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PowerPoint Ninja/Chapter 5
From KMWiki
Design Golden Rules
- Guidelines are golden
- Use font sizes for print, not screen projections
- White backgrounds are good
- Leave 3D to the movies
- Yours is a business document not a Picasso
- Know your rulers and tabs
- Align and space are not four letter words
- Any electronic content can be elegantly integrated
- Clipart is for kids projects
- Thin is good
Rule 1: Guidelines are golden
You will have noticed in the pictures of the standard designs vertical and horizontal lines that showed the various zones and elements in the design. PowerPoint has a feature called guidelines, which enables you to place a series of vertical and horizontal rulers over your work which enable you to see these zones and easily align objects to them. You should always, always, establish guidelines when working in PowerPoint.
Pressing Ctrl-G display the guides. What you no not have known is that Ctrl-clicking on one of the guidelines and dragging then drags off another guideline for you to position - so you can have a series of guidelines on your page to make your life easier.
Rule 2: Use font sizes for print not screen projections
Ever noticed that newsprint, text in books and magazines, is never a huge size? In fact, newsprint is quite small, smaller in fact than most type that is produced from word processors. Generally speaking, the larger that body copy becomes, the harder it is to read. Huge fonts look great on screen but do not work in print for paragraphs of text that is meant to be read. Huge and unsuitable fonts are the number one problem with most presentations that are created in PowerPoint by non ninjas.
Body copy should be no larger than 12 point, and can be as low as 10 point print in a font like Times or Arial.
Your heading scheme (created in you master slide) should include standards for the major elements, and suggestions are below.
Slide 4.5: Actual PowerPoint slide. Using a white background and font sizes that are suited to print work and not screen projection quickly brings order to content.
Page heading Arial 12 bold/regular
Page message Arial 10 bold
Chart text Arial 10 - fixed
Footer text including page numbers Arial 8
Body copy (ie text boxes) Arial 10
Body copy heading Arial 10 bold
Rule 3: White backgrounds are good.
The second most common problem for non ninjas when using PowerPoint for print presentations is the use of dark backgrounds, or backgrounds with intricate graphics, for their slides. These dark backgrounds may be useful for projection onto a huge screen in a light controlled room, but dark backgrounds are a disaster for print work. Again, think about great books – are they printed on colored paper, or crisp white paper?
You should always, always set your background color for your slides in your slide master to white. Unless you have a very stylized and designed cover page for your document, you would also set the background of your title master to white as well.
Rule 4: Leave 3D to the movies.
PowerPoint does the capacity to add shadow effects to text, and shadows and 3D effects to autoshapes and text boxes. Do not use shadow effects for text. It adds nothing other than distraction.
In relation to shadows and 3D effects on autoshapes and text boxes, unless you have a defensible reason that your message cannot be delivered without the use of these effects, then do not use them.
In other words, leave 3D to Pixar Studios.
Rule 5: This is a business document not a Picasso.
The amount of time that is wasted by highly paid professional agonizing over color choices for presentations and charts, and delivering a colorful abomination is tragic.
-- up to here
lighter colors for things not as important
use gradations of a color rather than dramatically different colors
look at the use of color in printed materials and note what you like in the way they have approached the issue
Rule 6: Know your rulers and tabs
Use of text –limitation on bullets and numbering schemes in the same box
Rule 7: Align and space are not 4 letter words
Rule 8: Any electronic content can be elegantly integrated
Screenshots
Rule 9: Clipart is for kids projects
Rule 10: Thin is good
Setting lines and borders to hairline or quarter point.
Chart Golden rules
- Every chart must have an obvious message
- Leave 3D to the movies II
- Control the fonts at all times
- Always have data labels
- Reduce the visual clutter
- Use clever approaches, waterfalls etc
- Explode pies when it helps
- Use multiple graphs on one page
- Arrange the data to tell your story
- Manage the scale
Rule 1: The chart must have an obvious message
Rule 2: Leave 3D to the movies II
Rule 3: Control the fonts
Rule 4: Always have data labels
Rule 5: reduce the visual clutter
Rule 6: Use clever approaches, waterfalls and series lines
Two data series on one chart
Rule 7: Explode pies when it helps
Rule 8: Control the picture and gap width
Rule 9: Arrange the data to show your story
Sorting high to low Reversing scale Biggest element on the bottom in stacked bar charts
Rule 10: Scale management
reversing scale keeping scales the same for multiple charts effective use of scale to show data relationships
5.
Working with document production resources
Relationship, relationship, relationship
View their previous work and ask about other things that can be leveraged
Drawing on paper – planning the document
Identify and articulate structure
Identifying what you want
Identifying what you do not want
Easy changes and hard changes
Text changes that require text to follow on to a different page
Reusing previous material
Drawing o
Table of contents and references at the end only
Encourage them to create a library of document page styles and great examples all in one presentation for easier later recall
Part II – How to drive the tool
6.
Fundamentals: core knowledge and setting up
This chapter outlines the fundamentals that are required in order to proceed along the journey to being a powerpoint ninja. Firstly, it comprises core knowledge about using your keyboard and your computer that you need to know, and about the philosophy of PowerPoint and its structures. In many instances, using your keyboard is much more efficient than using your mouse, and there are several key combinations that are common in all windows programs that will save you a significant amount of time and make you more productive. Secondly, we will explore setting up your powerpoint environment to make sure that the most valuable tools are easily within reach.
Core knowledge: keyboard shortcuts
In order to become a powerpoint ninja you must learn, and use, the following key combinations in order to achieve commonly used functions and features in powerpoint. Before addressing the particular combinations, a word about your hands and their placement in relation to your keyboard. These comments are principally for those, like me, that whilst they type quickly, they are by no means touch typistys in the traditional sense of that word.
When using the keyboard, we all know that there are several special keys that we use from time to time for particular functions, or to augment the use of other keys when used in combination. You need to consider how you use your figures in relation to your keyboard, and whether the particular layout of your keyboard, and the way you approach those keys, makes sense. My personal habits, for example, are as follows:
- I access the left Shit, Ctrl and Alt Keys using my left thumb, tucked under my left hand, the nail on the top of my thumb making contact with the shift key.
- I access the escape key, which is located at the top left of my keboard, with my index finger on left hand.
- I access the delete key with the index or second finger on my right hand.
- I use the index finger on my right hand to select the navigation and other buttons that sit ontop of my arrow keys on the right hand side of my keyboard. I do this when I have one button to press, otherwise, my right hand wrist sits below the arrow keys in the mid right of the keyboard, with three fingers lined up with the arrow keys, From here, I use whatever finger is closest to get to the relevant arrow keys and to the buttons in the six key bank on top of them.
- When pressing common 2-key keyboard combinations, I solely use my left hand. For example, to select (ctrl)-C for copy, I use my thumb to press and hold the Ctrl key, and the finger beside my thumb to press C. This is the same for many of the other common windows key combinations that lurk helpfully at the bottom left hand corner of a typical keyboard. For example, that would include Ctrl-C for copy, Ctrl-Z for undo and Ctrl-X for cut. When selecting paste. Ctrl-V, I use my right hand to press V whilst holding the Ctrl key with my left hand thumb.
The point of the foregoing is that working with a keyboard is not just knowing where the alphabetic keys are located – you need to work out your best technique for accessing the commonly used multi key combinations, which are as follows. You must learn all of these. This is not the complete list of all of the keyboard short cuts which are available in PowerPoint, but it is the subset of that list that you must know. Invest the time to consider your keyboard technique, and to learn these shortcuts. You need to begin to think of your keyboard more as a piano, rather than a computer – at the end of the day what you are doing in powerpoint is essentially a creative exercise so do be afraid of the occasional flourish at the keyboard like the master pianist you are.
Function Key combination (keyboard shortcut) Remember by
Copying things
- Copy selected text or object Ctrl-C C is for copy
- Delete (cut) selected text Ctrl-X X looks like the blade of open scissors
- Paste Ctrl-V V looks like the head of a down arrow. Pressing Ctrl-V drops the text at the point where the cursor is
- Undo Ctrl-Z Sadly, I cannot think of a mnemonic for this one – it just is Ctrl-Z.
- Redo Ctrl-Y Y is the letter before Z which is used for Undo
- Selecting text Shift Hold shift down whilst using the arrow keys to move the cursor, or click with the mouse on the end of the text to be selected. For example, shift end highlights to the end of the current line. Need also to talk about the paragraph marker and then moving one too far and then moving one back before executing the command.
Formatting
- Bold (toggle on and off) Ctrl-B B for bold
- Italic (toggle on and off) Ctrl-I I for italic
- Underline (toggle on and off) Ctrl-U U is for underline
Select everything on a slide Ctrl-A A is for all
Turn the grid on or off Ctrl-G G is for grid
Moving around
- Finding text Ctrl-F F is for Find
- First slide Ctrl-Home Home is home!
- Last slide Ctrl-End End is for End
Saving and printing
- Save current file Ctrl-S S is for Save
- Print current file Ctrl-P P is for Print
Core knowledge: getting around
As you work with your presentation, there will often be occasions where you have a printed version of the document on which there are amendments, and you are then working on screen with the document. The easiest and fastest way to move from the current slide, to the slide that you will be editing, is to use Ctrl-F (find) and look for 2 or three words that appear on the slide you want to edit. For example, if the message text for the page you want to work on contains the words “Importantly, we need” then use that text as the text to find and the page will be located very quickly.
This method is always more effective than page numbers because you never know how many slides have been added, deleted, or moved between the time that the presentation was last printed, and the version you are presently working with. This technique works equally well in Word and other Office applications as well.
When working with particularly long presentations, a technique I often use is to place a text box at places I want to return to with text that is easily searchable. For example, I often use a small text box with AAA. For exampkle, if I am working on a slide, and I know that I need to go and copy some information from another slide, or that there are edits I need to make to another slide that are appropriate to make before I continue, I create a small text box and type AAA into it. I then go and make the edis on the other slides as necessary, and then when I want to return to where I was working, I use Ctr-F and look for AAA and then I am straight back to where I was. I then delete the text box, and move on with my work. I regularly use this technique in Word, in particular, when working with long documents, by typing AAA or other similar marker text in the document at places that I want to be able to easily return to. (In Word, you can accomplish the same thing with bookmarks, but for one or two it is easier to use a unique piece of text than take the additional steps of bookmarks).
Core knowledge: the grid (or guides)
A key element of outstanding documents is that objects on the page, that is, lines, text, graphs etc, are properly aligned. There is nothing worse than being presented with a page where the objects almost line up, but are obviously slightly off. For many, this naturally occurred because they were not sure that there is a quick and easy way to setup guides in PowerPoint to assist with your content page structure.
Pressing Ctrl-G turns the guides on, or off. When first pressed, you see the grid as a set of dotted crosshairs on your page, as in the picture below:
When you move an object near the guide, it snaps precisely in position. In this way, you can easily align objects. You can drag a guide to a new location simply by clicking on the guide and dragging to a new location. However, the real magic comes when you add additional guides to the page so that the structure of your page is evident. You add additional guidelines by Ctrl-clicking and dragging on an existing guide. When you do this, an additional guide is created that you may then freely move around and position.
You should always establish a series of guides for every presentation you create. The guides, at a minimum, should indicate your left and right margins, the top of the area for your message text, and a lower marker for content on the page. You can turn the guides off by pressing Ctrl-G. When you press Ctrl-G again, they are reinstated with the last settings. In this way, you can establish the guides, use them, and turn them off temporarily of they are interfering with your view of your work. You would then turn them back on when needed to ensure that the structure of your pages retains a consistent layout.
Core knowledge: the format painter
One of the most extremely useful, and least known, buttons on the PowerPoint (and Word) toolbars is the format painter – the paintbrush icon.
We all know that objects, like text, lines, boxes or shapes have attributes, or characteristics that we set using the menus and other options in the software. For text, those attributes would include font, size, color, bolding and italic among others. For a box, those attributes would include border line color, style and weight, box fill color and style, and all of the attributes of any text that is contained within the box.
What the format painter button does is enable you to make all of the attributes for one object (like text) the same as the existing attributes for a different piece of text. For example, if you had five particular text boxes on the page, and one you had made just right. You had modified the font. You had modified the line spacing, and the spacing at the end of the paragraph. You had modified the justification, the font size, the color, and the bolding. To then easily transfer all of those settings to your other four pieces of text you first select the object with the attributes that you want, then double click the format painter button, and then merrily click in turn each of the other objects. Because you double clicked the format painter button, the cursor became a paintbrush, and will continue to be a format painter, applying all of the text attributes to any text that you select, until you press the escape key to turn off the format painting.
If you did not double click, but clicked once, the format painter would only have one application, and then the cursor would return to the normal cursor.
Core knowledge: Copying an object from one slide to another and maintaining position
Sometimes you want to copy an object from one slide, and place it on another slide in an identical position. When you copy an object from one slide to another, it automatically inherits the same placement, and you do not need to worry about making sure it is in the right place.
Setting up powerpoint: things to turn off from the default settings
When you first install powerpoint, there is a default range of settings that cover a whole series of features and issues. Some of these defaults are very helpful. Some of them, however, frankly get in the way – and you should turn them off as you are establishing your working environment. These iteams, each of these are discussed in turn below, are:
- Turn off the snap to grid setting – it gets in the way
- Turn off auto formatting
- Turn off fit text to placeholder
The snap to grid setting does not provide the fine control that you will need as a powerpoint ninja. If you have ever wondered why you have not been able to move an object to a particular location, and it always seemed to jump a little too far, or stop a little too soon, that is because the default setting for snap to grid is true. Essentially, hidden to the user is a grid, and this setting ensures that you can only place objects on these hidden gridlines. For novice users, this helps people line objects up. Mor advanced users, however, who are effectively using the guides, generally find this “helper” feature a pain. It can can be turned off by selecting Draw, Snap to Grid. This button is a toggle, so that it will first appear as depressed in the button menu. When you click the button it will turn the feature off.
Autoformatting is another ‘helper’ feature that needlessly gets in the way of advanced users. For example; if you type a persons name who uses a first initial like: B. Ann Smith, then press return to type the next line, most likely the letter C. shows up, and suddenly the alignment of the text has changed. This is an alphabetical list. If you start a line with an asterisk, it becomes a bullet. This may be what you want once in a while but not all the time. You can turn off this setting by using Tools, Options, and then deselect “Auto-Format as you type” as in the picture below.
The final feature to turn off is Auto-fit text to placeholder. Again, this is a feature that is useful to novices but annoying for ninjas. One of the fundamentals of structured presentations is consistent use of font for consistent needs. For example, the body text for a presentation should always, always be the same font and size. Now, what this feature does is plain contrary to that fundamental principle. What this feature does is that if you type more text than fits in the size of the current text box then powerpoint automatically, and without asking first, reduces the point size of the text to ensure that the text fits inside the current text box. This is both distracting as the text becomes relayed out in the box, and annoying because you then have to reinstate the right font size for the text. It is easier for ninjas to understand that text does not wrap from text box to text box and then manage the size of the textbox, and the text within it, as is appropriate for the particular context and page. You can turn off this setting by using Tools Options and then deselect “Auto-fit text to placeholder”.
Setting up powerpoint: creating a toolbar specially for your
The next thing that you need to do in relation to your powerpoint environment is to create a toolbar to provide access to the strategic buttons which are otherwise hidden deep within menus and other toolbars. Specifically, the toolbar that you need to create looks like the following, and carries the buttons that are described below.
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4
Guides
Autoshapes
Select color
Group
Ungroup
Regroup Bring to front
Send to back
Bring forward
Send backward Align left
Alighn middle
Align right
Align top
Align centers
Align bottoms
Distribute vertically
Distribute horizontally
To create your new toolbar, right click on any grey space on an existing toolbar in powerpoint. From the menu, select “Customise… ”. Press the New button, provide the name for your new toolbar, and your new toolbar is created. All you now have to do is to select the Commands tab and then click and drag the appropriate command to your new toolbar. You navigate through all the commands by using the listing on the left hand side which reveals all of the commands in the right hand box for you to click and drag to your new toolbar.
I also suggest that you create vertical bars on your toolbar to separate the groups to make it easier to use. You create the vertical bars by right clicking on a button on your new toolbar where you want to create a group where that button is the first in the group. Select Begin a new group, and the vertical line will be inserted in your toolbar.
You should also ensure that the Drawing toolbar is always displayed – use View, Toolbars, and make sure it is selected. You also use View, Toolbars to reinstate your toolbar should you ever inadvertently turn it off.
Drawing
One of the things you will often be doing in PowerPoint is drawing. Now, PowerPoint is not the world’s best drawing tool – which is probably a good thing, because those of us that use it are not the world’s best graphic artists. In fact, most of us would be handsomely confused if we tried to use advanced drawing and graphics software like Adobe’s Illustrator and Photoshop. Having said that, however, there is still a range of useful tools that are made available in powerpoint, and with some basic principles all of us can create understandable and actionable charts and diagrams in powerpoint.
The basics
Drawing lines and boxes is easy – merely click on the line or box button in the drawing toolbar, and then click and drag in your presentation where you want the object to appear. When you are drawing lines, holding the left shift key down while you draw keeps the line vertical, horizontal, and 5 angles in between centred on 45 degrees, depending upon where you drag the end of the line to. When you are drawing boxes (or any other shapes), holding the left shift key down keeps the box as a square.
Drawing
Using connectors
Keeping lines straight
Using the grid
Maintaing angles in autoshapes
Effective line thickness – go thin
Ungrouping autoshapes
Conceptual autoshapes – the additional ones
Resizing and maintaining aspect ratio
Use of fills in color presentations
Colors that work: white out of red, white out of blue etc
Matching colors
Nudging options – draw in large view so you can see what you are doing, snap to shape
Dealing with layers
Selecting multiple objects
Working in a bigger scale to make sure lines work
Working with text and tables
Text boxes
Space before and after paragraphs
Effective use of bullets
Effective use of the ruler and guides and tab stops
Spaces around the text in the text box
Anchor point for text
Establishing the autoshape defaults and the default text for inside text boxes
9.
Charting success
Turn off true type font scaling
Data label generating
2 d at all times
Drawing on top of charts
Manual data labels and lines
Exploding pie charts out
Waterfall charts
how to work with the box – how to resize a graph object and have it not distort
turning off the box and the other annoying things on a graph
How to change color of just one bar on a chart for effect
Scales on charts
Use of legends
10.
Content from other sources
Working with graphic or other content sources
Introduction, beliefs, drawing on top of content
Cropping etc – philosophy in beliefs
Working with acrobat content
Working with logos
Working with screenshots – get it to the right size and then hit it
Working with excel content (spreadsheet content and chart objects where better sophistication in excel for charting)
Working with Word content
Working with scanned content
Importing slides from another presentation
Drawing on top of objec
Working with tables
Creating Background colors
Fonts, alignment
When to use text boxes and when to use a table
Working over someone else’s work
Working over someone else’s work
Quickly review all pages
Start with the slide master
Establish a grid
Click through pages against the grid
Then need to reapply the style for the slide
Alignment
Replace fonts throughout
Fix each chart – consider creating one chart object and then copying it and replacing the data rather than fixing all of the chart – copy the datasheet
Do not use the titling in the chart object
When to use other applications to first massage data that you then need to use – or to transpose a table etc
Part III – How to create an organizational style guide
Part IV – Templates
Appendix 1 – Glossary
Align
Autoshape
Background elements
Cover page
Grid
Key message
Master slide
Snap to Grid
Table of contents
Template
Toolbar
Caution about speaking skills and too much attention on the slides – how many of the great speeches an history and the great communicators of today, use powerpoint slides? Ie how many are shackled to a point and click pack
