I find that when I’m staring at a blank canvas or a nice and blank “new document” I don’t have a good idea of what direction I could be heading with my thoughts or needs. If you start with a template and see what other people have done with the tool you’re using, it can help get your own gears of creativity spinning and give you an idea of what’s possible with the application you’re getting started using.

If you’re trying to learn what one of the Microsoft Office applications are capable of, starting with a template is a great way to see the power and features of the app.

You can look through templates based on themes, industry or in our case of learning a new program, by “Program Category”. The Microsoft Office Online website has templates available in the following apps:

• Microsoft Office Access
• Microsoft Office Excel
• Microsoft Office InfoPath
• Microsoft Office OneNote
• Microsoft Office Outlook
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint
• Microsoft Office Project
• Microsoft Office Publisher
• Microsoft Office Visio
• Microsoft Office Word

So, whatever the business app you’re more than likely trying to learn, Microsoft probably has a template to help get you started.

Post from: EveryJoe

Use Templates to Help You Learn a New Office Program

I immediately wondered if he or if it was known by everyone else that you can save any PowerPoint slide or entire slide deck as an image file.

Depending on what you’d need to use an image of a slide for, PowerPoint provides the ability to save it in just about any format you’d like or need.

Currently you can save images in the following formats: .gif, .jpg, .png, .tif, .bmp, .wmf

Once you’ve got it in this format you can export your slide deck to other services, import a slide into a video edit perhaps or even build an eBook out of what you’ve already presented once before. It could even be as simple of a problem as the person you want to share the presentation with doesn’t have PowerPoint and doesn’t want to install a special viewer. I’m pretty sure everyone’s computer can open one of the file formats above.

The next time you want to grab your PowerPoint as an image, as good as Snagit is, don’t use it. Just save your slide as an image.

Post from: EveryJoe

Exporting PowerPoint Slidedecks to Image Files

To combat that, SlideShare has created a Ribbon for PowerPoint 2007 to make uploading your presentation a one-click “Publish” feature.

Not only can you upload your presentations quickly and easily, you can also download other’s presentations and edit them, directly in PowerPoint. I don’t know about you guys, but I get a lot of inspiration from other slides.

But that’s not all. You see, this nifty little feature only works for Office 2007’s PowerPoint. So what about Keynote? This was one of SlideShare’s most requested features, ever. We clamored for it, they built it. There’s one extra step for Keynote users to upload their presentations, and that’s to compress as .zip, something that you likely do anyways.

Much like PowerPoint 2007, you can also download slides into Keynote and edit them, or simply browse to get inspiration.

I’m a huge fan of anything that makes me more efficient, more productive and includes little tweaks like this one. It’s actually rather brilliant.

Post from: EveryJoe

SlideShare comes to PowerPoint, Keynote

Here’s how:

1. With the slide open, click the Insert tab, and then select any shape from the Shapes ribbon, or select a shape you have created yourself.
2. Click the slide’s surface to add the shape to the slide.
3. Right-click the shape, and then click Format Shape.
4. Select a solid or gradient fill. This step is not required but will enhance the 3-D look of your object.
5. Transform your shape into a 3-D object. You can add depth, bevel, contour, and surface type via the 3-D Format tab.
6. Give perspective to your 3-D shape by rotating the object via the 3-D Rotation tab.

Et voila! You’ve now got a 3-D object in your slide!

Post from: EveryJoe

Turn Any 2-D Shape into a 3-D Object

Microsoft won’t say when the new version of Office, known as Office 14, will arrive, but Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop said that a technology preview of the browser-based products will come later this year and that a beta version will be released in 2009.

There’s a full Q&A with Microsoft Blogger, Sarah Perez here, including a discussion about whether the products will be free (unsure, but the indication is there will be an ad supported free version and a paid subscription version) and if a specific operating system will be required (not as long as you’re running a supported browser). Sarah answers all of the questions she came across most frequently misunderstood comments and questions here.

Edited to Add: The first release of the online versions of the products won’t have an offline option, so you’ll have to be connected to be able to use the online versions, for now at least.

Post from: EveryJoe

Web-based version of office to work on all OS

1. Open PowerPoint and create a new slide, and choose View>Toolbars>Visual Basic
2. Click “Control” Toolbox icon on the Visual Basic Toolbar.
3. Click to show more Controls on the “Control” Toolbox and then choose Shockwave Flash Object.
4. Draw out a rectangle on the slide to any dimension.
5. Right-click on the rectangle you have just drawn, and select “Properties”.
6. Change the settings for EmbedMovie to “True” and fill a valid absolute path of your .swf movie.
7. Click “Slide Show” in the menu bar, and then click “View Show”. You can also click the F5 on keyboard to view the effect, when the video is selected.

[ via Tutorialized ]

Post from: EveryJoe

Embed Flash Movies to your Powerpoint

This plug-in allows you to arrange slides on a canvas then zoom between the slides during the presentation. You can move around the canvas and show groups of slides, individual slides, or even zoom in to show a particular section of a slide.

For more detailed and clear instruction on how to go around pptPlex, visit their FAQ page.

[ via NetworkWorld ]

Post from: EveryJoe

Introducing pptPlex

Using Microsoft PowerPoint 2003:

1. Create a New Presentation.
2. Right-click on the slide and select Slide Design.
3. Notice that a lists of slide design is visible at the right side.
4. Now, select your favorite slide design that you wish to use every time.
5. Right-click on that design and select “Use for All New Presentation”.
6. And now, you have set a default theme.
7. Then, try to create a new presentation and notice that the default theme was loaded automatically.

Using Microsoft PowerPoint 2007:

1. Create a New Presentation.
2. Click on the Design menu.
3. Notice that a lists of slide design is visible at the top.
4. Now, select your favorite slide design that you wish to use every time.
5. Right-click on that design and select “Set as Default Theme”.
6. And now, you have set a default theme.
7. Then, try to create a new presentation and notice that the default theme was loaded automatically.

Post from: EveryJoe

Setting up Your Default PowerPoint Theme (2003/2007)

If you have downloaded some Powerpoint file and liked the design, you might then want to save the design as a template for later use. To do that, please do the following:

1. Open your Powerpoint file that you wish to save it as template.
2. Click ‘View’ menu.
3. Click the ‘Slide Master’ submenu in the menu bar.
4. Notice that the master slide is now active.
5. Having the master slide active, click ‘File> Save as > Select Powerpoint Template as the File Type’
6. After saving the design, click ‘Close Master View’, and it will go back to your Powerpoint Presentation.
7. Now, you can use the saved Template when creating a new Presentation. It will be automatically added in the list of designs.

Post from: EveryJoe

Saving Powerpoint Template

Also, you can embed YouTube Videos to your presentation, adding more visualization to attract more audiences. Below is an example of an embedded YouTube Video in Google Presentation.

Post from: EveryJoe

Speaker Notes & Youtube Videos for Google Presentations