Save and open Making_Your_Points_With_Power.

We are going to explore visual learning and see how PowerPoint can be used in the classroom - and how not to use PowerPoint in the classroom..

• If your Office Assistant is turned on, watch for a light bulb to show in the Normal View. Click on the light bulb to view helpful suggestions that you are free to accept or reject.
• Cue up your presentation ahead of show time to know it works.
• In Slide Show view, press the b key to have the screen go black and the w key to have the screen go white. Repeat to bring the PowerPoint screen back. This works if you need to break during your presentation and answer questions. Sure beats putting a paper over the lens!
• Choose a background to match the lighting in the room where you will be presenting. For example, black or blue in a darkened room, white in a lightened room.
• Title should be larger than your name unless you are famous.

• Remember the 24 Karat Rule: A golden presentation uses 24 pt fonts and never less than 18pt.
• Notice the flat look of the default title font on this slide. On the next slides we simply make the title Bold and add Shadow to enhance default settings.
• Notice the plain default bullets. On the next slides we will dress them up a bit.

• Doesn't this look better?
• You want to be sure to introduce your presentation and introduce yourself.

• Change your presentation to fit your audience. A single presentation rarely addresses every audience's needs.
• A current date for your last modification can tell everyone that your information is recent and up-to-date or assembled in haste. An old date can say that you have been prepared for some time or your information is dated.
• And what is with that snowflake picture? Graphics should have a purpose, not take up space.

• Themes coordinate slide colors for you, but a PowerPoint author can make bad choices.

• Use colors with "pop" not "blur."

• Use colors with "pop" not "fuzz."

• Don't change colors just because you can. Use color for emphasis.
• Are you wondering how the next slide will transition? Strive for some consistency. For example, have every slide fly in from the left and add a different transition for emphasis.

• Sans-serif fonts are easy to read when projected.
• Maintain an aesthetic consistency when choosing fonts for a presentation.

• Serif fonts are easy to read in print (tracking), but hard to read when projected.

• Don't rely on specialty fonts as they may not be on the presentation computer. Word Art can be a solution.

• Squinting is very annoying. Don't you agree?
• Font size should be large enough (24 pt, not less than 18pt) to be read everywhere in the room.
• What looks good on your computer screen may not be good when projected.

• Each bulleted point should be a springboard for you to share more information. Keep your points short. If you fit everything on the slide, no one would be able to read it and you wouldn't be necessary.
• Putting too much information on a slide is a dead giveaway that you don't know what you're doing.

• Parallel structure means every bullet in a group begins with a verb or every bullet begins with a noun.
• If you have several bullets on a slide and you put them all up at the same time, the audience is going to read all of them when you're still talking about the first one.
• Use natural transition. Text drops from above or enters from the left.

• PowerPoint offers quite a variety of bullets. To keep with the consistency of your presentation, you should select bullets with colors that add to the theme of your presentation.
• Like pictures and images, you must be careful not to draw attention away from the bullet points themselves.

• Poor grammar and spelling errors detract from your message.

• Spell Check deosn't catch everything.

• GIF pictures are 8-bit color and cartoon-like while JPEG pictures are 24-bit color and photographic quality.

• Squinting isn't fun! Be sure your graphics can be seen from the back of the room.

• Better?

• Do you see a difference? Neither do I, but optimizing saves space and decreases load time.

• Go to Google and click on images.
• Sony Mavica is an excellent camera for educators because it saves to disk or CD.

• More is less.
• Don't overlap text and graphics.
• Use bullets.

• Readers can become focused when you add sound or they can be distracted.
• Sound and video files can be millions of bytes in size. They can slow down your presentation.

• Audiences are impressed the first time they see animated text, and sound, too, is a novelty. However, after seeing these tricks a few times, people quickly tire of them. Less is more in this case.
• Notice that Flying is set to "Hide on next mouse click." This can leave you without all of your information if questions are raised.

• Where is the title of this chart? What are the units along the left?
• Nice information but too cluttered. Let's remove the lines and go three-dimensional.

• Same graph "cleaned up." Better?

• Don't underline for emphasis. Users expect underlined text to link to the Web.
• Using live links puts you at the mercy of current Internet traffic, the speed of your connection, and the general operation of the site you wish to visit. Consider caching your site ahead of time.

• Bring closure by reviewing what you have accomplished.

• Some animated options will annoy your audience. To be conservative, stick with Appear, Fly Left, Peek, and Wipe Down.
• Leave a trail. Ask for feedback on your presentation.

• Add a copied slide that takes the audience back to the title page.
• Or, add a blank slide at the end of your slide show to prevent showing the "backstage" view of your slideshow.
• Press Esc to exit your PowerPoint presentation.