything else and a simple prompt for the viewer.

8. Titles should remain at 44 points if possible.  Bulleted text should stay as close to 32 points as possible.  Going below 28 points presents a video slide more difficult to read from the back of some of the auditoriums.

9. Avoid serif fonts (Times New Roman, for example).  Serif fonts are superior for printed matter but can create visual noise around the text when presented.  Recommended fonts are Tahoma, Verdana, Arial MT Rounded Bold, and sometimes Comic Sans although this last font is less business-link.  The recommended fonts list above is not exhaustive, but consideration should be given to the projected quality and readability.

10. For video sessions all third party copyrighted material needs to be stripped out.  Much stricter copyright rules apply to “transmissions”.

11. Slide transitions are generally not a problem, however, the simpler transitions work better (dissolve, fade, etc.)

12. The video tech and the control room tech for the auditoriums should have a copy of the slide presentation.  If there are special nuances to the presentation, the speaker should discuss them with the techs (necessary animation to explain a concept, etc.).  Any questions about copyright should be discussed prior to the presentations or the filming.  The safest method is following the Fair Use Guidelines for auditorium presentations and not using any copyrighted material in the studio.