BRITISH ORTHODONTIC SOCIETY

A Guide to Better Computer Presentations

Computer applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint are commonly used to present information in an attractive and entertaining way. This guide will hopefully help both the novice and the experienced user to produce high quality presentations rapidly. We have used Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 with a PC as our reference point throughout. Mac users might find things differ. However, the advice can generally be applied to other presentation software packages. It is not our intention to produce a manual on how to use PowerPoint. There are tutorials supplied with the software, as well as several excellent books available to guide you. We will however suggest some areas to look out for, to avoid making errors.

Getting Started
PowerPoint has several levels of help to get you started:Auto Content Wizard

Use this if you have not used the programme before, or you are still not confident about how to make a presentation. This will guide you through setting up a presentation from scratch.
Template

A template is a pre-designed layout available in PowerPoint to eliminate the worry of choosing the correct text size, font, background colour, etc. They are excellent for people who are familiar with presenting, but dont have the time or the artistic skills to design their own layouts. Do not be tempted to alter the colour or format of text from that specified unless you are confident you know what you are doing. The colours have been specifically chosen to avoid any problems for people with poor colour perception.

How should I display my presentation?

There are two methods of displaying your presentations; either by producing a slide that is displayed in a slide projector or by presenting directly from the computer. Nowadays the latter is increasingly being used. Therefore, this guide will concentrate on techniques to improve computer projection. However, many of these concepts are equally applicable to the production of slides.

Data projector presentations

When using data projection from a computer, you must use a different format to that of slides. In PowerPoint this is done by selecting File and Page Setup, then selecting On-screen Show from the drop down menu. This will give you the correct format for data projection. Also remember to set the view to Landscape; this is the only orientation data projectors can use.

How many slides should I use?

A presentation is made up of separate frames, called slides, each containing a small amount of information. The number of separate slides in a presentation is limited by the time allotted to the presentation of the paper and the material being presented. A presentation containing lots of text, tables and graphs will need fewer slides than one containing clinical slides. A general rule of one slide per 30 60 seconds is usually sufficient. If you prefer to follow a manuscript then ideally it should be typed, with double spacing. For a ten minute paper it should not exceed four sides of an A4 sized paper.

How much text should I use?

Text slides are appropriate for introducing the objectives of a study, for definitions or quotations and for a summary or conclusion. Keep to one plain font for all text. Limit the title to a maximum of six words. Use no more than six or seven lines of body text. Use the size, font and colour of text suggested by the template chosen. Keep within the limits of the text size suggested, do not overcrowd the slide with text. Progressive disclosure or highlighting of text, statement by statement, permits a better synchronisation of the verbal and visual presentation. This will improve the effectiveness of the communication between a lecturer and the audience. The presentation of such a sequence of slides takes no more time than would otherwise be required for the audience to read (and understand) the complete text from a single slide, however do not be tempted to overdo the animations, with text flying in from all directions and making your audience dizzy. This also applies to computer presentations, with the additional facility of being able to select several methods of animating your text. TIP: If you cant get all the text you want on one slide at 20 point size, you have too much text! Edit it down further still, or break it down into more slides.

How should I insert a picture into the presentation?

Pasting a picture image or graphic into a PowerPoint version before 2003 will increase the file size because they cannot compress these objects. It is better to save the image as a JPG or other file type and use Insert; Picture; From File. Once the image is in Powerpoint, you can

copy and paste it to other slides within the same or other presentations. In fact, doing this can help keep your file size down. PowerPoint 2003 has the ability to compress any image and dramatically decrease the file size. To do this choose Format; Picture, click on the Picture Tab then choose Compress. You are given various options for compressing some or all the images in the presentation and whether to choose Web/Screen or Print resolution.

How can I make my pictures look good?

If you are going to display your presentation directly from the computer the picture image size (in pixels) is more important that the resolution as expressed in DPI (dots per square inch). If you want the picture image to fill the slide, then the image size (in pixels) should equal the computer's video resolution. You can find out the video resolution of the computer by clicking Start; Control Panel; Display then clicking on Settings.

If the computer is set to a display size of 1024 x 768, (1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels high) then a full size image needs to be the same number of pixels to obtain the best quality. If you plan to fill half the screen in width and height then the image needs to be 512 x 382 pixels. Size the images correctly in pixels in some imaging software such Adobe Photoshop before inserting them into the presentation. If you're creating a presentation that'll be viewed as a screen show on a different computer, your images should ideally be sized to match the resolution of the computer you will use to display the presentation. In other words, if you'll play the show on a computer that is set to display 800 x 600 pixels and you have sized your full size images to 1024 x 768, this will increase the size of the file, might slow down the presentation, but not improve the quality of the show. For best results the display resolution of the computer and the projector should match. These rules do not necessarily apply when printing the slides.

Displaying Other Information

How should I present statistics?

A table, or figure, designed for a written publication is, as a rule, unsuitable for projection. The details are often too numerous and too complicated to be absorbed by an audience during the limited time the slide is shown on the screen. In addition, parts of the lettering or graph often become illegible when projected. Your statistics must therefore be prepared specifically for slide or data projection. The golden rule is to select and simplify your presentation. Each slide should cover one, or at the most, two points. Slides should be cleared ruthlessly of data not pertinent to the presentation. One complicated slide should be divided into several simpler ones. Arrange the statistics, graph or chart to fill most of the frame. Avoid filling up to the very edge of your slide or having lots of empty space. It is usually better to present information graphically rather than using printed text or tables.

What symbols, abbreviations and units should I use?

When possible and reasonable, statistics should be demonstrated on the slides by use of symbols, such as those listed below. Short pertinent comments on the statistical method and type of distribution etc. can be given during the verbal presentation. Use of personal symbols should be restricted and certainly explained clearly in the verbal presentation. Space may be saved and audience reading time decreased, by the use of well known or logical abbreviations or symbols. Some common ones are given below: N or n - number of patients, samples or experiments P or p - probability (please try to quote actual p values) Mean and variability of observations - state on the slide whether variability is indicated 5

as one or + one standard deviation (SD), one or + one standard error of mean (SEM), confidence limits or range. R - correlation coefficient.

How should I display tables?

Limit the number of columns and lines on the slide and make sure that only data relevant to the subject of your paper are included. State the statistical significance when possible by indicating actual p values in a separate column. The Microsoft Office Suite has several methods of helping you produce tables. Get to know them and make full use of them, they will save you a lot of time. Once you have produced your table you can copy it and paste it over into PowerPoint.
How should I display graphs?

Most graphs or charts can be created using Microsoft Excel, then copied and pasted into PowerPoint. There is a wide range to choose from including column, bar, line and pie. Once it is pasted in, you can resize your chart to fill the frame better. Use column charts to illustrate comparisons between groups, but limit the number of columns to between five and seven. Bar charts may be used in the same way as column charts to illustrate comparisons between groups. The horizontal orientation makes explanatory labels easier to print along the bars. Again, the numbers of bars should be limited to not more than seven. Colours or shading should be used to differentiate the columns from each other. To increase the contrast, the separation between columns (or bars) should be narrower or wider than the columns own width. Use line graphs to express changing relationships, especially changes against time. The graphs should have a limit of two or a maximum of three curves. The curves should be differentiated from each other by symbols, colours or both. The zero point of the axis and any breaks in the continuity should be shown clearly. Scales should be simplified and units indicated. When required, there should be a description at the end of the curve. The labelling of the X and Y should run parallel to the line of the axis. A description of the Y axis may be included in the title.

How should I display flow charts?

Flow charts should be used to illustrate successive stages of a procedure and for the interaction and balance between several variables. Some flow charts may, like text slides, benefit from progressive disclosure using the reveal technique as discussed later. Most simple flow charts can be made up in PowerPoint, utilising the organisational chart module.

How should I display cephalometric tracings?

Different colours should be used for tracings to indicate different stages. Commonly used 6

colours are:Black = pre-treatment Red = post-treatment Green = out of retention Titles should be in upper and lower case and no smaller than 32 point and a plain font (Univers, Arial or Times). The cephalometric values may be projected in table form. If the values are to be indicated on the tracing, they should be rounded off to whole numbers. The text size for the numbers should be no smaller than 24 point.

How should I save and transport my presentation?

If you are presenting in a different venue, you have three options for transporting your presentation:i. In the past presentation file sizes have been kept small enough to fit on a 1.4 Mb floppy disk; however these are becoming obsolete as more efficient media are being used and you should be aware that modern PCs will not necessarily have a floppy disk drive installed. PowerPoint has a useful Pack and Go facility for saving presentations that are too large for one floppy disk. Take your presentation on your own laptop computer to the venue (you will have to make sure your computer is compatible with their data projector). Save your presentation to a writable CD, Zip or USB Flashdrive and take your disk or drive and use it in the venue's computer (you will have to make sure your venue can handle these types of disk or drive).

ii. iii.

When displaying on a different computer you need to ensure that all your images, sounds, videos, etc. (except those from PowerPoint Clipart) that are linked with your presentation are located on the same directory as the presentation.

How do I make sure that my presentation works on another machine?

If your presentation looks different on different machines, then this might be as much to do with the version of Windows on the second machine, as with the version of PowerPoint. Don't create a presentation with critical timing on a fast machine and expect it to work the same way on lesser machines. If you have a video playing, don't add to the computers workload by having other animations happening at the same time. It's also a good practice to place a couple of seconds between slide transitions and the start of a video. You need to be careful with multimedia files. Microsoft uses the word "Insert" when placing a file into a presentation, so there is a tendency to think that the file has been inserted. Unfortunately this is not the case. The Multimedia file has been "linked" to the presentation and PowerPoint

looks for the place where it is stored. Be certain that you include any multimedia files along with the presentation (see also the later section My video does not play on another computer).

Should I use the animation?

When using a data projector and computer to present your information, you can sometimes improve audience participation by animating some of the elements. This can be done in PowerPoint by using the slide transition function. For example, if you have a chart with three categories represented by three different coloured columns, you could reveal each column, one at a time by the following route: Save four versions of your graph slide by selecting all the elements and copying and pasting them into blank slides. Convert your graph into PowerPoint objects. Only have the axis and title details showing on the first slide. Slide two will have column one showing. Slide three will show columns one and two and so on. To animate the graph only requires you to set a suitable transition time and wipe (for columns you would set a wipe from the bottom to the top).

Advanced Issues
What are embedded fonts?
Sometimes you can spend a lot of time preparing a presentation on one computer and find that it looks different when displayed on another computer. One of the reasons is that the font you used on the first computer is not available on the second. An embedded font gets over this problem because the font is part of the presentation. To embed a font you need to ensure that the font you are using is a TrueType (these have a little blue "TT" next to them on the font menu) and that it is Editable and Installable. To find this out you will need to install Microsoft Font Properties Extension, which is downloadable free from the Microsoft website. When this is installed, you can right-

click on a font and look under Properties. Font embedding only works on the PC (Mac users cannot embed fonts in PowerPoint, neither can they use fonts from a PowerPoint file created on a PC). Embedding fonts might also cause problems with older versions of PowerPoint (particularly 97). The main problem with embedding fonts is that they increase the file size of your presentation. The alternative to embedding fonts is to use common typefaces, such as Arial or Times New Roman that are present on most machines. To embed fonts first click File; Save As; Tools; Save Options Then click the Embed Fonts box.

How do I insert video clips into my presentation?

A clip can be inserted from a digital video camera, DVD or CD. Insert a blank slide before the slide where you want the clip. Open this slide then click on it. Select Insert; Movies and Sounds; Movie from File. Find your clip, select it and press okay. One of two things will happen. Either you will either see the first frame of your clip and you will be asked how you wish the clip to be played automatically when the slide is opened or when you click it with the mouse? The second thing that could happen is that an error message appears explaining that PowerPoint cannot support this type of file. Multimedia file formats that are likely to be found on most machines are the AVI format using the Cinepak codec or the (preferred) MPEG format for video and the Microsoft wav format for audio.

Troubleshooting
My video does not play on another computer
The video or sound clip is not inserted into the presentation, but the location of the clip is. This means that if you open your presentation on another computer without also including the clips, then the presentation will not be able to find the clips and cannot play them. The best way to prevent this is to burn all video clips and the presentation to a recordable CD. Then, just before giving your presentation, go back through and re-insert all clips, to make sure that the computer you will be giving the presentation on has all the correct locations. TIP: make sure you select and delete the clip from the PowerPoint presentation before re-inserting. Otherwise, you will have two copies of the clip stacked upon each other, making the presentation rather slow.

Why are my file sizes so big?

There may be a number of reasons why your file size is large. Embedded objects and fonts will increase the size of files, as will using image sizes larger than the display resolution of the computer (see How I can I make my pictures look good?). Dragging and dropping or pasting a picture image or graphic into PowerPoint will increase the file size (see How should I put pictures into the presentation?). Once the picture image is in Powerpoint, you can copy and paste it to other slides within the same or other presentations. Sometimes images and embedded objects can be hidden in other parts of the presentation e.g. the Slide and Title Master(s) or Notes and Handouts Masters. If you have an early version of PowerPoint (pre-97) this will create larger files because it will uncompress compressed images. Another tip to keep your file sizes small is to disable the Allow Fast Saves option. Choose Tools; Save Options (Preferences on the Mac). On the Save tab, remove the checkmark next to Allow Fast Saves (this will also avoid problems with corrupted files). If your file stills seems unreasonably large, choose File; Save As and save it again under a new name.

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Summary of basic rules for computer data projection?

1. Make sure you save an extra copy of your presentation if you are using floppy disks, just in case it develops a fault. 2. Check that your presentation runs in the correct order. 3. It is vital to arrange a complete test run well before the actual presentation. There may be an incompatibility problem, with the software or computers used at your venue. 4. Try to keep it simple. Do not be tempted to use too many pictures or graphics, as they can use up a lot of computer memory. This may slow down your presentation or could even risk the computer crashing. 5. If you are taking your own laptop computer to a venue check with the venue operator that it is compatible with their data projector. 6. If possible, take a back-up set of slides of your presentation, just in case the technology fails, particularly if your talk is to an outside organisation or is taking place abroad.

Bibliography
There are several good books and manuals on how to use PowerPoint:
Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Step by step courseware instructor guide By Steven Johnson, Published by Microsoft Press, Redmond, Washington. Creating a dynamite PowerPoint 2000 presentation By Grace Jasmine, Published by Hungry Minds New York.

There are also several useful websites about PowerPoint and tips on public speaking: http://einstein.cs.uri.edu/tutorials/csc101/powerpoint/ppt.html http://www.public-speaking.org/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The British Orthodontic Society is grateful to John Clark and Brian Lawson for producing the first edition of these guidelines.

Produced by the Development and Standards Committee of the British Orthodontic Society 2004 Guidance may change in the light of new developments.

Administrative Office: 291 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8QJ. Email: [email protected] Telephone: 020 7837 2193 Fax: 020 7837 7886. BOS is a Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England & Wales. Company Number 03695486

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