Creating Your Own County Annual Report

Creating Your Own County Annual Report [in PowerPoint]

Organize and write story content

Organize your story ideas using the report template as a suggested guide.
It’s usually easiest to write stories in Word. Pay attention to word counts. Spell check and edit for length, grammar and style.
Collect photo files to go with your stories. iStock, Pexels or Pixabay. Only photos with releases or pictures without people should be included in the report. Note: it is always best to find pictures from local programs. Reach out to your county staff, look at PEARS success stories or contact Chelsea Dickens (dickensc@msu.edu) for possible picture locations.

GETTING STARTED

Login to Sharepoint and navigate to the MSU Extension MSUE All Staff group, under the folder “Creating County Annual Reports.” LINK
Open the PowerPoint template. Use “File/Save As” to create a new file with a new name [County Name/ Annual Report/ Year] so you don’t overwrite the original template.

TIP: Use the left side pane to click from page to page.

CUSTOMIZING PAGE 1

Insert your county name where indicated.
Add your county information to the staff section
Include a brief message from the district director. 3-4 sentences will do.
Impact data points can be found in PEARS and MI Spartan Impact. Norma Lundeen (nlundeen@msu.edu) can assist with accessing or locating data.
Icons throughout the document can be found to the left in the library. Move or delete those that are not relevant to your county’s efforts or may not work well towards amplifying county efforts.

TIP: A photo of the county office looks great. But if you have a more dynamic or powerful photo of staff or programming (signed waivers included) please use these instead.

TIP 2: To adjust images by cropping, double click on the image. (You will see the original image selected.) Navigate to ‘Picture’ (on top of the screen) there you will be able to crop and add alternative text.

CUSTOMIZING TEXT IN TOPIC SECTIONS & STORY PAGES

Story pages are divided into 7 main topic sections.

TIP: Statewide initiatives or selected stories by program can found at the national impact database link. Please contact Chelsea Dickens (dickensc@msu.edu) if you need access.

Page 3 in the template can be duplicated if needed to add more stories.

TIP: You can duplicate or delete a page by hovering over it in the navigation pane, right clicking and selecting “Duplicate Slide” or “Delete Slide.” You can reorder a page or group of pages by selecting them in the Page Navigation pane then dragging and dropping into position.

Copy and paste your story text from Word into the template text boxes. You can use the existing text boxes to enter your stories into the template or create new text boxes. Adjust the size of the text box to fit all the story text.
Format text so that it is 9-12 point font for stories and in Metropolis typeface.

REMINDER: Use the MSU Extension brand guidelines for consistency. Changing colors and fonts may change the branded look.

CUSTOMIZING IMAGES IN TOPIC SECTIONS & STORY PAGES

Insert your story photos. Crop and re-size them proportionally.

TIP: Instead of inserting and resizing photos, you can copy and paste a story photo that is already in the template then right click on it. Choose the ‘Picture’ option on the top ribbon, navigate to the left and click on “Change Picture.” (You will need to change the alternative text to describe the new image. See the accessibility section for steps.)

Add “Alt text” to each photo you add to the layout (see accessibility section).

FINAL CHECK

Make sure sample text you don’t want from the template is removed.
Walk away from the document then come back and re-read it. It’s always helpful to have someone else who is not as close to the project as you read the report. Please email Chelsea Dickens (dickensc@msu.edu) for a quick final edit. Chelsea can also post the report to dotCMS.

Create an accessible PDF document for the web

If your report will be posted on the web, it will need to be readable by everyone – including people using screen readers.

TIP: MSU Accessibility provides a helpful tutorial to help make Publisher PDF files more readable at https://webaccess.msu.edu/

Add Alternative Text to Images: Use “alt text” with images and figures to help explain their meaning to people who use screen readers. To add “alt text”:

Right-click on the image
Select “Format Picture”
Select the “Alt Text” tab located in the top ribbon.
In the Alternative Text dialogue box, enter your alt text describing the content and purpose of the image.

Reading Order: Using the “Bring to Front” tool, stack objects on each page (such as text boxes, images and captions) so they will be read in logical order. The reading order starts with the first object to be brought to the front, and follows with the next object brought to the front.

Select the object you want to be read first on the page
Select “Picture Tools,” and then “Format”
Select the “Bring Forward” drop-down menu
Select “Bring to Front”
Repeat with next object in reading order then next until you have ordered all objects

TIP: You can save steps by customizing Publisher’s “Quick Access Toolbar” so it includes the “Bring to Front” tool. “Alt+F6” is the quick key method to “bring to front.”

Create a Tagged PDF: To create a PDF for the web that can be accessed by screen readers: