

How to make awesome diagrams for your slides - kikito
http://www.slideshare.net/otikik/how-to-make-awesome-diagrams-for-your-slides
This meta-presentation can help anyone making a powerpoint with diagrams and/or flowcharts. It contains a set of very simple, easy to follow guidelines that should improve their visibility and attractiveness.<p>I was meant to be a short presentation to help my brother with his work, but it kindof took a life of its own. It was promoted to Slideshare's front page in less than 12 hours.
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adulau
Maybe he should recommend the use of the "LaTeX Beamer class"[1] along with
TikZ[2]. I used the duo on different scientific presentations and everything
was always properly displayed especially with complex graphs or formula.

[1] <https://bitbucket.org/rivanvx/beamer/wiki/Home> [2]
<http://www.texample.net/tikz/>

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pygy_
This slide deck was brought to you by Enrique García a.k.a. Kitito[1], who's
also the author (among other things) of the excellent "middle class" library,
a class-based object system for Lua, and PÄSSION library collection, an OO-
layer built on top of the LÖVE game framework.

[1] <https://github.com/kikito>

[2] <http://love2d.org>

/shameless plug from a fellow löver.

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kikito
Hi pygy! :D I plan to do other awesome stuff

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kabdib
Two tips:

Use colors in /addition/ to other indications. Roughly ten percent of males
are red-green colorblind and cannot easily distinguish colors that contain
these colors (e.g., purple = blue + red = BLUE to them). Also, projectors are
usually pretty crappy at colors.

"If PowerPoint ever automatically chooses a smaller font for your text, you
have too much on the slide." -- somebody wise

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kikito
Yes, this is something I should have written explicitly. Your advice is spot
on, I should have included a "conclusion" in the colors section saying just
that.

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cema
Interesting way he counts the colors. Makes sense though, after some thought.

Specifics: slide 34. Formula is (each item is a number of colors):

    
    
      fill + text + lines - background
    

The minimal number would be 2, with text=1, background=1, and no lines and
filled shapes. That is the case with pure text slides, typically B&W.

When we draw lines and fill shapes, we may introduce additional colors, or
what feels as adding colors to a purely B&W picture. We could also have
portions of text and/or background color-coded.

In any case, the author apparently counts the number of additional colors. He
suggests the number should be small (no more than 3, see slide 35), in order
for the viewer to keep the "color coding" manageable.

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FrojoS
Well, I guess, for most scientists, black and white aren't colors.

[http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_black_and_white_if_they_a...](http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_black_and_white_if_they_are_not_colors)

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ryanlchan
I've actually started regressing away from PowerPoint back into the 'chalk
talk'. There's something incredibly powerful about being able to draw the idea
in front of an audience which makes your presentation just that much more
sticky, especially in this day of ubiquitous slides. As an additional benefit,
I find that I have to put a lot more thought into what actually needs to get
communicated when I have to physically write it out. Dan Roam's Back of the
Napkin is a great book explaining how to communicate using a pen[1].

[1] <http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/>

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mashmac2
If you're looking for even more depth on Powerpoint design, I highly recommend
Nancy Duarte's slide:ology. All of these tips, more depth, plus the why for
all of them.

Presentation Zen Design from Garr Reynolds is another solid Powerpoint design
guide.

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anishkothari
Very informative presentation, I went through it just for the heck of it and
it was very interesting visually. A note on Slide 21 - the text says 4 Maximum
Types of Shapes but only 3 are displayed.

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kikito
That was my subconscious. 4 is the maximum, but I'd actually steer more
towards 1 or 2 types when possible. If the diagram is very complex and needs
more types, I'd try to split it into several slides.

I saw the slide and the "visual complexity elimination subroutine" kicked in.
I'll try to fix that in a future version.

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thomas11
What software do HNers use to make good diagrams? We have one suggestion for
TikZ so far, which looks nice, but I don't really want to get out the TeX
hammer for every little diagram.

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apu
My slide decks are always in PowerPoint because I usually need to make some
complex technical animations that are impossible to do in Latex. So then I
just use PowerPoint's shapes, etc. to do it.

(I can't wait for some web-based presentation software so I can finally ditch
Powerpoint, but right now, with the extremely limited palette of animation
ability on all of them, I'm forced to stick with PowerPoint.)

For papers, posters, and other static media, I use Inkscape, which I love. And
every once in a while, for a system architecture diagram that I need to crank
out really fast, I'll use Dia, which is much less flexible, but ideal for that
task.

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keenerd
I always used whatever real animation tool (Anim8or, Blender,
python+svg+ffmpeg) I was most comfortable with and rendered the animation to a
non-looping GIF. Embeddable almost anywhere.

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teadrinker
I really liked this. Thanks! Could I get a download link to the presentation
that doesn't require me to sign up?

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kikito
You are welcome, I'm glad you liked it.

Here's a dropbox link. It should be there 2-3 weeks.

[http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18558160/How-to-make-awesome-
diagram...](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18558160/How-to-make-awesome-diagrams-for-
your-slides.pdf)

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th0ma5
My Android App, Edgy, allows you to make graph diagrams suitable for pre-press
then using GraphViz on the desktop, and that can be really useful for
describing complex relationships.

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mikeleeorg
Nice. Although in slide 36, technically, he's using 4 colors: white, black,
red, and orange.

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addandsubtract
He doesn't count the background as a color though. I'm more confused by slides
55 and 56.

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anishkothari
Those slides just apply his "best practices" using the tips in his
presentation.

