Guides for SLU's Powerpoint template

Tips to improve your presentation 

Firstly, always use the latest template when preparing a new presentation. If you base it on an earlier presentation, you will miss out on the updates to the template. You can easily download a new template by opening PPT and downloading the template you need from the Personal folder. 

The template slides contain predefined fields, known as placeholders, where you can insert headings, text and images. Remember to use the placeholders when you create content. This makes it easier later if you want to change the layout of a slide or export content to another presentation. This is how PowerPoint template slides “communicate” with one another.  

One ground rule when creating your content is “Less is more”. Your Powerpoint presentation is intended to support what you want to say, so don´t fill slides with everything you want to convey: use key words or images to illustrate your point. It is then easier for your audience to pay attention to what you say, rather than focusing on reading excess text on the slide. Use the Notes field for your script instead. 

It is easy to get overly creative with colours and shapes in an effort to “brighten up” your presentation. However, throwing in text and images higgledy-piggledy or using multicolour text will make it harder to get your content across. It will also prevent you meeting accessibility requirements. 

Don’t be afraid to split content across several slides; one message or theme per slide will make it easier for your audience to absorb your message.  

SLU’s PowerPoint template has template slides with standard images: the ones with wedges and the Pause page. Remember not to add text over these images. Not only will it be generally hard to read, but the images also contain a great deal of details that makes them unsuitable as a background. Instead, insert your text in the placeholders provided and use a template slide designed for the purpose. 

If you have inserted an image and want to adjust the size, think about retaining the proportions of the image when doing so, otherwise the image will be distorted and lose quality. To resize an image, drag from one of the corners. The proportions of the image will then be retained. 

A final, but very useful, tip. If you want to introduce SLU in your presentation, there is a prepared presentation available to download from the Staff Web from which you can pick and choose content. For example, if you want to describe where SLU is located, you can insert an image from the prepared presentation instead of creating your own slide. There is also additional information to go with the image in the Notes field of the slide.  

There is a separate instructional video on inserting slides from other presentations. 

Create a presentation

The following is a general description of the various templates and how you can use them to construct a simple presentation.  

When you open the template you will find a selection of template slides. These provide a good basis for creating your own presentations. The first slide, with guides and instructions for templates, is hidden and does not appear in the slideshow, but you can of course delete it.

You can find all template slides by clicking on New slide or Layout in the toolbar.

The template slide Start page is used to begin a presentation. It is available in five different colours that fit SLU’s colour scheme.

The Table of Contents slide is used to list the content of the presentation or the agenda of the meeting. There are slides with and without wedges and wedge images for text, images and other objects. Template slides with wedges are useful when you don´t have your own illustrations.

To display images, videos or other objects, use template slides 4 objects, 4 images, Full-page image white or black. You can also add a caption beneath each image. 

To divide different sections of the presentation, there is a template slide called Section heading black.

In the Final template slide you can insert your contact details.  

The template slide Pause page can be added if you need a pause during the meeting or presentation. 

To review the presentation, you can watch it in Slide Sorter View. 

Reuse an old presentation

If you have content from an old PowerPoint presentation that you want to reuse, it´s easy to import it to a new presentation.

Open a new PowerPoint template to create a presentation.

Select New slide from the toolbar and then Reuse slide at the bottom of menu beneath the slide templates.

Navigate to the old presentation and select the slides you want to reuse and import them to the new presentation 

The slides will appear after the slide that was selected in the new presentation. 

When you import slides to a new presentation, they retain the old template information. It´s therefore important to adjust them to the new template slide.

Insert new slide and change the layout  

All template slides can be found under the Home tab in PowerPoint. To insert a new slide into your presentation, click on the arrow to the right of the text New picture in the toolbar and select the template slide you want.  

If you have filled in your content in a template slide but want to change the layout - click on Layout in the toolbar and choose another template slide. 

When changing the layout, remember that the content in the placeholders must have a corresponding placeholder in the new template slide. 

An example is the slide called “Heading and content two-column”. If you have filled both columns with content and then change the layout to the single-column template slide “Heading and content”, the content of the extraneous placeholder will not have a place in the new template slide. 

Change to your own picture 

Select for example the template slide "wedge, large image". Click on the icon for pictures located in the placeholder, this is the area on the right of the template slide. Select a picture and click on insert.  

If you want to adjust the picture and move it within the picture area, highlight the picture and click on the "crop" icon on the toolbar. You can move the picture by holding down the mouse button. You can also resize it by dragging any of the corners of the highlighted picture. When you feel satisfied, click on an area outside the picture area.  

If you change to your own picture, remember to insert a so-called "alternative text" to the picture. This will make the presentation more accessible to the visually impaired. Highlight the picture, right-click and choose "format picture". Select "size and properties" then "alternative text". Describe the picture in the description field. You can skip the title field if the description is short and simple. When you are done, click on the tickbox. 

Changing the colour of the wedge   

When you want to change the colour in the wedge, highlight the wedge and select "Shape fill” up on the toolbar.

Choose any of the theme colours listed in the top row of the colour scheme. These are the colours of the SLU colour palette. The standard colours found in the bottom row of the colour scheme are PowerPoint's own colours and should not be used in SLU presentations.  

Once you have selected a new colour, click anywhere on the white area of the template slide. 

The Powerpoint template for SLU, consists of several different template slides with different layouts and applications. 

You can choose to add text or insert objects such as images, diagrams or other graphics in the template slides Heading and content, Heading and content 2 columns, Wedge, small image and Wedge, large image. Remember not to insert lots of objects on a slide, and to make sure that every object serves a purpose so that the text and an object complement one another and don’t compete for attention. 

The template slides without wedge images are used for text, but also when you have your own graphics or other custom objects. 

To insert an object, click on the icon in the placeholder that suits your purpose. If you’re going to insert a diagram or a graphic, remember to choose from SLU’s theme colours that are part of our colour palette, not Powerpoint’s own default colours. 

The template slides containing wedge images are ideal to use when you want to frame your text content. You can also change the colour of the single-colour wedge, and even use your own image instead of the default one.  

If you switch to an image of your own, take care not to use images in the small wedge image that are too detailed. The large wedge image, on the other hand, allows you to insert more detailed images that support the slide content. This template slide is also ideal for short lists of bullet points. 

There’s a special instruction on how to change the wedge colour and use your own image. 

The Powerpoint template for SLU, consists of several different template slides with different layouts and applications. 

On the template slides Full-page image, white, Full-page image black, 4 objects and 4 images, you can choose to insert any object such as graphics, diagrams or just images. 

To insert an object or an image, click on the placeholder icon that suits your purpose. 

Full-page image, white or black, is used to insert an image or video on a full slide. The black version can be used if your image doesn’t quite fill the whole slide. This will frame the image more effectively. 

The template slide 4 objects has room for four objects such as diagrams or other graphics. This can be used to compare diagrams from different years. 

The template slide 4 images is used for images with captions. These images are scaled and adapted to the placeholder unless they have the same format.