Beginning Steps

• To open Microsoft PowerPoint, go to: START MENU > PROGRAMS > POWERPOINT
• Select a BLANK SLIDE LAYOUT. This is located on the right side under "Content Layout".

Poster height limitations: There is a 36" height limitation for our printer and a 54" height PowerPoint software limitation. If you need a poster larger than 54" in length, we can do a workaround. Here is how it works:

• Define your page setup at half size. (ex. design at 18"x36" to produce 36"x72").  Remember, all fonts, tables, designs, images, and anything else will be scaled accordingly.
• Make sure that we know the poster needs to be printed at 200%.
• Go to: FILE > PAGE SETUP. These options will help you to create a printable slide.
• Choose an orientation: Landscape or Portrait. If you are unsure which one to choose, just enter your height and width (length).

Important note: The printer cannot print to the edge of the paper, it leaves a white border around the edge. If you make a poster to the edge, it will be scaled down to accomodate for this. IRIS currently does not trim posters. This must be done manually or at another facility.

• Your main toolbar is located at the left or at the bottom. It contains several objects (circles, lines, squares, etc.) and options to add to your poster. If it is not there, go to VIEW > TOOLBARS > DRAWING.

• The zoom is located on the top and found with a "%" value. This is where the magnification of your poster can be changed.  With this feature, you will not be able to see your entire poster or be able to read the text.  This is normal, you will zoom into objects, work on them, and them zoom out to view it as a whole.

• Save often to avoid costly mistakes. FILE > SAVE.  You may even want to save 2 copies in the event something happens to one.
• Do not work off a floppy/zip disk.  PowerPoint files, at this size can get very large, especially if you are using high quality images.  Work off your hard drive and backup to your floppy or zip drive.

• All fonts must be imbedded in your presentation when you save it. To do this, Go to: FILE > SAVE AS > TOOLS > SAVE OPTIONS > EMBED TRUE TYPE FONT > EMBED ALL CHARACTERS > OK.

• PowerPoint backgrounds are simple to use.  Go to: FORMAT > BACKGROUND. Click the drop down menu and add colors or fill effects.  IRIS does not recommend using the gradient style background as they tend to print undesirably.

• In your drawing toolbar, there is a text tool and several options for things like size, font, color and others.

• To insert an image, Go to: INSERT > PICTURE > FROM FILE.  It is important to know the quality of the images placed into the presentation.  Since we have no idea how the images were acquired, we cannot guarantee the on screen quality of the images reflected in the printer.   We suggest the Photoshop tutorial for this.  We recommend saving your images at 300 dpi to get high image quality. In many cases 150 dpi has been known to work.   When you copy and paste images into your presentation, you will be getting 72 dpi which renders an unsatisfactory print.  Excel charts or other vector based graphics copy and paste well.

• Vector Images differ from raster images in one major way. Limitless scalability.  Think of a vector image as primitives (lines, arcs, squares, circles, etc.).  Popular vector art packages are Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia FreeHand, etc.  But, it should also be noted that any Excel Graph you bring into your PowerPoint document is treated as a vector.  This means you can click and drag the handles to resize without having to worry about a loss in image quality.
• Raster Images are primarily continuous tone images.  The easiest way to think of them is as photographs.  These images are bitmapped, resolution dependent, and therefore are not easily scaled.  It's important to take high quality, high resolution, images with your digital camera, or scan your photos at high resolution.  Note: High resolution, high quality images take up a lot of disk space.  Make sure you're aware of your environment and know what kind of space you have to work with.

• At times it is difficult to "eye ball" where objects (pictures, text, etc.) fit on the page.  Sometimes you'll find that objects that are just a little "off" on the screen, look increasingly "off" when printed at full size.  To remedy this issue, PowerPoint has the align and distribute tools.
• In your drawing tool bar click on DRAW.  This should bring up some options.  Click on ALIGN OR DISTRIBUTE.  Here you can align your objects center, left, or right or distribute horizontally or vertically.  Play around with this tool to achieve the desired effect.
• Another good idea is to display your rulers.  Go to: VIEW > RULER.