Is Your Presentation Putting People to Sleep? Try This To Wake them Up!
By Pamela McMillan
Remember the slide projector? I used to love it when the teacher would pull that thing out to show the classroom examples to go with lessons. We also watched Show & Tell presentations and slides from the teacher’s or family member’s vacations. I remember the sounds of the projector running, and the warm smell of the bulb burning in the machine. Presentations have come a long way since then. Many are probably still using MS PowerPoint, Open Office Impress and Corel Presentations, but how many times have you stayed up late working on a presentation only to get to your meeting and something is missing? For example, your graphics aren’t showing up, the links to your embedded music or video is broken and you don’t have the files with you.
Enter the 21st century. Put that presentation on the cloud with Zoho Show. It’s like a production studio at your fingertips. Dazzle your audience with these powerful tools. With a laptop/tablet and an internet connection, you can share your presentation wherever you are. With online software like Prezi, you can create a layout with images, videos and text. Info-graphics work great here. Yes. Info-graphics. They are layouts that tell your story at a glance with one large story telling image with bold text, statistics, charts and illustrations throughout. Anyway, with Prezi your audience will never get bored with the broad sweeps as it moves back-and-forth or across the image.
There is also GoAnimate which allows you to create animated videos to tell your story. Their drag-and-drop tools are great for creating training documents and telling your story. You can add characters, backgrounds, props and effects. You can even use your own artwork here. You create your video online with an internet connection. Everything is online.
SlideSnack lets you share presentations online using their site and create flash videos. You can start with a template of a plain slide and work through the wizard and put your whole presentation together without fussing with layout. When you are done, you can even add voiceover to it. Make sure you have a microphone attached or turned on your laptop or tablet. If you don’t like the recording, you can do it over. Press “finish” when you are done, and viola! You have a slide show you can download as a movie or embed in a web page.
All of the above presentation software is unique so choose wisely. Determine what would be best for a kid’s presentation or adults, vacation images or business presentation, art show or concert background. It’s up to you.
Pamela McMillan is a technology Expert and President, Chair & CEO, of PETAL et al.
This article was first posted October 25, 2013.
