Increase
Readability by
Manipulating Text
Working with text in PowerPoint can be a bit challenging. It's not enough to type out what you want to say. You have to make sure it looks good projected on a screen.
It must be clear and easy to read. It must be large enough so the visually challenged can see it. To eliminate distraction, it must be consistent throughout a presentation.
Sounds simple. But there are some general guidelines you may find helpful. And a few pitfalls you might like to avoid.
Using PowerPoint in worship is different than using it in office or classroom settings.
The number one rule in worship, is not to take the focus off of worship.
Poorly presented text can do that in a heartbeat.
Experience is a great teacher. Here are some things we've learned.
- You don't have to fit all your text on one slide
- Arial or Times New Roman fonts are easiest to read
- Font sizes smaller than 36 can be hard to read
- Shadowing can help improve quality
- Using shaded or patterned boxes behind text helps to improve readability
- Transitions should be avoided as much as possible.
- Use spell-check so everybody else won't see your mistakes!
- Start with a blank slide as opposed to a preset layout
Starting With a Blank Slide Can
Prevent Inadvertent Distractions
When you first open PowerPoint, you're asked to choose a layout for your new slide. A common mistake is to breeze through this window accepting the default layout (top left slide).
While it seems harmless, it can cause distraction when your slides are projected on the big screen.
That's because those boxes usually get covered up by images and quickly forgotten. When the slides are projected, those boxes are often visible for a split second during slide transition. The eye can catch this - and there's momentary distraction.
Watch Your Layers
PowerPoint works in layers. This gives you greater flexibility in achieving certain effects.But it can also cause frustration if you lose track of a layer.
Here's an example. You just created a new blank slide and added a title box to it.
Next, you insert a photo background image. Now your title box has suddenly disappeared!
It's still there. It's just behind your picture now. The photo background has become the top layer in the slide.
You can think of layers as stacking pieces of paper on top of each other. You can hide all or part of the paper below by the one on top.
Layers work the same way and you can rearrange them as needed.
To move your title box back on top of your photo background, follow these steps:
- Right Click on your photo background (a menu comes up)
- Choose Order and Send to Back
Your title box should be on top of your photo background now.
If you had chosen, Send Backward instead of Send to Back, you would have sent your title box back one layer as opposed to the bottom layer.
You can repeat the Send Backwards option as needed to move down one layer at a time.
Layers work in reverse too. You can move your layers forward (or on top) of other layers.
Shadowing Your Text
While many photos look great on their own, they make terrible backgrounds for PowerPoint.This can be especially heartbreaking when building worship presentations.
Photo backgrounds help tell our stories. They can be as important as the text on the slide.
So what do you do when you have your heart set on using a certain photo, but text is barely readable?
Luckily, where there's a will, there's a way! There are a couple of options to solve this problem.
- Adding text in a graphics program like Adobe Photoshop that can make it readable
- Changing the brightness of your picture or watermarking it
- Adding a shaded or pattern box over the picture and text on it
- Shadowing your text in PowerPoint
While the first option is the best, it has its drawbacks.
Fortunately, PowerPoint does offer a shadow feature that can be helpful.
The tool is located on the Drawing Toolbar. I like to keep this toolbar visible. To access it,on the menu select View > Toolbars > Drawing (make sure it's checked). You should see the toolbar at the bottom of your window.
The circled icon above is the shadow feature. With your text highlighted, click on this icon.
You will notice different options for shadowing your text. By clicking on them, you can change the angled direction of the shadow.
Notice that you can also remove the shadow effect later if you decide you don't like it.
Want even more control of the shadow? Click the Shadow Settings button.
This allows you to move the shadow in any direction.
You can even change the color of the shadow. The only downside with the shadow text feature, is that you can't completely shadow all of your text. For this, you'll need a graphics program like Adobe Photoshop.
That said, it is still a nice feature and does improve readability.
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Focus On Him!
