| ******************************************************************* Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip Issue #152 February 5, 2008 Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com Circulation 8,533 ******************************************************************* Please forward this newsletter to executives and professionals who want to create PowerPoint presentations that sell their ideas, products or services more effectively. If this newsletter has been sent to you by a friend, sign up to get your own copy at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/newsletter.htm . ******************************************************************* In this issue: Lessons from the Superbowl PowerPoint Tip - Is Your Font Big Enough? Best of the Blog - Get Free PowerPoint Training from Microsoft Dave's Travel Schedule ******************************************************************* Lessons from the Superbowl A lot of people tune in each year to watch the Superbowl football championship which was played this past Sunday night. I thought it would be good to look at what lessons we can learn from the big game (regardless of who you were rooting for). First, each team spent a lot of time preparing for the specific team they would be facing. How much time do you spend thinking about the specific audience you will be speaking to and their needs? Second, each team ran through its game plan many times in practice. How many times do you rehearse your presentation before the big day? And third, every player receives feedback on their performance from coaches. How much coaching or feedback have you sought out in the last 12 months? Whether it is performing on the field or at the front of a boardroom, you need to prepare for your best performance. If you want to increase your sales this year, e-mail me about a Think Outside The Slide workshop for your team. ------------------------------------------------------------------- PowerPoint Tip: Is Your Font Big Enough? One of the questions that comes up often in my workshops is "How big of a font should I use?" The answer is ... It depends. You certainly don't want to do what I have seen twice in the past 18 months. These two presentations have set the record for smallest font used on a slide in my experience. They used a five point font. No, that is not a typo. Five (5) point! And they expected the audience to be able to read it. So how do I answer the font size question? I did the research to come up with a way that I could determine an appropriate font size. I started by considering visual acuity. This is the term used for how well we see. It is what the optometrist measures using the eye chart that starts with the large "E" at the top and smaller lines below. They determine your visual acuity based on how tall a letter you can clearly see at what distance. It is important that we have the letters on our slides large enough so most people can see them. But the next challenge was to figure out what level of visual acuity I should assume for most audiences. To answer the average vision question I turned to the standard they use for road signs in North America. There is a manual for designers of road signs that specify how big the letters should be in order for the text to be read at a certain distance from the sign. So I used these standards and the visual acuity measurement standards to determine that road signs assume approximately 20/35 vision (20/20 is perfect vision). So, to be conservative, I assume 20/40 vision (it is also one of the standard measurements). I then used a projector to calculate the ratio of height of a standard Arial font to the width of the projected image. This allows me to know how tall a letter of a particular point size will be on a screen of a certain size. Now I had all the parts I needed. Using the assumptions of 20/40 vision and that the image fills the screen, I could calculate the maximum distance that an audience member should be to comfortably read a font of a certain size. Now I can answer the font size question based on research, not on a feeling. There is no one single answer, it depends on screen size and the distance of the furthest person in the room. So what I have done is put all of this work into an easy to use table that is now available for you to download from my web site. Go to http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/fontsize.htm and you will see the link to download the table in Adobe PDF format. You are free to tell others about the link and encourage them to sign up for the newsletter so they can receive more great tips in the future. If you want to use it in your teaching or consulting work, please make sure that you do not alter the page and that you give credit to the source. Now you have a way to answer the question of "How big of a font should I use?" ------------------------------------------------------------------- Best of the Blog - Get Free PowerPoint Training from Microsoft One of the questions that usually comes up during my workshops is how people can learn the skills to implement some of the ideas that I share. As you probably know, my workshops aren't technical training where I show how to use the software. I show participants how to design and create persuasive visuals that are effective at selling their ideas, products and services. If you need to learn how to use animation, draw shapes, incorporate audio and video or other key skills, you should first check out the training videos that Microsoft has posted on their web site. If you use PowerPoint 2003, go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR061832731033.aspx If you use PowerPoint 2007, go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR100654571033.aspx These videos will give you the basic skill training that you need to get started in that area and you can take the training at your convenience and usually in less than one hour. Check them out before you sign up for a technical training course or buy a book. Other recent blog posts at http://pptideas.blogspot.com : Editing Movies in Windows Movie Maker ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave's Travel Schedule I work with business people who struggle with the effectiveness of the PowerPoint presentations they use to sell ideas, products and services to other business people. My research based PowerPoint Presentation Effectiveness System helps my clients achieve greater productivity and deliver presentations that close more sales. You can save money by booking me to speak to your organization or conference when I am close to your area for other clients. Here's where I will be in the next few months: February 4-8 - St. John's, NL February 11-13 - St. John's, NL February 15 - Toronto, ON February 23 - Las Vegas, NV February 25 - Chicago, IL February 29 - West Palm Beach, FL March 1 - Jacksonville/Sawgrass, FL March 4 - Tampa, FL March 13-14 - Sandusky, OH March 29 - Grand Rapids, MI April 4 - Toronto, ON (tentative) May 9 - Ottawa, ON August 1-5 - New York City E-mail me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com to discuss how my Think Outside The Slide(tm) sessions can help your organization be more productive and improve communication throughout the organization. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Privacy Policy: I will never sell or distribute your e-mail or information to anyone. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Need articles for your newsletter? Check out my many articles at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the books, e-books and other learning tools at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/resources.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to read back issues of this newsletter, click on the following link to go to the Archives: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/archives.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft, PowerPoint, Windows and other terms are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. All books, products and seminars are independent publications and are not affiliated with, nor have they been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. |