Even consistent application of the style guidelines prescribed by your instructor can boost your grade.
Many student group and individual projects may rely on Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. While PowerPoint isn't desktop publishing software, you can make a better presentation when you apply desktop publishing and graphic design principles to your slides.
For school projects you may find that Microsoft Word and PowerPoint serve your needs well. There are also free alternatives such as the Apache OpenOffice Productivity Suite. But if you want to use real desktop publishing software, don't forget that you may quality for academic pricing.
- Less is More. If your class is about graphic design you can get away with a lot more than for, say, a biology class. Simplicity and attention to detail will serve you better than lots of color and some flashy fonts. One Font Can Be Better Than Two and not be boring if you do it right.
- Don't Just Right Moar Words. Focus first on the content then proofread, proofread, proofread. It's a key part of doing desktop publishing of any kind.
- Before You Create a Slide Presentation (or any type of presentation in print or on-screen) heed these 3 simple PowerPoint Rules. Sure, some of these tips are aimed at business presentations but getting good grades is serious business. You'll notice that the rules repeat many of the common desktop publishing guidelines to use fewer fonts, less clip art, and maintain slide to slide (or page to page) consistency. Just remember, you're aiming for consistently good, not consistently bad.
Desktop publishing doesn't discriminate. You can be rich or poor, left-brain or right-brain, on your own or part of a group. The use of desktop publishing and good principles of design allows anyone to communicate more effectively and look better in print (or on-screen). What are you waiting for? Learn how to do desktop publishing.
|Pick Your Path to Desktop Publishing|
|Three of these 7 paths correspond to the tabs at the top of the site. These pages take you through a topic either step-by-step from top to bottom or by grouping related subjects and materials.|
|Get Started:||Basic Guidelines and Requirements for Desktop Publishing|
|Choose Software:||Desktop Publishing and Design Software|
|Tips & Tutorials:||How to Do Desktop Publishing|
|Training, Education, Jobs:||Careers in Desktop Publishing|
|In the Classroom:||Back to School With Desktop Publishing|
|Make Something:||Things to Make Using Desktop Publishing|
|Use Templates:||Templates for Print and Web Publishing|
|Find the Information You Need|
|Desktop Publishing Information:||What it is, skills needed, finding a job, starting a desktop publishing business.|
|Graphic Design Information:||How it relates to desktop publishing, education required, principles of graphic design, the creative process, employment vs. self-employment.|
|Typography Information:||Basics, detailed text composition tutorials, technical font issues, finding and using fonts, how to make fonts.|