Presentations and Posters

Overview

We review three options to incorporate data analysis in R into presentations, as well as two options to do so for academic posters.

Unlike the previous section about writing papers, in which we highlighted not having to manually format a document as one of the advantages of typesetting languages like LaTeX or Quarto Markdown, there is not a strong reason to choose one alternative over the other besides aesthetic preferences and presentation goals.

For presentations, we can easily incorporate output into different formats:

1. PowerPoint. This requires exporting figures as .svg files and tables as Word documents¹

2. PDF through Beamer

3. HTML through revealjs

The options are similar for posters. Since they are just static content, the most important part is choosing the right template. The options are:

1. PowerPoint templates for either classic or billboard posters

2. Using RMarkdown to create both HTML and PDF posters with the posterdown package, with several template options

Resources

• Export figures and tables to PowerPoint

• PDF slides template

• HTML slides template

• Classic PowerPoint poster templates

• Billboard PowerPoint poster templates

• posterdown package for RMarkdown templates

Tips

Treat presentations and posters as advertisement for a paper or project, that means keeping exposure simple and resisting the urge to cram everything in.

Carlisle Rainey shared some general tips for conference presentations or invited talks that are continuously repeated but rarely applied.

Mike Morrison is an advocate of user-friendly science and has promoted “billboard” posters or posters 2.0 as a more efficient template.

Footnotes

1. Technically, you can create PowerPoint slides within RStudio through Quarto, but I think skipping the point-and-click interface defeats the purpose.