School of Public Health

Health students and professionals make posters all the time, but it happens sometimes, you have been asked to make a poster and you do have no idea how you can do that. I started to right a step by step guideline for this purpose, and during my search I found a guideline written by University of Washington.

1. Start PowerPoint: Make a New presentation – a blank one. When asked for a Layout, choose a blank one – one without anything – even a title.
2. Choose the size of your poster: For example 48-60″ wide (across) and exactly 36″ in height (top to bottom). This applies for your individual poster even though you will print it out much smaller than this for grading purposes; doing this will allow you to have the flexibility to print your file as a large poster if your group chooses it.
3. Adding text: In order to add text, the text needs a “container” – a Text Box. Make a text box by
a.Click on the Text Box tool or selecting Text Box under the Insert menu.
b.Click or click-and-drag where you want the text to be. After this second step, you should see the rectangular shape of the Text Box. You can re-size it at any time by dragging one of the little square “handles”. The box will also grow automatically as you type (if it needs to).
As in many programs, you can change the font and size by highlighting the text to be changed and then making the changes. A 100-point font is about an inch high. If you don’t see the size you want in the selection list, you can enter it in by hand.
To move a Text Box, position your pointer over a part of the edge of the box that is not a handle. The pointer should become shaped like a plus sign with arrows. Click and drag the Text Box to the wanted position.
You can change the color of the text, the edge, and the fill as well as other things under the Format menu/Text Box.
Make a separate Text Box for each separate piece of text. “Separate text” means a portion of text that you want to be able to move independently from the others.
4. Adding images: The two ways to add images are with Insert/Picture and with Copy and Paste:
Insert/Picture: This is the most common way of adding graphics to a PowerPoint document. If you have a file that is in one of several standard graphic formats (like JPEG, GIF, PICT, etc.), use the Insert menu/Picture/From-file and select your file. The image will appear on your document with handles. Use one of the corner handles to re-size it. (The corner handles will keep the same aspect ratio; the side handles will not.) Click and drag in the middle of the graphic to move it. You can do many other things to an image (including brightness, cropping, and resetting it to how it was originally brought in) under Format/Picture.
Image size: You need to plan ahead – in the package that created the graphic (or in program like PhotoShop) figure out the final print size of your graphic and scale it to about 200 dpi (dots per inch). The HP-3000 prints at 600 dpi, but the dithering it needs to do for most colors (all except the seven colors RGB and CMYK) takes up space – anything over 200 dpi is ignored for most colors. 150 dpi or even 100 dpi will look fine for most images.
Copy and Paste: Use this if you have something like an Excel graph you want to add to your document. Generally avoid this method if you can – Copy and Paste will often only give you a low-resolution copy of a graphic.
5. Background: You can select a background under the Format menu/Background. If you want a picture background, select “Background” off the Format menu, then click on the down arrow for more options. Select “fill effects” and then the tab for “picture”. Click on “select picture” and find the picture you want from your hard drive. You will probably want to fade or lighten the image prior to using it as background or you may risk the picture competing with your text.
6. Lines, Boxes, Arrows: There are many other things that PowerPoint can do. Next to the Text Box tool are tools to make ovals, boxes, lines, arrows, etc. When you have made one of these, you can change it (when it is selected) with the Format menu/Colors and Lines.
7. Zoom: You can control the zoom amount by clicking on the zoom choice box (if visible), or using the View menu/Zoom.
8. Printing.
If you are printing your individual poster for grading purposes only (not for display), then the following instructions apply to you: Chose “File” then “Print”. Select all to print (default setting), but SELECT the box that says “scale to fit”. You will end up with a small poster (8.5″ X 11″ or 8.5″ x 14″ if you use legal paper). To get maximum benefit from the use of color you should use a color printer, although a black & white printer will also show some gray variations that demonstrate where color is used in the document.