~ PowerPoint Design Tips ~

<       Create brief notes in Word first.  When doing this with students it can give you an opportunity to check the relevance and conciseness of their notes. [see also later LT4U session on Using Microsoft Word Outline view]

You should also require students to collect any graphics they might need for their slide show beforehand.

<        Avoid a presentation that is too long - 10-12 slides [encourages efficient and concise notes from students!]

<        Create your slide show

o       An excellent shortcut if you have written and organized your text in Word – Go into Outline view and check hierarchy of headings and text

- Go to File – Send to – Microsoft Powerpoint

This will automatically format your notes into a set of power point slides! The Level 1 headings become titles on the slides.

o       Alternatively you can manually copy’n’paste notes to individual slides. Select appropriate slide layout for each new slide e.g. including clip art or chart? Use bullet points where applicable.

Save as you go! Ensure students complete this before moving on – they can get too caught up in the ‘whizz-bang effects’ and may not complete the whole show!

o       Apply design templates after all slides created. It is easy to preview how your show will look using different designs. Apply design then run through slide show to check how this affects the display of your text etc. More templates can be downloaded from the internet. [see Useful links]

o       Customise individual slide animations. Decide if you want a consistent or random pattern of animations. Not every slide needs to be animated. Too much animation or too much variation can distract from your content.

o       Apply slide transitions to whole presentation – use a consistent pattern of transitions for each segment or for the entire slide show, or again the audience will be distracted from your content.

<        Try out your slide show whenever you make major changes to make sure it all runs smoothly.

<        Use the notes section for your own prompts  - print out in Notes layout [1 slide + notes per sheet] to use when delivering the presentation.

If you publish the slideshow on the intranet/internet, you can direct students to write their own notes under each slide and submit the saved file as part of their assessment.

<        Powerpoint slide shows can be published online – either as a downloadable/viewable file or as a web page. If your file is very large or graphic rich you may need to ‘zip’ or compress the file in order to make it portable.

PowerPoint in the Classroom  http://www.actden.com/pp 
Fun tutorial is designed to help K-12 teachers learn the basics of PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft Office - Microsoft PowerPoint  http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/ 
Download updates, study how-to articles and tips, view demos, check prices, and place an order.

Web Resource Evaluation Techniques
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webeval/eval1198/index.htm
Critically evaluate this powerpoint presentation on the evaluation of web resources.

PowerPoint for Teachers  http://www.datasync.com/~teachers/powerpoint.html
Collection of useful links - tutorials, ready-made lessons using ppt etc.