Visual

Presentation
Tutorial
For The St. Martin’s Guide to Public Speaking
©2003 Bedford/St. Martin’s
 Audiovisual Aids

• Anything that audience members can

see or hear (in addition to your speech)
that helps them understand and
remember your speech topic
Seeing (and Hearing) Is Believing

• Audiovisual aids can enhance

understanding and retention of
concepts.
• Facts and concepts are more likely to
be learned if they are accompanied by
visual cues.
• Audiovisual aids should be relevant to
the speech topic.
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

The Speaker

• The speaker sometimes becomes a

visual aid when an explanation requires
modeling.
– Physical movement
– Clothing
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Physical Objects

• Any physical object can be a visual aid.

 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Assistants

• Use an assistant when a demonstration

might cut into speech time or decrease
interaction with the audience.
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Maps, Charts, Graphs, Drawings,

and Photographs

• Map: a visual representation of

geography
• Chart: any graphic representation that
summarizes information and ideas
• Graph: usually employed to show a
quantitative relationship
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Maps, Charts, Graphs, Drawings,

and Photographs
• Three types of charts:
– verbal chart: uses words to explain ideas,
concepts, or general information
– pie chart: displays proportions and
percentages in relation to each other
– flow chart: demonstrates the flow or
direction of information, processes, and
ideas
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Maps, Charts, Graphs, Drawings,

and Photographs
• Two types of graphs:
– Line graph: shows the linear relationship
between data plotted on the horizontal axis
and data plotted on the vertical axis
– Bar graph: consists of parallel bars of
varying lengths -- those lengths being
proportionate to the quantities being
compared
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Maps, Charts, Graphs, Drawings,

and Photographs

• Use a drawing or photograph to

depict what is being described
orally
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Computer Technology and Visual Aids

• Use software programs to create tables,

charts, and graphs. Other programs
can help you create illustrations, scan
photographs, or use pictures from
digital cameras.
 Types of Audiovisual Aids

Technology and Audio Aids

• For audio aids consider CDs,

audiocassettes, and records.
• Some presentations may benefit from
multiple audio aids.
 Audience Analysis and the
Selection of Audiovisual Aids

• Consider the forum where your

speech will be held.
• Consider the demographics of your
audience.
• Remember that your audience may
have some prior exposure to your aid.
 Advantages Offered by
Audiovisual Aids
Audiovisual aids can...

• make a dull or boring presentation more

interesting
• simplify a complex speech message
 Rules for Preparing
Audiovisual Aids
• Be sure that the audiovisual aid
supports your point.
• Consider your audience analysis when
deciding what audiovisual aids you will
use.
• Make sure your audio aid is loud and
clear.
• Make sure your visual aid is large
enough to be seen.
 Rules for Preparing
Audiovisual Aids
• Make sure your visual aid is legible and
easily understood.
• Follow the rules of contrast.
– Use dark colors against light backgrounds
and light colors against dark backgrounds
• Keep the message of the audiovisual
aid simple.
• Do not create the audiovisual aid while
you speak.
 Rules for Delivering
Audiovisual Aids

• Make sure your audiovisual aid is

accessible to everyone in your
audience.
• Control audience interaction with your
audiovisual aid.
• Do not use the visual aid as an excuse
to avoid looking at your audience.
 Rules for Delivering
Audiovisual Aids

• Remember the role that the audiovisual

aid plays in your speech.
• Visual aids should be displayed only
during the time that you are using them
to make a point in your speech.
The Power of Audiovisual Aids:
Ethical Implications
• There is a great potential for abuse of
audiovisual aids.
• Be careful not to glamorize or popularize
difficult topics as you translate them to a
visual medium.
• Be aware that aids can oversimplify
complex messages. Make sure your aids
do not dilute or trivialize the content and
power of your message.
The Power of Audiovisual Aids:
Ethical Implications

• Be aware of the power of an aid.

• Do not change the meaning of a photo by
digitally altering it or use a bite of audio
out of context.
 A How-To Guide
for Using Microsoft
PowerPoint as a
Presentation Aid
How-To Guide to PowerPoint

• This guide offers straightforward advice

that will help you use Microsoft
PowerPoint to create effective and
enjoyable presentations.
 You don’t want your slides to
look like this:
Colors on
Title the slide
too are
small distracting

Texts
overlap
Font is
and have
small
strange
and hard
formatting
to read

Clip art is too large; only one piece is necessary

 Let’s Begin!

• PowerPoint is a Microsoft application.

• If you are proficient in programs such
as Word and Excel, you are already
familiar with over 100 common
commands used by Microsoft Office
software.
 Let’s Begin!

• NOTE: All of the icons, example

buttons, and toolbars shown in this
slide show are taken from the PC
version of PowerPoint. The Macintosh
version is similar, yet slightly different.
 To Use PowerPoint
• Become familiar with the toolbars
• Select your presentation option
• Learn how to create a slide
• Learn how to organize design elements
• Learn how to balance design elements
 Learning the Toolbars
Menu
bar
Format
-ting
Standard
toolbar
toolbar

View
buttons

Drawing toolbar Common tasks toolbar

Learning the Toolbars
• The Menu bar
• The Standard toolbar
• The View toolbar
• The Drawing toolbar
• The Formatting toolbar
• The Common Tasks toolbar
 Learning the Toolbars
• The Menu bar contains the commands for which
shortcuts exist on the toolbars.
• For instance, under File you can find the option to Save
your presentation, which is also available on the
Standard toolbar.
• In the Formatting menu, you can click on Alignment
and change the flow of text on your screen. You can
also click one of the alignment icons on the Formatting
toolbar to perform the same task.
 Learning the Toolbars
• The Standard toolbar contains a
number of useful shortcuts:
• New presentation
• Open a new or existing presentation
• Save
• Print
• Spelling
 Learning the Toolbars
• The Standard toolbar also includes a
number of other shortcut features:
• Insert a Microsoft Word Table
• Insert a Microsoft Excel Table
• Insert a Chart
• Insert Clip Art
• The Office Wizard. When you click this and
type a question, it will search the Help index
for possible answer.
 Learning the Toolbars
• The View toolbar gives different options
for viewing slides:
• Slide View: shows slides one by one
• Outline View: shows an outline of all slide text
• Slide Sorter View: places all the slides on one
screen in slide format
• Note Pages View: allows you to add and read
notes below each slide
• Slide Show: allows you to see the presentation
 Learning the Toolbars
• The Drawing toolbar gives shortcuts to:
• AutoShapes: draw lines, arrows, rectangles, and
ovals; access the AutoShapes menu
• Text boxes: draw these where you wish to add text
on a blank slide or add text to an existing slide
• Line color, font color, and fill color options, with
menus
• Dash style and 3-D options
• The Draw button presents a menu of other ways to
manipulate your text and clip art, including rotation,
alignment, and alterations to AutoShapes.
 Learning the Toolbars
• The Formatting toolbar allows you to:
• Change font
• Change font size

• Add boldface, italics, underlining, and

shading to text
• Create animation effects

• Change paragraph alignment

Learning the Toolbars
• The New Slide button inserts a new slide
directly following the slide currently being
viewed.

• The Slide Layout button gives choices of

layouts for different pre-designed text box
and clip art formations.

• The Apply Design button gives pre-designed

slide aesthetic options.
 Learning the Toolbars
• Finally, on the View menu you can
choose which toolbars are available at
any give time:
• Click View
• Scroll down to Toolbars
• Select or deselect your preferences
Select Presentation Option

• When PowerPoint launches you will see the

screen above.
• Here you select how you would like to
create your presentation.
 Select Presentation Option
• The AutoContent
Wizard is useful for
those who are
unfamiliar with
PowerPoint or who
need extra help.
• It sets up an index of
slides with preloaded
titles, points, subpoints,
and designs.
Select Presentation Option

• The Template
option provides
moderate flexibility
in designing
presentations.
• You choose from
28 templates to
organize your
points, subpoints,
and design.
 Select Presentation Option
• The Blank
Presentation option
offers the most
flexibility.
• Users customize
every aspect of the
design for each • The following slides will
individual slide. teach you how to work
from Blank Presentation.
 How to Create a Slide
• Click New Slide to select a layout for the
title slide.
• To change the color of the slide either
right-click it and select Slide Color
Scheme or select Format and then Slide
Color Scheme from the Menu bar.
 How to Create a Slide
• You choose the color scheme and
format of the slide, and if you wish you
can also apply these choices to all of
the following slides.
• You can change the color scheme of
one or all of your slides at any time.
 How to Create a Slide
• To change the order of the slides, first
select Slide Sorter View ( ) from the
View toolbar. You can move slides by
cutting and pasting or dragging and
dropping
• To delete a slide, either click on it while
in Slide Sorter View or go to it in Slide
View ( ), then select Edit from the
Menu bar and click on Delete Slide.
Organizing Design Elements

• Text
• Clip art and pictures
• Animation effects
• Balancing the
elements
 Organizing Text

As you can
see from
this slide, Click on the icon on
text boxes the Drawing toolbar.
can be put
With the cursor, draw the
anywhere. approximate size you need
for your text.
 Organizing Text
• You can expand the box to include more text or make it
smaller to make room for other design elements on the slide.

• The pre-designed
selections from
the Slide Layout
screen offer the
most logical and
often-used
layouts.
 Organizing Text
• Use a readable font and font size for
each different aspect of the page (a
good size range is between 20-60
points).
• Be consistent from slide to slide with
fonts and font sizes.
• Choose colors that will ensure that
your text is readable and your slides do
not appear distracting.
 Organizing Text
• Don’t use too many different fonts.
• DON’T USE ALL CAPS.
• Avoid fonts that are distracting:
– Braggadocio
– OzHandicraft BT
– Shelley Volante BT
 Organizing Text
• Don’t include your entire speech on the
slides. Instead highlight important points.
• To determine what information is best to
include in your presentation, you should:
• Review your speech outline.
• Identify points that can be illustrated,
such as key terms and their definitions,
statistics, or charts and graphs.
Organizing Clip Art and Pictures

• To insert clip art onto your slide you can:

• Select a slide layout that has a set space
for clip art. When working on that slide,
simply double-click on the clip art space
and it will take you to the Microsoft Clip
Gallery.
• Use the Insert menu, click Picture, and then
select Clip Art.
• Click on the shortcut icon:
Organizing Clip Art and Pictures
• To insert your own photos or graphics
rather than ones from the gallery, click
Insert, scroll to Picture, and select From
File.
• Here you can browse your computer
and choose art from your own files.
Organizing Clip Art and Pictures
• If you cannot find what you need in the
gallery or your own resources, you have
another option. Downloads of more
images are available free from Microsoft
via the Internet.
• In the gallery, click on the icon in
the bottom right corner.
• Search by key word to find what you
need.
Organizing Clip Art and Pictures
• PowerPoint can incorporate graphs and charts
as well.
• On the Standard toolbar, there are shortcuts for
inserting Microsoft Word tables and Microsoft
Excel worksheets and graphs .
• Change the numbers and labels on the graphs
or charts to fit your information.
Organizing Clip Art and Pictures

• Remember: use
clip art, pictures,
charts, and
graphs only to
illustrate points,
not as fillers.
Organizing Animation Effects
• PowerPoint has a variety of different ways
that text and art can be animated.
• For example:
Spiral Appear
Fly from Bottom-Left
Blinds Stretch from Top Zoom In
Vertical
Wipe Right Box Out
Dissolve
Crawl
Peek from Bottom Checkerboard Across from
Right
Organizing Animation Effects
• These effects can be interesting additions
to your presentation, but they can also be
distracting. Use them sparingly to add
emphasis.
• To animate, right-click on the text or image
and select Custom Animation from the
menu.
• Select the effect you want to use,
determine the order of the animations on
the slide, and make sure to preview.
Organizing Animation Effects
• Take time while in this screen to determine
how your animation effects will appear.
• Clicking on the Timing menu gives you
options so that your textboxes, clip art, and
other animation elements can be presented
on a mouse click, automatically, or
automatically after a preset length of time.
 Balancing the Elements
• Even if you follow all the suggestions for
setting up your slide and its elements, you
still may find that your presentation is
hard to follow.
• It is important to go back through your
completed presentation and make sure
that the overall experience of watching it
is pleasant as well as educational.
 Balancing the Elements
• Defining a balanced slide may seem like a
matter of opinion, but there are concrete
criteria, including:
• Clip art and text must fit together well. No
element -- title, points, graphics -- should
overpower the others.
• Headings should be consistent in size and
placement. They should be large and clear.
• The audience should be able to understand
each slide quickly and easily.
 Example of a Balanced Slide
The title
Text is is large
easy to and
read and clear.
well sized.
The clip art Good use
illustrates of
the slide contrasting
and is well colors on
placed on slide and in
the layout. font.
Example of an Unbalanced Slide
Title
and
Text is
color
too
scheme
small.
are still
fine.
Clip art is
too
large.

This slide is hard to read and places unnecessary

emphasis on the artwork.
 Balancing the Elements

• If you are unsure whether your slide is

well balanced, ask a friend or your
instructor if they find your presentation
easy to follow, and easy on the eye.
 Giving Your Presentation
• Make sure you have practiced giving
your speech while using your PowerPoint
presentation.
• It may be helpful to make notes on your
cue cards or outline indicating when to
move from one slide to the next.
• Time yourself giving your speech with
the presentation. Make sure that you
are within your assigned time limit.
Giving Your Presentation
• In case of technical problems, be
prepared to give your speech without
your PowerPoint presentation.
• Consider making printouts of your
presentation to give your classmates in
case of technical problems.
 Giving Your Presentation
• To keep your audience from becoming
distracted, you should also use blank
slides when you are done with one slide
and not yet ready for the next one.
• Consider this as you practice your
speech with the presentation. Insert
blank slides where you are speaking
about something that departs from the
contents on the slide.
The End