PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

authorSTREAM HD Video Output: Conversation with Dinesh Awasthi

Dinesh Awasthi is Product Manager for authorSTREAM.com. In addition to developing the strategic product roadmap and implementation of various features on authorSTREAM, he works with the development team and keeps an eye on user feedback to formulate new releases. Dinesh holds a Masters degree in Computer Applications.

In this conversation, Dinesh discusses authorSTREAM’s new HD Video output options for PowerPoint presentations.

Geetesh: Tell us about your PowerPoint to HD video conversions, and what sets these high quality videos apart from the regular video output that PowerPoint 2010 provides?

Dinesh: As HD compatible devices (like iPads and LEDs) are rapidly connecting people all over the world, we naturally thought to introduce HD video conversion of PowerPoint presentations.

Before we introduced this feature, our users shared presentation videos on YouTube and at times the video quality was not exactly the way they wanted to see on YouTube. This was because YouTube encoded the converted presentation video again, compromising the quality. Now, when our users share HD videos created out of PowerPoint presentations, the quality is much better, even in non HD mode on YouTube.

HD video quality of a presentation delivers enhanced user experience as compared to a regular video output. The image quality is more sharp, crisp, detailed, and clear, accompanied by impactful sound quality. The pictures are more beautiful to look at and sound is more powerful to hear.< PowerPoint 2010's regular video output delivers good quality, but only in the WMV format. However, authorSTREAM lets the users convert PowerPoint presentations into MP4 HD quality video, or into non-HD video formats like FLV, AVI, MPEG II, and WMV. We also offer users an option to send the video directly to YouTube and share with anyone they want. Here’s a list of differences between authorSTREAM and Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 in their PowerPoint to video conversion capability: .nobrtable br { display: none }

Geetesh: What are the typical uses of HD videos that you can create from PowerPoint?

Dinesh: With HD videos, you can reach out to anyone across the world, even to remote places. It can be played on devices with no PowerPoint software installed such as TVs, LEDs, iPads, and mobiles.

Here are some reasons to convert your PowerPoint to HD video:

Content theft and misuse

As videos are not editable and content can’t be copied, your content is safer in the video output.

Retain PowerPoint effects

The video of your presentation retains all the effects of your original presentation: animation, sound, and other multimedia effects.

Send directly to YouTube

You can send your HD video to YouTube right from within your authorSTREAM account, with a few clicks.

HD videos work on mobile devices too

Play video on your favorite devices: LED, DVD, Blackberry, iPod, iPhone, iPads — and that too in high quality HD video format.

Not just this, you can even capture sweetest moments with your friends and family in the form of pictures, place them onto slides, accompanied by music, and convert them into HD video. If you are a marketer, you can create high quality HD videos of your products, and use it for digital signage for advertising purposes. As an educator, you can create class lectures coupled with narration, content and images, and ship it on DVDs or Flash drives.

One PowerPoint to HD video conversion of up to 100 minutes costs $5. Users can get non-HD video for $3 per presentation.

See Also: authorSTREAM Video Improvements: Conversation with Harman Singh.

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

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: authorSTREAM, Interviews, PowerPoint, Video

Learn PowerPoint 2010 for Windows: Add Bookmarks for Video Clips

PowerPoint 2010 has made many improvements in the way you work with video clips — one of the important, new abilities relates to you being able to play your video from a certain point within the video clip. This feature is called a Bookmark because it is similar to the conventional bookmarks you place within the pages of a book you are reading. Just like how you can easily go to that particular page with the help of a bookmark, the Bookmark you add to a video clip becomes an indicator of the position you want to go to. You can thus quickly access that position within the the video clip without having to manually scrub within the Player Controls bar. In addition, you can also combine Bookmarks with Trigger animations — so as to trigger a click to play a video clip precisely from the Bookmark you added.

Learn how to add Bookmarks to video clips in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: PowerPoint 2010, Tutorials, Video

Concept Slides: Three Segment Circle

This conceptual slide contains three segments within a circle. You can use this segmented circle in your presentation to illustrate a concept, a relationship, or an idea. The concept also looks like a peace symbol with three editable segments! We have used basic PowerPoint shapes to create most of these conceptual designs. Also, some of them are imported from other graphic programs and converted to PowerPoint shapes.

Download and use this concept slide in your presentation.

Filed Under: Presentation Bank
Tagged as: Graphics, PowerPoint, Presentation Samples

Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck 3rd Edition: Conversation with Rick Altman

    Rick Altman is a presentation consultant based out of Pleasanton, CA. Rick has been hosting end-user conferences since 1989, and is well known as the host of the annual Presentation Summit conference. He has a strong sense of the needs of the presentation community. Rick has authored 15 books on presentations and graphics, including Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck.

In this conversation, Rick discusses the third edition of his Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck book.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Books, Interviews, PowerPoint, Rick Altman

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Types of Animation

You have already learned what animation is, and where you should draw the limits as far as animation goes. In addition, we looked at how you can add animation to a slide object. In this tutorial, we move further to explore the several types of animation available in PowerPoint 2011. When we say “several types”, we do not mean the animation effects themselves but the several types wherein these effects can be categorized.

Learn about the various types of animation available in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

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