One way to open a PowerPoint presentation could be to copy the opening of the Law & Order TV shows. Here’s how to get the same look in your PPT slides or Word documents plus the distinctive sound.
The same formatting can be used in Word, maybe as a callout to highlight some text. But the familiar look works best in a PowerPoint slide.
See also: Law & Order title card in PowerPoint and Word
You don’t have to copy the exact wording used in the show, far from it. Here’s an opening slide that could be shown as the audience arrives.
Statement of the obvious: The various Law & Order TV shows, created by Dick Wolf, are copyright NBC Universal.
The font
It’s all about the right font. The TV show uses Friz Quadrata a 1965 font that’s appeared in many places. The New York City Police used the font, which is why it’s used in the Law & Order TV shows.
Friz Quadrata is a commercial font but a free equivalent is Albertus Medium at Wfonts.com.
Using Albertus Medium you can get a reasonable likeness.
The other formatting is obvious. Black background and centered white text.
Positioning
Modern Powerpoint has guidelines to make positioning a lot easier.
Put the text in a box then move the text box so it is centered both horizontally and vertically.
The guide lines are quite subtle, maybe too hard to see, so we’ve circled two of the lines in the above example.
Word documents
A similar look can be applied in Word documents, for example as a heading or callout box.
Here’s a heading using the same font and style.
Or a callout. This is a text box with a black fill and Albertus Medium font.
Use as a standalone or as a callout wrapped around text.
The Law and Order ‘Dun Dun’ sound
For bonus points, add the famous sound effect that breaks scenes in Law and Order.
Of course, PowerPoint can also play sounds
It was created by Mike Post, who also wrote the theme music. For detail from The New York Times and the NY Daily News.
Though it’s presumably in breach of copyright, the sound is widely available on the Internet. People use it as ring tone or alert sound on their smartphone.
Try one of these sources for a simple MP3 download.
Law & Order title card in PowerPoint and Word
Thunderbirds are go, get the look in Word and Office
‘Friends’ logo or text complete in Word, PowerPoint and Office
Murphy Brown in Word or PowerPoint
