Academic Posters

There is no APA Poster format, but this PowerPoint template uses APA citation and tables/figures format. There are other tools you can use to create a poster; just be sure to follow APA guidelines for figures/tables and citations.

Poster Headings/Sections

Typical Poster Sections

See your professor or conference for your required sections. Typical posters follow the IMRaD format: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion/Conclusion. See the Humanities Poster page for more section ideas.

Other sections include:

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Research Question/statement/hypothesis
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Future Research
• Funding Acknowledgement
• References

Academic Poster Setup

PowerPoint Setup

Most of these instructions are for Powerpoint on a desktop.

• Change the size of a slide to create a poster (see screenshot below):
  • Go to the Design tab > Slide size > Custom Slide Size > Set the width and height, and choose landscape (if a message pops up that "the current page size exceeds the printable area of the paper in the printer" just click OK)
  • Standard Poster size is 48” wide x 36” tall - but check with your professor or with the conference and your printer (if you are presenting at a conference)
  • The header in this poster is created with a rounded rectangle
  • Go to the Insert tab > Shapes > choose a rounded rectangle (or other shapes)
  • This header box is 4" tall x 47" wide
  • To see and manage box sizes, use the grab handles on the shape OR go to the Format tab > size
  • Change the shape, fill color, and outline on the Format tab - this shape has Lynn blue fill
  • Three columns are common but not required
  • The columns in the poster template are rectangles
  • Go to the Insert tab > Shapes > choose a rectangle (or other shapes)
  • The two side boxes are 30.5" tall x 14" wide; the center box is 30.5" tall x 17" wide
  • To see and manage box sizes, use the grab handles on the shape OR go to the Format tab > size
  • Change the shape, fill color, and outline (in the template, the columns have no fill and Lynn blue outlines)
    • On a desktop: on the Format tab
    • On an iPad: click on the shape to select it, then on the "Shape" button near the top right

    PowerPoint: change the size of the slide to poster size

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    Google Slides Setup

    • Change the size of the slide to create a poster (see screenshot below):
      • Go to the File tab, select Page Setup > In the drop-down menu, choose custom, enter the numbers, and click apply.
      • Go to the Insert tab > Shape > Shapes > choose a shape
      • To see and manage box sizes, use the blue grab handles on the shape OR go to Format Options > Size & Rotation