Creating a Poster Using MS PowerPoint
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>Requirements
>The Ideal Poster is Designed To...
>Before You Begin...
>Poster Sections
>Possible Combinations of Headings
>Descriptions of Headings
>Design and Layout
>Simple Instructions
>Instructions for Using a Template
Requirements
To create a poster in PowerPoint, you need the PowerPoint program. If you have purchased the MS Office Suite, it should be one of the programs.
The Ideal Poster is Designed To...
- Provide a brief overview of your work
- Initiate discussion
- Aattract attention
- Give you something useful to point to as you discuss your work
- Stand alone when you are not there to provide an explanation
- Let people know of your particular expertise
- Provide a place to set your handouts
Before You Begin: Storyboards
Roughly sketch out your poster on paper. You could think of this as story boarding. The next section lists a number of possible poster sections for use along with a set of definitions.
Poster Sections
Posters can be created with as many or as few descriptive sections as you wish. Generally speaking, you should go light on the number of headings/sections. Keep the KISS principle (Keep it Simple, Stupid) in mind. For your first attempt, you may wish to use combination 7 or 8 which has relatively few headings.
Definitions of the sections are listed below the list of headings
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Possible Combinations of Headings
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Combination 1
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Combination 2
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Author/Title/Affiliation
Objectives
Data Sources /Study Setting
Study Design
Data Collection
Principal Findings
Conclusions
Funding Source
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Author/Title/Affiliation
Objectives
Methods
Results
Conclusions
Funding Source
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Combination 3
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Combination 4
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Context
Objective
Design
Settings
Participants/Subjects
Intervention
Main Outcome Measures
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Funding Source
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Author/Title/Affiliation
Introduction
Research Question
Background
Importance
Methods
Study Sites
Study Population
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Findings
Conclusions
Implications
Funding Source
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Combination 5
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Combination 6
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Author/Title/Affiliation
Aims
Methods
Descriptive Issues
Statistical Analysis
Conclusions
Relevance
Funding Source
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Author/Title/Affiliation
Research Objectives
Background
Study Design
Results
Conclusion
Relevance
Future Research
Funding Source
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Combination 7
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Combination 8
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Author/Title/Affiliation
Background
Methods
Results
Conclusions
Funding Source
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Author/Title/Affiliation
Background Information
Research Question
Methods
Conclusions
Future Research Questions
Funding Source
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Descriptions of Heading
Abstract - a brief description of the study giving key points about the research. Is somewhat redundant when the poster is about the same topic, but people do include abstracts on their posters. Usually 150 words if unstructured and up 250 words if a structured abstract is used.
Aims - another word for purpose or hypothesis
Background - reasons why you chose to study the problem
Conclusions - after doing the research, what did you learn from the data?
Context - a different word for background
Data Collection - the part of methodology concerned with the collection of information about the study group
Data Analysis - the statistical analysis part of methodology
Descriptive Issues - Similar to methodology
Design - similar to methodology, i.e., what study design did you use?
Discussion - a discussion of the importance of the results based on their newness. Implications of the findings.
Findings - another word for results
Funding Organization/Agency/Source - This is also a required section usually placed at the bottom right of the poster. Funding agencies like to see their names mentioned. It's good policy to add this information.
Future Research Questions - did your study raise questions?
Hypothesis/Purpose - this is your research question
Implications - what is the relevance of your study to society?
Importance - what is the relevance of your study to society
Intervention - what did you try to affect the health status (for example) of your participants
Measures - part of the methodology
Methods - includes observational or experimental subjects, statistical methods, drugs used and how administered
Main Outcome/s - what was the result of your study
Objective/s - what you intend to study
Participants/Subjects - people who participated in the study
Principal Findings - what did your study tell you?
Relevance - importance of your study to the organization
Results - summary of the most important results
Research Question/s - the hypothesis
Settings - the physical location where the study took place
Statistical Analysis - the analysis of your data using various statistical tools
Study Design - the organization of your study, including statistical analysis
Study Sites - where did you study your population?
Study Population - the group of people you are studying
Title, Author/s, Institutional Affiliation - the major required element is the Title, Author/s and Institution section. This section is found at the top of the poster. Affiliation may be listed near the bottom right of the poster if you do not wish to take the space at the top of the poster.
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Design and Layout
Determine what three key points you want to make. You want your poster to cover the key points of your work - not all the details.
Before you begin work in PowerPoint, design and lay out the poster ahead of time. You may use one piece or several pieces of 8.5" x 11" paper to mock up the poster. Add the headings; roughly scratch the text layout and graphics. Tape or pin the sheets to a wall and rearrange them until you like the arrangement, all the while remembering to keep within your space allocation. This will determine how your final poster will look. The process of designing your poster by laying it out is called storyboarding.
Numbered lists and lists of "bullets" are good ways to communicate concisely.
The flow of your poster should be from the top left to the bottom right. The movement (pathway) of the eye over the poster should be natural - down the columns or along the rows. Use arrows, pointing hands, numbers, or letters to help clarify the sequence or flow of the poster, if necessary. Some presenters prefer to number the sections in sequence to guide the reader through the poster.
Sample PowerPoint poster (in PowerPoint format)
Note: the layout for the section above was done in Word Using Text Boxes
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Simple Instructions
For a presentation on tips about poster creation, check out this online tutorial.
1. Open PowerPoint by double clicking on the PowerPoint Icon (easiest method).
2. Click on the New icon.
3. From the dialog box, select the blank slide. Then OK.
4. Most people will find it easier to set up the poster in a smaller size slide and then enlarge the size just before printing. In some ways it's easier to lay everything out and then add information once you\'ve seen where everything is to go.
5. Be sure your ruler is available so you can see where you are adding text boxes. View | Ruler.
6. Click on the text box. Insert the Title of your Presentation across the top of the slide. Add the author's names and affiliations. Your title should be quite large, not less than 12 points. You want people to be able to see your presentation title from a distance. (Remember, everything will be blown up when you enlarge your poster.)
7. Now add some color. Click on the Font Color icon. Select the down arrow, then More Font Colors. Select the color you like, remembering that you want the title to be seen from a distance. Remember that some color combinations will not work together; e.g., dark color on dark color. Be sure there is good contrast between the background and the print font.
8. Lay out the sections of your paper. In our sample above, we decided to lay out the poster with the following sections: Introduction and Objectives, Population Studied, Methodology, A Graph, A Table, Discussions, Study conclusions and ideas for new research, and Funding Information. Use the Text Box in combination with the Line Style to create boxes. Key in the title of the section and then press Enter to take you down to the bottom of the section. Put a line of xxxxxx to hold the bottom of the box in place.
9. Once you have your boxes laid out you can start adding the real information to the text boxes. When you are all done, you can delete the line around the text boxes, add color to the headings and/or change the font size and type.
10. Font sizes should be as follows:
* Abstract - 5 point
* Normal type - 8 font
* Headings - 12 font
When blown up to the correct full size, these fonts will be quite readable.
Obviously, you will have trouble reading a 5 point font. Please remember that you can use the zoom feature to blow up the slide to 200 percent of its original size. That's usually enough to read the elements on the slide quite easily.
11. To add an image, go to the Insert menu. Insert Picture | From File and find the file, then, OK.
Or, you can use Copy and Paste (Select the graphic in the original document (you will see handles on the graphic), then Edit | Copy, click on the slide, then Edit | Paste.
(No matter where you think the image is going to go, it will always be in the wrong place). Click on the image, hold the left mouse button down and drag the image where you want it to go. Then click on the image again, this time on one of the corners and either push in (to reduce the size of the image) or pull out, remembering to keep the left mouse button depressed.
Backgrounds can be inserted by using the Format | Background command. Don\'t be heavy handed in your use of dark backgrounds. They use up a lot of ink and may overwhelm the viewer.
Lines, boxes and arrows can be inserted using the Drawing Toolbar. If you don't see this Toolbar, use View | Toolbars | Drawing to make it available.
12. To insert a table or graph from Excel, create the table or graph and highlight or select it in Excel. You can then click on Insert | Chart, or Insert | Object. Insert | Chart enables you to create a chart right in front of your eyes. Insert | Object enables you to add a finished chart and be able to link to it so that you can continue to update Excel and then when you open PowerPoint to update your Excel file, you'll see that it is already updated.
13. To print the final version on a single piece of 11 x 8.5" paper to check it over, go to File, Page Setup, Slides Sized For and click the check box 35mm slides for its final size). OK.Then print.
14. Check out this resource for detailed instructions:
Poster Instructions (PDF)
Instructions for Using an Existing Presentation as a Template
1. Look for this Sample poster (PDF)
2. Begin adding your information into the template as you delete the old information. Feel free to rearrange text boxes, or any graphs, lines, arrows and so on.
Tricky Parts
If you work in the tiny format, it can sometimes be a challenge changing font size below 8 points. To change a font size from 8 points to 5 points, go to Format | Font | Size | then key in 5 manually.
Importing a PowerPoint Slide from another presentation
Change the font size before you move it into the new presentation. Use this feature if you want to make your poster up out of existing PowerPoint slides.
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Last modified on Monday Jul 30, 2007