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Version 3.0
July 2011
Table of Contents
Section 1 -
Introduction.......................................................................................... 1
Section 2 -
2.1
Overall Design............................................................................................... 2
2.2
2.3
2.4
Section 3 -
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
Section 4 -
Images .............................................................................................. 13
4.1
Resolution ................................................................................................... 13
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
Section 5 -
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
Section 6 -
Miscellaneous.................................................................................... 19
6.1
6.2
6.3
Section 7 -
Printing .............................................................................................. 20
7.1
7.2
Introduction
Section 1 -
Introduction
This document is intended to offer a brief guide on using Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
to create academic posters. Such posters are a common feature of academic
conferences and many conferences have specific poster sessions for delegates to
browse all the posters and discuss the work depicted on them.
Academic posters are characterised by being large in size (typically A0 or A1) and
containing a mixture of text and images, often with graphs.
This document is divided into a number of Sections:
Section 2 - Initial Preparation
Section 4 - Images
Section 6 - Miscellaneous
Some other tools and hints and tips for using PowerPoint for the
development of a poster
Section 7 - Printing
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Initial Preparation
Section 2 -
Initial Preparation
Height (cm)
Width (cm)
A0
118.9
84.1
A1
84.1
59.4
A2
59.4
42.0
A3
42.0
29.7
A4
29.7
21.0
A5
21.0
14.8
Start PowerPoint and begin with a blank presentation (if there is no blank
presentation click on the File tab at the top left hand side of the screen, click
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Initial Preparation
on New, then click on Blank Presentation and finally click on the Create
icon).
The first step is to set the paper size. Click on the Design tab to bring up the
Design ribbon, then click on the Page Setup icon on the left of the screen, as
shown in Figure 1 below.
The Page Setup dialog box as illustrated in Figure 2 below will appear.
Set to Custom
Click on the downward arrow to the right of the box under the Slides sized
for label and select Custom by clicking on it. Then type in the Width of your
poster in cms (using the values from Table 1 above if you know the ISO A
size). Then type in the Height, again in cms.
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Initial Preparation
in portrait mode; or click on the radio button to the left of Landscape in the
Slides area of Orientation if you want your poster to be in landscape mode.
Next you need to ensure that the slide you are working on for your poster is
not pre-formatted by PowerPoint ie is a blank slide. Click on the Home tab
and in the Slides group click on Layout. In the drop down Office Theme
menu which appears click on the icon above Blank.
Click on the Design tab and in the Design ribbon click on the down arrow to
the right of Background Styles on the right of the screen as shown in Figure
3 below.
Click on Format Background towards the bottom of the pop up box which
appears to display the Format Background dialog box as shown in Figure 4
below. Click on Solid Fill and then click on the icon to the right of the Color
label. Choose your required background colour by clicking on the appropriate
colour in the resulting pop up box which appears. Close the dialog box by
clicking on the Close button.
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Initial Preparation
Figure 4 - Format Background Dialog
Click on Color
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Initial Preparation
Figure 5 Grid Settings
Click on Arrange
Click on Align
if the box to the left of Snap objects to grid is not ticked then click on the box
which should cause the tick to appear
in the Grid Settings area set the grid setting to an initial 2 cm by typing 2 in
the box to the right of Spacing
if the box to the left of Display grid on screen is not ticked then click on the
box which should cause the tick to appear
in the Guide Settings area towards the bottom of the dialog box if the box to
the left of Display drawing guides on screen is not ticked then click on the
box which should cause the tick to appear
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Initial Preparation
Figure 6 - Grid and Guides Dialog
Initially there are two Guidelines, one horizontal and one vertical, which cross at the
centre of the poster. You can move these Guidelines to where you need them by
moving the cursor over the Guideline you wish to move, holding down the left mouse
key, dragging the Guideline to the desired location and releasing the mouse key. A
numerical indicator appears during the move to enable you to position the Guideline
accurately (the displayed numbers indicate distance from the centre of the poster).
To help position a Guideline you can also use the grid points or display the ruler (by
clicking on the View tab and then clicking on the radio button to the left of the Ruler
label in the Show group on that ribbon). To create an additional Guideline repeat the
above but with holding down the Ctrl key throughout the operation. Be careful not to
drag a Guideline off the slide as this deletes that Guideline.
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Text Boxes
Section 3 -
Text Boxes
Text boxes are the key element of a poster and PowerPoint offers a range of
facilities for their creation, population and presentation.
Click on the Insert tab to bring up the Insert ribbon. In the Text group click on
the Text Box icon.
Position the cursor where you want the top left hand corner of your text box to
appear on the poster, press and hold down the left mouse button, move the
cursor while still holding down the left hand mouse button to where you want
the bottom right hand side of the text box to appear and then release the
mouse button. The border of the text box will appear. PowerPoint may reposition the right hand corner at this stage; you can manually re-position this
later
If you are typing the text in directly, then just start typing. The text will appear
in the box as you type.
PowerPoint will automatically adjust the size of the text box as you enter the
text. You can change this later.
Text Boxes
because circular or square handles appear on its edges, as illustrated in Figure 7
below.
Figure 7 - Resize and Rotation Handles
Resize handles
Rotation handle
Text Boxes
button. Note that you can also use this method to specify exactly the position of your
text box (in this case click on the Position menu on the left hand side of the Format
Shape dialog box and enter the appropriate co-ordinates).
Text Boxes
24, sub-headings should be between 50 to 60 point and the main title should be 80
point. It is recommended that the font is a widely used font such as Arial, Times New
Roman, Verdana, Garamond or Palatino with Arial and Verdana best for headings.
Try and use the same font throughout. You can use bold, italic, upper case and
bullets for emphasis. The conference organisers might have guidelines for fonts and
point sizes for you to follow.
Try to avoid shadowing, underlining or rotating text as this can make it hard to read.
Typing all text in upper case can also make it difficult to read, however uppercase is
appropriate for headings and titles.
Ensure that text over a background colour or picture is visible on screen you could
put a tinted box over the background to bring out the text.
Increasing the line spacing will also help to make text more readable. Line spacing
can also be used to adjust subtly the spacing to make text fit in a given space.
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Text Boxes
Click on Shape Fill to change text box background
Figure 9 - Changing Border Sizes and Colours
Click on Weight
For large sized posters, to create a significantly visible border, you may need to click
on the More Lines option rather than the specific line thicknesses presented and
enter a large point value (eg 18 point) in the Width box in the resulting Format
Shape dialog box.
From the Shape Outline drop down box you can also change the colour of the
border by clicking on one of the Theme Colors or one of the Standard Colors.
Another way of emphasizing a block of text in a text box is to change the background
of the text box. This is done using the same steps as above but clicking on the
Shape Fill icon rather than Shape Outline (as illustrated in Figure 9 above) and
then clicking on the required colour.
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Guide to Creating Academic Posters Using PowerPoint 2010
Images
Section 4 -
Images
4.1 Resolution
When including images such as photographs, scanned images and illustrations in
your poster remember that these may be displayed much larger than their normal
size and image quality usually decreases as the size of the image increases. It is
therefore recommended that you use the highest resolution possible for your images,
300 dpi or higher. If you download graphics from the web, be aware that they are
only 72 dpi and generally will not reproduce well enough for a large poster.
Copyright: before you insert a photograph, or other image, onto your poster
check that you are not infringing copyright law by doing so. If in doubt, check with
the Information Centre. Copyright restrictions could include the need to attribute
the author or source of the image.
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Images
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Images
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Section 5 -
The easiest way of handling graphs for your poster is to develop the graph using
Microsoft Excel 2010, then copy the graph onto your poster in Microsoft PowerPoint
2010, and position and size as required. Remember that graph titles and labels need
to be seen from a distance and so should follow the same font and point sizes as
other text on your poster (refer to Sub-section 3.5 for guidelines). It is usually easier
to apply these in Excel than after inserting the graph into PowerPoint although it can
create a strange looking presentation in Excel.
Resize dots
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If you wish to change the data which generates the graph then use the appropriate
icons in the Data group. You should note that using some of these options will
automatically start Excel and invite you to make the appropriate changes in an Excel
session.
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Miscellaneous
Section 6 -
Miscellaneous
Fit to Window for panning out to see the overall view of your entire poster.
You can also use the Guidelines discussed in Sub-section 2.4 to line up elements in
different areas of the poster.
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Printing
Section 7 -
Printing
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