PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know: Conversation with Ellen Finkelstein

   Ellen Finkelstein is the author of several PowerPoint, Flash, and AutoCAD books. She has just released her new ebook called 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know.

Her company, Ellen Finkelstein, Inc., helps clients create presentations that communicate clearly and achieve their goals. She maintains a website that offers PowerPoint tips and a selection of free backgrounds.

Geetesh: Tell us what your new book is all about, and what inspired you to write this book?

Ellen: 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know contains tips in 10 areas that are essential for using the program effectively and efficiently. For example, there are tips on text, AutoShapes, photos and clip art, charts, multimedia, delivery, and more. I saw that people who were using PowerPoint, often daily or weekly, had just opened it up and started using it, without ever taking a course or reading a book. As a result, they missed a lot of the efficiency techniques that make creating a presentation ever so much easier. For example, without knowing how to perfectly distribute objects, they would nudge them here and there and eyeball it. The result would be frustration and less-than-professional results. So, I thought that I’d fill in the gaps, for a quick pick-me-up, so to speak. The ebook is about 100 pages, with lots of clear instructions and figures, and it’s an easy read.

Even professionals have told me that they learned something from it.

Geetesh: What do you believe is the most important thing that any reader will gain from the book?

Ellen: Because it’s a list of 101 tips, there isn’t one important thing, but I think that readers will realize that if they’re spending a lot of time editing and formatting, there’s probably a better way. They’ll also learn how to get more professional results by using the tools that PowerPoint provides.

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: Books, Ellen Finkelstein, PowerPoint, Training

Better Investor Decks in PowerPoint

  Almost every day, someone is criticizing PowerPoint because they believe it makes people dumb. And that’s not even the larger problem. The larger problem is that it’s so easy to mention a problem without providing a solution!

It is not every day that someone actually does provide detailed solutions. Tom Taulli is a noted financial blogger, and he provides a wealth of knowledge on how you can create a better investor slide deck by creating something “that tells a story, clearly showing the company’s path to success”. Tom looks at the “framework every investor deck should include” on the BusinessWeek site. This is a must-read.

Filed Under: Case Studies
Tagged as: Case Studies, Death by PowerPoint, Investor Decks, Pitch Decks, PowerPoint, Presentation Samples, Tom Taulli

iSpring Pro 3.5: The Indezine Review

iSpring Pro is a PowerPoint add-in that allows you to convert your PowerPoint presentations into Flash SWF movies with all the animations, slide transitions, audio and video clips, and inserted Flash SWF files intact. It works with all PowerPoint for Windows versions from 2000 to 2007.

iSpring Pro is from iSpring Solutions, Inc., a software development company based in Virginia, USA. You can learn more about iSpring Pro from their site. Apart from iSpring Pro, they also provide a considerably adequate free version of iSpring. This review however only explores the Pro version.

Read the Indezine review of iSpring Pro 3.5.

Filed Under: Reviews
Tagged as: Add-in, PowerPoint Flash, Review

Google Acquires Omnisio — To Add Spice To YouTube?

We already looked at Omnisio a few months ago—it’s a lot of fun, and you can mash up your media in creative ways. And now the news is out that Google has acquired Omnisio.

It’s still not clear how Google will use Omnisio technology, but it does seem like a natural synergy as far as using Omnisio and YouTube together is concerned.

Update: David Berlind from InformationWeek says Omnisio is sort of like Twitter or IRC meets Internet Video+PowerPoint with a dash of TiVo tossed in.

Filed Under: Companion Programs
Tagged as: Companion Programs, Google, Movies, YouTube

Studeous: Conversation with Jefferson West

Jefferson West is a co-founder and the CEO of Studeous. Jeff is responsible for the marketing, public relations, and strategy at Studeous. Often traveling between schools and the company headquarters in Austin, Texas, Jeff is frequently in discussions with teachers, administrators, and students to get timely feedback from the people who use Studeous.

Geetesh: Tell us more about Studeous and how this evolved.

Jefferson: Currently, teachers and administrators would agree that many Learning Management Systems are behind the technology curve. These systems, though often poorly designed, are somehow extremely overpriced. Schools all over are having to dish out large sums of money in an attempt to keep up with technology and connect their schools on the internet. Unfortunately, these solutions are not working. They are too complicated and confusing for the teachers to effectively use and thus provide little academic benefit to the students.

Enter Studeous, a simple, easy-to-use, and most importantly, free way for teachers to organize their courses online. We make it so simple for teachers and students to stay connected long after the bell rings. Studeous is a hosted solution, so teachers don’t have to worry about buying their own servers, and there is no download. If a teacher wants great e-learning tools, he/she has them in a heartbeat. And, it requires no training.

This solves the teacher and students pain, but how does this “connect a school”? And why is this good for institutions? Administrators get free access to Studeous as well. We have three levels—Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Bronze is free and allows administrators to moderate the content in their school’s Studeous portal. They can edit bad content, suspend students from using Studeous, post announcements on the home page, etc. Administrators then have the option to upgrade to Silver or Gold for a small fraction of the cost of standard LMSes. With Silver and Gold, they can do even more useful things, like send out mass messages to all teachers or all students. They also have the option to brand their school’s portal to match the school colors.

The ease of use ensures that the average teacher will be able to use great e-learning tools, and the advanced administrator controls starting, at just $649 per school per year, ensure that virtually every school will be able to afford it. With this, we hope to make e-learning a commodity.

We have essentially created a web-based LMS that requires no training, no sales force, and minimal marketing–allowing us to put up to 100% of sales revenue back into the product itself, unlike the other enterprise e-learning companies. This allows us to continue to make Studeous better and better. Which is great for the teachers, administrators, and students of Studeous.

Geetesh: What types of files can teachers and students share with each other on Studeous? Also, is there anything I can do with PowerPoint files?

Jefferson: Teachers can share any files. We give teachers the ability to upload files to their class pages that can be downloaded by students. And we let students send teachers files by putting them in the Studeous “Dropbox.” PowerPoint files can be easily shared with Studeous. A great feature for students is our “Study Groups” feature that gives students a space to collaborate and exchange files so they are not emailing them back and forth all the time. This is a great time saver. They even get their own personal “Locker” (for students) and “Desk” (for teachers) that lets them upload personal files to store on Studeous. Say goodbye to the thumb drive! These files can be made private for personal use or public for sharing. Studeous is everything you need in one place.

Geetesh: What’s your revenue model? And will Studeous always be a free product?

Jefferson: Studeous makes money by selling administrator controls to school administrators, which allows them to moderate content and communicate with their teachers and students. This is our only source of revenue now, as we are more concerned with getting users on Studeous, than with making money. But, down the road, we have devised many unique and effective ways to monetize Studeous, without just advertising.

With that in mind, Studeous will always be free. Free for teachers, free for students, and free for administrators (with the option of upgrading for a cost).

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: Education, Interviews, PowerPoint