1. How can I move objects up/down or left/right a little bit at a time? To move objects such as text boxes or images up/down, right/left in small increments select the object by clicking on it once and use the arrow keys to move up, down, left, right.

2. When I insert an image and stretch it out, it comes out looking choppy. What can I do to fix this? If your image is in .gif format, it is recommended that you convert it to .jpg or .bmp before stretching it. To do this open it in Adobe Photoshop, go to Image, Mode, and select CMYK. Then go to File, Save As, and select .jpg as the image format. When prompted, give it a quality value of 6. Note that most images will show some resolution degradation when stretched to a much larger size.

3. How can I get a background image to print on the background of my poster? First, please remember not to create a dark background. Also, DO NOT USE A COLOR WITH FILL EFFECTS - the printer will not print fill effects. To use one of the Microsoft PowerPoint background images, go to Format, Slide Design. This will bring up a window showing available slide design templates. Note that the most standard Powerpoint design template much too dark to print on our printer. To change the colors of the design template once you have applied it, select a color scheme and then click on the "Edit Color Scheme" at the bottom of the design templates. Then, change the colors for Background, Fills, Accent, and Shadows to lighter tones.

4. How do I insert a picture file into my presentation? Go to Insert, Picture, From File. Find the file on your computer and click on Insert.

5. How can I line up my text boxes or objects? Select the text boxes you want to line up by clicking on each one once while holding down the shift key. Then, go to Draw, Align or Distribute, and select the alignment you want. For example, if you have three text boxes you want to line up vertically on the left, select them all and go to Draw, Align or Distribute, Align Left. The Draw pull down menu is available on the Drawing Toolbar. If the drawing toolbar is not displayed at the bottom of your PowerPoint screen, go to View, Toolbars, Drawing.

6. What font should I use? It depends on your poster, but generally Arial sized 28 is good for text boxes and Arial Black Size 100 with a shadow is good for titles. To add a shadow to a font, select the text box, go to Format, Font and check "Shadow."

7. I have scanned images that I want to put into my PowerPoint presentation. What resolution and format should they be in? Use 300 dpi for image resolution when scanning. We recommend saving line art (such as charts or graphs) as .gif format. For photographs we recommend saving your files as .jpg with medium resolution in Adobe Photoshop.

8. I am having problems copying and pasting a chart from another program. What should I do? Instead of simply pasting, go to Edit, Paste Special and select Picture (enhanced Metafile).

9. How do I create error bars in a PowerPoint chart? You don't. Create your chart with error bars in Excel and then import it into PowerPoint (to add error bars to an Excel chart, right click on the data series, go to format data series, and enter in the error bar data). To import a chart into PowerPoint from Excel, select it in Excel with one mouse click, go to edit, copy. Switch to your PowerPoint file and go to Edit, Paste.

10. The text inside of my text boxes didn't print out on my poster. How can I fix that? Right click on your text box, go to document object, convert, and select Microsoft Word Picture. Do this to each of your text boxes that did not print. Note that to avoid these kinds of printing problems, we recommend that you create your poster file in Powerpoint, then create a PDF file of that powerpoint file, and then print your PDF file to the poster printer. Instructions on how to create a PDF file from your Powerpoint file are available online (Adobe Acrobat 7 Pro is installed on the computer by the poster printer and all computers in the departmental computer lab in 3249 Meyer).

11. My text boxes are not printing out correctly, text is being cut off or overflowing outside of the box OR my images are being stretched or squished. How can I fix that? Make sure that you are using the same PAGE SIZE in Powerpoint as you have set the PAPER SIZE in your printer settings. When you first create your document you should set your page size in Powerpoint to 56x42 Landscape (go to File, Page Setup to enter these settings). When you go to print your document you also set the printer paper size by going to file, print and clicking on the Advanced button and entering the settings noted on the instructional poster in front of the printer. If the page size in Powerpoint differs in any way from the paper size in your printer settings, the printer will attempt to resolve the conflicting settings in its own way often resulting in text boxes or images being squished or stretched. If you are certain that this is not the cause of your problem and you are still encountering problems with text boxes or images not printing as they display on the screen, try this: Select ALL objects on your poster and group them before printing. We have found that to solve some text box problems. To do this go to Edit, Select All. Then, RIGHT click on any space of your poster once and go to Grouping, and LEFT click on Group. Note that to avoid these kinds of printing problems, we recommend that you create your poster file in Powerpoint, then create a PDF file of that powerpoint file, and then print your PDF file to the poster printer. Instructions on how to create a PDF file from your Powerpoint file are available online (Adobe Acrobat 7 Pro is installed on the computer by the poster printer and all computers in the departmental computer lab in 3249 Meyer).

12. How can I see what my poster will look like before I print it on the poster printer? Take your PowerPoint file to the computer lab in 3249 Meyer (if you do not have a key to the Nutrition Department Computer Lab, one can be checked out at the front desk in 3135 Meyer). Open it with PowerPoint on one of the computers. Go to File, Print. Select HP3700-1 for the printer and check "Scale to fit Paper." Press OK to print. This will scale your poster to print out on a standard 8.5x11 page (an easy way for you to review layout and colors). Pick up your printout in 3135 Meyer at the printer located next to the fax machine.

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