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How to edit shapes in Keynote 7

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Keynote offers very good tools to do complex shapes, and just no rectangles, circles, triangles and so on: Complex shapes are not only done using the "Draw With Pen" tool, but also by reshaping basic shapes and combining them using boolean operations. Note I'll be using Keynote 7.1.1. Boolean Operations The boolean operations offer by Keynote are Unite, Subtract, Intersect, and Exclude: First things first, the boolean operations are found in Keynote on the Format panel, under the Arrange tab. The operations are only shown when two or more shapes are selected , like shown in the figure above. With the first three operations one can quickly make a shape like this: With the fourth operation one can punch a hole in a figure: Editing Shapes In this tutorial, we are going to go for this diagram 1. Add a square and make it editable. Right Click on the selected shape and Left Click  on Make Editable. 2. Add a new vertex by placing the mouse pointer on

Why scientific posters suck and what to do about it. Part 2

So you are brave and/or foolish and have set out into the adventure of designing and producing a scientific poster. Here are my thought and advice. Fuck it, hire a graphic designer! Seriously, you are a researcher, not an artist, not a designer. Instead focus on the storytelling of your poster. Why does your research matter? Are your methods innovative, and could other people benefit from knowing about them? What are your results? Where does it go from here? In order words, what are the open questions? In these times of cinematographic universes, think of the last question as a sequel (Note to self: idea for the  open question slide "Iron Man 2"). Moreover, if you think about "related research" as other heroes in your research field. Make a very high quality, high resolution CV-like photograph of you in Black and White. Say what,  Juan? In case you must add a picture of you in a poster be prepared by having a professional image that you are not ashamed of. Black

Why scientific posters suck and what to do about it. Part 1

If young scientists struggle with good visuals on their presentations, imagine the horror show call poster sessions. The reason why scientific poster suck is simple: (most) scientists don't have the graphic design skills that it takes to make a poster. Let's face it. When it comes to conceptualize, design, and produce a scientific poster, there is a culture of mediocrity, bad taste and incompetence. Be aware that producing good presentation visuals is a different business than producing good posters. True, both have some things in common,  but they are not the same.  Chances to learn and type of media are just two of those differences.  Compare how often researchers produce posters to how often they prepare slides. There are more chances to fail and learn on the latter. And if science is about learning you can see the difficulty. And here is the first and best way to stop making scientific posters: Work together with a graphic designer . Here are some guidelines on how to c

A word on visuals: An alternative to the bullseye diagram

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A particular type of diagram that I often have problem with is the bullseye diagram. Bullseye diagram The problem is text placement. Some people, including me, opt to place the text outside the diagram and connect to it using lines or arrows. A bullseye diagram conveys the idea of a core and its subsequent layers. It is a hierarchy diagram with the center been the most important part, the core if you will. A slide that I didn't show in the last post was a simplification of diagram I would called a Earth's Layers diagram: Source: Wikimedia Commons In essence, it is the bullseye diagram in 3D. I wanted to visualise the following layered hierarchy 1. Principles 2. Methodologies 3. Tools. At the core are the principles, followed by the methodologies, and tools as the final layer. My plan was to place the text on x-y plane. I ended up not using the earth's layers diagram because I couldn't modified the above diagram to have only three layers. So  instead I c

Visual Examples: Principles and Smells

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Yeah, I'm back.  These are sample visuals for a coming presentation on some basics of software development target for a none technical audience. Commons The background is a linear gradient from #DFDFDF to #FFFFFF with no transparency, and except for the images, the only colors are orange ( #EB9D3F ) and blue ( #3B85A7 ). The font is Open Sans, which I like more and more. As with as Roboto it is was commissioned by Google and is free. Images The images are from Wikimedia Commons, some of them are either Feature Images of Quality Images. I had to desaturate them in order to gain control back of the overall aesthetics. #1 Principles Principles slide with layout number 1 #2 Smells Smells refer to problems caused when one doesn't follow the principles.  I purposely changed the layout to reflect this. Smells slide with layout number 2 As an exercise I did the smells slide with the principles layout number 1… Smells slide redone with layout number 1