PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Learn PowerPoint 2010 for Windows: Status Bar

The Status Bar is a thin strip located at the bottom of the PowerPoint 2010 interface. This area provides information about the active slide and applied Theme — and also provides View options. If you have no presentation open in PowerPoint, the entire Status Bar area is grayed out.

Learn more about the Status Bar in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

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

Indezine News

Just released the latest issue of the Indezine newsletter. There are tons of articles, tutorials, and interviews available — and information on new PowerPoint templates too.

Read Indezine News here.

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

Brainshark for YouTube: Conversation with Andy Zimmerman

  Andy Zimmerman is the vice president and general manager for myBrainshark – Brainshark’s free site for creating, sharing, and tracking multimedia presentations. He oversees myBrainshark strategy, marketing, partnerships, and sales.

In this conversation, Andy discusses Brainshark for YouTube, a new capability announced today that lets myBrainshark users and Brainshark enterprise customers turn PowerPoint decks into YouTube videos.

Geetesh: YouTube has an audience that spans millions. However, it does not provide the ease of use and simplicity that Brainshark does in creating voice-enabled online content from PowerPoint presentations. What do you expect to achieve by combining YouTube’s reach with Brainshark’s simplicity?

Andy: Great question. As you mentioned, Brainshark is all about ease of use, and on myBrainshark, any Internet user can upload a PowerPoint deck and narrate the slides, using the phone or computer microphone, to create a multimedia presentation. You can add video clips, additional background audio, photos, and more within presentations, too.

Now that we’ve launched Brainshark for YouTube, our users can take their narrated presentations and have them play as video files on YouTube’s site. We think this is a great match, as it enables anyone – with only slides, the telephone, and an Internet connection – to engage in online video marketing… no camcorder, complicated video editing software or even video expertise required.

By pairing Brainshark/myBrainshark’s easy content authoring environment with YouTube’s vast community, our users can create and share high-quality business content with an even larger audience and with greater potential for viral adoption. We’ve eliminated many of the cost and technical barriers to online video creation, and we think that this new capability will help spur users – at small companies, in particular – to engage in online video marketing.

Geetesh: What are the prerequisites? Do users need to have an existing YouTube account? How much will this cost – and do you have any sample YouTube movies created from Brainshark content?

Andy: As I mentioned, we’re making it so easy to create a YouTube video – with a PowerPoint deck and the phone, you’re on your way. And you’re right in that in order to post the video to YouTube, you do need to create a free account on their site first.

Since it’s also free to register on myBrainshark, there’s really no cost involved in using Brainshark for YouTube, beyond the time spent in developing your PowerPoint presentation. So, myBrainshark users can use the capability at no cost, and it’s also included within myBrainshark Pro and Pro Trainer subscriptions. For Brainshark’s enterprise customers, Brainshark for YouTube is included within the core platform at no added cost, as well.

We’re enjoying Brainshark for YouTube ourselves and have already used it to create YouTube videos, like the one below, which demos and introduces myBrainshark features, and the other titled The Brainshark Story. We’re looking forward to seeing how users successfully leverage the Brainshark for YouTube capability for maximum business gain.

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, eLearning, Interviews, Online Presentations, PowerPoint, YouTube

Learn PowerPoint 2010: Encrypt with Password

If you share your PowerPoint presentations with other people, you may want to protect or lock your content so that the slides may only be viewed, and not edited. Or perhaps you want to provide editing control only with a password. PowerPoint 2010 provides an Encrypt with Password option to protect your presentation. However let us ponder about why anyone would need to password protect their PowerPoint presentations?

There are many reasons, and here are two of them.

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

Did Your Laptop or Projector Die: Thoughts by Danny Rocks

Danny Rocks is a speaker, a trainer and an author. He has published five DVDs designed to help users get the most out of Microsoft Office programs. Also, Danny has posted over 200 video lessons on his website.

This started as a thread on how to cope up with a dead laptop or projector in front of your audience, and what you should do to be prepared — here are Danny’s thoughts:

Yes, this has happened to me on several occasions. I have had my laptop “die on me” twice during an Advanced “Hands-on” Excel Class.

Lesson Learned: Always use a portable laptop fan — laptops throw off a lot of heat! The portable fans run off of a USB port and you can get a model that folds up and is easy to put into your bag. I have had projectors “die on me” also — they do wear out / misfunction. My philosophy is, “It is not a question of IF the equipment fails, it is a question of WHEN the equipment fails.” What do you do to recover? Here is my own preparation list:

1. Always travel with a backup copy of your presentation — I use USB drives.
2. Always include a “Package for CD” copy of the presentation — I keep this on the USB drive — this comes in handy when you need to use the client’s computer and they do not have the version of PowerPoint that you used to create the presentation.
3. Always travel with a clean copy of your handout — can be copied and distributed if the original is lost or you require extra copies.
4. Always travel with a “3 prong into 2 prong” power connector — when the client has an “ungrounded” 2 prong wall connector.
5. Always travel with a 12 ‘ extension cord and a 6 prong adaptor — you may need to adjust the table for your laptop or projector.
6. Always travel with your own wireless “clicker” — connected by USB.
7. Always travel with your own digital clock — big enough for you to see and adaptable to various lighting conditions.
8. It goes without saying – “Always OWN your content. YOU are the presentation. The equipment simply helps you to make your presentation.”

I have also found that it is wise to spend less than 5 minutes trying to adjust faulty equipment. If possible, give your audience a short break while you try to fix equipment — find a file, etc. Your audience will be “on your side” when you continue the presentation without the equipment (if you could not fix it in five minutes).

I hope that this helps you to be prepared to respond when your equipment fails the next time.

Visit Danny’s site to get several more tips, including a separate section for PowerPoint users.

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, Opinion, PowerPoint, Techniques