Organised speaking – improving font sizes

A recurring problem with my presentations is font size.

  • The inclusion of code in my Rmarkdown slides was by default too small. Upping the fontsize via CSS worked ok, but when I switched to a shiny app version for my intro to shiny, it reverted and I’m afraid to say I didn’t notice beforehand.
  • I use PuTTY for showing how to do some stuff in the linux command line but the font’s quite small by default and Gail Shaw’s tip of Magnifier in my session was tough to use
  • I’ve upped my font size on my Rstudio IDE, but hadn’t yet implemented this across other IDEs
  • I tend to use my mouse cursor to draw attention to things. A whirring small white cursor isn’t exactly noticeable.

So, I’m taking steps to correct and make my presentations easier for my audience. You may already know some or all of these and if there’s better way, do suggest it!

  • Visual Studio: Using the PresentOn (by typing PresentOn into the Search bar) functionality from the Productivity Power Tools extension, to make all the fonts bigger in Visual Studio
  • PuTTY: Using this tips & tricks page I realised there are font options so now size 20 font is the default for presenting! w00t
  • Slides: Gathering all the code block CSS options from shiny, ioslides, and slidy and adding as a single CSS I can drop into any of these presentations
  • Cursor wiggling: I’ve upgraded my clicking finger to a presenting clicker and bought the Logitech R800 based on people’s recommendations. This has a snazzy green laser which I can use.

It’s worth noting as well, that I also completely forgot I had ZoomIt installed but it should be very helpful, especially with the advice in this ZoomIt or lose it post.

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