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Visual Aids
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The purpose of visual aids is to present data
or pictures that cannot be communcated verbally.
Visual aids augment your presentation, they are not
the basis for it.
- Use of the following
template will assist in making good slides. Visual aids must work in
large rooms where people will be far from the screen.
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When
making text or title slides, this template can serve as a guide. Include
about 0.1" outside the template lines in the camera viewfinder. Nine
double-spaced lines are maximum. For a
projected image 12' high, upper- and lowercase 12-point (10 pitch) type will be easily legible 120' away. USE
OF ALL UPPERCASE LETTERS WILL EXTEND THE LEGIBILITY DISTANCE A LITTLE
FURTHER. For true kindness, a message this long should be divided among
two or three slides!
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Avoid complex backgrounds, busy graphics, and
such items only distract your audience. DO NOT choose busy and colorful Power
Point Templates - these are extremely distracting. Black text on plain white
background or white/yellow text on plain blue is preferable. Don't try to
show your audience that you have really good taste in choosing highly
distracting backgrounds from the built in Power Point Templates.
- Graphs and charts need
to be kept simple - do not produce a line graph with 20 different lines
on it - generally, a comparison among 3-5 data series (e.g., 3-5 lines
on a graph) is a maximum. Shadows and 3-D effects on bar graphs only
distract your audience from your main point.
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Also avoid too many colors on a slide. You
will end up using combinations that do not have sufficient contrast.
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Do not use red text on a green background,
green on blue, or red on blue because about 10% of your male audience will
have trouble seeing these colors (color discrimination impaired persons).
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If you have to make a point from a previous
slide, use a duplicate slide instead of paging backwards
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Include equipment and plant slides in the talk
to assist with materials and methods description and provide a break in the
flow of text slides.
- DO NOT use the screen
as your outline!! When you look back at the screen where your presentation
is projected, you lose eye contact with your audience and we won't hear
you - we will try to set the room up so you can see the screen on a
laptop from which your slides are projected, but just in case, it might
be a good idea to bring a hard copy or outline so you know what's coming
in your talk, and aren't constantly looking at the screen where your
talk is projected.
J. Edwards
rev. 1/25/2007
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