We’re big fans of SlideShare, a handy social site for sharing presentations online. Posting your presentations has always been relatively easy, and now if you use PowerPoint 2007 (Windows only) it’s even easier. SlideShare has released the SlideShare Ribbon add-on to PowerPoint. Check out this introductory slide stack for more information:
I’m a Keynote guy myself, but if you try this out let us know what you think.
As a followup to Aaron’s nice introduction yesterday, I want to invite you to join in my love affair with VisualHub. In my opinion, this software is one of the coolest things to happen to video in a long time. Professional Developers may also find this software useful for Powerpoint presentations.
VisualHub allows you to convert many popular video formats (think .flv, .mov, Quicktime) into the specific format you need. Sorry PC users, but as of now this is only available for Macs. I probably use VisualHub at least once a week to convert a video from Quicktime format into a raw Flash file in order to upload it to our Learning Labs site. You can take VisualHub for a test drive here and download a free trial version. The website also contains very reasonable pricing options and an awesome help manual.
I’ll tell you a story about a real life situation where VisualHub came in very handy.
Once upon a time a very nice lady, we’ll call her Patty Graner, came to us with a problem. Patty needed to insert a few video clips into her Powerpoint slides but the video we had was already in .flv (Flash) format.
So I…
1. Opened VisualHub
2. Dragged my .flv clip into the window
3. Selected MP4 (Quicktime) as my conversion choice
4. Clicked the Start button.
Check out the one-minute video below to see just how simple the whole process is.
VisualHub Demo from Stratepedia on Vimeo.
A few minutes later I had the same video in a format better suited for Powerpoint slides and Patty lived happily ever after.
The End.
*A note from Amber: Ironically, in the hour that it took me to create this post, Techspansion (the creators of VisualHub) have decided to close down their website. Visualhub.org is still available but I’m not sure how long it will stay up. I will post more information about the future of VisualHub as soon as possible.
Every now and then, I’m sent a Powerpoint presentation or poster or document and am asked to “clean it up” a bit. One of the things I often end up changing is the color that is used in the document. Color is tricky to deal with because it is hard to know where to start and how to choose colors that are effective. Color is so complex, in fact, that I was actually required to take an entire course on color theory in school!
My goal here is to try and give some basic pointers on color and how to use it to your advantage to help with your communications and not to turn people away from what you’re trying to say. I will use a Powerpoint slide to demonstrate, but I think these ideas will translate to everything from a presentation cover to a website to an invitation and even to photography.
In terms of visual communications and design, color serves a few different purposes. The first is purely aesthetic; it makes things look attractive.
The second good use of color is to establish a sense of hierarchy and to make certain elements stand out that are important.
A third use of color is to evoke meaning and emotion. What do you think of when you see the colors red and green? Maybe Christmas? What about something that is dark and neutral colors? It might be sad or sinister. Most colors have associated symbolism that is globally accepted, for example, blue is seen as calming or peaceful and red is energetic or angry. This is something to keep in mind when you’re setting up the color on a document.
