|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Help Desk > Tutorials > Equipment |
 Printable Version
|
Allegheny College Printing Services recommends Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 for creating posters. Templates have been created which you can download and use as a start for your poster. If you prefer to start your poster from a blank file, follow the instructions in this tutorial. Even if you are working from one of the supplied templates, you may find some of the information in this tutorial useful.
Open PowerPoint by selecting Start > Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft PowerPoint. A Blank presentation should open automatically. If it does not, select File > New and choose Blank Presentation from the right hand menu.
Many people choose the Blank layout to start their poster, though you may choose any of the slide layouts. Click OK after you have made your selection.
Your poster will consist of just this one slide. Before adding content to the slide, set the poster size by clicking File > Page Setup... and choose Custom from the Slides sized for drop-down menu. Enter the desired width and height of your poster (see size restrictions, below), select the orientation and click OK.
Poster Size Restrictions: Printing Services recommends that one side of your poster be exactly 36" with the other side 56" or less (56" is a limit imposed by PowerPoint).
When adding content to your poster, be very careful to leave at least a one inch border on all edges of the slide. The printer does not print to the very edge of the paper, and leaving a border will ensure that all of the content of your poster prints.
You can place guides one inch from each edge of the slide, as a visual reminder to keep content out of the borders. To do this, click View > Grid and Guides and View > Rulers, if necessary, so that you can see both the guides and rulers.
Two guides, in the vertical and horizontal centers of your slide are present. To add more guides, hold the Ctrl key while you click a guide and drag it to the desired position. Note that the ruler measures from the center of your slide, and so a guide placed one inch from the left edge of a 44" wide poster would be placed at ruler marking 21.00. Release the mouse button before releasing the Crtl key to place an additional guide at this point. Continue in this manner to place guides at all four edges of your slide.
Guides do not prevent content from being placed in the borders of your slide, but they can serve as a visual reminder to leave that area blank.
Guides can also be place where needed for aligning content, for instance to keep a column of images or a row of headings aligned. When guides are present and visible, content placed near a guide will tend to "snap" to the guide.
To add text to your poster, click Insert > Text Box on the PowerPoint menu, click on the location where you want the text and begin typing. Text can be formatted (font, size, alignment, bullets, etc) by right-clicking on the text and choosing the appropriate action or can be moved by clicking on the text box and dragging to the desired position.
Formatting Text |
Moving Text |
 |
 |
All fonts installed on public lab computers or original to college employee computers are also available in Printing Services and so are safe to use in your poster. If you are creating your poster on a personal computer and have installed non-standard fonts, avoid using these in your poster. Printing Services will not have these fonts available and your poster will not print as expected.
Images can be added to your poster by clicking Insert > Picture and then selecting one of the options. Use From File.. to insert a picture that you have in a file, perhaps from a digital camera or created in another program, or the other options to insert images created or supplied by Microsoft Office, such as Clip Art, WordArt or AutoShapes.
As with text, images can be moved by clicking and dragging and can be formatted (changing color of an AutoShape, for instance) by right clicking and selecting the Format option. For best print quality, avoid enlarging photographic images.
When all content has been added to your poster, carefully check it for errors and for layout:
When your poster is ready for printing, save it to a file by clicking File > Save on the PowerPoint menu. It is recommended that you keep a copy of the poster file on your Allegheny account until it has been successfully printed at Printing Services.