The Art of Making Online Graphics in PowerPoint and beyond

Preface

An essential skill in the 21st century is the ability to make online graphics or visual communication. Homo Sapiens of the 21st century could easily be called Homo Visio. People like to look at images, especially in the era of social media. Because so many persons want to see images, the skills to design and create graphics have become important. However, making online graphics does not start on computer, but in one's mind. You think first and decide what problem you need to solve, and then execute it with a graphic. You need to have an idea about what you want to do, and then to know how to use the computer software to execute the ideas that you have generated in your mind.

Before computers, your tools for creating images would include paper and pencil. However, today, making graphics may require software. While there is software used by industry experts in graphic design, I want to prepare you to execute any online graphic using a popular and familiar software that you already have, rather than searching and spending more for what you do not need. And that familiar software, that you may already have installed on your computer, that can really help you create great online graphics is none other than PowerPoint.

PowerPoint™ has been part of the popular Microsoft Office suite of productivity software from as far back as the 1990s. Currently, almost ubiquitous and available (for purchase) if not installed on virtually every workplace computer and laptop. The software is familiar, easy to learn and is used as the defacto standard software for presentations. Yet, despite its familiarity as a tool for supporting presenters, certain changes in PowerPoint since the 2013 version makes the software capable of supporting the making of online graphics for 21st century information formats. In this book, I will explore and guide you to how PowerPoint 2013 and later versions can be used, beyond the almost default usage as presentation support software, for basic graphic design tasks such as making infographics, designing mobile app mock-ups and other basic visual communication design work.

But this book is not primarily about technical use of PowerPoint. While PowerPoint can be used as software for representing information visually, not only may you need to know how to use it to create graphics, but you may also need to know some techniques for representing information visually. In this book, you not only learn about the features of PowerPoint for making graphics but also techniques for solving typical communication problems in conveying information visually. For example, when to use timelines, which are visual displays for representing the relationship between time and information. I will show you how it is possible to use PowerPoint as a visual tool to help in this creative process of developing timelines illustrating the relation between time and information. Or how to tell a visual story with numerical data using infographic principles. I will also teach you how to create graphics for e-learning that will engage users in active learning.

Hence, this book is not only about how PowerPoint functions a visual software that helps us represent communication problems visually. My book is about helping you use PowerPoint software, in innovative and creative ways to communicate. I wish to help you use visual techniques to solve your communication problems and make your thoughts clearer and your messages more understandable. My book is equally about thinking processes to help you in representing your meaning visually as well as to help you abstract what is important information from insignificant details.

This book is essentially about two ideas. The first idea is, what is the mindset that you need to develop to make online graphics and to condense ideas and thoughts into visual representation for communication. The other idea is how to execute the making of visuals. This book is written for two groups of readers. There are those who already know how to make graphics and already have the mindset and visual skills to see how to reduce information and meaning into visuals. These groups may not be aware of how to replicate this process on a computer or may not know that PowerPoint software can do this. The other group of readers may be very skilled in PowerPoint but feel stuck at the task of reducing information and meaning into visuals.