CS101 Introduction to Computing Lecture 31 Developing Presentations

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CS101 Introduction to ComputingLecture
31Developing Presentations
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Focus of the 22th Lecture was on Spreadsheets

• Second among the four lectures that we plan to
  have on productivity software
• We learnt about what we mean by spreadsheets
• We discussed the usage of various functions
  provided by common spreadsheets

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Spreadsheets

• Electronic replacement for ledgers
• Used for automating engineering, scientific, but
  in majority of cases, business calculations
• A spreadsheet - VisiCalc - was the first popular
  application on PCs.

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What Can They Do? (1)

• Can perform calculations repeatedly, accurately,
  rapidly
• Can handle a large number of parameters,
  variables
• Make it easy to analyze what-if scenarios for
  determining changes in forecasts w.r.t. change in
  parameters

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What Can They Do? (2)

• Are easy to interface with other productivity SW
  packages
• Easy to store, recall, modify
• Make it is easy to produce graphs

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The Structure of A Spreadsheet

• Collection of cells arranged in rows and columns
• Each cell can contain one of the following
• Numbers
• Text
• Formulas
• These cells display either the number or text
  that was entered in them or the value that is
  found by executing the formula

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Connecting Two Cells
A1 4
And this one, A2
Lets call this cell A1
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Todays LectureDeveloping Presentation

• Third among the four lectures that we plan to
  have on productivity software
• We will discuss several design guidelines for
  making effective multimedia presentations
• We will become able to develop simple
  presentation with the help of presentation making
  software

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Presentations (1)

• I used to use transparencies in conjunction with
  overhead projectors for making presentations
• Some time back, I used to write on transparencies
  with felt-tip markers
• Then I moved on to developing presentations on a
  PC, and printing the final version on
  transparencies with a laser printer

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Presentations (2)

• Some of my contemporaries used color inkjet
  printers instead of the laser printer
• Another option was to develop them on a computer
  and then transfer to 35mm slides using a camera,
  and display it using a slide projector

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Problems With All Those Modes

• It was difficult and often costly to make
  changes, especially last minute changes
• No sound, no animation, no video
• Electronic transmission, in some cases, was not
  easy
• It was difficult keeping track of old ones and
  making sure of their proper storage

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Solution Multimedia Presentations (1)

• Great tool for effectively communicating ideas to
  an audience
• All electronic
• Easy to make last minute changes
• The undo feature encourages experimentation

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Solution Multimedia Presentations (2)

• More attractive commanded more interest
• May include animations, sound, video
• Easy to catalog, store, and recall
• Great tool for making presenter-free interactive
  material (e.g. self-learning tutorials)

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The Presentation Scenario
Presentation screen
Info
Info
Audience
Presenter
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The Goal of the Presenter

• Maximize the (sum of the 2 types of) info that
  needs to be transferred to the audience

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Recommended Approach

• Put together a presentation that is
• simple
• clear
• consistent

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design guidelinesfor simplicity, clarity,
consistency
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Layout Guidelines (1)

• Keep layouts simple
• Vary the look of successive slides. Mix up
  graphics with bulleted lists with animations
• Avoid cluttering the slides with too much text or
  graphics. Your audience should hear what you have
  to say and not be distracted by a busy layout

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Layout Guidelines (2)

• Put a title on each slide. As soon as the
  audience see the slide, the title should make it
  clear as to the point of that slide

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Slide Background

• Keep the backgrounds simple. You want a
  background that shows off your info, not one that
  makes it illegible
• Avoid bright background colors. Light colored
  text against a dark background works best
• Keep colors, patterns, and text styles consistent
  (not necessarily the same) for all slides in a
  presentation

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Color Usage Guidelines (1)

• Use color sparingly to to highlight a point, but
  don't get carried away
• Choose them with care at times, the wrong choice
  may convey an unintended message

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Color Usage Guidelines (2)

• Select background colors that are easy on the eye
  for several minutes of viewing, e.g. dont go for
  a bright yellow or red or other warm colors for
  background
• Instead, use cool colors like blues and greens as
  backgrounds

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Writing Text

• Limit text to a few phrases on a screen. A good
  rule of thumb is 52 lines on a slide
• Write short phrases - not sentences - in the form
  of bulleted points if you display sentences on
  your slides, you have nothing to add!
• Have every bullet on a slide begin with a verb,
  or alternatively, have each begin with a noun

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Text Usage Guidelines (1)

• Normal text is easier to read than ALL CAPS
• Avoid ornate typefaces
• Use a clean readable typeface, e.g. sans serif
  ones (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica)
• Use at least a 24-point size, with the normal
  text size being 28-32

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Text Usage Guidelines (2)

• Be consistent in type size throughout the
  presentation
• Keep text simple and easy to read by not using
  many different text styles (bold, italics,
  underline) different typefaces, different font
  sizes, varying font colors within a sentence

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A Word of Caution on Guidelines

• These guidelines are not Laws of Nature
• For example, if I keep on repeating the same type
  face and font size and background throughout a
  long presentation, Ill put the audience to sleep
• At times, I use a warm background color or a very
  large (or small!) font size on a slide or two
  just to wake the audience up, or to make an
  important point

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Graphics Images

• Use simple graphics or images in place of text
• Example
• Components of an OS diagram (lecture 11)
• It not only listed the components in the form of
  colored discs, but also gave info visually about
  their interactions (through overlaps) and
  relative importance (through the size of each
  disc)

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a graphic is worth a thousand words (or
numbers)
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Animations Transitions

• Use simple slide transitions. Too many different
  transitions are distractive
• Animation is especially suitable for displaying
• Steps of a process Waterfall model
• Flow of info in a system How does IM works?

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The Structure of A Presentation

• Title slide
• Overview slide
• Main body
• Slide 1
• Slide 2
• Slide 3
• Summary slide

Divide long presentations into sections, and have
separate title, overview, summary, body slides
for each section
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Presentation Development SW

• One can use a word processor to develop
  presentations of reasonable quality
• However, using a SW package especially designed
  for developing presentation can
• Speed-up the task
• Make available features not available in standard
  word processors

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Presentation development SW lets users (1)

• Choose from a variety of ready-made presentation
  designs
• Create original designs as well as change colors,
  background, fonts in ready-made designs
• Add, delete, move slides within a presentation
• Insert graphics images, or create their own

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Presentation development SW lets users (2)

• Import from other applications or create new
  tables/plots
• Create simple animations
• Incorporate sound and videos
• Add hyperlinks, custom navigational controls
• Save work in HTML, PDF, graphics formats

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The Best Feature Undo

• Allows you to recover from your mistakes
• Allows you to experiment without risk

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Popular SW

• Microsoft PowerPoint
• CA Harvard Graphics
• Lotus Freelance Graphics
• Corel Presentation

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Lets now demonstrate the use of the presentation
making SW

• We will create a new presentation
• Enter text
• Add, delete, and move slides
• View slide show

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Assignment 11

• Develop a business plan in the form of a
  presentation
• It should be similar to the one discussed during
  the lecture, but does not have to focus on the
  same industry
• It should consist of 6 slides, with the first one
  being the title slide
• Further information on this assignment will be
  provide to you on the CS101 Web site

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Todays Lecture was the

• Third among the four lectures that we plan to
  have on productivity software
• We discussed several design guidelines for making
  effective multimedia presentations
• We became able to develop simple presentation
  with the help of presentation software

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• Would you persuade,
• speak of interest,
• not of reason. Benjamin Franklin

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Focus of the Final Productivity SW Lecture
Database SW

• To become familiar with the basic functions and
  features of desktop data management software
• To become able to build a small application with
  the help of database software