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This Week's Topic Tips for Creating Different File Types Learn techniques and processes to improve the quality of your documents and graphics. This week we will offer tips and suggestions for creating, editing, and importing text documents, graphics, graphs, and Web graphics. This Week's Tips Text Documents (Monday) When developing overheads or an electronic presentation, try composing your text in a word processing program, then import it into your presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint). Here are a couple of import and export tips: Avoid reformatting by formatting text after it has been imported into the new program. When experiencing difficulty importing a text document into another program, try saving it as a text (.txt) file, or copy and paste it into the new program. Graphics/Images (Tuesday) When creating or editing graphics, recognize your skill level and selectively choose which images to create. Here are a few suggestions: Depending on your expertise, keep graphics simple. Consider editing an existing image instead of creating one from scratch. For generic images or diagrams, purchase images from the Internet, or use a clip art CD. Remember to look up and follow any copyright restrictions. Graphs (Wednesday) Create concise, easy-to-read graphs to enhance your students’ ability to understand your lectures. Here are a few guidelines (look in the Download Depot for examples of graphs): Include a legend identifying the variables measured in each graph. Label all axes appropriately. Do not use “items” (such as dollar signs, symbols, etc.) to represent the variables in a graph. Download your free Graph Examples today! Photos (Thursday) Use photos to illustrate your lectures. Depending on your discipline, a picture will often demonstrate your point far better than text. Here are a few guidelines: Take photos with a digital camera. Your department/school may own one. Try out any complimentary scanner software shipped with your scanner before buying photo-editing software. When editing photos, avoid colorful enhancements such as frames. Web Page Graphics (Friday) When creating graphics specifically for online presentations, keep the following points in mind: Keep the file size small (preferably under 200kb). Design graphics as close to the desired viewing size as possible. When designing graphics, keep your Web page background color in mind.