PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Concept Slides: Investment Pyramids

Investment pyramids let you decide which investments are the most and least important facets of your portfolio. Typical investment portfolios use the classic pyramid diagram, but sometimes this may not work best – especially since the area available for text diminishes as you go from the base to the tip of the pyramid. This problem can be easily rectified by using another variant of the pyramid diagram available within the SmartArt graphics of PowerPoint. The Before example in this slide deck shows a typical pyramid, and the After example shows a slightly different pyramid diagram.

Download and use these slides for your own presentations.

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

Learn PowerPoint 2010: Adding an Animation

In one of our previous tutorials, we explored what animation is, and guidelines to follow before you add an animation to a slide object within PowerPoint. PowerPoint allows you to animate any slide object that can be selected on your slide — these include pictures, shapes, text, bulleted lists, SmartArt graphics, charts, etc. Once the animation is applied to your slide object, you can tweak how the objects on your slides appear, move, and disappear. However, you must first add an animation to the slide object.

Learn how to add animation to a slide object in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

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

authorSTREAM on mobile: 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 the new authorSTREAM mobile site.

Geetesh: Tell us about the new authorSTREAM mobile site, and how it will help users view and share presentations via their mobiles better?

Dinesh: Our new authorSTREAM mobile site lets users search through presentations and view any presentation right from their mobile phones, anytime and anywhere. We’ve tailor-made the site for the smaller screens of mobile devices and have added Facebook Like, Google +1, Twitter buttons for users to easily share the presentations.

Users don’t have to switch from mobile phone to desktop computer or laptop, they can view authorSTREAM presentations shared by their friends or colleagues on smartphones.

Geetesh: What are the benefits of showing presentations off smartphones compared to tablets and desktops – and how does the new authorSTREAM mobile site take advantage of these benefits? Also will the presentations work on mobiles that do not support Flash?

Dinesh: Smartphones are handy and easily accessible. Everyday hundreds and millions of people check email and browse Internet and access content from their smartphones.

Our idea of bringing presentations to smartphones was to give our users a quick access to their presentations on authorSTREAM. So they could run and share their presentations without switching platforms.

Whether it’s an impromptu meeting, or event, users can now view and share their presentations from their phones anytime and anywhere. Even the private presentations in their inbox run on the smartphones.

authorSTREAM presentations work on all devices that do not support Flash, including iPhone and iPad. Currently, we do not support animations, sound and other special effects. Considering that the use of these effects makes a slide show interactive, we would soon be adding these capabilities for Android compatible devices.

See Also: Share PowerPoint Presentations on authorSTREAM: Conversation with Dinesh Awasthi.

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: authorSTREAM, Interviews, Online Presentations, PowerPoint

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Adding More Guides

When static guides are enabled in any presentation, they show up in the same position on all other slides. You’ll find that only two Static guides (one horizontal and one vertical) are visible at first, and these two guides intersect at the center of the slide. Most of the time, this might work for you, but to help you in positioning slide objects better across successive slides, you can add more guides.

Learn how to add more guides in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

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

Brainshark SlideShark v1.5: Conversation with Jay Wilder

  Jay Wilder is director of product marketing at Brainshark, Inc. Brainshark’s cloud-based software lets users create online and mobile video presentations — using simple business tools like PowerPoint and the telephone — and then share and track their content. Thousands of companies use Brainshark to improve the reach and results of their business communications, while also dramatically reducing costs.

In this conversation, Jay discusses new features and functionality in SlideShark — the free app from Brainshark that solves the problem of PowerPoint’s incompatibility on the iPad.

Geetesh: What are the new features in SlideShark v1.5, and how do these help users get more from their presentation content?

Jay: We’re thrilled to add a number of ground-breaking new features and functionalities to the latest version of the app, which is the fifth major update since its launch last October. SlideShark v1.5 now includes the following features:

Share presentations

Users can now easily share links to online versions of their presentations by email or social media channels (including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) from the app or their online account for on-demand viewing on any device.

Track results

Instant email notifications alert users when their shared on-demand presentations are viewed. SlideShark Plus and Team Edition users also receive details on who viewed which slides, in what order and when.

Re-order slides

The ability to re-order slides by tapping and moving them to the desired location lets users tailor presentations for specific audiences, complementing SlideShark’s existing hide/un-hide slides feature.

Search for presentations

Users have easy, instant access to specific content by using the new search functionality to locate presentations in their account.

Select favorites

By tapping the star icon next to a presentation, users are able to select and filter their favorites for convenient access to the presentations they use most often.

Delete content

Users can delete files from their online account from the iPad, freeing up additional storage space as needed while on-the-go.

Expanded file support

In addition to supporting .PPT and .PPTX files, the app now supports .PPS and .PPSX file types.

Team Edition Administration via iPad

SlideShark Team Edition administrators can now easily log into their account from the app on the iPad by tapping “administration.”

By providing these new features, SlideShark v1.5 offers users an enhanced experience by allowing users to both share and track content. Additional content management capabilities also allow users to take advantage of new accessibility and organizational functionality.

Geetesh: Two of the significant new features in SlideShark v1.5 are the sharing and tracking capabilities –- can you tell us more about these features?

Jay: Yes, absolutely. The sharing capability allows users to easily share PowerPoint presentations via email or social media channels, which can be viewed on-demand from any device –- including computers, iPads and other tablets and smartphones. This capability is critical for users who want to share important business content anytime and anywhere, whether it’s before a meeting for preparation purposes or after a meeting as a leave-behind.

In addition, with the tracking capability Slideshark offers, users are instantly notified by email when their presentations are viewed and as a paid upgrade option, SlideShark Plus and SlideShark Team Edition users receive additional details on who viewed the presentations, which slides they viewed, in what order and when. By offering this feature, users can now gain valuable insight into how their content is being consumed in order to conduct both effective and timely follow-up.

We’re very excited to offer both of these unique features and look forward to continuing to add valuable capabilities to SlideShark to further enhance our users’ experience of properly playing PowerPoints from their iPads.

Existing SlideShark users can update to the current version via the Apple App Store -– and new users can sign up for a free account or start a free, 60-day trial of SlideShark Team Edition by visiting SlideShark.

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: Brainshark, Interviews, iPad, Jay Wilder, PowerPoint