PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Downloading Maps from the Office.com Site in PowerPoint 2010 and 2007 for Windows

One of the most frequently asked questions in the PowerPoint forums is about having access to a map of the United States of America on a slide that has each state available as a separate selectable shape. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to download a suitable map clip art file from Microsoft Office.com website.

Learn how to download a map from the Microsoft Office site in PowerPoint 2010 and 2007 for Windows.

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: Maps, Office Online, PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint 2010, Tutorials

Indezine Stories: Buddha Teaches Ananda About Accepting or Not

This post has nothing to do with creating presentations on the computer. Rather, this explores creating presentations in your mindspace, because you might find that being open and receptive is such an important part of any learning process.

This story is about an event from the life of the Buddha. One day, the Buddha was on one of his rounds asking for alms along with Ananda, his trusted attendant. When they called out for alms outside a particular house, the lady of the house came out and abused the Buddha for coming to her doorstep and asking for alms first thing in the morning. Also, she was in no mood to share food for alms with them. Thus, she hurled some unacceptable words at him. Now, almost everywhere that the Buddha visited, people would give him utmost respect, and this was not a very pleasant incident. The Buddha remained calm and peaceful, but Ananda had not overcome anger as yet and was seething with fury. The Buddha calmed him, and they moved on.

Ananda was still furious, and the Buddha wanted to show Ananda how futile anger is, so he took his kamandalu (an Indian metal water bottle with a handle) and gave it to Ananda, asking him to hold it a while. Soon thereafter, the Buddha asked him whose kamandalu he was holding. Surprised, Ananda answered that the kamandalu belonged to the Buddha. The Buddha then told Ananda that from now onwards, he was gifting the kamandalu to him.

After a little while, the Buddha surprised Ananda again by asking him the same question about whose kamandalu he was holding. Ananda forthwith replied that this was his kamandalu because he had received it from the Buddha and accepted it as a gift.

Now was the time to make that point, and the Buddha told Ananda that there was not much difference in the abuses handed to them by the lady and the kamandalu that Buddha gave to Ananda. Both of them were gifts, but for a gift to be valid, there need to be two conditions: first, the giver should want to provide the gift, and the receiver should accept it. The kamandalu fulfilled both conditions since the provider and the receiver were both involved. But these conditions were not correct for the abuses they received from the lady. Why? Because there was only a provider in this case, and no receiver! So as long as the Buddha refused to accept those abuses, where was the need to get angry? Anger would only be a result of accepting the abuses.

Now, the point in telling this story was that the participants have to be willing to learn each technique that the trainer teaches them. Unless they are accepting, they will get no benefit from the gifts of knowledge provided by the trainer; isn’t it amazing how simple things can hold so much wisdom!

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Inspiration, Stories

Convexion PowerPoint to Silverlight Converter: The Indezine Review

With the proliferation of PowerPoint to Flash converters everywhere, you might have wondered why there are almost no PowerPoint to Silverlight converters anywhere. After all, Silverlight is considered by many as Microsoft’s response to Adobe’s Flash. Add the fact that PowerPoint and Silverlight are both from the Microsoft stable, and the complete absence of PowerPoint to Silverlight converters is like a puzzle with no solution!

Luckily, someone listened and created the first ever PowerPoint to Silverlight converters and in this review, we are looking at Convexion, a PowerPoint add-in from Electric Rain.

Read the Indezine review of Convexion Pro.

Filed Under: Reviews
Tagged as: Online Presentations, PowerPoint, Silverlight

SlideShare Channels: Conversation with Rashmi Sinha

Rashmi Sinha is the co-founder and CEO of SlideShare, the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. She manages design and business development at SlideShare. Previously, she founded Uzanto, a user experience software company that worked with companies like eBay, iFilm, AAA, and Blue Shield. She also led the team that created MindCanvas, a rich online survey platform for customer research. Rashmi has a PhD in Cognitive Neuropsychology from Brown University. She did a PostDoc at UC Berkeley in Human-Computer Interaction. She blogs about social software and running a startup.

In this conversation, Rashmi talks about the new Channels feature on SlideShare.

Geetesh: What exactly are SlideShare Channels, and how can they help target content for an audience?

Rashmi: SlideShare channels are custom-branded spaces for businesses and brands. If you have content on SlideShare, this gives you a place to have all your content in one place with a highly customized look and feel.

Channels are less about targeting and more about branding. The targeting is a core part of SlideShare – you put up a piece of content. It reaches people who are interested in it through tags, search, sharing on networks. Channels let you have more control of the experience people have when they land on your SlideShare page and content.

Geetesh: Can anyone create a Channel? Or is there a process that involves approval?

Rashmi: Channels are for businesses and brands that want to have a rich presence on SlideShare and interact with the community. Right now, you do need to talk to us in order to set up a channel. Each is a custom project based on the needs of the business.

The channels available now range in variety of content and organizations. For example,

• Microsoft Office has set up a channel focused on the parenting topic (project done in collaboration with our partners, Federated Media).
• Ogilvy has set up a concept channel for Pharma.
• Razorfish Marketing uploads about interactive marketing & technology.
• Pew Internet has shared a lot of their research reports about the internet & internet usage.
• Whitehouse is sharing almost 1000 presentations and documents.

We’re also rolling out topical Channels that are curated by our content team. For example, we have channels on Cloud Computing and social media. These types of channels will be curated by our content team. You’ll see more of them in the coming months as we roll out new topics.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Interviews, Online Presentations, PowerPoint, SlideShare

Presentation Tree: The Paul Tumey Interview

Paul Tumey is the founder and director of Presentation Tree, a 10-year-old PowerPoint design company in Seattle, Washington. Paul has a unique skill set that allows him to deliver superior presentation design and support. His background includes notable achievements in graphic design, writing, public speaking, publicity, and marketing consulting.

In this conversation, Paul shares some wisdom about creating PowerPoint presentations, and talks about Presentation Tree, how it was founded.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Design, Interviews, PowerPoint, Presentation Design, Seattle, USA