Handouts and Visuals

The handouts and visual aids that you create for your presentation define your presentation more than any other aspect. These documents can make or break your presentation and can provide a place for your listeners to take notes as you speak.

Handouts = Visuals

The most common complaint in evaluations at some conferences has been that a presenter's handouts were not the same as the PowerPoint or other visuals. Sometimes there are good reasons why you want your handouts to be different than your projected visuals. But, unless you have a powerful reason for it, make your handouts identical with the PowerPoint. Don't include slides in your PowerPoint that are not in the handouts. Don't make people switch from one handout to another in order to follow your presentation. If you plan to do an online demo as part of your presentation, include some slides from the application in your handouts, even if they are not part of the PowerPoint presentation. Make it easy for the attendees; they will appreciate it.

What Makes a Handout Readable?

Words that are large enough to read! Try this: print your handout before you finalize it. If YOU can read the content, then it should be okay. If you cannot read something, like a table or screen shot, find another way to present it in your handout. Generally speaking, two PowerPoint slides per page will be readable by most people. Use the Handouts printing option in PowerPoint. That will provide space for people to write notes on the handout.

Should I Use PowerPoint?

There are a number of choices for preparing visual presentations. The most popular and well-known is Microsoft PowerPoint. Because it is part of the Microsoft Office suite, it is available to most people. If you choose to use any other program, check with your track coordinator to make sure it will be available on the computers at ELUNA.

Probably the second most used visual display tool is HTML, in other words, the web. Some presenters are more comfortable developing web pages than they are with presentation software like PowerPoint. Some intend to leave their presentations up on their own websites, where they will be easy to update and maintain as things change. Some people just hate PowerPoint and refuse to use it. There is no problem with using the web for your presentation, if you choose to do that. The only caveat is that you must request an Internet connection for your presentation and you should be prepared for the possibility that the network connection may not work.

Guidelines for Good Visuals

Creating professional quality visuals is an art, and nobody expects you to be able to do it. However, following some basic guidelines will help make your visuals readable, useful and attractive.

USE large fonts	AVOID small fonts
Easy To Read	Hard To Read
Anything less than 18 points will almost certainly be unreadable, either on the screen or in the handouts. If you print two slides per page in your handouts, 18 point font becomes 9 point font. The same is true from anywhere past the first three rows when your slides are projected.

USE good contrast	AVOID light on light / dark on dark
Easy To Read	Hard To Read
Easy To Read	Hard To Read
Dark text on light backgrounds is the easiest to read. Light text on a dark background is also perfectly okay. When your slides are projected, the text color will wash out, while the background will be more intense, so you need more contrast than you may think.

USE graphics	AVOID excess animation

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Use lots of graphics and speak your words. It's more interesting visually and will make people want to listen to you, rather than just read your slides.	Your graphics can easily steal the attention from you if they are too jumpy. A little animation goes a long way.

USE the top 1/2 of the screen	AVOID focusing on the bottom 1/2 of the screen
A tip of the hat to Mystery Science Theater 3000!
When you look at your slides as you are developing them, imagine a row of heads that obscures the entire bottom third of each slide, and makes you have to squirm to see anything on the bottom half.

USE readable (sans serif) fonts	AVOID unusual / unreadable fonts
Sans Serif fonts are easy to read	Serif Fonts aren't as easy to read, and are nearly unreadable
Fonts with serifs (such as Times New Roman) are generally easier to read in printed material. Sans serif fonts (such as Arial) are generally easier to read on a screen. You may have a good reason to use a special font, but make sure it is easy to read. Many specialty fonts are designed to decorate, not for general use.

USE color	AVOID too many colors, fonts, decorations, etc.
Use colors to Highlight Important Points and add variety	"cute" ...but distracting
Careful use of color can help guide your audience to the important points, and can make an otherwise dull subject a bit brighter.	Overuse of color, random changing of font, too much decoration of your text can all make your presentation harder to follow. And it's hard to take you seriously if your main points are made with teddy bears or balloons.

USE white space	AVOID crowding the screen with details
Show the main points: Point A Points B & C Point D Point E Just talk about the rest	You probably have a lot to say. You have: Important Point A Important Point B Important Point C Important Point D Important Point D1 Important Point D2 Important Point D3 Important Point E Plus, commentary about each of these points. It's too much to absorb!
Empty space on the page makes your main points much easier to find and to read. Trying to fit too much on a single screen can interfere with the audience's ability to find what is important. Would you rather edit your own presentation or have the listeners edit randomly, based on their attention span?

USE few (or one) large screen capture per page	AVOID many small screen captures per page
Focus on one or two large screen captures This will be easy to read
When your handouts are printed, even if they are printed one slide to a page, they will be smaller than your screen. If you print two slides to a page, they'll less than a quarter the size of a normal screen. If you expect people to be able to read what's on them, your screen shots should take up nearly the full size of a slide.

USE a variety of screen layouts	AVOID repeating the same layout over and over
	One style, perhaps a description at the top with a screenshot below might work every now and then
	But if used screen after screen
	It becomes monotonous, and soon
	Your audience has tuned out
People like variations. It's just nicer and more interesting. The Baha'i Writings say, "If all the flowers in a garden were of the same color, the effect would be monotonous and wearying to the eye." The same is true of your slides.

USE sound sparingly (or not at all)	AVOID overuse of sound
I'm not going to illustrate this one. Appropriate use of sound in a presentation can be exciting and attention-getting. Overuse of sound, however, is distracting and irritating. At ELUNA, there is no guarantee that there will be speakers, so any sounds you add may be lost, anyway.