Mac Instructions

Making a poster in PowerPoint requires many of the same skills used to make a regular PowerPoint presentation, but you will be making only one large slide instead of a series of small ones.

Step 1: Create a PowerPoint "Poster" Slide

• Open PowerPoint Select "File" and "Page Setup")

  • Select "Custom" from the "Slides Sized for:" drop-down menu and adjust the height and width

  • Select the appropriate orientation: Portrait orientation - 35" width x 43" height or Landscape orientation - 43" width x 35" height 

  • When asked about scaling your content select "Don't Scale".

• Add content to your poster as you would a PowerPoint slide: you may wish to create text boxes to organize your material, and select a background from the pre-set design schemes

• About Images

  • Avoid using too many large images

  • Don't use a background image that will make text hard to read!

  • Don't resize a small image to a larger one using Powerpoint!

• It will be helpful to zoom in and out to get the layout that you want and also work with your text. To zoom, go to "View" and select "Zoom".

• Save your work as usual

Important factors to remember/consider:

• Project Requirements - Does your poster contain the items required for your project. Professors or organizations typically require some or all of the following:

  • Your name(s) (and the names of any sponsors)

  • Date (or semester)

  • Course, or department, or your project name

  • Your professor's name

  • Colgate University name

  • References (may be able to use smaller fonts)

• Preview, Preview, Preview - Use the print preview whenever possible in this process to see if your output looks correct.

• Things to check:

  • Does the poster size look OK with respect to the displayed borders (not a postage stamp on a huge screen)? If not, check page/paper sizes

  • Are top/bottom or left/right sections of the poster clipped? If not, check the orientation and/or the length/width order of the paper size (e.g., may need to change 43x35 to 35x43)

  • Remember the image notes above (too many, too large, or resized images can look great but cause problems with printing)

  • PowerPoint has a "Grid and Guides" function which you can lay over your poster; this might be useful for lining things up. Find it in the "View" menu.

  • Will your text color be hard to read on your background graphic?

Step 2: Create a PDF version of Your PowerPoint

• • You can use the PowerPoint Save As... option to save in PDF format (available in all recent Office versions for Mac)

  • Go to File > Save as...  

  • Select Save as type:   PDF

  • Ensure that the saved PDF displays all of your poster before you submit (if not, check the sizes specified in your PowerPoint Page Setup)

Step 3: Submit both the PowerPoint and PDF documents to the Shared Folder linked on the "Submit a Poster" page.