I am creating a presentation to do at an away day in two weeks. To make it more interesting I wanted to try and give it a star wars theme. Might not work but worth a shot.
Does anyone know how I can create a star wars style font for it? I’m not having much look online with the downloads etc

Might not work

it wont.

Why not? Genuine question, cos if there is a reason then it will save me a load of time trying

The one rule to rule them all about Powerpoint is DO NOT USE SILLY FONTS.

Damn…Back the drawing board

http://www.fontspace.com/category/star%20wars

You’ll need to embed them or have them loaded on the machine which runs the presentation too.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826832

But you could do a neat Leia Bikini faded slide backdrop. That sounds like a winner.

It is so blindingly obvious when someone has been on a powerpoint course – their presentations are flippin awful. Crap fonts, stuff flying around the screen etc.

Keep it simple – its Powerpoint. Nothing on gods earth will make it more interesting.

The key to good powerpoint presentations are few words, big vibrant images and simplicity.

No gimics, no tables of figures, no funny fonts. Think slick and profesional rather than clever and unique.

The best thing you can do with PowerPoint’s is stick in a load of clipart and animation. Make sure you have sound enabled and add sound to the animations.

Words too…lots of words.

You know that phrase a picture says a thousand words?

Bollocks.

A thousand words says a thousand words.

Simple presentations are the most effective. Avoid natty backgrounds, daft fonts and jarring transitions between pages.

Nice clean pages, white or very pale background with black or very dark font – Arial, Tahoma, Calibri are all nice readable fonts that look good and perhaps Franklin Gothic and similar.

Bullet point the text and read from prepared notes, not the presentation. The slides should merely summarise the content and not be the content – otherwise you may as well sit back and let people read the stuff themselves.

10-15 slides max, with up to 5 bullets or 1 chart on each (some leaway here depending on the situation.

Do not try a Star Wars theme.

Do not subject your audience to death by Powerpoint.

My litmus test is can you do the presentation without Powerpoint and have it be almost if not as effective. If yes you have nailed it, if not revisit.

I prefer to present without Powerpoint altogether but it is sometimes expected and can be useful when presenting data etc.

Make sure all charts, tables, graphics, writing etc are readable. No point inserting some god awful, highly complex Excel table in as noone will be able to read it never mind make sense of it.

Cheers

Danny B

The Star Wars rolling text thing is a proper cliche, everyone will have seen it 100s of times before.

Plain background, big words, simple font, brightly coloured words, no animation and simple transitions. Looks classy and gives no one a headache.

I like blue background/yellow writing.

Rule 1. As few words as possible
Rule 2. No humour
Rule 3. Appropriate, well thought through and high-definition images
Rule 4. Use images instead of text wherever possible
Rule 5. No bullets
Rule 6. No bullets
Rule 7. No bullets
Rule 8. No bullets
Rule 9. No bullets
Rule 10. No bullets
Rule 11. Speak slowly and clearly. Think about the pace of your speech as you present
Rule 12. Use punchy sentences if in a formal situation
Rule 13. Be more relaxed and conversational in less formal setting
Rule 14. Leave time for your audience to consider your points
Rule 15. Oh and less slides is more.

Ditch powerpoint and use prezi. Same rules aplly though.

Ditch powerpoint?
I have made an effort in my job to not use presentation software – and it works. I have to be more creative, if I have to speak it has to be good, and people respond well in the middle of the usual PP merry go round.

matt_outandabout – Member
Ditch powerpoint?
I have made an effort in my job to not use presentation software – and it works. I have to be more creative, if I have to speak it has to be good, and people respond well in the middle of the usual PP merry go round.

Often a good tactic. Sorts the wheat from the chaff!

Beyond Bullets Points by Cliff Atkinson will sort you out. All you need to do is search for the basics as that’ll be enough to get you buy … Or buy the book as it’s pretty cheap and bloody good.

I went on a plastics course once, at Ticona in Telford.
Blistering hot day, in a packed room with no A/C.
The chap had numbered his slides.
“1 of 287″…”2 of 287″…

Longest day of my life.

Beyond Bullet Points duly bought – looks really interesting and always keen to improve my PowerPoint.

Cheers for the tip

Danny B

+1 for Prezi if you absolutely have to put something up on a screen.

Beyond Bullets Points by Cliff Atkinson will sort you out. All you need to do is search for the basics as that’ll be enough to get you buy … Or buy the book as it’s pretty cheap and bloody good.

This book, summarised: turn every bullet point into a slide heading; put a big, relevant picture on the slide; delete the text. It’s more than that, and a great book, but that summarises the practical points.

Prezi if you absolutely have to put something up on a screen

I seem to be alone in hating Prezi? To me, it seems like all the very worst parts of PowerPoint condensed into a hard-to-use package.

If you’re presenting, it should be more about what/how you say not about some text behind you.

I seem to be alone in hating Prezi?

nope. spent an hour or two playing with it and hated it.

I seem to be alone in hating Prezi?

Nope, same here. Spent 1/2 day playing it when it first launched and found it totally counter-intuitive. Have seen some cracking Prezis but IMO the designers must be putting a fair amount of time/thought into them. Very effective when done well. Complete bollox when not.

Asked similar PP question a week or so ago Here.

I went for 10 slides of which, 1 was who I am, 1 was the subject matter overview, 4 on my chosen topics pictures only no text, 3 to summarise the presenation and last 1 was thanking them and any questions.

No text on subjects just waffled about subjects from notes. It seem to hold their interest rather than them reading off the screen. Will find out next week if I got the job

Another bonus with Prezi is that the transitions quite often trigger motion sickness in the audience.

Useful if you hate them.

Will find out next week if I got the job

Good luck