Faculty Vitae, Winter 2006: Leadership Lesson

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Creating a Poster Using Microsoft PowerPoint

Poster Template
Open and save to your hard drive (PowerPoint, 55KB)

Consult the size guidelines for your poster and re-format your slide size in scale with those proportions by choosing File-->Page Setup-->Custom. In the dialogue box, type in your scaled width and height in inches, accommodating for the maximum 56" limitation in PowerPoint for either dimension. PowerPoint should orient the slide to "Landscape" or "Portrait" based on the dimensions you chose. Select "OK."

Use the Ruler feature to help place text and graphics by selecting View-->Ruler. Remember that you are creating a scaled version in PowerPoint and that white space may appear much larger in the printed version. Place your elements closer together than you might otherwise and use the ruler feature to gauge the dimensions of the white space.

Use Guides to generate a border of 1 to 2 inches around your poster. To do this, select View-->Grid and Guides. Drag a Guide to the left and top borders. Create a Guide for the right and bottom borders by putting your cursor on the guide, and selecting "Ctrl" as you drag the new guide.

If you have a difficult time gauging the spacing of your elements, consider using the Grid or Ruler features.

Input text, import graphics, and create graphs. Note that images with a low resolution may appear grainy when printed in a large format.

To insert Text: click on "Text Box" and begin typing. Re-configure the box by clicking on it and dragging its handles (the circles on the box's perimeter). Change the font in the box by clicking on the box (the outline of the box will look like dots) and choosing your font and font size on the menu bar at the top of the screen. Change or eliminate the border around the text box or the Fill (background color) by placing your cursor on the box and right clicking; choose "Format Text Box."

To insert Graphics, Tables, Charts, Diagrams: Choose Insert and the type of object you wish to insert from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

To align elements select one element, push "Shift" and select a second element. On the bottom menu bar, select Draw --> Align or Distribute and select how you wish to align the elements.