PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Knovio Online Video Presentations: Conversation with Michael Kolowich

Michael Kolowich is founder and CEO of KnowledgeVision, which has developed enterprise-grade tools for creating, managing, and distributing synchronized interactive online video presentations for communications, marketing, training, and sales professionals.

In this discussion, Michael gives us an early look at Knovio, their new personal video presentation site. And while it’s in limited beta test, he extends an invitation to our readers.

Geetesh: Tell us about your new online presentation platform, Knovio – and what sets it apart from other similar options?

Michael: Knovio is a new free tool from KnowledgeVision that we’re sneak-previewing this week. Knovio helps people create and share online video presentations using nothing more than a webcam and a PowerPoint deck.

It’s a drop-dead-simple user interface: upload your slides, press RECORD and advance the slides as you speak, and press a SHARE button to publish instantly to email, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

It’s different from other options in that video of the presenter is central to the experience. By capturing the presenter on a webcam, Knovio presentations give a much richer experience to the viewer.

Critical to Knovio’s success will be the fact that it’s built on KnowledgeVision’s enterprise-grade technology, which is used by some of the largest financial services, technology, and educational institutions in the world. That translates to a fast, reliable experience for even the free Knovio users.

Geetesh: How does one get started with Knovio, and what is the special invitation option for Indezine readers?

Michael: Knovio is currently in an invitation-only preview phase, but we’ve made a limited number of invitations available to Indezine readers. That’s because we recognize that your readers are thought leaders in how to make better presentations.

The first 50 arrivals at Knovio who use the activation code INDEZINE will be immediately admitted to the invitation-only preview. If you don’t make it into the first 50, don’t worry: we’ll put you on a priority wait-list and you should get your invitation very soon.

Knovio is a work in progress, and we’re adding new features every few days. This is a great opportunity for Indezine readers to have a hand in helping us develop a product that suits their needs, by providing active feedback to our developers.

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: Interviews, Online Presentations, PowerPoint

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Media Browser (Movies Tab)

The Media Browser is a floating palette-like window in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac that contains several tabs for all types of media — some of these tabs such as Photos and Audio have already been covered in separate tutorials — in this third part of the Media Browser series, we explore the Movies tab. The Movies tab of the Media Browser provides quick access to movie clips (videos) that are already in your iMovie or Mac OS X Movies folders — in addition, it also shows any videos you create or store in your PhotoBooth and iTunes applications.

Learn about the Movies tab within the Media Browser in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

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

Learn PowerPoint 2010 for Windows: Black and White Options for Photo Album

Rich, vibrant color attracts more attention in a picture than olde-world black and white. However, the contrast visible in a black and white photo is far superior — artists and photography purists have long hailed the black and white picture as a creative medium. You may want to extend this creative medium to your Photo Album presentations — fortunately, a click or two is all that is required to create an inspirational black and white Photo Album.

Learn how to change color pictures to black and white, and revert them back to color in your Photo Album presentation in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: Photography, Photos, PowerPoint 2010, Tutorials

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Media Browser (Audio Tab)

We have already explored the new Media Browser in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac, and its Photos tab. The second tab within the Media Browser is the Audio tab — this tab allows you to quickly add sounds to your PowerPoint slides. Since PowerPoint 2011 is so well integrated with Mac OS X, the Audio tab displays your iTunes and GarageBand music collections. Similar to the Photos tab, the Audio tab is also divided into upper and lower panes.

Learn about the Audio tab within the Media Browser in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

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

Learn PowerPoint 2010 for Windows: Using Captions in Photo Album Presentations

In previous tutorials about the Photo Album option in PowerPoint 2010, you have learned how to create a new Photo Album and how you can edit existing Photo Albums by reordering pictures and changing the slide’s picture layout. One of PowerPoint’s most powerful features is to use captions for the pictures you add in a Photo Album presentation — by default it uses the file name for your captions — so if the original file name was “Winter Morning.jpg”, the caption you see on your slide will be “Winter Morning” — that is so perfect! Unfortunately not many people provide such nice names to their pictures — most pictures are just subsequent numbers from a digital camera these days — so a name like IMG06712.jpg is more common! You really don’t want a caption like IMG06712 — fortunately, PowerPoint lets you change captions too!

Learn how to use captions in Photo Album presentations within PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: Photography, Photos, PowerPoint 2010, Tutorials