Athletic Training: Presenting Your Research

Basic steps on changing settings for posters

A.  Slide set up

1.  Open PowerPoint

2.  Select blank slide layout – NOTE:  Your poster will be on just ONE slide

3.  Select the Design tab

4.  Select Slide Size   (In older MS versions, select Page Setup)

5.  Under “Slides sized for” use the pull-down arrow to select “custom”

6.  Set the height and width as per the conference regulations

7.  Keep the slide orientation as landscape

8.  Select OK

9.  Select View tab

10.  Check Rulers & Gridlines -  this will help you line up text boxes. 

B.  Textbox set up

1.  Select Insert tab

2.  Click Text Box and then click and drag over area on slide where you want the box.  E.g. The title

3.  Don’t agonize if it’s not the exact size & in the exact spot.  You can move it & resize it later

4.  Enter text & select center or left justify

5.  Repeat for the other sections: Abstract; Introduction; Materials & Methods; Results; Conclusions; Literature Cited; Acknowledgements; Further Information/Contac

6. See Design Tips tab for font sizes

C. Inserting Images

To insert an online photo:

1. Select Insert
2. In the pop-up box for Bing Image Search, type in a term. E.g. nurses

Places to find images either within the public domain or cleared for general use:

Flickr Commons – photos in the public domain (many photos will be old, but also new ones as well).  Under the info about the photo, note: License - No known copyright restrictions http://www.flickr.com/commons/

Flickr Advanced Search 

1. Select Advanced Search, located to the right of the search button. 
2. Scroll down to Creative Commons & make selection http://www.flickr.com/search

Google Images

1. First do a Google Image search.
2. On resulting page, click the Options Icon (Looks like a gear) and select Advanced Search. 
3. Scroll down to the dropdown box with “Not filtered by license”
4. Make your selection.   

 iStock Photo

Good source, if you are willing to pay  http://www.istockphoto.com/

Poster Design Tips

A.  Fonts, Font Size, & Text color

    1.  Sans Serifs fonts are recommended for Posters.   (Serif = distinctive finishing strokes both vertical & horizontal;  Sans = without) 

         e.g. Arial is a sans serif font

                  Times New Roman is a serif font

    2.  Variable width fonts are easier to read

         e.g. Arial is a variable width font

               Courier is a fixed width font

    3.  Font recommendations:

            Title:  72-120 points    note:  72 points = 1 inch as a general rule

            Subtitle: 48-80 points

            Section headers: 36-72 points

            Text:  24-48 points

    4.  Title in Sentence case – lower case letters easier/faster to read than uppercase. NOTE:  The conference requirements override this.  Go with what's required.

    5.  Images & graphic resolution = 150-300 dpi  

             Recommended file types:  PNG, TIF or JPEG.  For descriptions of file types, read:  http://www.sitepoint.com/gif-jpg-png-whats-difference/

B.  Background recommendations

    1.  Use high contrast between text & background for easier reading.   e.g. black text/white background

    2.  Be conscious of color schemes that are unreadable by the color blind.   e.g. black & red; green & orange

    3.  Consider what graphics you'll be using and how they will fit with the background.  Colored backgrounds will make white graphics stand out.

    4.  Color for monitors is RGB mode while color for printers is CYMK -Printed, Mixed Ink mode.   This means what you see on your computer might not be what you   see on your printed poster.   A good reason to get a proof before printing your final copy.

C.  Wrapping text – PowerPoint doesn’t wrap text around inserted figures, but Word does.  Can create in Word then paste to PowerPoint.

Poster Evaluation Checklist

 Basics

o  Title and other required sections are present

o  Complete author affiliation & contact information is included

o  The poster conforms to the requirements of the conference where it will be presented

o  Font is sans-serif

o  Font is consistent throughout

o  Spelling is correct throughout

o  Grammar is correct throughout

o  Acronyms are defined on first use

o  Content is appropriate & relevant for audience

Design

o  All text can be easily read from 4 feet away

o  Flow of the poster is easy to follow

o  White space used well

o  Section titles are used consistently

o  Images/graphics are used in place of text whenever possible

o  Bullet points/lists are used in place of text whenever possible

o  All images are relevant and necessary to the poster

o  Charts are correct – i.e. appropriate type for data, data is correct & correctly represented

o  Text color and background color are significant in contrast for easy reading

o  Background color doesn’t obscure or dim text

o  Images are clear, not pixilated or blurry

 Content

o  The “story” of the poster is clear

o  The content is focused on 2-3 key points

o  Title is clear & informative of the project

o  Problem, or clinical question, is identified and explained

o  Current evidence related to project is listed

o  Objectives are stated

o  Methods are described

o  Results are presented

o  Conclusions are stated

o  Implications to practice and to other professions are presented

o  References are listed

o  All content is relevant and on the key points

o  Content is not duplicated in text and graphics

 Oral Presentation

o  Presenter greets people

o  Presenter is able to give a concise synopsis of poster

o  Presenter is able to explain all diagrams and sections

o  Presenter speaks fluently – i.e. doesn’t stumble, leave sentences/thoughts hanging

o  Presenter has questions to ask viewers