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3D-Hub: Conversation with Don Brittain

Don Brittain is CEO and a founder of Instant Effects, a California company that develops software to visually enhance presentations, communications, and collaboration. Dr. Brittain has designed commercial interactive graphics software for more than two decades, having been VP Research at Wavefront Technologies and one of the principal architects of 3dsmax from Autodesk prior to helping found Instant Effects almost a decade ago. In this conversation, Don discusses 3D-Hub, a new 3D initiative spearheaded by Instant Effects (USA) and White Space Productions (UK).

Read the conversation here.

New Stories

Feb 3, 12 - Learn PowerPoint 2010: Language Options on the Status Bar

Typically when you select any text container such as a text placeholder, shape, or text box -- then you may (or may not) see which language is specified for the text container on the Status Bar within PowerPoint 2010. It is quite possible that you may not be seeing any language specified on the Status Bar -- and this can happen for one of two reasons.

Learn how to make the Language Option visible on the Status Bar in PowerPoint 2010.

Feb 2, 12 - EBook and PowerPoint Themes Combo Package

This combo package gets you three amazing options that will let you create better presentations quickly:

New Ebook: Slide Design for Non-Designers by Ellen Finkelstein
New Templates / Themes / Backgrounds set: Spots of Success from Ppted
Another New Templates / Themes / Backgrounds set: Urban Textures from Ppted

Urban Textures Spots of Success

Your price for a limited time during this joint promotion is $50 for all 3 products! Get all details here.

Feb 2, 12 - Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Types of Points (Vertexes)

Any given shape in PowerPoint is essentially an electronic drawing that is composed of both segments and points (vertexes). Think of a “connect-the-dots” drawing and the dots would be points, and the lines you draw between the dots would be segments. Both segments and vertexes are only visible as distinctly different drawing elements only in Edit Points mode. We discuss more about segments in a subsequent tutorial but for now, let us help you explore the different types of vertexes (points) in PowerPoint 2011. Essentially, these are of three types: Smooth, Straight, and Corner.

Learn about different types of points (vertexes) in PowerPoint 2011.

Feb 1, 12 - SlideShark Team Edition: Conversation with Jay Wilder

Jay Wilder is director of product marketing at Brainshark, Inc. Brainshark’s cloud-based software lets users create online and mobile video presentations – using simple business tools like PowerPoint and the telephone – and then share and track their content. Thousands of companies use Brainshark to improve the reach and results of their business communications, while dramatically reducing costs. In this conversation, Jay discusses SlideShark Team Edition, which Brainshark is launching today.

Read the conversation here.

Feb 1, 12 - Learn PowerPoint 2010: Add and Remove Proofing Dictionaries for Foreign Languages

Microsoft Office programs such as PowerPoint include proofing tools (spelling dictionaries, thesauri, and grammar rules) for more than one language. To proof text in a foreign language, you need to install and enable proofing tools for the language you require. When these tools are installed, you can tell PowerPoint if a particular text placeholder or text box needs to be proofed as a foreign language -- we will cover the actual process of proofing in a foreign language later in a subsequent tutorial. First, you need to learn how you can ascertain which proofing tools are installed on your computer, and how you can add proofing tools for languages besides English within PowerPoint.

Learn how to add and remove proofing dictionaries for foreign languages in PowerPoint 2010.

Product Showcase

Jan 31, 12 - Indezine News Released

What is it that attracts an audience within any presentation? Are they the slides? Or is it the speaker? Or is there something else that is the sum of all parts: the audience themselves, the speaker, and the slides? We may all have been speakers at one occasion or another but we have also been part of an audience -- and do all successful presentations have a quality about them that we remember long after the presentation was over? If you think carefully about all successful presentations that linger in your thoughts, then there has to be a common thread that strings through all of them -- and that has to be the charisma of the speaker!

Read this issue of Indezine News.

Jan 31, 12 - Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Add or Delete Points (Vertexes)

In a previous tutorial, you have learned how you can edit points (vertexes) of a selected shape to alter its structure. These vertexes let you control how a shape looks -- but sometimes you might find it difficult to edit a certain segment in a shape because there are no vertexes (points) available to manipulate -- or maybe there are far too many points! PowerPoint provides a simple solution for this problem -- you can add and delete vertexes from a shape. In PowerPoint terminology, the terms vertex and point are often used interchangeably.

Learn how to add or delete points (vertexes) of a shape in PowerPoint 2011.

Jan 30, 12 - 10 Tips for Influencing Others: by Claudyne Wilder

Do you want to be more influential in your meetings and presentations? Consider doing these behaviors so that you are on top of the content as well as your presenting style. Get approval of the content: Talk to people who know the audience, and find out the interests of the audience. Talk to at least two people just to be sure you are getting accurate advice.

Jan 30, 12 - Learn PowerPoint 2010: Dynamic Content Transitions

Dynamic Content transitions are new transition effects in PowerPoint 2010 (these also work in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac). When these transitions are applied to your slide, the actual transition occurs on all areas of the slide except the backgrounds. This makes your content move independently on and off the screen. PowerPoint 2010 provides seven different transition effects within the Dynamic Content category -- do experiment with these options for direction and timing to create some great looking presentations.

Learn about Dynamic Content transitions in PowerPoint 2010.

iPad Presenting

In our ongoing iPad Presenting series, we have already published 6 posts that have been read, tweeted, shared, and bookmarked by all of you -- we plan on several more posts within this series:

Free PowerPoint from Microsoft?

We all realize that nothing is really free in today's world, yet we all look for free stuff all the time. Well, maybe we were partially wrong when we said "nothing is free", because you can get a free, or at least a cheaper copy of PowerPoint and Microsoft Office. When we say free or cheap, we do not refer to bootlegged copies -- but genuine, original software. Here are some options for you to get a free or cheaper copy of PowerPoint.

Learn how you can acquire a free or cheaper PowerPoint copy from Microsoft

PowerPoint Books