Poster Design Using PowerPoint


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Poster Design Using PowerPoint

• UCSF-Stanford-LPCH
• Center for Research
• Innovation in Patient Care
• Donna Frantz
• July 2003

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Topics we will be covering

• Poster Layout Design
• Poster Examples
• Page Setup
• Setting the View
• Drawing Toolbar
• Adding Text
• Saving graphics online
• Adding graphics

Adding whole PPTLining things up Adding
background Drawing toolbar Adding shapes Photos
Printing handouts Getting your poster printed
Saving as pdf file
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A Great Poster Is

• Readable-how easily ideas flow from one item to
  the next
  
• Legible-can it be seen
• Well Organized
• Succinct- you have 11
• seconds to grab your audience.

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To Begin

• Decide what the main
• message is.
• KISS Keep It Simple Silly
• Measure the space you have- Find out what size
  limitations your printer has and if there are
  size limitations made by conference.
  
• Lay out your elements crudely
• Eliminate extraneous material- average poster
  gazer spends 10 minutes you have 11 seconds to
  capture attention only show data that adds to
  your central message.

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Poster Layout

• Sketch it out!
• Arrange the contents in a series of 3 4 or 5
  columns. This will facilitate the flow of traffic
  past the poster
  
• Place the elements of the poster in position
• The title will appear across the top.
• A brief introduction (3 - 5 sentences) will
  appear at the upper left.
  
• The conclusions will appear at the lower right.
• Methods and Results will fill the remaining
  space. Remember the more content
  
• you have the smaller your type
• will be and the harder
• it will be to read.

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Sample Layouts
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Poster Example
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Poster Example
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Poster Example
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Poster Example
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Poster Example
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Page SetupChoose the size of your poster
Under File select Page Setup In the dialog box se
lect Custom size. Then enter the desired Width an
d Height (56 is the limit in PowerPoint).
You can setup the page to be as much as half the
finished size and request the printer to enlarge
it. Just make sure it is proportional.
It is also a good idea to check with your printer
before hand to see what limitations as to size
they have.
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Setting the View
Remember when you are building your poster the
finished product will be much larger than your
screen. You may need to zoom in to read your text
and zoom out to see what the finished product
will look like.
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Drawing Toolbar
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17
1. Line Drawing tool 2. Arrow Drawing tool 3. Re
ctangle Drawing tool 4. Oval Drawing tool 5. Ins
ert Textbox 6. Insert WordArt 7. Insert Diagram
or Organizational Chart 8 Insert Clip art
Insert Picture 10. Fill color 11. Line color 12
. Font Color 13. Line style 14. Dash style 15.
Arrow style
16. Shadow style 17. 3D style
Note If you dont see the drawing toolbar at the
bottom of your screen select View Toolbars and
check the box next to Drawing
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Layout Boxes
On the Drawing toolbar select the box icon
Click and drag a box on your poster. It can be
resized to any size you wish.
Click on down arrow by paint can to select fill
color for box. Click on down arrow by paint brus
h to select color for the outline of box.
To make several boxes same size and shape use
copy and paste.
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Fill Effects - Using Paint Can
With your box selected click on the down arrow
next to paint can. Try selecting More Fill Co
lors Or Select Fill Effects to try gradient c
olors No Fill will give you an empty box.
No Fill
Texture to try different textures
Pattern to try different patterns.
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Paint brush effects

• Change the color of the line around your box
  using the drop down arrow by the paint brush.
  
• No line will give you a box without an outline.

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Adding Shapes

• You can use the AutoShapes Menu to draw any of
  these shapes and many others.

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Adding Text
In order to add text the text needs a place to
sit a Text Box. Remember you are viewing a
much smaller version of your poster. Dont make
the type too large. Make a Text box by Click on
the Text Box tool in the drawing toolbar.
or select Text Box under the Insert Menu. Cli
ck or click and drag where you want the text to
be. After this second step you should see the
rectangular shape of the Text Box. You can
re-size it at any time by dragging one of the
little square handles.
Hint If you dont see the Drawing toolbar at
the bottom of your screen. Use the View Menu to
select Toolbars Drawing.
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Adding Text
Here is the text box you have created by clicking
and dragging. Now you can either start typing or
copy and paste type into the box.
IMPORTANT Use Standard Fonts such as Times
Helvetica and Arial.
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Adding Text

• As in many programs you can change the font and
  size by highlighting the text to be changed and
  then making the changes. A 100-point font is
  about an inch high. If you dont see the size
  you want in the selection list you can type in
  the desired size here.
• You can change the color of the text make it
  bold or italicized and add shadows under the
  Format menu/Font.

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UCSF logos for your poster

• To get UCSF logos go to this website
• http//pub.ucsf.edu/imagedb/imsearch.phpkeywords
  logo
  
• You can either save them by right clicking or by
  downloading.

Right clicked files
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Stanford LPCH logos
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Saving graphics you find online
Right click on graphic you want.
A drop down menu will appear. Click on Save P
icture as
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Saving graphics you find online
A Save Picture dialog box opens up.
Select where you want to save the graphic to and
give it a name that you will recognize.
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Adding Graphics

• There are two basic ways to add images.
• Insert/Picture.
• Copy and Paste.

Hint When you are working with drop down menus
if you see a little double arrow at the bottom of
the menu that means that there are more options.
Click on the double arrow to see additional
options.
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Adding Graphics to poster
In PowerPoint select Insert Picture From File

Note from this menu you can also add clip art
organization charts auto shapes and word art.

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Adding Graphics to poster
Browse to find the file with the graphic you wish
to insert.
Select the file and click Insert.
Hint There are different ways to view files
choose
thumbnails helps to find graphic files.
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Adding a whole PPT

• Open PowerPoint Presentation.
• Findyou want to copy to poster.
• In the Edit menu click on select all.
• Then click on copy.

(Hint keyboard shortcut for copy is Control c.
The keyboard shortcut for Paste is Control
v.)

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Pasting PowerPointinto Poster

• Using Windows move back to the poster where you
  want to paste the.
  
• On the Edit Menu choose Paste Special.

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Paste Special
Try the different types of files
you can paste your selection as Picture (Enhan
ced Metafile) Picture (PNG) Picture (GIF) Pictu
re (JPEG).
In this instance Enhanced Metafile PNG GIF work
best. GIF and JPEG may translate best into diffe
rent environments i.e. Reprographics uses
Macs.
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PowerPointadded
If the first type of graphic doesnt work try
another you can always undo.
Enhanced Metafile PNG
GIF JPEG
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Lining Things Up
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Lining Things Up
To activate Grid lines to use to line up the
parts of your poster Select View Grid and
Gridlines. Then check the box next to Display
grid on screen. Then click on OK. You can
also use Display Drawing guides on screen t
o display center lines.
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Adding Background

• You can select a background under the Format
  menu/Background.
  
• From the dropdown menu select the color you
  wish.
  
• If you dont see it select More Colors. A color
  chart will then come up. You can select any color
  on the chart.
  
• You have to be careful what color type you use on
  different backgrounds so that your words can be
  clearly read.
  
• White Black Blue Yellow Green Orange Red.

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If you want a picture background just use
Insert/Picture Then place it Behind everything e
lse by clicking on the Draw drop down menu. Then
select Order and Send to Back.
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FormatDesign

• You can add design elements by using one of the
  pre-formatted PowerPoint Designs to your poster.
  Under the Format menu selectdesign. A
  menu comes up on the right side of the screen.
  Scroll down through the choices to find one that
  you like.

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Adding Photos How Many Dots
Whether printed on paper or displayed on your
computer screen a picture is made up of tiny
little dots. There are color dots and there ar
e black dots. In black white printing the size
and shape of the black dots and how close or far
apart they are printed creates the illusion of
shades of gray. The more little dots that are us
ed (up to a point) the clearer the picture.
The more dots in a picture the larger the size
of the graphic file. Resolution is measured by
the number of dots in a horizontal or vertical
inch. When you enlarge a photo graph the dots g
et larger. If you enlarge too much the photo
looks grainy.

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DPI (dots per inch)
Dots per inch (dpi) A measure of the resolution
of a printer is called DPI or dots per inch. It
properly refers to the dots of ink or toner used
by an imagesetter laser printer or other
printing device to print your text and graphics.
In general the more dots the better and sharper
the image. Most printers recommend 300 dpi
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Keep it proportional
When changing photo size hold down shift key and
click and drag corners.
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Printing your poster - handouts
In the Print dialog box select
Scale to fit paper.
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Getting Your Poster Printed

• Reprographics(UCSF) http//reprographics.ucsf.edu/
  
  
• Visual Art Services (Stanford) http//www.stanford
  .edu/dept/VAS/
  
• Kinkos http//www.kinkos.com/
• Sci-For Inc. http//www.scifor.com/
• SciencePresentations.com http//www.sciencepresent
  ations.com/
  
• BigPosters.com http//www.bigposters.com/2000home.
  htm

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Saving your poster as a pdf file

• Many printers will request you save your poster
  as a pdf file i.e. as an Adobe Portable Document
  file. This allows anyone to open it across a
  broad range of hardware and software and it will
  look exactly as you intended.
• To do this you will need to Adobe Acrobat writer
  installed on your computer.
  
• Under File select Print.
• Under Printer Name Select Acrobat Distiller.
• Then click on the Properties button.

Acrobat Distiller
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Saving your poster as a pdf file
On the Acrobat Distiller Document Properties Menu
select Adobe PDF Settings. Uncheck Do not send fo
nts to Distiller. Then click on Edit Conversion S
ettings
On the General Tab enter the dimensions of your
poster.
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Saving your poster as a pdf file
Click on the fonts tab and be sure that
Embed All Fonts is selected.
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Saving your poster as a pdf file
Click on the Compression tab. Under Compression s
elect Zip.
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