Wednesday, December 18, 2013

How to play presentations on Facebook and Twitter timeline?

Thanks to online presentation sharing websites, lot many people now use presentations to share the information with the world. It's a well known fact that in comparison to video, presentation creation is much easy task and now with availability of  platforms like Slideshare and authorSTREAM which help you reach masses, presentations are also being used as marketing or branding weapon.

Though creating marketing material in presentation is technically easy as compared to a video ad, yet most viral distribution channels aka social media platforms only support videos and photo uploads. However, off late most of the popular social media platforms like G+, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have enabled presentation embeds of SlideShare and authorSTREAM on the timeline or newsfeed. So if you want to play your presentations on these social media platforms, just upload your presentations on authorSTREAM or SlideShare as public upload and share the link on Twitter or Facebook.

While SlideShare presentations play on Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter, they fail to play on Facebook. Presentations uploaded on authorSTREAM play on Facebook as well as Twitter timeline. Upload your content on these platforms, share the web link and get more accolades (views, comments, shares, re-tweets) since your audience need not to leave the platform to see your worthy masterpiece.

Friday, November 29, 2013

9Slides: Create online interactive synchronized presentations

9Slides.com is an online tool which lets you create interactive synchronized presentations. You can sync pre-recorded audio or video with a presentation and post it to your blog or share the URL with your audience. 9Slides is quite similar to Present.me and also have a pro version which offers analytics, privacy settings and unlimited captures. Live capture use case has been part of lot of PowerPoint plug-ins like Articulate, authorPOINT or Microsoft producer and PowerPoint users have been using it to create multimedia presentations and class lectures. While all those plug-ins or software are available for one time payment, 9slides.com and Present.me offer online services on a subscription based model.


Though recurring payments can boggle some minds, yet you can't ignore the advantages like presentation statistics, embeds, privacy control, direct web link, branding and reach to wider set of audience.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

PowerPoint templates and diagrams for just $3.99 @authorSTREAM Templates Marketplace

The scattered PowerPoint templates industry is all set to touch new heights of business with authorSTREAM launching PowerPoint Templates Marketplace. Now you need not to browse through tens of different websites to get the right template for your next presentation. authorSTREAM is offering 20,000 plus PowerPoint templates and diagrams at a price of just $3.99 which is almost half the price of other popular templates websites.

Since launch, authorSTREAM has been focusing only on PowerPoint users. While others like SlideShare, Scribd let you upload and share documents, excel files or videos, authorSTREAM allows only presentations. Be it conducting free webinars on presentation tips, authorSTREAM Desktop plugin, PowerPoint to video feature or PowerPoint templates marketplace, focus of all is on one thing i.e. help presentation creators create and share great presentations without any hassles.

This is a welcome move by authorSTREAM towards making authorSTREAM one stop shop for all the needs of presentation creators. Started with one template provider, authorSTREAM is soon going to get more providers on-board. Given the user base and traffic of authorSTREAM, it should be win-win situation for templates providers and buyers since sale is not all about price but about volumes and who knows in future you get a PowerPoint template for just $2.



Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Is Bunkr going to be a PowerPoint killer?

Since the launch of PowerPoint, a lot has been done around PowerPoint and presentations. Be it online presentation creation, online presentation sharing or desktop plug-ins, there is lot of stuff going on to help people create high quality stunning presentations without the help of professionals.

TechCrunch recently projected Bunkr- an online presentation creation tool as a PowerPoint killer. Like any other presentation creation tools, Bunkr lets you create presentations online which can be exported as PPT.



Largely online presentation creation tools are nowhere near to what desktop presentation software's and plugins offer and same is the case with Bunkr. It offers nothing which is not being offered by Microsoft PowerPoint 2013, Office 365, PowToons and Google presentations. Bunkr's USP is in-built image, video and content search, but then again this feature is already in-built in MS PowerPoint 2013 and authorSTREAM Desktop plugin which also takes care of copyright attribution.

Now at a time when SlideRocket failed to tap the online presentation creation market and Microsoft too offering online presentation creation, it would be interesting to see how long Bunkr goes. Do you also think that Bunkr is going to be a PowerPoint killer?
 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

PowerPoint 2010 and 2013: What's added and what got removed?

Microsoft has added some new features to PowerPoint 2013 and has discontinued some of the existing features or functionality.

What new features, functionality has been added in PowerPoint 2013?

Eye dropper: Eyedropper the color picker tool helps you copy the shape color and apply to any other shape.


PowerPoint to MP4: PowerPoint 2013 allows you to convert PowerPoint presentations in MP4 video format.

Search and insert images and videos from within PowerPoint: PowerPoint 2013 has inbuilt image and video search engine which lets you search images from Bing, Flickr and videos from Bing and YouTube.

Theme family and variants: PowerPoint 2013 has more themes and flexibility to choose and edit variants.

Presenter View: Changes to presenter view like automatic selection of monitor, jump to slides and zoom in.

Share and publish online

Head here for more details on these and other features added to PowerPoint 2013.

What has been removed or changed in PowerPoint 2013 from earlier versions?

PowerPoint viewer: PowerPoint viewer is a small free exe that lets you view presentations created in PowerPoint 97 and later versions without the need of licensed version of PowerPoint. This has been in use to view PowerPoint presentations on machines that doesn't have purchased versions of MS PowerPoint software.

Now question arises how to view PowerPoint presentations created in 2013 without PowerPoint viewer if you don't have licensed copy of PowerPoint 2013? If you are not worried about animations and media, use Google docs or Slideshare, Scribd. If you are worried about animations and media too, try authorSTREAM or Microsoft web apps.

Save PPT as HTML:  This feature existed so that people can save a PPT as HTML and use that HTML on web to show case the presentation. This feature became obsolete with online presentation sharing websites like Slideshare and authorSTREAM providing embeds that could play your presentations on blogs, website and even on Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Media formats: Video (WMV) and Audio (WMA) formats have been default video and audio formats for PowerPoint till 2010. Now default media formats are H.264 for video and AAC for audio.

Equation Editor: Equation Editor the formula editor that that allows you to insert math and science equations in a slide is no longer available in 2013.

Microsoft Clip Organizer:  The Clip Organizer feature has been replaced by the Insert Media dialog box.  Insert Media feature lets you search and insert content from the Office.com Clip Art collection and other online sources, such as Bing Image/Video search, Flickr, and your SkyDrive or Facebook page.



Thursday, May 30, 2013

authorSTREAM brings new embed for blogs that work on all devices

Two most popular ways to showcase your wonderful presentations on your website or blog are i) to upload it to online presentation sharing websites like Slideshare or authorSTREAM and use their embed code ii) convert it to a video, upload the presentation video to your blog or send it to YouTube and use the YouTube embed.

In case of Flash embeds of authorSTREAM, your readers on iPad would be able to read text but would not be able to view the embedded presentation and  if you use Slideshare, you're set to lose all those animations, videos and sound.

YouTube as we know, already handles this situation by streaming compatible player so that your audience get to see the video even on non flash devices. authorSTREAM too has come up with a new embed called Dynamic embed which automatically renders Flash or a HTML player as per availability of flash player on viewer's device. Only disadvantage with this embed is that while your blog readers on Flash compatible devices would enjoy all animations and media, those on iPad would see only static slide images without any sound or video. Presentation below is embedded using authorSTREAM's new dynamic embed and you should be able to view it on all devices. What you use to share your presentation on your blogs and website and why?

Memorial Day- Reel honors real heroes

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Now upload and share PowerPoint presentations in Facebook

authorSTREAM, the presentation sharing platform, today announced upload functionality in its Facebook app. Using authorSTREAM's Facebook app, Facebook users can upload PowerPoint presentations from within Facebook and share them on their wall or with Facebook friends.


authorSTREAM is the second largest presentation sharing platform with capability of handling animations and media in presentation output. authorSTREAM also launched sync functionality where any presentation uploaded on your authorSTREAM account would be available on Facebook app and the those uploaded via Facebook app on authorSTREAM.

Best thing about is that the presentation shared via authorSTREAM plays like a slideshow or YouTube video on Facebook wall. As Facebook only allows you to upload and share photos and videos, authorSTREAM app is certainly a big relief to those who wanted to share PowerPoint presentations on Facebook.


Monday, April 8, 2013

PowToon: Online presentations with a difference

Most of you must be aware of the term presentation videos. Presentation videos are videos created from PowerPoint presentations. You must have tried websites like authorSTREAM or MS PowerPoint which let you convert presentations in video formats. But, have you ever used a tool which lets you create videos in presentation style?

PowToon is an online presentation style video creation tool. It's a PowerPoint alternative having capabilities of online presentation creation tool Sliderocket and PowerPoint add-in Adobe Presenter. Like Adobe Presenter, PowToons has inbuilt characters, shapes, clip arts and placeholders.

While websites like Sliderocket or tools like Adobe Presenter, let you export your presentations as PowerPoint (PPT or PPTX) file, PowToon creates a video output (HD or non HD).

PowToon is best fit for creating marketing videos. PowToon's interface is quite similar to PowerPoint or any other office software with easy to use tools and drag & drop features. Using PowToon, even non professionals can create stunning product demos, marketing and educational videos. PowToons's inbuilt send to YouTube and Facebook options will definitely delight you.Give PowToon a try and experience video creation in a presentation style.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Infographic: PowerPoint software usage and market share

Monday, March 4, 2013

Create memorable slides: Awesome webinar by Ellen Finkelstein

In this one hour webinar, PowerPoint expert, author and MVP Ellen Finkelstein talks about how to turn death by PowerPoint into life by PowerPoint. She explains the principles to memorable presentations and techniques to make it easy.

 


Copyright: This video (webinar recording) belongs to PresentationXpert and Ellen Finkelstein with no copyright infringements intended. All copyrights are reserved with the respective owner(s).

Thursday, February 28, 2013

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. It's 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 weren't 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.

Monday, January 28, 2013

PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts for presenters

There isn't any doubt that every speaker tries his best to have long lasting effect on audience. Everyone wants it to do the way Steve Jobs had been doing all his life. In addition to the right content, your communication skills, it's your presence of mind, ability to engage the audience, a right and pronto use of technology that gonna lead to a successful presentation.

If you are going to use Microsoft PowerPoint to deliver your presentation in next conference, use Presenter view and following keyboard shortcuts to be in control of things:
  • Go to slide number: number+ENTER [During presentation you might have to jump to particular slide, just press the number and hit enter key]
  • Display a blank black slide, or return to the presentation from a blank black slide: B or PERIOD [ You can use this when discussing something not on slide]
  • Display a blank white slide, or return to the presentation from a blank white slide: W or COMMA[ You can use this when discussing something not on slide]
  • Stop or restart an automatic or rehearsed presentation: S
  • Return to the first slide: Press and hold Left Mouse button for several seconds

Shortcuts for audio/video
These shortcuts work on media inserted (embedded) from file and not on online embeds of YouTube etc.
  • Stop media playback : ALT+Q
  • Mute the sound: ALT+U
  • Toggle between play and pause: ALT+P
  • Increase the sound volume: ALT+Up
  • Decrease the sound volume: ALT+Down
  • Go to the next video bookmarkALT+END
  • Go to the previous video bookmark: ALT+HOME 
Besides these are standard keyboard shortcuts which many of you already know and use like F5 to start a slide show, backspace or next arrow to move forward and Ecs key to end the slideshow. To view complete list of keyboard shortcuts press F1 function key during slideshow mode. 


Deliver great presentations with Presenter view

Presenter View is one nifty feature of PowerPoint 2010 and PowerPoint 2013 which lets you view the slides, speaker notes on one computer (laptop), while the audience views just the slideshow on another monitor or projector.

Using Presenter view you can control the slide show, jump around the slides and  blacken the screen for the audience while keeping your view of the presentation and speaker notes intact on your own monitor. Presenter view lets you track the time elapsed so that you stick to the schedule. If you want to highlight something while presenting, use annotation or pen tool.



You just need to connect your laptop to another monitor/projector and select the option "Use presenter view" from Slide Show tab before you go for slide show mode of presentation. Presenter view is surely gonna help you deliver one of those effective presentations.

 Here is a quick video which explains it all:

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