1. Selecting Fonts for Presentation Slides
Your choice of fonts on your presentation slides can make a big difference in how easy it is to understand your message. I suggest you use a serif font (one that has the extra tails on each character, Times Roman is an example) for titles because it helps the viewer spend more time on the title, giving them context for this area. For body text, I suggest a sans-serif font (without the extra tails, Arial is an example) because the viewer reads it quicker and can return their focus to the speaker. For font size, I suggest 36 to 44 point fonts for titles, 28 to 32 point fonts for the main body text, and 24 to 28 point fonts for sub-points. Any font smaller than 24 point will be very hard for the audience to read. The best way to add emphasis to text on your slides is to use the bold effect on the text. Italics or underline text is tiring to look at for long periods of time, so use these effects sparingly. For bullet points, I suggest a filled circle or square so that it stands out on the slide. You can read more details on selecting fonts in an article on the web site at http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com.
2. Backing up E-mail
Backing up your data is a crucial task for every computer owner (have you backed up your data recently?). Most of the time, we back up the data files, such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases and presentations. It is also important to back up your e- mail data. One of the readers of this e-zine recently lost all of her e-mail data in a system crash and realized that while her data files had been backed up, her e-mail was not backed up. It is important that you locate the file or files that contain your e-mail data. In Microsoft Outlook, you need to find a file called outlook.pst. It may be located in a folder under your user ID, or in another folder. You can use the Find or Search function of Windows to search for this file. Next time you do a backup, make sure this file is included.
3. Useful Resource – Useful Travel Info
One of the most popular uses of the web these days is for travel information – from airline tickets, rental cars and hotel rooms to travel advisories for certain areas of the world. I cam across a site with some neat tools at http://www.tyzo.com/tools. This travel web site has tools such as a listing of public holidays throughout the world, a list of time zones so you can check what time it is at your destination, local electricity requirements in various destinations, airport web sites (which are very useful when checking flight delays), an imperial/metric converter and much more. I think it is a useful site for local knowledge even if you are not travelling, but communicating with someone from that area.