Prof. Tamara Fudge's

How to Create
The Most Professional-Looking
PowerPoint Presentations

We've all seen PowerPoint presentations with dancing telephones going across the screen, fuzzy pictures of the neighbor's cat flashing on and off, and squirrelly-looking fonts (no insult intended to the rodent) that look like ancient hieroglyphics. These were obviously fun to create, but can be deadly to have to watch, and therefore this list has been created to help you find your way in the fascinating world of PowerPoint:

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Font:

• Keep it simple (no curly-cues!).
• Use only one or two font styles in the entire presentation. Some experts tell us not to mix sans-serif fonts like Arial (no "feet") with serif fonts like Times New Roman (which has "feet"). Whatever you do, make sure you use your font choices consistently.
• Make sure the font size is easy to read, considering the venue (live in a large hall or on a PC, etc.), and limit the amount of text on one slide for readability.

Color and Contrast:

• They say that readers might remember content better with black text on white background. That's too boring for most of us, but try to avoid pink on purple and combinations like that!
• Ensure dark / light contrast between background and text.
• Avoid red and green text. They say that up to 8-10% of all men and somewhere around 1% of women have some kind of colorblindness.

Content:

• Lists and incomplete sentences are fine as long as the intent is clear.
• Proofread for grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and accuracy of information no matter what the topic.
• Give credit to your sources! Use standard citations and reference entries when possible.

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