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Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Do you know what PowerPoint templates you need for your next presentation and why

Today, use of PowerPoint presentation (Keynote or any other presentation format) to present your idea is quite common. One starts interacting with presentations from school days and journey continues throughout your life. Sometimes you view presentations and sometimes you have to create them to be viewed by others.

Be it some conference, event, college seminar, meeting, workshop or a training session, nothing is complete without an outstanding presentation. A great presentation backed by great speaker leaves long lasting impact on audience. People spend hours & days to work out that great presentation which audience can wow.

One of the major elements of a presentation is the template you use. Its well known fact that an average idea presented well can outperform a great idea that is presented poorly. Can you afford to loose VC funding for your start-up just because you werent able to represent the information and business plan rightly through your presentation. Besides targeted content you need a right blend of theme, images, graphs and other placeholders collectively known as template. But the question is what type of presentation template you need. It might be easy for you to decide whether it would be a business, education or a medical template but do you ever think what sort of images, objects or maps your template should have so that you have that creative liberty to make a mark through your presentation. Here is what you need to take care while buying a template:

Do you need a template having vector images or one with bitmap images?

If you create presentations quite often, you must have faced the problem of distortion and loss of quality of images when you re-size them. Mostly this happens when you try to enlarge a small image. Problem is grave when picture enlarged has some text on it. However, you must have noticed same is not true for clip art images/icons you insert from gallery. You enlarge them, re-size them without any loss of quality.

In order to understand this we need to understand the type of images. There are two type of images i) Bitmap (raster) ii) Vector graphics or images. Most common formats we use on daily basis like JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIF, PNG, BMP are all bitmap images. Bitmap is collection of tiny squares called pixels, which together form a pattern called image. Each pixel has its own color. When we try to enlarge a bitmap image beyond certain extant these small squares become visible and the edges become jagged or blurry.

Bitmap image pixlated

Vector graphics are made up of lines, curves, rectangles and other shapes. Vector image is a file containing instructions for drawing it. Biggest advantage of vector graphics over bitmap is that a image can be enlarged or re-sized without any loss of quality. Some popular Vector file formats include WMF, EPS, AI, EMF, CDR

Color of the whole vector graphic or its part can be changed
Shape of vector image can be modified
Vector images can be transparent
Vector images can be shrunk or enlarged to any extend without any loss of quality

So when you look for a cool template for your next presentation, you should think for a while to decide if you need a template having bitmap images (JPG,PNG) or Vector images so that you can tweak them, re-size them, ungroup them to suit your presentation needs. Most of PowerPoint template providers gives you the option of downloading a template with either vector or bitmap images.

Free Add ins for PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint software is rich enough in features and functionally and fulfill almost all needs of PowerPoint users. However, there are few use cases which Microsoft has missed. Thankfully, there are few free or moderately priced Add-ins or Plug-ins available from Microsoft MVPs or independent software venders which will make your PowerPoint creation experience more enjoyable and hassle free.

Narration Timing Tweaker
PowerPoints narration tool offers an easy feature to record audio narration to go along with the slide show. However, if you need to fine tune any of the event times in the recorded show, you have to redo the whole slide again. Narration Timing Tweaker is a free add-in which eliminates that need altogether.

Fotolia Ribbon
With Fotolia PowerPoint add-in you can instantly add high-resolution photos, vectors, and illustrations using your free Fotolia account without leaving PowerPoint. You can Insert royalty free images in PowerPoint slides using Fotolias PowerPoint add-in.

Insert web pages in PowerPoint slides with PowerPoint Web Browser Assistant
PowerPoint Web Browser Assistant addin assists you in inserting live web pages on slides on your presentation. It uses Microsoft Internet Explorer to display the web pages.

PptPlex
Microsofts lab product pptPlex is the coolest PowerPoint add-in which lets you give presentations in a quite astonishing way.

Embed media
Microsoft Office PowerPoint does not provide a way to embed video and audio files (with a small exception that you can embed small .wav files). OfficeOne ProTools Embed Media works around that limitation and allows you to embed media files into the presentation. Since the media files are within the presentation, you no longer have to worry about breaking links to the external video files when you move or copy the presentation. PowerPoint will play your files as it would normally do. OfficeOne ProTools Embed Media is not required for playing the video and audio files.

Microsoft Producer
Microsoft Producer allows you to get an existing presentation file, capture and synchronize video and audio narration, add additional media content, and produce a unified set of content ready for viewing in a browser on your intranet , on the web or on a DVD.

Add progress bar with Thermometer
Adding a progress bar to your PowerPoint will let your audience know at any given point that how much has been covered and how much still left. Thermometer for PowerPoint is a free add-in from Indezine that creates a thermometer style bar in the bottom area of the slide that shows how much of a presentation has progressed and how much more is remaining.

YouTube Video Wizard (YTV)
YTZ wizard lets you easily insert YouTube videos into a PowerPoint slide. All you need to do is to provide the YouTube video URL that appears in the browser address bar, the rest is taken care of by the YTV Wizard.

Mouse Mischief
Mouse Mischief integrates into Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, letting you insert questions, polls, and drawing activity slides into your lessons.

Students can actively participate in these lessons by using their own mice to click, circle, cross out, or draw answers on the screen.

Flashback PowerPoint Add-in to rewind Flash movies in PowerPoint automatically
FlashBack will rewind the Flash movies inserted using the Shockwave Flash control automatically. Click here to read more and download.

authorSTREAM Desktop
authorSTREAM desktop lets you search and insert YouTube videos and images in your PowerPoint file from within PowerPoint.

authorPOINT Lite
authorPOINTTM Lite is a free PowerPoint to Flash Converter for converting PowerPoint files in Flash. authorPOINT Lite also lets you share your presentations online on the web through authorSTREAM.

iSpring
Similar to authorPOINT Lite, iSpring is a free PowerPoint to Flash converter which can handle animation effects, slide transitions, audio narrations, video and Flash objects in output.

Slide Finder
SlideFinder Add-in for PowerPoint 2007 lets you search the web for presentations and slides from within PowerPoint.

This is not the comprehensive list of free add-ins for PowerPoint. You can find more information about add-in and other PowerPoint resources at links below:

http://officeone.mvps.org/products.html
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/links.html#addin

Online PowerPoint meeting tools

PowerPoint cloud meeting or presentation meeting is not a new concept; SlideLive, authorSTREAM and Google presentations have been doing this since long.

These PowerPoint meeting web applications allow presenters to deliver presentations, live over the Internet where slide navigation is being controlled by presenter. In today’s world, many a times we need to communicate with people at different Geo locations who can’t get together at same place. That is where these presentation meeting applications come in handy.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 Image via Wikipedia

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 has also come up with a similar feature called broadcasting where presenter can click through the slides and everyone attending will be on the same slide. Animations also work the same way as in PowerPoint file. Only thing seems missing is chat which Microsoft must have planned with Microsoft communication server.

Here is a video demo of broadcast feature from Microsoft.

Embedding or linking audio files in PowerPoint

Do you always wonder why audio inserted in your PowerPoint presentation disappear when you play presentation on a computer other than the one where it was created? Do you fail to understand why online PowerPoint sharing websites like authorSTREAM, slideboom or slideshare (BTW they dont support audio inserted in PowerPoint file) fail to play audio inserted in your Presentation?

Answer to these questions lie in the way audio was inserted in PowerPoint. There are two methods of inserting audio files in PowerPoint presentations. Either you can embed audio in PowerPoint itself or link the audio file.

As per Microsoft

"Main differences between embedded (embedded object: Information (object) contained in a source file and inserted into a destination file. Once embedded, the object becomes part of the destination file. Changes you make to the embedded object are reflected in the destination file.) sounds (objects) (object: A table, chart, graphic, equation, or other form of information. Objects created in one application, for example spreadsheets, and linked or embedded in another application are OLE objects.) and linked (linked object: An object that is created in a source file and inserted into a destination file, while maintaining a connection between the two files. The linked object in the destination file can be updated when the source file is updated.) sounds are where they are stored and how you update them after you put them in your presentation. Embedded files are stored within the presentation, and linked files are stored outside the presentation."

In case of linked files, PowerPoint always play audio from the linked location of file( say "c:my Documents est.wmv"). When you play PowerPoint file having linked audio on some other machine, PowerPoint file tries to locate and play audio file from linked path i.e. "c:my Documents est.wmv". As there is no such audio file at the path specified on new machine so audio fails to play. Embedded audio file is contained in PowerPoint itself so audio will play on online presentation sharing websites or on other computers.

Audio file of size more than 50 MB will always be linked. You may have to set audio file size from advance options so that audio file below 50 MB is always embedded. Follow steps below:

See videos on how to insert audio in PowerPoint file.

You can visit links below to understand difference between linked and embedded audio:

Office 2003

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010348231033.aspx

office 2007

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA012303071033.aspx

PowerPoint presentations a new way of showcasing your resume

If you believe that document(Doc) and PDF is the only way of sharing your resume online then you are totally wrong. More and more people are now using PowerPoint presentations for creating their CV. Resume on a PowerPoint presentation not only lists your experience and academic skills but also show your creative and innovative thinking. Have a look on some quality resumes below:

My Visual Resume

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by venkoos | Upload your own presentation

Anthonys PowerPoint Resume

View more presentations from Career Corps.

Do you think that any employer would not like to call such candidate for an interview? Share your thoughts through comments?

authorSTREAM upgrades PowerPoint to video engine claims to be better than PowerPoint 2010

Online presentation sharing website authorSTREAM has announced an upgrade to their PowerPoint to video conversion engine. authorSTREAM lets you convert your PowerPoint presentations in WMV, AVI, FLV and MP4 video formats. Once converted videos users can send share them on YouTube via send to YouTube option or download on desktop to burn on DVD.

Prior to PowerPoint 2010, authorSTREAM was the only online option for converting PowerPoint presentations in video format. authorSTREAMs PowerPoint to video engine now supports embedded videos and slide transition effects.

Here is the comparison put up by authorSTREAM between PowerPoint to video capabilities of authorSTREAM and PowerPoint 2010:

Features	authorSTREAM	PowerPoint 2010
PowerPoint to Video conversion support	Supports video conversion for most PowerPoint versions (2002(XP)/2003/2007/2010)	Supports video conversion only in PowerPoint 2010
Audio support in video conversions, created out of any PowerPoint presentation version	Yes	Audio compatibility issues are more often
Playing sound across selected slides	Yes	Yes, but when more than 1 audio file is inserted in a presentation and selected for specific slides, audio overlapping problems crop up
Transition sound effect	Yes	No
Preference to rehearse timings set for each slide (in case when slide contains some media)	Yes	No
Video formats support	AVI, FLV, MP4 and WMV	WMV video format only
Share presentation videos on YouTube	Send directly to YouTube (no need to download)	Upload manually

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