Help With ~ Large Format Posters

Most of the tools for making effective posters with powerpoint can be found on the Resource Center document linked here, such as giving an image a transparent background, turning off autofit text, and aligning objects. One advanced tool that can save a lot of trouble is auto-duplicating objects.

To quickly and easily duplicate an object, click and drag that object. Press and hold the alt/option key before you release the mouse. You will now have two copies of the object: one in the original position, and one whereever you dragged the mouse to. This is especially nice because it allows you to duplicate and position an object at the same time.

This trick works for text boxes, images—anything that can be copied.

Integrating Photoshop and PowerPoint

Although PowerPoint is our standard application for creating posters, Photoshop has some helpful tools for manipulating images that are far beyond the capabilities of PowerPoint. It's often necessary to crop and color correct images, or to remove specific objects from a larger image so that object can be placed in your poster. Photoshop is the best tool for completing these actions. Here a link for more Photoshop info https://my.hamilton.edu/offices/lits/rc/photoshop-cs6-basic-skills

NOTE: Photoshop can be used to create an entire poster, especially if artistic quality is the focus of the poster. However, the courses we support follow a workflow using PowerPoint to create posters; while not a typical use of PowerPoint, it has a quicker learning curve than Photoshop, or the industry standard layout software, Adobe InDesign.

Don't forget that you need to cite the information you are using for your poster! Use the Help With Citing Sources guide for assistance.