How to create Posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO (HP DesignJet 4520 Printer/Plotter)

Transcription

1 Disclaimer: 1. This tutorial focuses on Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 (Windows), because this is the version of Microsoft Office used on the IU Kokomo campus and available to students, faculty, and staff through IUware. This procedure can easily be used for Microsoft Office 2007 (Windows) or Microsoft Office 2008 or 2011 for Mac, but it must be recognized that the user interface of the Mac version of Office is different than the Windows version of Office. This procedure describes a simple procedure to create a large-format poster. This procedure is tailored to creating and printing a poster that is 36 inches tall by 48 inches wide, although any size poster can be created that can be accommodated by the roll of paper loaded on the machine. The printer is loaded with both 36" and 42" paper rolls. The minimum dimension (height or width) for a poster is 10 inches. Tool: This procedure is based on Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 which is our recommended tool for project and symposium posters. Other applications such as Adobe Photoshop can be used. Posters are printed directly from the tool application of choice. Procedure: This procedure is based on PowerPoint for several reasons. First, PowerPoint is part of Microsoft Office 2010, which installed on student workstations on campus. Second, all of the PowerPoint design elements are available text boxes, shapes, WordArt, charts, colors and themes. PowerPoint allows importing of charts and data from other applications such as Excel and Word. Third, the PowerPoint page size can be adjusted such that a single slide which I will call the drawing canvas can accommodate large size posters. All-in-all, PowerPoint provides an easy and simple tool for students to produce high-quality presentations. The process documented in this tutorial will create high-quality presentation posters and is a simple and straight-forward process! Because the cost to print a poster is substantially more than printing normal 8.5 x 11 pages of paper, the goal of this tutorial is to help students create and print a large-format poster, and do it right the first time! Please contact IU Kokomo IT Training resources located in the IT Support Center in the Library, 2 nd floor (Room KA-221) for assistance to check your poster and print settings *before* printing to ensure that your poster is printed correctly the first time. Printing funds *will not* be refunded for formatting or authoring errors on the poster; funds will *only* be refunded for network, print server, or mechanical printing problems such as a paper jam or out of ink. Some suggestions: 1. When ready to print, please seek the assistance of IT Training resources, located in the IT Support Center in the Library, 2 nd floor (Room KA-221). By policy, refunds may only be granted back into a student s Print Quota because of equipment issues (jammed printer, low/empty ink and toner, and systems issues). Refunds are not granted for user problems (printout is wrong size, printout CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 1 of 15

2 contains typographical errors and misspelled words, Oops! I didn t mean to print that yet! ). Make sure the poster is perfect before printing. 2. Students working together as a group on a semester project: Students working as a group can calculate the cost to print the poster, divide the cost among all of the students in the group to share the cost, and then apply the poster cost to one student s Student Paid Pages GoPrint account and print the poster from that student s Student Paid Pages account. Contact IT Support to assist. 3. Students working alone: Students can cover their own printing cost by adding funds to their GoPrint Student Paid Pages account through the GoPrint Value Add machine in the Library Copy Room. Students can add funds to their own Student Paid Pages account. So, let us begin! Open Microsoft PowerPoint... CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 2 of 15

3 The PowerPoint slide will be configured to become the drawing canvas. The term drawing canvas is used in this tutorial to indicate the large-format page of paper that will become the poster. The first step is to change the layout of the PowerPoint slide from Title Slide layout to Blank layout. On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the Layout button and select Blank layout. Next, it is necessary to configure the PowerPoint slide to have a page size equal to the page size of the poster/display that will be printed on the HP DesignJet 4520mfp HPGL2 Printer and to set up the slide printing properties correctly. Determine the "height" and "width" dimensions of the poster. Use your dimensions in the settings throughout this entire tutorial (although the 36" height and 48" width are used here as an example). CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 3 of 15

4 First, set the size of the slide in PowerPoint. Click on the Design tab. In the Page Setup group, click the Page Setup button. The Page Setup dialog box will display. In the Page Setup dialog box, enter your poster's dimensions into the Width: and the Height: fields of the dialog boxes. Make sure the height and width dimensions are correct for your poster size. Also, make sure the slide orientation is correct. Generally, poster orientation should be Landscape. NOTE: The minimum dimension for either poster height or width is ten (10) inches. Click OK when settings are correct. To verify that the height and width settings are correct, turn on the rulers in PowerPoint. On the View tab, in the Show group, add a check to the Ruler checkbox. The rulers now display (horizontal at top, vertical on left of slide). Using the rulers displayed, the size of the poster can be verified to be the desired size. Now Here s the fun part! Create your poster! Use your PowerPoint skills to create the greatest poster ever! CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 4 of 15

5 Planning and Managing Your Content Rule #1: Consider your audience and strive to find the most simple, clear, and catchy way to approach them with your content. Rule #2: Make use of available resources. Creativity is inspired by boundaries, so familiarize yourself with the presentation requirements of the event. Your instructor sets the poster requirements. Rule #3: Think of the poster as a conversation starter and keep all of your text concise for impact and readability. The poster is the advertisement display to passersby to speak with you about your project. Your title should highlight your subject matter using simple language. Don't use excessive jargon, don't use colons, don't be cute, and save your conclusions for later. A passerby is less likely to read or even comprehend a complicated title, but a concise title could hook them and allow you the opportunity to talk with them. Pictures, graphs, and text should all work together to present your information. Balance is key and white space is a friend, not a foe. In fact white space makes a poster more readable and more approachable, so try to spread things out. Don't go overboard. You can't squeeze everything on there, so don't even try. As always, stay away from excessive jargon. Designing Your Poster Create your design on a single PowerPoint slide. This is the easiest for beginners to get the hang of and it is easy to print. PowerPoint s internal graphics features allow authors the ability to create a wide range of graphic effects that enhance poster designs. Make sure to set the size of the poster in PowerPoint to the actual size before adding content; failing to do this will show up in corrupted graphics and incorrectly positioned text. People walk past walls of text. After transferring your content from the word processor to the PowerPoint slide you'll likely find that some adjustments need to be made. Does the content have a natural flow, or is it hard to understand where it begins and where it ends? Is there enough white space? Again, consider simplifying your text. Focus on key points and main ideas, and provide just enough information to prompt your discussion and help you remember your work. Fonts People also walk past unprofessional looking text. Use unembellished, legible, and heavy fonts such as Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, etc. If you have so much text that it doesn't fit in the box, shorten the text and use less words rather than make it smaller. Don't justify your text like a newspaper (aligned to both left CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 5 of 15

6 and right margins), and make sure that hyphenation is disabled, this will make the text more readable. Black type is best, but bold or color can be used to emphasize or highlight key points. Just remember: Your text needs to be legible from 5-6 feet away. Font Suggestions: 1. Use Arial or Calibri font for readability. 2. Title: points 3. Section Headings: points 4. Main Content: points, double spaced 5. Acknowledgements and References: points, single spaced 6. Colors Does your area of research have any associated colors? For example, breast cancer is commonly associated with the color pink. Using color correctly will draw people to your presentation, and may draw key people that are already familiar with your discipline or area of interest. You may have noticed that the pink in the sentence above was hard to read, so instead of using pink for your text you might find another way to incorporate the color onto your poster via a picture of a breast cancer ribbon, for example. Additionally, try to dress in colors that do not clash with your poster, as you are a part of your presentation. Keep your background white for legibility. Solid Crayola colors (black, blue, green, yellow, orange, red) consume lots of ink which cause the paper to wrinkle which then cause the print head to rip the paper. Besides white, pastel colors and textures are also satisfactory for background colors. Pictures A picture is worth a thousand words, but make sure they speak to your message: Use pictures that strongly communicate something about your work, and use them sparingly for impact. Photographs of your office, laboratory, or field site, or the apparatus you have on your lab bench may also be eye catching and communicative. Apply a thin gray or black border as needed for a professional touch. CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 6 of 15

7 Pictures should be high resolution (between 150dpi and 300dpi) otherwise they may appear blurry when printed on the poster. When taking images from the web, make sure to use the largest base image size available, and be careful when stretching images more than 20 percent larger than the base size. Graphs Keep graphs and diagrams simple to improve their effectiveness; this is not the place for lots of dots and numbers. Graphs and diagrams are good as long as they clearly communicate important information. Assistance from IU Kokomo IT Training is always available. One-on-one tutoring is available on a walk-in basis at the IT Support Center in the Library (2 nd floor, Room KA-221). Appointments (recommended) may be scheduled by calling IT Training at (765) , option 2. One-on-one tutoring appointments can be scheduled to occur during Library "open" hours. Remember while creating the poster, remember to save your work every three to five minutes! And, remember to make a backup copy! The more work put into creating the poster, the greater the loss when a disaster happens! CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 7 of 15

8 Here is an example of a poster in PowerPoint! Now, let s print the poster! NOTE: The rest of this tutorial assumes that printing will be performed from a student workstation on campus. The printer KO-LC-INDIGO on ko-printsrv might not be installed on the workstation you are using or your personal laptop. The INDIGO printer can be installed into a student s laptop through IU Printer Finder. To have INDIGO installed on a university workstation, please come to the Computer Services Helpdesk in the Library or the IT Support Center for assistance in getting the printer installed. CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 8 of 15

9 On the File tab, click Print In the backstage view as shown below, set the target printer to KO-LC- INDIGO on ko-printsrv: To set the slide size, click the Printer Properties button: CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 9 of 15

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11 The Printer Properties dialog box is displayed: On the KO-LC-INDIGO on printsrv dialog box, click the Custom button. The Custom Paper Sizes dialog box will display as shown below. Change the settings as follows: Set the size of the poster: In the Custom Paper Sizes dialog box, set the height and width fields to the respective height and width of YOUR poster. In this example, the poster is 48 inches wide by 36 inches tall Set the values to the dimensions of YOUR poster. Leave all other settings as default. When the height and width are correctly set, click OK. CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 11 of 15

12 Now, the PRINT-LC-INDIGO Properties dialog box reappears and looks like this (ensure that the Size is: field in the Paper Options group shows the correct size of YOUR poster): CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 12 of 15

13 Next, in the Print Quality group, set the options as follows: Set the Print Quality to Best (enhanced) Optimize the Print Quality for Images Select Maximum Detail. CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 13 of 15

14 Also, look at the cartoon of the printer paper roll on the dialog box. The size of the poster indicated below the cartoon should match with the size of the poster being printed. When all settings are correct, click OK. CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 14 of 15

15 And now, it s time to print! First save the poster one final time, and then double-check all printing settings, and click the Print button! Finally, your poster must be released to the HP DesignJet 4520mfp Printer/Plotter (INDIGO) through GoPrint. Log into GoPrint and release the poster to be printed. Note: If you have insufficient funds in your GoPrint print Quota, the poster will not be released to the printer. In this case, additional funds must be added to your Student Paid Pages GoPrint account, and the poster printed from that purse (account). Remember, the cost to print on the INDIGO printer is $0.33 per linear inch of paper (33 cents per inch). A 36 by 48 poster will cost approximately $15.84 to print. Please come to the Computer Services Helpdesk or the IT Support Center for assistance. CSER How to Tutorial: Create posters in PowerPoint and print on INDIGO Page 15 of 15