CS101 Introduction to Computing

Lecture 31
Developing 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.

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:

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 6

Connecting Two Cells

=A1 + 4

Lets call this cell A1

And this one, A2

Todays Lecture: Developing 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 11

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

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 guidelines
for 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 20

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 26 important point

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, 32 overview, summary, body slides for each section

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

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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 35

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 39 to you on the CS101 Web site

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

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