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I want to present my work somewhere and thus I made a Powerpoint presentation. I am wondering if it is possible to make a colorful and stylish text by MMA. For example at the end of my presentation I write phrases such as "Thank you for your attention", "Questions?", or something similar.

For example would it be possible to create the below image by MMA and make each circle with the letter inside it move randomly or like a Sine wave. Could we add sparks of light around each moving circle.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Something like that can be easily done. It's all about Style. $\endgroup$
    – Öskå
    Oct 16, 2014 at 11:54
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    $\begingroup$ "Stylish" and "colorful" (esp. in conjunction with "Powerpoint") may raise a few alarms for the seasoned typographer. $\endgroup$
    – Yves Klett
    Oct 16, 2014 at 12:00
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    $\begingroup$ @YvesKlett "Powerpoint" raises a few alarms with or without "Stylish" or "colorful" :P $\endgroup$
    – Öskå
    Oct 16, 2014 at 12:03
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    $\begingroup$ There is probably much fancier but if you want a sine wave: i.imgur.com/XWG1Aj1.gif $\endgroup$
    – Öskå
    Oct 16, 2014 at 12:14
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    $\begingroup$ too much? $\endgroup$
    – Simon Woods
    Oct 16, 2014 at 13:13

2 Answers 2

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Some funky waves:

(The following can probably be neater but I'm just dropping the idea here)

DynamicModule[{a, b, imgs, drange, str, n = 6, export},
 drange[it_, d_] := Range[Pi/(d/it), Pi*it, Pi/(d/it)];
 str = ToUpperCase /@ StringSplit["This is some text!", ""];
 Panel@Column@{
    Row@{Slider[Dynamic[a], {-2, 2, .1}], Dynamic[a]},
    Row@{Slider[Dynamic[b], {-2, 2, .1}], Dynamic[b]},
    Row@{Slider[Dynamic[imgs], {3, 6}], Dynamic[imgs]},
    Dynamic@Row[Text@
         Style[#, #3, #2*20] & @@@ (Thread@{str, ((Sin[a*# + b] + 2) & /@ N@drange[n, Length@str]), 
          Hue[Length@str/#] & /@ Range@Length@str}), 
      ImageSize -> imgs*100],
    Dynamic@Plot[Sin[a*x + b], {x, 0, n*Pi}],
    Button["Export to GIF", export[a, imgs]]},
 Initialization :> (export[a_, imgs_] := Export["~/test.gif",
     Table[Row[Text@
          Style[#, #3, #2*20] & @@@ (Thread@{str, ((Sin[a*# + b] + 2) & /@ N@drange[n, Length@str]), 
           Hue[Length@str/#] & /@ Range@Length@str}), 
       ImageSize -> imgs*100], {b, 0, 2 Pi, Pi/20}], 
     "DisplayDurations" -> .1])]

Mathematica graphics

(And yes, the colours are ugly as well :D)

Clicking on Export to GIF results in:

enter image description here

By using Framed[Style[#, #3, #2*20], RoundingRadius -> 100] & as Yves mentioned you can have the less fancy text on earth:

enter image description here

And without text:

And with colours:

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    $\begingroup$ And now for circles around each character try something along Framed[Style[x], RoundingRadius -> 100]. BTW, did you mean "ugly as well" or "ugly as hell"? :D $\endgroup$
    – Yves Klett
    Oct 16, 2014 at 14:37
  • $\begingroup$ @YvesKlett That's totally not fancy :P i.stack.imgur.com/PtbcI.png The code is quite messy, and the code is quite ugly, so I guess I meant as well :D But it's ugly as hell indeed :( $\endgroup$
    – Öskå
    Oct 16, 2014 at 14:40
  • $\begingroup$ Nah, neat is what it is... reminds me of the very hungry caterpillar! +1 $\endgroup$
    – Yves Klett
    Oct 16, 2014 at 14:41
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    $\begingroup$ I do! [drops off the chair felled by a bout of visually induced migraine] $\endgroup$
    – Yves Klett
    Oct 16, 2014 at 14:59
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    $\begingroup$ I want to give vote +2 :D $\endgroup$
    – Junho Lee
    Oct 16, 2014 at 15:43
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Purely an extended comment, offered in the spirit of promoting clear communication.

From Edward Tufte's essay, The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within:

In corporate and government bureaucracies, the standard method for making a presentation is to talk about a list of points organized onto slides projected up on the wall. For many years, overhead projectors lit up transparencies, and slide projectors showed high-resolution 35mm slides. Now "slideware" computer programs for presentations are nearly everywhere. Early in the 21st century, several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint were turning out trillions of slides each year.

Alas, slideware often reduces the analytical quality of presentations. In particular, the popular PowerPoint templates (ready-made designs) usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis. What is the problem with PowerPoint? And how can we improve our presentations?

Also:
PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports

Lousy PowerPoint presentations: The fault of PP users?

The common defense of bad PowerPoint presentations is that they are the "fault of the user, not the tool."

This point raised by PP advocates in fact provokes a rich and complex question about nearly any type of expressive performance: What are the causes of presentations?

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for this. Especially this quote from your second link: It appears that many young engineers do not understand the need for, or know how to prepare, formal engineering documents such as reports, white papers, or analyses (Crippen, et al., "A.2, Observations" in Final Report of the Return to Flight Task Group, July 2005). $\endgroup$
    – dionys
    Oct 16, 2014 at 13:59

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