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3 Ways to Play and Present Your Own PowerPoint on TV

Posted on by Rick E

There are multiple mediums to show your PowerPoint presentation in. The program’s accessibility allows you to display your deck from your laptop to the Web, on mobile, on a traditional projector and screen, and even on a TV.

The latter is especially recommended for informal settings where you want to present a slideshow of your photo album. It can also work for more formal occasions like classroom or boardroom presentations.

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Here’s how you can play your PowerPoint on TV:

1. Connect from Your PC

PowerPoint on TV: Connect from Your PC

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This is one of the most common methods of showing your deck on a screen. Most television sets these days come with an HDMI port to connect your laptop via cable. Simply locate your TV and PC’s HDMI ports and plug in the two ends of the cable. Make sure you’ve pressed the AV button on your television remote control to select the correct HDMI output.

Once you’ve connected the two devices, your laptop screen should automatically show on your TV.

Control the flow of your presentation from your PC like a standard PowerPoint but project it on a bigger screen. This lets you engage your audience by putting your visuals on a widescreen while having complete control of your deck

2. Save It as a Video

PowerPoint on TV: Save as a Video

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If you want to free your hands entirely as you present, save your PowerPoint as a video instead, as suggested in Microsoft Office’s guides.

This is an option available on PowerPoint 2010 onward. On the File menu, click Save & Send, then select Create a Video.

You can still play your deck on a TV in this format by saving your video to a USB flash drive or burning it on a DVD. Most flat-screen televisions have USB ports to attach your flash drive and open video files.

On the other hand, those without a flash drive can burn their video presentation into a CD or DVD. A self-presenting deck in this form aids your presentation while letting you focus on content and delivery.

3. View It on Apple TV

PowerPoint on TV: View on Apple TV

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Apple TV is a micro-console that uses a Wi-Fi connection or local network to stream media to your television screen. Apple developed it to bring the innovation of apps to TV. To use Apple TV for your PowerPoint, you’ll still need to save it as a video file.

Make sure that the file format is compatible with Apple TV. If you’re not sure what to save your presentation as the usual file format is .MP4. You can also upload your video presentation on iTunes and sync it with Apple TV.

From there, you can watch and present your video hands-free as well. However, since this option needs the macro-console around the television, you may need to reserve it for intimate family gatherings or occasions where there’s no pressure to set up quickly.

Bonus Tip: Two Different Screens

PowerPoint on TV: Different Screens

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Although PowerPoint was initially meant to be projected from a computer screen to a bigger one, the two screens don’t have to show the same thing.

For example, if you have helpful comments attached to your slides, you’ll be able to view them using the Presenter View feature without projecting your notes to the audience. Seeing your original screen can give you more than just a guide to follow during your pitch.

Your notes act as prompts when you encounter mental blocks. You don’t have to read directly from them, but specific keywords may help trigger a thought you plan to expound on. However, remember to move away behind your laptop and engage the audience with your body language.

If there aren’t any helpful notes on your slides, you can either have someone click on the next slide for you or use a remote control to move across slides according to your pace. Either way, the purpose of having two screens is to interact with the audience without being glued to your PowerPoint.

Remember that your deck is only there to support your presence, not replace you completely. No matter where you decide to project your slides, you’re still obliged to connect with the audience emotionally and physically. This ensures you leave a memorable impression on your listeners during and after your speech.

The Wider, the Better
PowerPoint on TV: Present on TV

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You can play your PowerPoint anywhere—from the small screen of a mobile device to the wide screen of a TV. If you’re aiming for the latter, connect directly from your TV to your PC through an HDMI cable. Go through your presentation slide by slide by controlling your TV deck as you would on your computer.

You can also save your presentation as a video and copy it in a USB, burn it to a DVD, or stream it through Apple TV. This leaves your hands free enough to engage your audience with hand gestures and appropriate body language. The last option can take some time setting up, so you might not be able to use it all the time.

Television has evolved to far more uses than viewing shows. Use it to showcase your deck to family and friends in the confines of your living room, or use it in a corporate setting.

If you’re having trouble with your presentation needs, our SlideGenius experts are here to lend an ear. Contact us today for a free quote!

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References

“Apple – Apple TV.” Apple. www.apple.com/tv/
“Turn Your Presentation into a Video.” Office Blogs. www.support.office.com/en-us/article/Turn-your-presentation-into-a-video-c140551f-cb37-4818-b5d4-3e30815c3e83

Videos: How Can They Improve Your Presentation?

Posted on by Rick E

We can no longer ignore the growing hype around videos. These electronic media are gaining traction, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they soon become the most popular type of content, since more social media channels are popping up to underline their importance. Today, the effectiveness of videos in capturing people’s attention is apparent. In YouTube, for example, 400 hours of videos are uploaded every minute and almost 5 billion are viewed every day. These staggering statistics show that we create and consume video content in a rapidly increasing rate.

Still, while all this hype around videos is nice, we can’t really claim that it’s something new. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc., included this medium in his presentations as early as 1984. The potential of videos as the trendiest type of content will continue to grow, so if you haven’t explored the possibilities of video marketing, now is the time.

The Purposes of Using Videos in Presentations


Isn’t it ironic that although most marketers recognize video content as a powerful tool, only four percent use it religiously in presentations? That leaves a glaring 96 percent in the dark, stuck in traditional methods that are only half as effective as video marketing. This isn’t to say that you should add a video in every presentation—of course, if it isn’t appropriate, do away with it. But if you find an opportunity to use this type of content to support or highlight your message, why not grab it?

Here are the four main purposes of adding videos in your presentation:

  • To explain a complex idea. It’s hard to explain a technical idea to a group of people who know nothing about it. Sure, you can put that idea into words, but you can’t guarantee that your equally perplexing explanation will translate into something cohesive in the audience’s mind. If it’s too complicated to grasp, why not find another means of expressing it? Perhaps a video could render it more comprehensible?
  • To engage the audience in discussion. Videos have a certain pull that makes them effective in grabbing people’s attention. A relevant video presented at the right moment can keep the audience bolted to the screen. Make sure that the video you use can establish an emotional connection with your audience and can generate a meaningful discussion that will fire up their energy.
  • To break the monotony. You can’t expect the audience to listen to you for hours on end. Their attention is bound to wane at some point, and one way to recapture their interest is by giving them a break in the form of a video to watch. If possible, inject humor in your presentation to lighten up the mood and make room for a seamless transition.
  • To help in memory retention. An experiment conducted by Dr. Richard Mayer from the University of California, Santa Barbara revealed that people immersed in “multi-sensory environments” had better recall even years after a presentation. This is because when the human brain builds two mental representations of something (i.e. a verbal and a visual model), it typically results to better memory retention.

Things to Remember When Adding Videos to Your Slides

You’d think that adding a video to a presentation is a piece of cake, but some people still seem to miss the basics. To make sure that you do things right, take these pointers:

1. Embed the video in the presentation itself

Think of how unprofessional it would look to show the audience a video separate from the original presentation. You’d look like an amateur who didn’t bother to assemble your knowledgebase in one place. Plus, it would be inconvenient on your part when switching from one to the other, so it’s only practical and professional to insert the video in the presentation itself. In PowerPoint, you can embed a video directly in the slides to make for a smoother transition.

2. Keep it short and simple

Videos are meant to enhance your presentation, not replace it. That’s why you should only designate a short chunk of time for this type of content. Otherwise, you’ll lose your connection with the audience and destroy your momentum. An effective video presentation shouldn’t make the audience forget that you’re the main source and “relayer” of information.

Things to Remember When Adding a Video in Your Presentation: Keep it Short and Simple

3. Lean towards the authentic

People are more interested in realistic videos that reflect genuine experiences than in corporate ones that are too alien to relate with. To add a dab of authenticity in your videos, you can use testimonials that feature real customers who truly value and uphold your brand. Testimonials, especially when unsolicited, are a persuasive tool for inviting more people to consider your message.

4. Check its relevance to the topic

Relevance is the number one criteria when adding video clips in a presentation. You can’t just throw in anything that doesn’t relate to the points you’re trying to make. Every video clip must have a purpose—and that purpose should have something to do with underlining your core message.

5. Use narratives to draw emotional responses

Everyone responds to narratives. Stories have a certain quality that evokes emotional responses from people. A video content structure that follows a narrative can make for a more compelling presentation that will allow the audience to make sense of abstract ideas that would otherwise be lost in translation.

Now you know the secret to making your next pitch stand out. Use videos more wisely in your next presentation, and see the difference in your audience’s level of energy and engagement.

Resources:

Bell, Steven J. “Using Video in Your Next Presentation: A Baker’s Dozen of Ideas and Tips.” Info Today. n.d. www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jul10/Bell.shtml

Blodget, Henry. “The Lost 1984 Video: Steve Jobs Introduces the Mac.” Business Insider. August 25, 2011. www.businessinsider.com/video-steve-jobs-introduces-mac-2011-8

Boone, Rob. “How and Why You Should Use Video in Your Next Presentation.” Live Slides. January 22, 2016. www.liveslides.com/blog/how-to-use-video-in-presentations

Gallo, Carmine. “Four Easy Tips on Using Video to Make Your Presentation Stand Out.” Forbes. January 31, 2017. www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2017/01/31/four-easy-tips-on-using-video-to-make-your-presentation-stand-out/#2ed99f26e3a0

Marshall, Lisa B. “How to Use Video in a Presentation.” Quick and Dirty Tips. August 9, 2012. www.quickanddirtytips.com/business-career/public-speaking/how-to-use-video-in-a-presentation

“3 Reasons to Add Video to Your Presentation.” Meetings Imagined. n.d. www.meetingsimagined.com/tips-trends/3-reasons-add-video-your-presentation

“36 Mind-blowing YouTube Facts, Figures, and Statistics 2017.” Fortunelords. March 23, 2017.

Choosing the Right Fonts for Your Presentation

Posted on by richmond

Back in the day, when a global connectivity system, computers, and all these technological advancements were decades, even centuries, away from being invented, no one had the trouble of choosing what font to use for their works. Everything that people had—some without much choice—were their hands and what amounted to pens. Getting something on paper was all manual labor, and how readable manuscripts were depended not only on the conventions and foundations of the language but also on how legible their penmanship was.
Now, though, almost everything has become digital: messages, word-processing programs, presentations, and the like. Fitting, then, that with technology came another host of problems. Technology isn’t perfect; it gave people the power of choice from an infinite number of many things: colors, fonts, layouts, images, etc.
Since the birth of PowerPoint, presenting has never been the same. Now, there are more stuff to consider when making your deck. From background to theme and, yes, fonts. How do presentation designers decide what to use? More importantly, how do you choose the perfect typeface for your slides? By answering three main questions:

1. What is my message?

Choosing the Right Fonts for Your Presentation: What is my message?
Along with that is a follow-up question: “How do I say my message?” Your topic and how you present your data are factors that affect your decision with which font to use.
If your topic is serious, then it begets an authoritative font, like the thick Rockwell or the aptly named Impact. But, if you like a quirky and light-hearted font for your topic, then something along the lines of Tahoma, Segoe, and Verdana can do the trick. When you know how font personalities affect readers’ perception, then you can easily narrow down your choices and find the one that’s apt with the gravity of your message.
The worst you could do is mismatch your fonts with your theme. Have you even seen a public service announcement that used Symbol (which, for those who are unfamiliar, are letters from the Greek alphabet)? And please, no matter what, don’t use Wingdings. Your font must be appropriate. You don’t want another case of Comic Sans, do you?

2. Is it readable?

Choosing the Right Fonts for Your Presentation: Is it readable?
You could answer that question in two approaches: font type and font size.
In general, there are four font classifications: serif, sans serif, script, and decorative. Of the four, the first two are most widely used. Fonts belonging to the serif family are great for print since, even with small sizes, their serifs provide space and fluidity for continuous reading. Sans serif are best used when large and projected onscreen because they are clear in the sense that when serif fonts are projected, the thinner strokes of the letters tend to be muddled or appear broken-up.
As for a specific font size, a good rule to live by is Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides in 20 minutes with 30 font size. Maximum readability even for the people at the back is guaranteed. If anything, you could even go bigger, especially when you have a single word on your slide. It’s easily read, impactful, and memorable.

3. How many should I choose?

Choosing the Right Fonts for Your Presentation: How many should I choose?
This goes over into consistency territory.
You’re already having trouble deciding one font; what more two or three? Generally, the usual advice is to have two complimenting fonts, a pair that doesn’t take away or fight for attention with each other. Typically, the best pair is a serif-sans serif combination, like the classic Times New Roman and Arial. But if you know font personalities, for the right topic and with the right approach, even a sans serif-sans serif combo will work in unexpected ways, like Cubano and Nunito.
Of course, you don’t need to use different fonts. A major point of using combos is to highlight certain parts of your content, and stylizing a keyword or an important point differently draws attention to it.
Choosing the perfect font to use on your slides is seldom easy. You could fall back to the old mindset of “As long as it’s readable,” but almost everyone does that; thus, you get the ubiquity of certain “standard” fonts that are now recommended to be avoided.
Experiment with your presentation. Answer the three questions above, and you’ve got a narrow pool to choose from. When you get the harmony you’re looking for, you can then wow your audience with your talk.
If you want to know more, watch this short video from our PowerPoint design agency, SlideGenius.

Resources:

Agarwal, Amit. “What Are the Best Fonts for Presentation Slides?” Digital Inspiration. July 17, 2012. www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/advice-select-best-fonts-for-powerpoint-presentation-slides/3355
Cass, Jacob. “15 Stunning Font Combinations for Your Inspiration.” JUST™ Creative. May 5, 2015. www.justcreative.com/2015/05/05/15-stunning-font-combinations-for-your-inspiration
Cournoyer, Brendan. “What Are the Best Fonts for Killer Presentations?” Brainshark. March 29, 2012. www.brainshark.com/ideas-blog/2012/March/best-powerpoint-fonts-for-killer-presentations
Erickson, Christine. “Not My Type: Why the Web Hates Comic Sans.” Mashable. October 3, 2012. www.mashable.com/2012/10/03/comic-sans-history/#6J_bWV037Eqw
Gabrielle, Bruce. “The #1 Best Advice for Choosing PowerPoint Fonts.” Speaking PowerPoint. December 5, 2011. www.speakingppt.com/2011/12/05/best-font
Haley, Allan. “Type Classifications.” Fonts.com. n.d. www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-1/type-anatomy/type-classifications
Kawasaki, Guy. “The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint.” GuyKawasaki.com. December 30, 2005. www.guykawasaki.com/the_102030_rule

The Force of a Great Presentation [Video]

Posted on by Rick E

In a corporate galaxy far, far away, an empire of bad presentations wreaked havoc among speakers and audiences alike.

Their careless bullet points and cluttered slides bored people to death.

It’s time to step out of the dark side and engage your listeners. Let’s end the reign of wordy slides and uninspiring images by reinventing your presentation.

How, you ask?

Learn how to channel the force of a great presentation with this video from our SlideGenius experts.

Watch and share this video!

Stop the forces of bad presentations with our tips.

1. Keep It Simple

Free your slides from too much information. To make your pitch understandable, reduce your text to key points you can expound on.

You can also use images instead of text to show exactly what you’re talking about. Powerful visuals attract attention and reel people in by stirring strong emotions they’ll associate with your pitch later on.

2. Make It Visual

Back up your main ideas with striking visuals that will grab people’s attention and keep them interested.

People process visual information faster than raw data, so make sure these images reflect the impact you want to make on your audience.

3. Consider Good Design

Your deck design matters in connecting with your prospects. Arrange your overall layout so everything in your slides contribute to your message.

Things like color, space, and contrast factor in a lot when it comes to creating a visually appealing deck.

4. Liven Up Your Pitch

At the same time, energize everyone and keep them attentive throughout your pitch.

Balance out any overly serious content with strategic humor that’s appropriate for the speech you’re giving.

5. Build Audience Rapport

Elevating the mood lifts up your listeners’ spirits and eases any lingering tension.

The relaxed atmosphere will get your audience to invest in your offer and let your presentation move along quicker.

May the force be with you.

Save the universe from death by PowerPoint by putting an end to these bad presentation habits.

Use these five tips to improve your skills as a presenter and bring life back to your audience.

We are the presentation experts you’re looking for. Contact us now for a free quote!

3 Secrets from the Most Trusted Brands Around

Posted on by Rick E

Which company would you say has the best customer service in the world?

For me, only big names come to mind. Amazon, Fedex, Starbucks, Apple, Target; all these companies are seen and valued as great empires that run the United States, and to some extent, the world. Customer service has become a major facet of how people judge businesses today. Within customer service, lies it’s core foundation, trust. When people trust a brand, they use it, recommend it, share it, and more importantly, like it.

When we discuss branding, one of the simplest and most relevant examples would probably be corporate presentations. The way quality with which one presents their company to others is the level to which their branding valued. For that very reason, being able to understand and recreate the important aspects these trusted companies currently use will be invaluable to any executive.

We decided to take a crack at it and analyze the consumer survey created by Entrepreneur and The Values Institute at DGWB, a California-based think tank, which explored this very issue. The results are an analysis of 5 of the top 10 most trusted brands.

Simple & Personal: Amazon

The tycoon online retailer of just about everything comes out on the top of our list. Amazon’s success doesn’t root from the millions of products is manages, the unlimited and 24/7 access its offers, the great quality search filter it holds, or the shockingly effective and satisfying customer service it is compromised of. Amazon is best the because of its superior purchase experience. People love things to be easy and to be treated well; two things Amazon does beautifully well.

>Additionally Amazon is arguably best at fostering relationships with consumers by helping them make decisions through recommendations from other people. “People are able to choose items based on other consumer’s past purchases, user reviews and ratings and suggested complementary purchases. Consumers also have many options for forging a personal bond with the brand, including user profiles, reviews and ratings.”

So if there is anything we should learn from Amazon, it is to make things easy and personal. This is especially true for your professional PowerPoint presentations. You must be able make things easy to understand while allowing your audience to relate to you in a variety of ways. Tell a story, show emotion, show an inspiring video, or just do something that will invoke emotion from your audience and consequently more sales for you.

Customer Appreciation & Accountability: Fedex

FedEx has designed and more importantly, maintained one of the strongest corporate identities around. In the aforementioned consumer survey the company “received its strongest ratings in ability, specifically for being able to achieve what it promises and for the efficiency of its operations.”

Try to remember any of the recent Fedex commercial spots on TV. They all show a strong focus on recognizing that it’s not just about the logistics of moving boxes, but about an appreciation of what’s inside. The content, the story, the emotion, to a simple point, the meaning each box has. This is the main point. Fedex does a phenomenal job at showing their value for their customer and

“To further deliver that message, FedEx engages with consumers through its personalized rewards program and by interacting on social media channels.” The company thinks of their customers as much more than just an order number or box, and they show that in their branding and marketing, and that is true customer appreciation.

With regard to your corporate presentation, use the same idea. Highlight how you show customer appreciation and make clear that you hold yourself, and no one else accountable for your quality.

Be Product-Centric: Apple

Not many companies have the public and press waiting in line, for days, waiting breathlessly for each new product release. “The bottom line is whatever that new Apple product is, consumers trust that it will be smart and sleek and that it will improve the way they communicate, work or spend their leisure time. What’s more, they’ll enjoy the experience of making the purchase.”

Even more, Apple is known to hire empathetic people, and not measure their sales associates on sales. This at first seems absurd; almost every other retail store in the world wants good salesmen and will create a competitive environment to weed out the weak. Apple knows that its product is so well liked, that it can sacrifice the competitive edge between its sales associates. The only factor that allows them to be so confident in their product, its that they put so much focus on it, and they make sure everyone knows that.

Wrapping up

In short, today’s most trustworthy brands have created relationships with consumers through experiences that trigger a visceral and amazingly effective response. Quoting the aforementioned consumer survey results analysis by branding consultant Jim Stengel, “We’re seeing more of an emphasis on brands building emotional relationships with consumers because it’s powerful and it works. When you do it, you have a much stronger affinity, a much stronger business, much stronger growth and much stronger results.”

It doesn’t just come down to you making your have better customer appreciation, accountability, or product-centricty, it comes down to showing that your do these things. What easier way to show these things than through your next corporate, sales, or marketing presentation. Be transparent, be clear, and show your customers, partners, and the world how you do things, in return you might just be the next one on this list.

READ MORE: Secrets of the 10 Most-Trusted Brands – Entrepreneur 

Turning Your PowerPoint into a Video (Part II): Marketing Your Video

Posted on by Rick E

In the previous post, I talked about the benefits of turning your PowerPoint presentation into a video and how SlideGenius can do this in the most professional, financially viable way. This post will cover what happens after you get said video into your virtual hands.

As mentioned before, the greatest benefit of having your PowerPoint presentation in a stand-alone, video format is the ability to leverage it by vastly increasing its exposure. The only trick is, how do you reach these new online audiences?

Most of these mediums we recommend pushing your video through will hopefully sound familiar, but having an all-encompassing social media strategy is imperative in order to be effective.

YouTube and Vimeo

Uploading your video to both of these sites is a good first step to ensure your video is easily viewable. Not only does this make your video accessible with an easily sharable link, YouTube and Vimeo have become surprisingly socially active sites.

Especially if you’re new to video sharing, and your YouTube and Vimeo channels don’t have a lot of activity, your videos won’t get many (if any) organic hits from these sites, but like almost any social medium, staying active with these channels will have a rolling effect of attracting audiences to your content over time.

Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

I lump these three commonly used social mediums together because, from a business standpoint, content on each is pushed in a very similar manner. The goal here, with all three of these, is to be mindful of how you present the content, since you’ll be more than likely posting the content as a general status to all your fans, followers, connections, etc., and not to anyone in particular.

Being proactive with social media will help draw traffic to your video presentation.
Being proactive with social media will help draw traffic to your video presentation.

Not to start a lecture on the basics of social media, but sites like Hubspot and Hootsuite are great for synchronizing your content across these sites. Coordinating and scheduling consistent content across your different social mediums can help to avoid redundancy when pushing your video presentation.

Email Outreach

Plug your video at every chance you get. Interaction with potential or existing clients through email presents a lot of opportunities for you to tag on the video near the bottom of your message. And if you have an automatic reply programmed to go out for potential leads on your website, a link to your professionally made video can’t hurt!

Get Creative

Whatever you do, don’t spend resources on a top-of-the-line video presentation, use it once, then leave it in the corner to collect digital dust. Keep it in the back of your mind, look for openings in online conversations with clients to work it in, post it on an appropriate landing page on your website, or incorporate parts of it into your next presentation.

Turn Your PowerPoint Presentation into a Video

Posted on by Rick E

While a human element is naturally ideal for presentations, you don’t always have to be in the room with your audience for them to hear your pitch. Turn your PowerPoint presentation into a video, and the amount of people you’re capable of exposing your presentation to increases enormously.

While your professionally designed PowerPoint is obviously a big asset during a presentation, you can further leverage it by using it as a standalone marketing tool.

If you’re simply looking for a way to show people the bare-bones of the presentation in a video format, the conversion process is simple (Here’s a good How To by Microsoft).

This can be useful for internal communication as well. For instance, if you’d like to share a presentation within your company, converting and sending it as a video allows others to open and view it without Microsoft PowerPoint, making it accessible on smartphones and tablets.

SlideGenius can design your presentation to be a video presentation, including professional voice recording and script writing, which is obviously preferable to converting a professional PowerPoint to a video on your own. By having SlideGenius create the entire video package, you guarantee that the video has the same level of professionalism and quality as your in-person presentation.

If this is a tool you plan on using to market your business with–whether you’re posting it on your website or promoting it through social media–you should make it as professional as if you were giving a presentation to potential clients or investors.

References:

“4 PowerPoint Resources You Can’t Miss Out On.” SlideGenius. November 20, 2013.

“Turn Your Presentation into a Video.” Support.office.com.

3 AngelList Startups Revolutionizing the World of Presentations

Posted on by Rick E

In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore wrote a predictive paper in which he described the phenomenon that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year since their inception, and predicted that they would continue to do so. David House, another Intel exec at the time, then established the law that the number actually doubles approximately 18 months. Moore’s Law, as it is now famously called, is not only uncannily accurate, but is now serves as a long-term planning guide for the entire semiconductor industry.

What can we learn from this? We can understand that times are changing, and FAST! This is true in almost every industry, including the world of presentations.

We have gone from speeches from balconies, to hand written poster boards, to professional PowerPoint, to presentation experts working as PowerPoint consultants. While the presentational industry may not be doubling exactly every 18 months, it sure is growing quickly.

AngelList has quickly emerged as an indispensable resource for connecting entrepreneurs with investors, and has now become a unique platform for the presentational industry. The work AngelList does has given rise to several innovative start-ups rapidly changing the work presentation designers are doing. Presentate, 9slides, and GoAnimate are three currently revolutionizing the field of presentation design.

Presentate is a new online presentation software that works great in almost any resolution, on any desktop computer, tablet, or smart phone. With Presentate, you won’t have to worry about your PowerPoint coming out misshaped or with the wrong font or link. Your layout will be the same everywhere you open it. Their site has a fun example of how it works … I guarantee you’ll be entertained, at least for a minute.

9SLIDES is another innovative communication that “allows users to capture and share experience of ‘being there’ in the presentation room with a remote audience, anytime, anywhere.” The app is used for interviews, better transparency through inter-company communication, effective training, and interactive demonstrations. “Your audience can watch it on a PC, Mac or even iPad without downloading any app.” 9SLIDES’s concept as a whole is ultimately bringing the world an effective medium to share videos along with corporate presentations in a synchronized format.

GoAnimate is a do-it-yourself animated video website that believes it “might be for fun, to make a presentation, to illustrate historical scenes, make a demo video, or produce a piece of professional training.” With that they realize “producing video can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive. And sometimes it still comes out dark and blurry, with muffled sound.” Because of this issue, GoAnimate was created to minimize difficulty, hassle, and expense of video design and implementation. They have a sleek concept and pride themselves on being the fastest and easiest way to make a video!

Each of these start-ups is uniquely contributing to the prevailing advances in the presentation industry. We wish them the best, and know they will continue to impress us!

presentate         9SlidesNewLogo         goanimate

How To Insert Youtube Videos In PowerPoint

Posted on by Rick E

You have just downloaded a video from YouTube and want to do a project. Want to insert YouTube videos in PowerPoint? Follow the guide to add a video to PowerPoint.

Notice: Not all videos can be imported to PowerPoint. Downloaded videos are in .FLV format but PowerPoint supports MP4, WMV. In order to compatible video with PowerPoint, you need convert video to the right format. Get the converter at the bottom of the article.

After all the preparing work is done, you can embed YouTube videos to PowerPoint right now!

For PowerPoint 2003:

Drop-down Insert menu and point to Movies and Sounds>Movie from File. It will show you a box to select video files from your hard disk.

Then PowerPoint prompted you a message asking how you want the movie to start in the slide show. Choose “Automatically”.

To edit the videos in PowerPoint, you can right click the Movies Object shortcut. Change setting on the menu and click OK to save.

For PowerPoint 2007:

Adding YoutTube videos in PowerPoint 2007 is easier than in 2003.

At Insert menu, choose Movie>Movie from File. You are enables to insert a video into the presentation.

For both versions, you can preview videos you added to PowerPoint by clicking Slide Show>View Show.

For other tools, Windows Movie Maker is another Microsoft-published program where you can edit your videos easily. With this tool, you can customize videos and cut black bars making your videos friendly for PowerPoint.

Video: The Way Forward For Marketing

Posted on by Rick E

Video marketing is a new type of internet marketing which involves creating 2-5 minute short videos about a particular topic. So for example, for a car dealer website company, they would only design their videos around automotive video marketing. Once the videos are completed, they are uploaded to different websites such as YouTube for distribution and exposure to the world.

The best way to make videos is to convert articles. This is usually done by creating a powerpoint presentation of the original article which transforms the article text to an animated slideshow. Once the powerpoint presentation is built, relevant pictures are then added to the slideshow and then a voice is then added to the slideshow as a voice-over narration. The last thing to do in this process is to record the presentation using a screen capture software package such as Camtasia and once this has been completed, the slideshow is then converted to a video that can be uploaded to internet websites such as Youtube. By converting articles to videos, the amount of time that someone takes to read the articles is greatly reduced and, therefore, the chance of reading the whole article is increased. Article marketing is a popular type of advertising in which businesses write short articles about the business and then publish them on the internet. Writing short articles with good links within it will increase search engine optimization which means that a company with links to their website within the article will encourage search engines to rank the website further up its rankings.

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