If you use Camtasia Studio, or have an interest in it, the people at Techsmith did a huge internal project of recording 24 video tutorials, in 24 hours, on using Camtasia.
I use Camtasia for lots of projects and got some great tips and alternate production methods. It’s also great to put a face with all the people you hear from at Techsmith.
Check out the videos here.
– Troy @ TLC
Pecha Kucha is something that sounds fun and may be a great skill builder for presenters. Basically Pecha Kucha forces presenters to create an on-the-fly presentation. They are given a topic, 20 slides, and 20 seconds per slide. It was created in Tokyo, Japan in 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.
If you are in the NorthEast, head over to the free Calypso Communications event in Portsmouth NH. Click here for a story outlining the event and Pecha Kucha.
– Troy @ TLC
If you need some sound effect (fx) for a presentation, a great, FREE, online resource is soundsnap.com. You do need to register and then 5 downloads per month are free.
There are a lot of sound fx here and the collection seems to be continuously growing. All are free to download and royalty free for use. One of the best features is you can download almost any audio file in either .mp3 or .wav format (I prefer .wav as it can be embedded into PowerPoint).
So I have never visited elance.com, until today. I had to see what someone told me, and seeing is believing. Now I admit this is a bit personal, but they have categories like:
– Web
– Design & Multimedia
– Admin Support
– Sales & Marketing
And where is PowerPoint listed? Not Design & Marketing or even Sales & Marketing. PowerPoint design (hey there’s the word “design”) is listed in Admin Support!!
– Troy @ TLC
So if you are video taping a presentation, doing a webcast, or want to practice your presentation script while walking around (highly recommended) – here is a nifty online application.
CuePrompter.com is an online teleprompter that works in your browser (computer does need to be online).
Just paste in your text, make a few formatting selections and click START PROMPTER.
The scroll speed is constant, but it does have 9 speed options. It is easy to read – somewhat depending on your screen size and is a quick-easy-free option.
If you want to install a teleprompt application on your computer, Prompt! is an industry standard and they offer a lite version of their software for free. You can get it here.
– Troy @ TLC
If you are looking for a template, or at least some nice backgrounds, this site has a large collection (250+) of PowerPoint templates that are free for download. Better yet, there is no log-in, capturing your email address or any other ill marketing stuff. You do have to endure pages full of ads, but that’s it. Take a look at www.freepowerpointdownload.com
The templates are nice, but very simple on the formatting (eg. you will probably want to adjust things on the Master Slides). Here is one I downloaded from the Christmas themes to preview the quality:
– Troy @ TLC
In searching for images for a current project I stumbled on indisain, a royalty free site that offers all images free of charge.
You do need to register in order to login and download images (without a watermark). I found the variety good, but the image size varied from usable (1280px wide) to unusable (100px wide). Images are categorized, but limited search capabilities with categories. And some categories had more images than others, such as the landscapes category with 72 pages of images.
If you need another image resource, you can check out indisain here.
– Troy @ TLC
This is a fun resource I discovered recently.
Vector-cartoons.com does require registering and has a weekly download limit. I was able to find exactly what was needed – as a high-quality fully editable vector image!
Note: for PPT download the .wmf version (I downloaded the .eps, modified in Illustrator and then exported as a .wmf).
– Troy @ TLC
We often forget as individuals we can do a lot to make this world a better place and spend time waiting for the change to happen. Here is an initiative to prove it to ourselves that we can do as much as anyone to promote peace.
Glenna Shaw and Geetesh Bajaj, both PowerPoint MVPs have started a unique initiative “PowerPoint for Peace”, a Global Community Project. The project just last week and is building a universal presentation that recognizes the contributions and commitments of people from around the World to improve the planet and the lives of our fellow inhabitants.
authorSTREAM.com is being used as a platform and participating is very easy. Just create a single slide that depicts a contribution that helps make the World a better place to live in (must contain your name/group/company and be uploaded using the authorSTREAM link).
See it and participate here.
– Troy @ TLC
If you are an Outlook user like me for email (my 12 year old daughter has no use for email that is not web-based on accessible from any connection or phone). I think this is a must have tool, and I am in good company as Mr. Bill Gates recently extolled its usefullness!
Xobni is “inbox” spelled backwards. It runs along side Outlook, without touching any of its files (very important to me) and is viewed in a new column. It adds information about who is emailing you, how to contact them, who you have mutually emailed, threaded conversations and more.
By far my favorite feature is the ‘Files Exchanged’ area that shows all of the attachments that person has sent me – which means no more hunting through old emails for that logo!
It is FREE and works! Look at it here.
– Troy @ TLC
