Getting Creative with Third-Party Templates, Backgrounds, and Clip Art
Even though PowerPoint and Microsoft Office Online (http://office.microsoft.com)
offer an extensive array of templates, backgrounds, and clip art to use
in your presentations, sometimes you just want something different.
The good news is that numerous third-party providers
offer collections of templates, clip art, and more. You’re sure to find
the exact match for your presentation needs. Here are some interesting
places to start:
CrystalGraphics PowerPlugs (www.crystalgraphics.com)
are a series of PowerPoint plug-ins that enhance the quality of
PowerPoint presentations. PowerPlugs include video backgrounds,
transitions, charts, pictures, Flash animations, templates, TV-style
3-D titles, shapes, presentation shells, photo animations, and music.
Clipart.com (www.clipart.com)
offers a vast collection of more than 10 million objects, including
clip art, photos, fonts, and sounds. Clipart.com is available by
subscription, with timeframes ranging from one week to one year.
Presentation Pro (www.presentationpro.com)
sells a bundle of 18,000 templates, graphics, and icons suited for
PowerPoint presentations and several other PowerPoint tools.
Ppted.com (www.ppted.com) offers another extensive collection of PowerPoint templates and backgrounds.
Enhancing Your PowerPoint Experience with External Hardware
Software isn’t the only option for third-party
PowerPoint tools. There are also several unique hardware solutions that
solve common problems and make delivering PowerPoint presentations a
more productive experience.
Impatica ShowMate
The Impatica ShowMate (www.impatica.com)
is a small device that connects your Blackberry handheld device to a
projector, enabling you to deliver a PowerPoint presentation without
the need for a bulky computer. This plug-and-present solution works
with the Impatica for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which enables you
to view PowerPoint presentations on Blackberry devices (including
animations, slide transitions, rich text, and hyperlinks). The ShowMate
also comes with a Bluetooth USB adapter for wireless use with
Bluetooth-enabled Blackberry devices.
Papershow
The Papershow Kit (www.papershow.com)
contains a Bluetooth digital pen, USB key loaded with software, and
interactive paper that transmits to your screen, all bundled in a case
that fits in your pocket. You can import your PowerPoint presentation
into Papershow, print it on the interactive paper, and then annotate
your presentations on a screen.
TurningPoint
TurningPoint (www.turningtechnologies.com)
is a PowerPoint add-in that works with wireless keypads to form an
audience response system you can use in real-time during your
presentations. Members of your audience receive a credit card-sized
ResponseCard keypad that they click in response to an interactive
polling slide in your PowerPoint presentation. The results are
submitted to a wireless receiver, which you can then share with your
audience or analyze for reporting purposes.
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Audience
response systems such as TurningPoint are popular in both the corporate
and education markets. TurningPoint offers several additional features
specifically for use in schools and universities, including the ability
to integrate special ExamView questions into your PowerPoint
presentation.
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Laser Mouse
The Laser Mouse (www.lasermouse.com)
is a long-range wireless remote mouse with a built-in laser pointer.
It’s designed specifically with the delivery of PowerPoint
presentations in mind, with a navigation disk and slide advance button.
Integrating PowerPoint with Twitter
The use of Twitter during conference and other large
presentations is on the rise. Rather than having your audience’s
commentary take place solely on this backchannel, you can become part
of it and integrate Twitter into your presentation. This section
introduces you to two innovative ways to do just that.
Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere (www.polleverywhere.com) enables you to maximize the use of Twitter during a live presentation by polling your audience.
To start, you ask your audience a question—either a
multiple choice question or an open-ended question. They respond via
Twitter, SMS text message, a smartphone’s web browser, or a computer’s
web browser. Finally, you can display real-time poll results directly
in your PowerPoint presentation.
SAP PowerPoint Twitter Tools
SAP (www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools)
has released a series of free PowerPoint Twitter tools that increase
audience interactivity during your presentations. These include
PowerPoint Twitter feedback slides, which
display tweets on PowerPoint slides during your presentation, with the
capability to filter spam or any content you don’t want to share.
PowerPoint AutoTweet, which enables you to tweet key points during your presentation.
PowerPoint Twitter voting, with real-time results displayed in bar charts and pie charts.
PowerPoint Twitter ticker bar that displays the last 10 tweets at the bottom of your presentation slides.
PowerPoint mood meter, enabling your audience to communicate their agreement or disagreement with key presentation points.
PowerPoint crowd meter, to monitor and display the crowd noise in your room.
PowerPoint zoom text, which zooms text on your screen.
PowerPoint Twitter update bar.
