PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Shufflrr: Conversation with James Ontra

      James Ontra has specialized in digital presentations for over 20 years. In the early 90s, when PCs first offered sight, sound and motion, James developed applications implemented at high profile events like CES, the Olympics and exhibits in Epcot Center. As technology evolved and video became more mainstream, he developed presentation management platforms that could be used in everyday business scenarios. Through several businesses — iXL, Ontra Presentations, PPTshuffle and now, Shufflrr, James has solely focused on methods to manage all file formats, PowerPoint in particular, for better presentations.

In this conversation, James discusses Shufflrr.

Geetesh: What exactly is Shufflrr, and what motivated you to create this platform?

James: Shufflrr is presentation management — a document management system for presentations. We developed it simply because our clients asked for it. Over the years, clients from a range of industries all faced the same challenge: controlling their brand and message across a dispersed group of users, while at the same time, giving those same users a fast, easy way to create and share a presentation. Add reporting and other functionality, and you have a holistic approach to managing presentations. Corporations are waking up to the value of treating presentations as an important part of the marketing mix. And Shufflrr makes it easy for them to do so.

Geetesh: There are other Shufflrr alternatives out there, but you seem to have added features to make Shufflrr easier to use and share – can you tell us more?

James: We offer a holistic approach to presentation management, summed up best by our tagline, Share, Shuffle, Show:

Share

Sharing is on two levels. First, you can send links to anyone inside or outside the Shufflrr network, and/or collaborate in a folder with a colleague. Second, Shufflrr is business social. It is a closed network of your company colleagues who can share, like and comment on your marketing materials. It’s a great way for marketing department or corporate office to get spontaneous and direct feedback from their users in the field

Shuffle

Not only can you find and preview PowerPoint slides, but all files are formatted to present visually. So you can take PowerPoint slides, videos, pictures, PDFs and make a new up-to-date, legally compliant presentation in minutes that just works.

Show

Broadcast your presentation to as many people as you wish. Track viewers as they login, what slides/files they view and for how long.

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: Digital Asset Management, Interviews, James Ontra, PowerPoint, Shufflrr

Format Cells as Text in Excel 2013

In Excel, the cell type for most of the stuff you type is set to General by default. What does this General mean? This means that the content within the cell is generic and has not been identified as a number, some text, or a date. Depending upon what you are doing with the Excel sheet, it may really not matter if Excel just treats the cell content as General. However, your Excel content may be used to create a chart in PowerPoint, and the chart data may contain some labels that are all digits with no alphabets.

Learn how to change the cell type to Text in Excel 2013 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2013
Tagged as: Charting, Excel, PowerPoint, Tutorials

Learn PowerPoint 2013 for Windows: Exit Animations

Exit Effects determine how the animated slide object leaves the slide area. For example, the slide object can fade or fly out the screen area, or use any of the many other Exit Effects available within PowerPoint. Typical Exit Effect animations are Disappear, in which an object just vanishes or Float Down, in which a slide object mimics the setting sun. You can also apply Exit Effects to text objects so that words Spiral out of the slide. There are plenty of Exit Effect animations that PowerPoint provides — however, make sure you use animation sparingly to emphasize rather than to distract.

Explore Exit animations in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2013
Tagged as: Animation, PowerPoint 2013, Tutorials

Learn PowerPoint 2013 for Windows: Vary Colors by Point Option for Charts

When a Column chart in PowerPoint contains only one Data Series and several Categories, then, by default the individual chart columns may use the same fill color. If your chart uses the same colored series in all of the categories, it can make your chart look dull (see Figure 2 later on this page) — it also does not provide a proper way for your audience to compare elements within the individual series.

Learn how to show different categories in different colors within a chart.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2013
Tagged as: Charting, PowerPoint 2013, Tutorials

Learn PowerPoint 2013 for Windows: Emphasis Animations

Emphasis Effect animations determine how the slide object calls attention to itself while it is on-the-slide. Entrance and Exit effect animations allow a slide object to enter or exit the slide area, whereas slide objects with Emphasis Effect animations are already there on the slide area before they start animating, and will be there even after they have finished animating. Typical Emphasis Effects are Spin and Grow/Shrink. You can also apply Emphasis Effect animations to text objects so that the fonts or the text colors change.

Explore Emphasis animations in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2013
Tagged as: Animation, PowerPoint 2013, Tutorials