Category: PowerPoint

by AJ Walther

In one of my recent Optimizing PowerPoint for eLearning & Presentations classes, I demonstrated how to adjust the saturation of an inserted image to take the image to grayscale. After the class, one of the students asked how to make this adjustment on clip art images.

Clip art illustrations insert as WMF pictures by default. Because they are WMF files, you have the ability to Recolor the image, but not to fully adjust the saturation. What if you've made changes to the clip art image by ungrouping it and converting it to a drawing object? Drawing objects don't have Recolor or Saturation controls. Only files saved as PNG or JPG have options for adjusting color saturation from within PowerPoint. However, I do have a work-around that allows you to adjust the saturation for a clip art illustration or other drawing object.

Adjust the saturation for inserted images:

1. Insert a picture (Insert > Images > Picture).
2. Ensure the picture is selected.
3. From the Picture Tools Format tab, choose Adjust > Color and adjust the saturation level.
   

If you're dealing with a drawing object (or an ungrouped clip art image):

1. If the object is still ungrouped, ensure all of the shapes making up the clip art image are selected.
2. Press [ctrl] [g] on your keyboard to group the shapes.
3. Right-click the grouped object and select Save as Picture.
   
4. PowerPoint may attempt to save the image as a WMF file by default. To change this, click the Save as Type drop-down menu and select either JPG or PNG.
5. Follow the first group of steps above to adjust the saturation of the picture.

by AJ George 

Want to create a speedometer-like gauge for your PowerPoint or eLearning deck? I've found gauges a creative way to illustrate anything from progress through a course or presentation to positive to negative value scales. There are some relatively easy ways to build a gauge using shapes, but one of the fastest (and easily editable) ways I've found is to use Charts.

Here's what the finished product would look like: 

And here's how you'd do it:

1. In PowerPoint, insert a doughnut chart. (Insert > Illustrations > Chart > Doughnut > Doughnut > OK).

   An Excel spreadsheet will appear, along with the chart on your PowerPoint slide.

2. On the Excel spreadsheet, click in the cell that says Sales and change the title to whatever you would like. For my example I'm going to use Typos in 2012 Issues to demonstrate an acceptable versus unacceptable range of typos in one year for a publication.

   For the purposes of this chart, we will not be using the labels which currently read 1st Qtr, 2nd Qtr, etc., so you can leave them as is, but we will be changing the numerical values.

3. For my chart I want the total possible value of the gauge to be 100. I will only be using half of the doughnut so I'm going to set the total value to 200. The value for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Qtr should total 100. The value for the 4th Qtr will be 100. Add any three values for the first three quarters, as long as they total to 100. I will be using 60, 25, and 15. Once in the doughnut chart, this will visually give me a "good" area, an "okay" area, and a "bad" area. 

    

   If you use similar values, your chart should look something like this: 

   

   To get the horizontal orientation like in the finished example above, you will need to rotate the data. 

4. Select the doughnut so that resizing handles appear on all its sections.
5. Right-click the doughnut and choose Format Data Series. 

   The Format Data Series dialog box will open.

6. From the Series Options category, change the Angle of first slice to 270 and click Close.
      
7. Right-click the solid bottom half of the doughnut chart and choose Format Data Point.
8. From the Fill category, select No Fill and click Close. 

   The bottom half of the chart should "disappear."

9. Right-click each of the remaining sections of the chart and change their fill color as you see fit.
     
10. Select the Legend at the right of chart and press [delete] on your keyboard to remove it.

    The chart will center under the title.

11. Working on the same slide (but ensuring the doughnut chart is not selected), insert a Pie Chart. (Insert > Illustrations > Chart > Pie > Pie > OK)
12. Once again, you will be working with a total value of 200. On the Excel spreadsheet, set the value for 1st Qtr to the value (out of a possible 100) you would like the needle of your gauge to rest. I want my needle to fall within the yellow area of the chart, so I am using 66. Set the value for 2nd Qtr to 1. This will be your actual gauge needle.
13. In Excel, click in cell B4 to set the value for 3rd Qtr. In the fx field, type =200-(B2+B3) and press [enter] on your keyboard. 
     

Setting up this equation will allow you to set the first value to any number while automatically updating the third value to fit within the specified parameters.

14. Right-click the 5th row, (4th Qtr) and choose Delete.
15. In PowerPoint, right-click the Pie chart and choose Format Data Series.
16. From the Format Data Series dialog box, Series Options category, change the rotation to 270.
17. Right-click the two larger areas of the pie chart and choose Format Data Point > Fill > No Fill.

    Both sections will "disappear" leaving just your thin slice of the pie (your needle).

18. Right-click the "needle," choose Format Data Point and change the fill to whatever you like. (I chose black.)
19. Select the Legend at the right and delete it.
20. Select the title of the Pie chart (not the Doughnut chart) and press [spacebar] on your keyboard to delete the title of the second chart. (It's important to type [spacebar] for the title instead of just deleting it to keep the alignment of both charts the same.)
21. Select both charts and group them. (Home > Drawing > Arrange > Group)

Note: If you have a hard time selecting both charts, try holding down the [ctrl] key while you click each of them on the Selection Pane (Home > Drawing > Arrange > Selection Pane to view the Selection Pane).
 

The beauty of creating a gauge image this way versus drawing and grouping shapes is that you can change the value of the sections in the Doughnut chart as well as where the needle falls in a snap without having to re-do the whole graphic. Just ungroup the charts, type in new values in Excel, and shazam! Your graphic is instantly changed.

Using this same method I was able to quickly edit the charts into a speedometer by adjusting the values in Excel, adding text boxes with speed values and layering in a black circle behind the charts.

I'd love to see how you are using this method to create your own graphics. Send me your creations and I'll feature them in a future post.

by AJ George 

I've previously written about presentation apps for iDevices. I didn't have a lot of luck in my pursuit of decent PowerPoint presentation tools, but I did have success with one:SlideShark. Since my previous article, SlideShark has made some updates to its app that I'd like to share.

What is SlideShark?

SlideShark is an app for iOS with an accompanying website. First you upload presentations online at www.slideshark.comand then you can use your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch to share your presentations on the go. Animations, fonts, graphics, and colors are all preserved. Slides can also be shared through the app for on-demand viewing and statistical tracking. Interested in other sites for PowerPoint deck sharing? Click here.

So what's new? 

Version 2.0 expanded the app beyond just the iPad to include the iPhone as well. Taking the iPhone's screen size into consideration, a pinch to zoom feature (that is not available on the iPad) was added to the app. It will also work on the iPod touch.

But that's not all. Just a month after releasing 2.0, SlideShark debuted version 2.1. With the new release came direct access to Box and Dropbox accounts. Rather than downloading your presentation from Box or Dropbox, uploading it to the SlideShark site, and then accessing it from the SlideShark app, you can now access your cloud-stored presentations from right within the app.  I linked the app on my iPhone to my Dropbox account and found that the service does work as promised–eventually. Connecting the app to Dropbox was a bit of a process, as it took several tries to get the app to connect. I tried on the iPad first but found that the app would get caught up and never finish the process. The iPhone took a couple tries but was eventually successful. After connecting Dropbox, I had further troubles getting the presentations from my Dropbox account to download. A dialog box saying I didn't have access to the feature at that time popped up several times (on the iPad as well as the iPhone) before the app finally gave in and let me download the presentation. So, in summary: this feature does work. BUT don't wait 'til the last minute before an important meeting or presentation, as it may give you fits for a little while.

The newest version also boasts video support, but I had no luck with this. Videos in my presentation did not play at all. I tried clicking the video, but doing so only advanced me to the next slide. I also tried changing my Slideshark settings to auto advance the slide (so no clicking would be necessary), but this did not work either. I checked out the Slideshark blog and learned that the app does not currently support  .mov, .mp4, .qt, and .aav files. So, in the end, user error on that one, but it would have been nice to have a heads up on that within the app without having to search the Slideshark blog. If your videos are in one of the unsupported file formats, using a video converter before embedding should fix the issue for you.

Need to be able to work a room? With version 2.1 your iPhone can use Bluetooth to act as a remote control for the presentation on your iPad.  If you lose Bluetooth connectivity your phone will vibrate to alert you, as you will need to reconnect the devices. I tried it out and found that it worked flawlessly. After ensuring both my iPad and iPhone were set to use Bluetooth, it took only a couple taps to connect the two. I tested the reach of the remote feature and was able to get outside the office and about 100 feet outside the building before I lost connectivity. My iPhone did vibrate when I lost connectivity, but it also vibrated every time I progressed a slide (albeit not as much), so that was a bit confusing.

What's still missing?

I'd like to see the iPhone remote control functionality expanded to work as a remote for desktop systems as well. Being able to use the iPad as the remote in these instances would be nice too; then you could have large format notes, etc. available right in front of you with your remote. Expansion of video file format compatibility would certainly be a plus for me. I'm also excited for the release of the Android app for Google Play which, rumor has it, is on the horizon (no exact release date). 

Overall, the updates are great and have the potential to really help out those who need to be able to present on the go. A little fine tuning of that Dropbox download function and some additional features couldn't hurt, but since this is afree app, there is a lot to like here. 

***

by AJ George 

There are infinite reasons why you may not be able to give a presentation in person, many of which I covered in my article on adding Text-To-Speech to PowerPoint presentations. When you can't be there in person, but you want to send along a PowerPoint deck in your place, there are a few reasons why you might want to use a slide-sharing site. Maybe your recipient is using an old clunker of a computer that would have compatibility issues with whatever you're sending, maybe they're concerned about viruses, maybe your recipient will be viewing your presentation from a mobile device or a different operating system than you're using, or maybe you have no intended recipient but want to post your presentation somewhere where it can garner eyeballs on its own, like YouTube, but for slides.

Whatever the case, a slide-sharing site can give you the peace of mind of not having to worry about technical snafus while giving you a platform to attract potential viewers. Today I'm going to explore five slide-sharing site options.

SlideShare

SlideShare was my least favorite of the bunch. My first issue came when I uploaded a test presentation and subsequently tried to delete it. I clicked to delete but nothing seemed to happen. I refreshed the window and the presentation was still there. I repeated this several times and my presentation did not delete. The next day when I logged in to my SlideShare account the presentation was gone, but I have no idea how long it took to actually delete. I thought it was perhaps a once off occurrence, but the same thing happened that day when I tried the process again. This made me really uncomfortable. What if I'd uploaded a presentation that could be damaging to my reputation or my company? Hopefully I wouldn't be in that position, but mistakes happen and I don't like knowing that there isn't a quick "undo."

SlideShare does not support animation and gives you the typical sharing options of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus, among a few others. To use any sort of advanced functionality (like analytics, capturing leads, or adjusting privacy), you'll need to pay for it. I don't necessarily have a problem paying for this, particularly if I'd be using the site for business needs-but I can get this same functionality for free from other sites, so I don't see much logic in paying for it on a site I'm not otherwise in love with. The good news is that SlideShare is quite well known, and although I didn't do the research, has possibly the largest audience. If you're aiming for visibility this isn't a bad idea.

Bottom line: High visibility, subpar interface, low on features.

authorSTREAM

authorSTREAM is a pretty standard choice among slide-sharing sites. After uploading your presentation, you can edit settings, share on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, download as either a Flash or a PPT file, or convert to a video. Animations worked–but not all the time and sometimes grouped objects came in mangled or missing elements. Animations did not come in automatically, which makes for an awkward viewing experience because your viewer probably does not know when to stop clicking to finish the build on that slide. Given the inconsistency/awkwardness associated with animations, you'd probably be better off just not using them. authorSTREAM does have basic analytic tools to track views, as well as an available presentation transcript.

Bottom line: The "kind of" working animations will have many users pulling their hair out, but if you don't have animations or grouped elements on your slides, this is not a horrible option for getting your presentation in front of eyeballs.

Speaker Deck

Speaker Deck has a relatively streamlined interface, which was nice. Files must be uploaded in PDF format and cannot exceed 50 MB. PowerPoint will save presentations as PDF files, so this isn't necessarily a problem, but may mean extra work for some users. Since decks are uploaded in PDF form, animations do not convey. If your presentation relies upon animations, this may be a deal breaker for you. But if not, I think it's actually kind of nice not having to wonder if they'll work or not by eliminating the possibility altogether. The addition of a YouTube-like "like" system gives Speaker Deck a bit of a social side. Analytic reporting is minimal, but will tell you how many views you've garnered. Sharing options include Twitter, Facebook, embedding, downloading a PDF version, and direct linking. You can include a description and a speaker bio, and give the presentation a category (to make stumbling upon it by others easier).

Bottom line: Having to have the presentation in PDF format may annoy some users. Knowing off the bat that animations aren't going to work at all could either be helpful or a hindrance to you, depending upon how you look at it. Not the best choice out there, but no glaring flaws.

SlideBoom

SlideBoom is by the same people who make iSpring converter, which I have previously written about (and liked).  Just as with authorSTREAM, animations came in, but required a click of the next button to start. As I mentioned before, I think this could be confusing to a viewer who doesn't know how many clicks of the next button each slide takes to finish the build. That being said, SlideBoom worked much better (animation-wise) than authorSTREAM, or any of the other options, and every animation I tried worked. Grouped elements did not come in mangled or missing. The free version will let you upload 100 presentations and does not provide detailed analytics, but does show the number of views and has a thumbs up/thumbs down system similar to YouTube.  Upon presentation upload, you can elect whether or not you want your presentation to be available to everyone online and whether or not to allow people to download your presentation.

Bottom line: I had the most success with animations here. The interface was slick and easy, but there's not a whole lot of "extra." If you don't need the extra, then this would be my pick.

myBrainshark

When it comes to "extra," myBrainshark is the most feature-rich of the bunch. Once your presentation is uploaded, you can edit it by recording audio or adding in background audio. Some animations worked, which is an improvement over some slide-sharing sites, but even so, some did not, so I would still recommend canning any animations to be safe. Attachments can be added in the form of a file or web URL. You can also add a poll or survey question slide as well as individual video, URL, document, PPT, and photo slides. Your deck can't be seen until it is made active, so you can edit until it's perfect and then set it to active so it can be seen. When you're finished making on-site edits, you can either print the presentation or share it via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, YouTube, and hordes of lesser known social networks.

myBrainshark's analytics reporting is the most fleshed out of the free versions, providing information on a number of views, what percentage of the deck was viewed, and a map showing where in the world your viewers are viewing from. Your content is also broken down into a table of contents–pulled from the title of each slide.

For even more features, you can pay for the Pro version to allow for embedding, password security, and the option to make the presentation private. A ProTrainer account will allow you to merge content, provide testing and scoring, and integrate with an LMS via SCORM, which could be of particular interest to those of us in the eLearning field.

Bottom line: If you are just trying to share your finished slide deck, this may be more over the top than you need. If, however, you need the extra features, I would highly recommend this option.  

 ***

by AJ George 

When you give a PowerPoint presentation live, what you say verbally is more important, probably more interesting, and certainly more fleshed out than the few words or pictures on the slides. But what if you want to send your presentation off to be viewed by a faraway audience or online viewers, where you will not be there to fill in the gaps? You could, of course, record a voiceover in PowerPoint, but maybe you have a cold and your voice isn't up to par. Or maybe your own voice sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard to you. Several new tools allow you to type the text you would normally say, and have text-to-speech technology (TTS) generate the voiceover for you. Later, if the content changes, editing the typed text will be way easier than re-recording an entire voiceover. Read on to learn about three different TTS tools for PowerPoint.

HelloSlide

HelloSlide worked great. To add a computer-generated voiceover via TTS to your presentation, first save it as a PDF and then upload it to the HelloSlide website. The presentation must be in PDF format and can't be more than 100 MB (if your presentation is larger than this, try selecting minimum quality when you save it from within PowerPoint). Transitions and animations are not preserved, but if this isn't a problem for you, HelloSlide is a good option. You add the text for your slides right on the HelloSlide website. Presentations can be shared by linking to the presentation through the HelloSlide site or by using an embed code for playing elsewhere. On playback, your presentation will play one slide at a time for as long as it takes the voiceover to be read. I particularly enjoyed the English accent, but there are 20 languages to choose from. Be sure to type your text phonetically to get the best pronunciation quality (ie: instead of "live, online eLearning," type "lyve online ee-Learning").

SlideSpeech

With SlideSpeech, uploaded presentations don't need to be saved as PDFs, so that's kind of nice. Also, you don't have to enter the text on the site, because text is lifted right from the notes fields of your slides. If you typically enter the voiceover script there by default, this is probably a good option, as it will eliminate a step for you. Also on the plus side: after uploading your presentation and setting up the voiceover, SlideSpeech sends you a link to your presentation for easy editing and distribution. On the down side, the computer-y sounding voice doesn't sound as good as HelloSlide's options, and there are only two language choices (English and German). As with HelloSlide, typing your text phonetically will help with pronunciation.

PowerTalk

There are a couple benefits to PowerTalk. For one, if you've already made your presentation 508 Compliant and added alt text to all of your images, this may be a very quick way to add TTS, since it reads directly from the slide as well as reading alt text on images. Additionally, the text is read as it appears on the slide, so if you're working with bullets, the text won't be read until that bullet appears. However, I've already beaten into the ground in my articles that you shouldn't be using bullets, so perhaps this is a moot point. On top of that, the TTS voice used is VERY robotified. I would consider PowerTalk a last resort that you turn to out of necessity. Since it reads right off the slide you won't be able to type the text phonetically and a lot of things may be mispronounced.

PS: Need some crafting that voiceover text? Not sure whether or not you should be reciting what's on the slide for your voiceovers? You might want to check out our Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts class.