Nurs 725: Quality, Effectiveness and Safety in Organizational Systems

A poster is a visual communication tool.

An effective poster will help you:

• engage colleagues in conversation,

• get your main points across to as many people as possible.

Posters serve as

• a source of information

• a conversation starter

• a summary of your work

• an advertisement of your work

Source: George R. Hess, North Carolina State University, go.ncsu.edu/posters

Tips

• Tell readers why your work matters.

• Balance placement of text and figures.

• Use headings.

• Minimize text - use graphics.

• Text should be large enough to be read 10 feet away.

• Use dark letters on a light background.

• Prepare a 3-5 minute verbal presentation.

• Prepare a summary handout.

Source: North Carolina State University, https://projects.ncsu.edu/project/posters/ 

These instructions work for PowerPoint 2016 for Windows, the version of PowerPoint installed on campus computers.

1. Launch PowerPoint
2. Start from scratch by selecting "Blank Presentation."
3. You may see default text boxes in the slide window. They are used for the title slide of a presentation. You don't need them, so delete them by moving the mouse to a border, clicking the mouse, and then pressing the delete key.
4. To specify the dimensions of the poster, under the Design tab find the Customize section and click Slide Size. Select Custom Slide Size.
5. In the Slide Size dialog box, enter the width and height for your poster. A typical poster is 48" wide by 36" high. Generally rolls of poster paper are 36" so the height of the poster must be limited to that size.

Text

1. To add text to your poster, click Text Box under the Insert tab. Then click in your slide and start typing to create a text box. 
2. You can move a text box by clicking on an edge of the text box and then dragging it. You can resize a text box by dragging its handles (one of the four corners).
3. The font may well be tiny. Go to the Home tab and increase font size. A font of 72 is good for a title in a 48" wide x 36" high poster. To change other formatting, select text and then choose options in the popup box. 

This library guide from University of North Carolina Health Sciences Library provides additional information on adding images, aligning content on your poster slide, and more.