PowerPoint presentations

Title slides

• Title of the presentation should be in 32-point (not bold) and the corporate colour.
• Other text on this slide should be in black and smaller – and there should be no more than two other text styles (including size and variations of normal and bold).

Text

• Title should be 28-point (not bold) and black.
• Don’t use unnecessary capital letters in titles.
• Other text on the slide, such as bullet-point lists, should be a minimum of 18-point (but 20-point or above is better) and maximum of 24-point.
• Use colour for text sparingly – and when it is used make sure it’s always one of the corporate colours (but not the orange or yellow) and use it consistently.
• When text is used on a coloured background, the text should be black if the background is corporate orange or yellow and white if the background is any of the other colours.
• Use bold sparingly – do not put whole blocks of text or bullet lists into bold, instead use it for emphasis.
• Only use italics for: foreign words and phrases, such as in vivo and et al, unless they are used so often they have become anglicised, such as ad hoc and vice versa.
• Use line spacing of at least 0.5 between lines of text – with 18-point text, this is equal to a maximum of 11 lines of text per slide.
• All bullets should start with capital letters and not have full stops.
• Never put text in unnecessary boxes/blocks of colour etc.
• Avoid unnecessary subtitles.
• Avoid including text (eg bullet lists) and diagrams on the same slide.
• Centre text vertically within slide as much as possible.

Colour

• Always use the corporate colours where possible.
• To specify corporate colours go to Colour>More colours and type in the correct RGB values.
• Don’t use the 228 (magenta) and purple together – they’re too similar and look like a mistake in PowerPoint.
• Do not use more than two or three colours on any one slide, and use them consistently.

Diagrams and graphs

• Diagrams must always be self-explanatory.
• Use square, sharp-edged boxes wherever possible and use other shapes sparingly or if there is a good reason.
• If there is text in the boxes, leave some space around the edges so these aren’t too cramped.
• Text in diagrams should be a minimum size of 16-point.
• Never use round-cornered rectangle or square boxes.
• Make diagrams as simple as possible.
• Use the corporate colours for diagrams or graphs.
• If you are importing diagrams or graphs from elsewhere and they are not in the corporate colours, always clearly identify the source.
• Never use drop shadows in diagrams.