Design and Layout

Determine what three key points you want to make. You want your poster to cover the key points of your work - not all the details.

Before you begin work in PowerPoint, design and lay out the poster ahead of time. You may use one piece or several pieces of 8.5" x 11" paper to mock up the poster. Add the headings, roughly scratch the text layout and graphics. Tape or pin the sheets to a wall and rearrange them until you like the arrangement, all the while remembering to keep within your space allocation. This will determine how your final poster will look. The process of designing your poster by laying is out is called storyboarding.

Numbered lists and lists of "bullets" are good ways to communicate concisely.

The flow of your poster should be from the top left to the bottom right. The movement (pathway) of the eye over the poster should be natural - down the columns or along the rows. Use arrows, pointing hands, numbers, or letters to help clarify the sequence or flow of the poster, if necessary. Some presenters prefer to number the sections in sequence to guide the reader through the poster.

Sample PowerPoint poster ( in PowerPoint format)
Note: the layout for the section above was done in Word Using Text Boxes

Simple Instructions

1. Open up a SPHCM Power Point Template by double clicking on the template of your choice located at: http://depts.washington.edu/mphpract/ppposter.html

2. Use one of the templates to create your poster to satisfy the poster portion of your practicum requirements. Do not change theoverall dimensions of the poster. The template slide has already been set in page setup up as a 35mm slide. This is the required set up for the practicum posters.

Once your have the template on your computer, you may manipulate the template to accommodate your cretive design. If you plan on using a background that will cover the whole poster and the SPHCM logo or Soul Catcher will be covered up, on the template go to

View on the tool bar
Click on Master, Slide Master
Click on SPHCM logo or the Soul Catcher, and cut the image from the page
Close Master view
Paste SPHCM logo or Soul Catcher on top of your background

4. Most people will find it easier to set up the poster in a smaller size slide and then enlarge the size just before printing. In some ways it's easier to lay everything out and then add information once you've seen where everything is to go.

5. Be sure your ruler is available so you can see where you are adding text boxes. View | Ruler.

6. Click on the text box. Insert the Title of your Presentation across the top of the slide. Add the author's names and affiliations. Your title should be quite large, not less than 12 points. You want people to be able to see your presentation title from a distance. (Remember, everything will be blown up when you enlarge your poster.)

7. Now add some color. Click on the Font Color icon. Select the down arrow, then More Font Colors. Select the color you like, remembering that you want the title to be seen from a distance. Remember that some color combinations will not work together; e.g., dark color on dark color. Be sure there is good contrast between the background and the print font.

8. Lay out the sections of your paper. In our sample above, we decided to lay out the poster with the following sections: Introduction and Objectives, Population Studied, Methodology, A Graph, A Table, Discussions, Study conclusions and ideas for new research, and Funding Information. Use the Text Box in combination with the Line Style to create boxes. Key in the title of the section and use carriage returns to take you down to the bottom of the section. Put a line of xxxxxx to hold the bottom of the box in place.

9. Once you have your boxes laid out you can start adding the real information to the text boxes. When you are all done, you can delete the line around the text boxes, add color to the headings and/or change the font size and type.

10. Font sizes should be as follows:

abstract - 5 point
normal type - 8 font
headings - 12 font

When blown up to the correct full size, these fonts will be quite readable.

Obviously, you will have trouble reading a 5 point font. Please remember that you can use the zoom feature to blow up the slide to 200 percent of its original size. That's usually enough to read the elements on the slide quite easily.

11. To add an image, go to the Insert menu. Insert Picture | From File and find the file, then, OK.

Or, you can use Copy and Paste (Select the graphic in the original document (you will see handles on the graphic), then Edit | Copy, click on the slide, then Edit | Paste.

(No matter where you think the image is going to go, it will always be in the wrong place). Click on the image, hold the left mouse button down and drag the image where you want it to go. Then click on the image again, this time on one of the corners and either push in (to reduce the size of the image) or pull out, remembering to keep the left mouse button depressed.

Backgrounds can be inserted by using the Format | Background command. Don't be heavy handed in your use of dark backgrounds. They use up a lot of ink and may overwhelm the viewer.

Lines, boxes and arrows can be inserted using the Drawing Toolbar. If you don't see this Toolbar, use View | Toolbars | Drawing to make it available.

12. To insert a table or graph from Excel, create the table or graph and highlight or select it in Excel. You can then click on Insert | Chart, or Insert | Object. Insert | Chart enables you to create a chart right in front of your eyes. Insert | Object enables you to add a finished chart and be able to link to it so that you can continue to update Excel and then when you open PowerPoint to update your Excel file, you'll see that it is already updated.

13. To print the final version on a single piece of 11 x 8.5" paper to check it over , go to File, Page Setup, Slides Sized For and click the check box 35mm slides for its final size). OK. Then print.

Instructions for Using an Existing Presentation as a Template

1. Look for the link to the Sample poster in this module.

2. Begin adding your information into the template as you delete the old information. Feel free to rearrange text boxes, or any graphs, lines, arrows and so on.

Or, use gpsample.ppt as a template.

Tricky Parts

If you work in the tiny format, it can sometimes be a challenge changing font size below 8 points. To change a font size from 8 points to 5 points, go to Format | Font | Size | then key in 5 manually.

Importing a PowerPoint Slide from another presentation

Change the font size before you move it into the new presentation. Use this feature if you want to make your poster up out of existing PowerPoint slides.

Please direct all questions regarding the practicum program to:

Rene' M. Lucas, MPH Practicum Coordinator
Dean's Office
School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Box 357230
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-7230
(206) 685-8904