MasterView International

Creating and Managing Effective PowerPoint
Presentations for International Audiences
______________________________________________________________

MasterView International by IKONOS New Media

December 15th, 2001    Issue #7

Executive Editor: Simone Luchini
Editor-in-Chief:  Luigi Canali De Rossi
_______________________________________________________________

This issue's theme:

*INFORMATION DESIGN FOR PRESENTATIONS* - Part II

==============================================================

Introduction

Hi, and welcome back to another issue of MasterView!

In this MasterView edition, I will complete the topic started 
last month, Information Design. I will be focusing on some of 
its key principles and about issues related to chart making in 
PowerPoint.

Our Editor-in-Chief, Luigi Canali De Rossi, will open this 
December issue with an interesting article about one of the 
basic principles of Information Design.

You will then discover how to improve the quality of your
charts and how to make them more readable and easier to
understand for your audience.

Before leaving you with the content of this issue, let me wish 
you all a Happy Eid Mubarak, Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 
New Year.

Simone Luchini
MasterView Executive Editor




==============================================================

1) *Information Design data-ink ratio*

==============================================================


By Luigi Canali De Rossi

When designing information graphics like statistical graphs,
diagrams and charts, it is important not to overload the
reader/user with unnecessary information that would make it
difficult for him/her to make sense out of what the
display shows.

In this view, by gradually eliminating all of the decorations,
unnecessary borders and frames that modern software has
accustomed us to see or even expect, you would be creating
information displays that are clear, easy-to-understand, and
consequently, more beautiful and elegant.

The software toolmakers that have created in the past 15 years
Lotus Freelance, Boeing Graph, Harvard Graphics, Adobe
Persuasion, PowerPoint have all strived to automate your task
of building information displays by giving you more and more
facilities to "visually enrich" those graphs.

There was no intelligence though in the software tool itself to
warn you about "going overboard" with too many colors, no
automated color-checker to spot impossible color combinations
(based on loadable usability profiles: e.g.: US consumer,
Asian, African, or other social, geographic or
demo/technographic category), no sensor to tell you "Hey, you
have created a graph in which 75% of your ink is for decoration
and 25% is ink carrying true data info".

But this is what we have in cars. Not only we have facilities
to have more or do more than barely being transported, but
there is also a highly scientifically designed system that
checks upon how the car is doing, upon possible or incumbent
problems before they happen, and it even adjusts and
reconfigures itself to the way we drive.

Software tools for communication must have the same checking
and advisory meta-system. Without them, these tools create more
trouble than good.

Microsoft Word has a spell-checker, a grammar corrector and
advisor built in as part of the basic tool.

Why should we expect less from a tool that does a more complex 
job, with a set of more complicated tools, and that generally 
cost even more than MS Word?

While we wait for new "smart" and "design-intelligent" graphing
tools to replace PowerPoint and other applications, I would
like to suggest a manual approach, which can be taken into
action by following these 8 easy steps:


1) Drop unplanned and unfunctional 3D effects from your
information graphic. Unless you are a trained designer drop 3D
graphs in favor of the apparently simpler and less fancy
traditional 2D graphs.

2) Eliminate all frames and borders. They are not needed. Your
data will not escape the newly found free space around it, but
it will "breathe" and will provide with a more relaxing and
legible visual space.

3) Drop also all unneeded borders of colors, bars, slices. Your
eye can tell a column from an empty space without the addition
of black ink around every object created by computer software.

4) Simplify your scale. Many times we let software amass an
unreasonable number of values on the vertical or horizontal
reference axes of a graph.

5) Cut the prison bars. The horizontal and vertical "gridlines"
that many graph tools utilize is nothing short of a visual
prison, sold to us with the excuse of helping our eyes better
find the value reflected by each bar. You can alternatively
  a) reduce their number
  b) "mute" them by making them gray or negative
  c) display bar/column values directly on top of each bar

6) Integrate the legend. This is one of the most discomforting 
things when trying to make a sense out of a graph. Jumping back 
and forth from the graph display to the legend while trying to 
make some sense of it all is not something that I would define 
as "enjoyable". 

Within a bar graph this would mean writing, within the bar 
columns themselves the names of the category or item they 
represent, without requiring the reader to reference a separate 
external visual gizmo.

The labeling is necessary only for one set, and does not
require to be placed in all of the bars or columns present in
the display. For example, once I have labeled the bar
"oranges", I do not need to label the same colored bars for all
of the other categories (e.g.: years) in which the "oranges"
bar is displayed.

7) Do not utilize bitmap, hatches, patterns to differentiate
different bars, columns or slices. These effects are the
heritage of the old times when there was no color available to
differentiate different graph elements. These solutions are
highly disturbing to the eye, they "vibrate" and create so
called moiré effects. More than anything they look ugly and
old-fashioned.

Rather, differentiate visual components of a graph by utilizing
different shades of the same ink. You can do this even by using
only the black color. Both in print and on screen you can apply
at least 5 different shades of gray, from white to black that
can easily and elegantly differentiate any set of visual
categories you may have in your graph.

8) Drop, eliminate, mute or simplify all remaining visual 
components which serve only decorative or unnecessary graphic-
enhancing purposes. Reiterate and improve, until you can 
actually see that the quantity of ink you are using is truly 
serving the very purpose of communicating real data.


If you want to read and understand more about how to improve
your design skills when preparing information graphics please
refer to the uniquely written and illustrated masterpieces
published by Dr. Edward Tufte.

By reading and studying these very books I have learned most of 
what I know today about this fascinating area of interest. I 
have also ever since recommended their reading to all of my 
Information Design students and Clients.

In the "Visual Display of Quantitative Information" the concept
of data-ink ratio is introduced and explained in depth with
many exceptional examples.

Please feel free to access my Amazon's Information Design 
Recommended Reading List, which lists, among others, Dr. Tufte's 
unique coffee table masterpieces. Some of these are the truly 
the best titles I would recommend you to refer to in order to 
improve the effectiveness and design quality of your information 
graphics.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-
/IWY60ZTEITT4/104-3151861-7826339


Luigi Canali De Rossi
MasterView Editor-in-Chief



==============================================================

2) *How to integrate legends into your statistical graphs*

==============================================================


An easy way of improving the look of your chart, and making it
more readable and easily understandable, is to take advantage
of the PowerPoint drawing tools.

As clearly explained at point 6) "Integrate the legend", a good 
Information Design strategy that can be applied to most graphs 
is the one of dropping the default legend and to build and 
integrate a custom one within the chart elements.

To turn off the default legend in the first place, you can 
either turn off its icon on the chart toolbar or click on the 
legend itself and press the [Del] key.

Without the standard legend, you will need to find an
alternative way of communicating what data your
chart represents.

Click once on the slide (anywhere outside the chart area) and
you will display the normal PowerPoint interface. At the bottom
of the slide you will see the Drawing toolbar.

You can now click on the "Text box" icon and insert text boxes 
on top of the chart. If you have a pie chart, you could place 
the labels that would replace directly the legend on the pie 
slices themselves. If you have bars the text boxes will have to 
fit directly on the bars. In case you have vertical columns, you 
can create text boxes and rotate them 90 degrees by using the 
"Rotate and Flip" feature under the "Draw" menu.

By applying these text boxes on top of the chart elements, you
create an integrated legend that will replace the old one.
Furthermore, there's no need to label all the bars or columns,
since the ones related to the same data series will have the
same color.

You can create text boxes to be placed outside of the bars
or slices, and you can draw lines and connectors to link the
text boxes to the chart's elements.

Text boxes can be used also to quote the source of the data and
the measurement unit used in the chart. You can easily rotate
any text box from "Draw" >> "Rotate or flip".

Lines can also be used to replace the standard gridlines. A
nice effect is to use horizontal lines that have the same color
of the background and place them on top of the columns. There
will not be too much ink on the chart - according to the "data-
ink ratio" principle - since these lines will not have any
color. Nonetheless, they will split the columns at regular
intervals, helping the audience to figure out the values
of the data.

If you want to highlight a specific data series or a value, you
can use the regular drawing tools:

- a rectangle or a circle, with no fill color and a thick red
or orange border, can easily draw the attention of
your audience.

- a rectangle with the same size and shape of a column or a bar
can easily be applied on top of the column we want to stress.
In this case you can remove the line color from this rectangle
(choose "No Line") and you can use a "semitransparent" color
(just tick the appropriate box when you choose the color).

- a simple arrow or similar shape can be added to point at the
data you want the attention to focus on.

There's no limit to what your fantasy can do just by taking
advantage of all of the PowerPoint drawing tools available.



==============================================================

3) *How to move and position 3-D graphs*

==============================================================

Do you like 3-D graphs? 

By keeping in mind the advice received by our Information Design 
expert, Luigi Canali De Rossi, about the best use of 2-D on 3-D 
charts,(see previous issue at: 
MasterView Issue #6, art. 5), you can go a long way to customize the way your 3-D charts 
will appear.

Once you have created your chart, and applied any of the 3-D
types (note: one of the best uses for 3-D charts is definitely
the pie chart) you can click on "Chart" (on the Menu toolbar)
and then click on "3-D View..."

Within the dialog box that appears, you can modify your 3-D 
chart as follows:

- Change the elevation (by repeatedly clicking on the up and
down arrows or by selecting manually the value in the
"Elevation:" box).

- Modify the rotation (by clicking on the icons or by manually
selecting the value in the "Rotation:" box).

*If you set the O (zero) value for both rotation and elevation,
your chart will no longer have a 3-D effect!*

- increase or decrease the height of the base (in case you have
a pie chart) by typing in the value in the "Height:" box.

If you have a bar or column chart, you will have also another 2
check boxes:

 - one for the "Autoscaling" (you can turn it on or off)
 - the other one for the "Right angle axes". If you deselect
this one, you will see an additional feature you can apply: you
can customize the perspective, by either typing in the right
value in the "Perspective:" box or by clicking in the up and
down arrows on top of the perspective box.

The whole dialog box for changing the appearance of a 3-D chart
is quite intuitive, and you just need to make a few attempts in
order to find the right values to apply to your chart. Remember
that if you press "Apply" you will have a preview of the result
on the chart itself, and if you don't like this result you can
still modify it. Once you click "OK", the chart will be
modified and the box will disappear.



==============================================================

4) *How to save a custom chart template*

==============================================================


Microsoft Graph (the application Office suite uses for
creating charts) lets you customize your default charts and
save the changes.

This means that if you spend some time in creating a nice graph
with appropriate color and format settings, you can save this
format and re-use it, as a template, for your future charts.

The principle is easy: you create a chart, you format it
according to your needs, then you save it as a
"template" chart.

When you need to re-apply the specific format you had created to 
a chart, you can simply insert the new data, and then apply the 
specific template you have saved. As a result, your chart will 
change its look while maintaining the data intact.

Allow me to show you how to do this in detail.

Open PowerPoint, choose "Blank presentation" and choose the
"Chart" layout.

Double-click where it says: "Click here to add chart".

A default chart will appear. It will have the standard
PowerPoint format (colors, lines, axes, legend).

You can now perform all the changes you like:

- modify the bar colors
- remove the unnecessary bar borders
- remove the gray background
- use a different color for the gridlines (or remove them
  completely)
- change the fonts for the axes values
- modify the value axes scale
- format the legend

and so on

Once your chart will look complete and will need no further
format, do the following:

1) Click on "Chart" >> "Chart type..."

2) Click on the "Custom Types" tab

3) Where it says: "Select from" click on "User-defined"

4) Click on "Add"

5) Type a name to identify your new chart type

6) Type a description that will help you remember its
   characteristics (optional)

7) Click "OK" and it's done.

Your newly saved chart template will appear in the
"Chart type:" list.

You can now click on "OK", to go back to your presentation, or
alternatively you can click on "Set as default" if you want
this chart type to be your default chart type any time you
create a new chart in a presentation.

Once you have saved this custom chart template, it is easy to
apply it.

After you have created a new chart or have opened an existing 
one do the following:

1) Double-click on the chart (to get into the chart
   editing mode)
2) Click on "Chart" >> "Chart type..."
3) Select the "Custom Types" tab
4) Click on "User-defined"
5) Select the custom chart you had previously created
6) Click "OK" and it's done



==============================================================

5) *Adding images to charts*

==============================================================

There may be a special chart in which you need to use an image
(photo, drawing, logo, Clip Art) as a background for the chart.

If you want to insert a picture as a background for your chart,
use the following procedure:

1) Open up the presentation that contains the chart or create
your new chart

2) Create the new chart on new slide or double-click on the 
chart that you have selected

3) Double-click on the "Walls" area (the default gray area
which is the background of the chart)

4) In the "Format Walls" box, click on "Fill Effects..."
under "Area"

5) A box named "Fill effects" will open up

6) Click on the "Picture" tab

7) Click on "Select picture" and browse your computer to locate
the picture you want to insert.

8) As soon as you click on "OK", the picture will be inserted
and displayed as a background for your chart.

To modify some additional settings, you can:

Go back to step 7 and, before clicking "OK", change the format
of the picture.

Choosing the default option, "Stretch", will cause the picture
to be stretched to fit the whole background area of the chart.

Choosing "Stack", PowerPoint will duplicate the selected picture 
as many times as needed to fill the chart background area.


It is worth mentioning that also the columns or bars can be 
filled with a picture. The procedure is exactly the same: select 
the bars or column, double-click on one data series and then 
choose "Fill effects".

When you choose a 3-D chart, you also have the option of
deciding in what surface of the column you will place the
picture: sides, front or end.



==============================================================

6) *Additional tips for PowerPoint*

==============================================================

Tip One: TABs key inside tables

You may have noticed that pressing the [TAB] key alone doesn't
work to obtain a tabulation when you are inside a cell in a
table (this is valid for Word as well as for Word tables
inserted inside a PowerPoint presentation).

If you still want to use the [TAB] key, press it while holding
down the [Ctrl] key as well. It will give you a tabulation that
you can use to align or indent text inside a single table cell.



Tip Two: Copying charts from different applications

We have discussed in the previous issue 6:
MasterView Issue #6, art. 6) how we can copy or insert charts coming from other 
applications. I have pointed out that, when you use some of the 
methods I have shown, your imported chart will take on the 
default settings set out in the destination chart.

I have discovered a trick that will help you avoid this
annoying result.

Open the chart you want to insert and do the following:

1) Click outside of the chart area

2) Click again, but only once, on the chart

3) Right click on the chart and choose "Show picture toolbar"

4) The 4th icon from the left is the "Recolor Chart"

5) Select this one and click "None" to the message: "Chart
colors follow".

6) By clicking "OK" you will lock this chart format and colors 
in a way that will not be influenced by existing Master Slides 
or other settings that you may inadvertently set in the 
destination file.

Whenever you insert this chart into another presentation, it
will keep its specific colors and format and not follow any
slide color scheme.






--------------------------------------------------------------
Send your presentation questions in:
ask-masterview#yahoogroups.com
--------------------------------------------------------------

MasterView is a free monthly newsletter focusing on designing
and managing effective PowerPoint presentations for
international audiences. Directed to communicators, managers,
trainers, presenters and lecturers, it provides selected
solutions, how-to techniques and resources on effective
presentation-making.


MasterView is an open discussion forum for many of you having
specific questions about making presentations. These can be
addressed to: ask-masterview#yahoogroups.com.
I and everybody at IKONOS New Media will be happy to provide
you with best advice, tools and resources.

Who am I?

I am the Executive Editor of this electronic publication, my
name is Simone Luchini and I am a presentation specialist and
trainer for IKONOS New Media (http://www.ikonosnewmedia.com)

We specialize in empowering international organizations, grow
and prosper online through the effective use of new media and
ICT (Information & Communication Technologies).

Founded in 1988, IKONOS New Media is an electronic publishing
and distance learning company serving education, research and
development organizations.

If you would like to know something more about me, come and
check out my page at:
http://www.ikonosnewmedia.com/people/simone.htm


Sincerely,

Simone Luchini - Executive Editor
Presentation Specialist, Trainer


IKONOS New Media
Rome | Washington
(Simone.Luchini#ikonosnewmedia.com)





_______________________________________________________________
In the last 5 issues we have looked at:


 Issue 1 - Jun 2001
 "HOW TO RUN A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION ON ANY COMPUTER"
      1) Saving a presentation in HTML format
      2) Utilizing Microsoft PowerPoint "Pack and Go Wizard"
      3) Exporting to Adobe Acrobat PDF file format
      4) Integrating transitions in Acrobat-based presentations
      5) How to create simple animation effects that work
         everywhere (on the web, in a pdf file)
      http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/masterview1.htm


 Issue 2 - Jul 2001
 "MANAGING PRESENTATION SIZE"
      1) Microsoft BackUp
      2) Compressing files using WinZip
      3) Easy and automated file-splitting with Chainsaw
      4) Native "Save As..." feature in PowerPoint and
         options in file's properties
      5) YahooGroups - online storage and collaboration
      http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/masterview2.htm


 Issue 3 - Aug 2001
 "IMPROVING THE LOOK OF YOUR PRESENTATION"
      1) Step-by-step guide to modify standard templates
         and more
      2) Tips and suggestions on how to customize Clip Art
         in unique ways
      3) What you need to know to be able to use images as
         backgrounds. How to apply a background image captured
         from a Web site
      4) A review of the best Web sites where you can
         download free additional templates
      5) 12 fundamental design commandments to create
         professionally-looking presentations
      http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/masterview3.htm


 Issue 4 - Sep 2001
 "RUNNING YOUR PRESENTATION LIKE A PRO"
      1) Learn how to run your presentation unattended by
         recording all of your slide show settings and timing
      2) Find out the secret advanced keyboard commands that
         allow you to do near-magical tasks while running
         your show
      3) Discover the PowerPoint "hidden slide" functionality
         which can help you take out your magic slide, just
         when you need it
      4) Master how you can link any Web page, Word document
         or other application file to any slide in your
         presentation
      5) Learn how to link presentations that have different
         layouts (vertical and horizontal), by doing what the
         professionals do
      6) Discover the experts' approach to open and close
         presentations in a memorable way. Learn from films
         and theatre how this has been culturally developed
         and why therefore some visual solutions are better
         than others
      http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/masterview4.htm
   
   
 Issue 5 - Oct 2001
 "SHARING YOUR PRESENTATION WITH COLLEAGUES
 FOR REVIEW AND FEEDBACK"
      1) Learn how to use the PowerPoint Reviewing toolbar
         See how you can use Microsoft Word to track your
         changes in the PowerPoint Outline
         Become familiar with saving your files using
         progressive numbering
      2) Take advantage of "Online Broadcasting"
      3) Learn all of the different print options available for
         producing handouts and print materials
      4) Discover what saving a presentation as a .pps file
         (PowerPoint Show) can do for you
         Learn how to set the presentation file properties
         as "Read-only"
         Save individual slides as .gif or .jpg files and re-
         assemble a new presentation
         Save the presentation as a Web page (HTML)
      5) See how you can send a slide in the body of an email
         without sending the entire presentation
      6) Take advantage of Yahoogroups and other online
         collaboration and exchange services
      http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/masterview5.htm
     
     
 Issue 6 - Nov 2001
 "WHAT IS INFORMATION DESIGNER - Part I"
      1) Learn what Information Design really is and why it is
         useful when creating charts and diagrams
      2) Learn five basic principles that can help you design
         more effective and readable tables
      3) Understand the meaning and purpose of the most common
         chart types
      4) Use the "Custom animation" feature to enhance the
         visual aspect of how you will display your charts
      5) Learn the effectiveness and appropriateness of 2-D and
         3-D charts
      6) Discover the "Paste Special" option to keep your
         statistical charts linked to their original data
      http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/masterview6.htm
 

______________________________________________________________

To read MasterView past issues, go to
http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com
______________________________________________________________




* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Feedback

Direct feedback: simone.luchini#ikonosnewmedia.com

IKONOS New Media
Via P. Giannone 10 - 00195 Rome, Italy

..............................................................

MasterView Editorial Staff

Luigi Canali De Rossi - Editor-in-Chief
luigi.canali#ikonosnewmedia.com

Simone Luchini - Executive Editor
simone.luchini#ikonosnewmedia.com

Mihai Alexandru Bocsaru - MasterView Webmaster
mihai.bocsaru#ikonosnewmedia.com

Jamie Kim - Online Editor
jamie.kim#ikonosnewmedia.com

..............................................................

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(c) 2001, Simone Luchini IKONOS New Media
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