Carousel

Creating Slides for Website Carousels

Requirements when sourcing from Electronic Sign slides

IT often creates slides for the front page (or kids' page) of our website using preexisting Electronic Sign slides. If the slide is fully editable as described below, IT will take care of the needed changes for website publication. This is the preferred method.

• Text must actually be text Editable, and NOT an image of text. It is acceptable for a Logo to be a graphic rather than text.
• Limited amount of text Brevity is the sole of wit, there's only so much room, and people will not read a wall of text that's only shown for 6 seconds.

Making a better slide

If you are submitting your own slide to IT for website publication, please consider the following:

• Slides should be designed using PowerPoint. This allows for easy editing for the inevitable changes that will be needed.
• Aspect Ratio: 900x300 Ideally your submission will be in this size. Slides can be larger, but they must still maintain the 3:1 ratio. Smaller sizes can be problematic.

• • In PowerPoint, this setting is found in Design Tab > Slide Size (Page Setup in older versions) > Custom
  • Since there is no handy preset 3:1 setting, manually enter 12" width by 4" height.
  • Best to do the as the first step of creating a slide.
• Locaton of Nav Arrows One easy to forget aspect is the Navigation handles on the carousel itself. Don't put important text on the middle of left or right side. Margins are good.* Location, Location, Location Slides need to specify the branch where the program occurs.
• No MFRL Logo While it should be included on other social media platforms, the MFRL logo should not be part of the slides on our MFRL website.
• Legibility People will be viewing these on their computers but also phones and tablets. Picking colors that contrast well and are easy to read is helpful. Black and white are timeless because anyone can read them. Red+green or Red+blue might be invisible to some patrons. Fewer words are better than a wall of text. Small text on a small phone will also be illegible.

Likely Rejection Reasons of slides submissions

• A single image If your potential slide was created in another program and exported as an image it can not be used.
• Wild size/aspect differences Submit as 3:1; see above.
• All text If you have a ton of text and no graphics it'll be unlikely to draw attention.
• Use of images without permission Using other peoples work without permission can have negative repercussions. If you're using Google image search, click Tools > Usage Rights > Creative Commons