PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Learn PowerPoint 2013 for Windows: Snap to Grid Settings

Once you make Gridlines visible on your slide in PowerPoint 2013, you may wonder if there’s really any benefit using the Gridlines other than the obvious benefit of possessing a visual grid that lets you place slide objects. The answer is both Yes and No — Yes because that’s all you may believe happens on the surface — and No because you should know about how the Snap to Grid option works — this option is not active by default! The Snap to Grid option helps to get the proper position of the slide objects. Other than making this option active, you can change the grid settings — such as changing the spacing in between the gridlines.

Learn how the gridlines snap and help you position slide objects in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows.

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

Is this Picture on Flickr an Original?

Flickr does happen to be among the best resources for Creative Commons pictures. Yet how do you know that the Creative Commons licensed picture that you have found on Flickr is indeed an original asset? Even outside of Flickr, there are so many copied pictures serenading as originals — including some you find on Google’s Image Search.

I do think that Flickr is a better source for original pictures — but that may not always be true. As my friend, David Marcovitz rightly pointed out that “there’s not much to stop someone from downloading any picture (legally or illegally) and posting it to Flickr and putting a Creative Commons License on it! Of course, most of the time, pictures on Flickr are posted by the people who take them, and I tell my students all the time to go to Flickr and search for Creative Commons pictures, but that is far from a guarantee of the picture’s true status.”

Completely agree with you, David! In fact, I am often asked whether Flickr is a more dependable source for original pictures compared to other sites — and my answer is in the affirmative because there are a few Flickr features that make this site a better resource for copyright free pictures. But before we reach conclusions, let us ask some questions, similar to the ones David asked in the preceding paragraph:

• Can anyone just create a Flickr account and upload some pictures that are not necessarily their own?
• Can such Flickr members also attribute those pictures to a Creative Commons license?
• Can such members continue doing so forever?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes for the first two questions. Fortunately, the answer is no for the last question!

I must add that it does not pay to be pessimistic about this whole topic. There are indeed millions of genuine Creative Commons pictures on Flickr — and with a little housekeeping, you can certainly filter out the counterfeit stuff from the real. It also pays to be proactive by doing some research.

This is what I do when I look for Creative Commons licensed pictures on Flickr:

• Copied pictures may not have the camera info on Flickr. Most people who upload others’ pictures may only have access to an altered or compressed picture that no longer has any EXIF data — the data that Flickr uses to tell you which camera was used to click the picture. Of course not all pictures are clicked with cameras — you may want to use some digital art or even a composition created from multiple pictures — in that case, you may ignore the lack of any camera information.

Even if you take all these issues into consideration, there may always be an occasion when you may be fooled — but at least you tried your best! Remember that being curious and intuitive can help — and that’s where a human can score higher than a computer!

See Also: Attributing Creative Commons Pictures in your PowerPoint Slides

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Copyrights, Flickr, Pictures, PowerPoint

Indezine News: April 16, 2013

We get you an exclusive interview with Drew Banks of Prezi — he discusses the success and origins of Prezi — and what sets it apart from other slide programs. Brainshark’s Andy Zimmerman discusses their new Sales Enablement Portal — and Jerry Weissman talks about his new book, Winning Strategies for Power Presentations. We also get your more pushpin graphics for your slides this week. Finally, you will find simple-to-understand, cross referenced tutorials on PowerPoint tasks. If you use PowerPoint 2013 for Windows, look at our tutorials on Gridlines and Guides that help you position your slide objects in place. PowerPoint 2011 for Mac users will enjoy tutorials on Text Transforms and Inserting Movie clips.

Read all this and more in Indezine News.

Filed Under: Ezine
Tagged as: Ezine, Indezine, News, PowerPoint

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Poster Frames for Videos

When you insert a video in your presentation, you might see that the placed video clip displays a blank or black rectangle on the slide. If your video clip does not show a black rectangle, then of course there is no issue concerned. However, if it does show this black rectangle, your viewers may not find this appealing at all. With PowerPoint 2011’s Poster Frame feature, you can easily overcome this limitation, and change the black rectangle to an image by selecting a frame from the video itself, or even a picture from a different source.

Learn how to add a Poster Frame for your video clips in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2011
Tagged as: Movies, Office for Mac, PowerPoint 2011, Tutorials, Video

Locate Your Version in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

You cannot locate PowerPoint 2013 on your computer? Or you are not sure if there are any other versions of PowerPoint on your computer — maybe an older version? Yes, we know that this can happen, although it does sound a little strange. You may be unable to locate PowerPoint, mainly in scenarios such as these.

Here’s how you can locate in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows.

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