Best powerpoint colors

[Stud Missile]

Hey, what is the most striking color combination you have seen in a seminar? I have to give my first literature seminar in front of my department next week, and want some suggestions as to what you think looks best.

 

Nothing too flashy, just simple and very clear. What do you think?

[swansont]

"Striking" is not the same as "good" — you want to stay away from gaudy combinations that make the eyes bleed after a few minutes.

 

Some powerpointers on how NOT to do it

 

http://scienceblogs.com/twominds/2008/03/how_to_give_a_bad_science_pres.php

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/09/how_not_to_use_powerpoint.php

http://scienceblogs.com/worldsfair/2008/09/is_this_the_most_evil_powerpoi.php

[Severian]

It is best to keep it clean. Use a plain white background, with black text, and maybe dark blue text for titles and red text to highlight important words.

[bascule]

I like white on black personally, or white on a charcoal gray gradiated background

[insane_alien]

i tend to use white on a dark blue background(with a slight shade gradient). it seems to be the standard around my uni and it is quite readable.

[HornedWildebeas]

I like white on red/black background. But that's just me.

[Severian]

I like white on black personally, or white on a charcoal gray gradiated background

 

That is a real bitch to print though.

[iNow]

Our powerpoints match the colors of our project. So, we have a standard template by project, with all of the appropriate letterhead and colors and whatnot.

[CharonY]

I am also a fan of simple black on white. No background.

[bascule]

That is a real bitch to print though.

 

Pr... int?

[Pangloss]

The best advice I ever got on using PowerPoint slides in the classroom is to stop using PowerPoint slides in the classroom. It was my first teaching position, and I had no idea what I was doing, and I fell right into the PowerPoint crutch. I was just lucky enough to have a program chair who cared enough to come sit in my class and then tell me what I was doing wrong. (It's amazing to me how infrequently that actually happens.) My classes went from boring and sleep-worthy to interesting and highly-rated immediately. I also started having a lot more fun in the classroom, which is surprisingly important.

 

The teacher's perspective is a little different from the infrequent-presenter's perspective, but the same general rules apply, including the one about having fun. Do you want to put them to sleep, or do you want to tell them something important? Choose.

 

One way you can kick the habit is to actually go ahead and make slides as if you're going to present them, but instead print them out and then simply hold them in your hand (which is also nice because you can add notes to them that wouldn't fit on the slides). Then LEAVE THE PODIUM and walk around the room, looking people right in the eye, with the lights turned on full bright.

 

Since that time I've gone back to adding in a few slides here and there, but only with a lot of thought and a lot of effort on making them interesting and engaging.

 

Oh, if you get a chance some time, check out the beginning of that awful Tom Hanks movie "The Da Vinci Code". That is one amazing PowerPoint presentation -- I show it to my students whenever I teach PowerPoint, just for inspiration. Ignore the special effects, and just watch how he uses it to enhance what he's telling his audience, rather than using it to replace him. That's a great example. That sort of approach takes a lot of planning and effort, but the payoff can be enormous.

[Severian]

One way you can kick the habit is to actually go ahead and make slides as if you're going to present them, but instead print them out and then simply hold them in your hand (which is also nice because you can add notes to them that wouldn't fit on the slides).

 

This is actually what I am doing at the moment for a lecture course. I don't think it is going as well as my normal lectures though where I use PowerPoint. I am teaching a course with lots of maths, so I am constantly writing on the chalk-board, and I find it much harder to engage with the students.

 

When I use PowerPoint on the other hand, I find I talk a lot more around the subject because I am not concentrating on writing as fast as I can, and have more time to think.

 

It will be interesting to see the feedback, but I suspect it won't be as good as my usual feedback.

[CharonY]

Interesting, actually. I recently had my first lecture in the USA (kind of a different experience than back in Germany). I had the feeling that the students were only interested in those parts that are likely to be tested in the exam (especially calculations). Usually when I asked questions I was greeted with silence (but the person(s) addressed were at least polite enough to remove their ipods before acknowledging that they didn't have a clue). Unfortunately i am stuck with a basic chemistry lecture (with over 60 students) which does not give me enough freedom yet. I hope I can give an advanced seminar at some point (I will try running around more).

[Severian]

For another course I am giving lectures using an electronic whiteboard. It displays my PowerPoint and then I can write on top of it with an electronic pen. The lecture is videoconferenced so that it can be attended by people in another city (actually, my audience is in 5 different locations) and they can see a video-feed of me lecturing, plus the PowerPoint and annotations. I can also see and hear them, so they can ask questions, and they can even write on the whiteboard at their end (which is showing my PowerPoint + annotations) and it shows up for everyone.

 

It is quite impressive and seems to be working well.

[iNow]

We have a system like that at work, and we can even record it then publish it later for people who were not able to attend directly... publishing the event like a movie, or with MC questions to ensure engagement.

 

I agree, it's quite a useful system.

[bascule]

As a programmer, I think PowerPoints are invaluable, however you don't want to use the PowerPoint as some sort of crib notes. I like labeling each slide with a theme and putting up code snippets which explain what I'm talking about.

 

You can try to do the same thing live with an impromptu demo, but it has a much higher probability of failure.

[Pangloss]

This is actually what I am doing at the moment for a lecture course. I don't think it is going as well as my normal lectures though where I use PowerPoint. I am teaching a course with lots of maths, so I am constantly writing on the chalk-board, and I find it much harder to engage with the students.

 

When I use PowerPoint on the other hand, I find I talk a lot more around the subject because I am not concentrating on writing as fast as I can, and have more time to think.

 

Yeah I agree with that completely. It's the old bullet-points-and-subject-headers approach that I think gets people into the most trouble. Like watching a movie with subtitles on -- it gets boring when you already know what the guy's about to say. (Like bascule's point about "crib notes" above.)

 

It's good to experiment and shake things up from time to time, though, don't you think? I'm sure you'll learn something from the experience.