PowerPlugs: Templates for PowerPoint
Reviewed: Geetesh Bajaj
Date Created: June 4th 2007
Last Updated: February 26th 2009
Introduction
About PowerPlugs: Templates
Downloading Templates
Pricing and Support
Conclusion
Introduction
I often think that PowerPoint templates are like fonts -- you can never have enough of them. Great presentations can be made over a plain white background using little text formatting -- yet, we all seem to require an excuse to bring in more color and design into our slides. And that's where templates help -- a well defined template can make all the difference to a presentation by imparting good background choices, sensible layouts, font choices, and color schemes.
Our product for review does provide many of these capabilities -- and it's both a product and an online service. CrystalGraphics' PowerPlugs annual subscription of PowerPoint templates allows you to choose from their large template collection for a fixed price.
About PowerPlugs: Templates for PowerPoint
PowerPlugs: Templates is part of a series of PowerPoint offerings from
CrystalGraphics, a company based in Santa Clara, California, USA -- they
create add-ins for programs like PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, etc. You can
learn more about PowerPlugs: Templates for PowerPoint at their
site...
Once you sign up for an annual subscription, you will be provided
with a user name and password that allows you to access these templates.
At the time of writing, PowerPlugs: Templates includes 3000 PowerPoint templates -- on an average, around 200 plus new designs are added each month.
Update on Nov 17th 2007: Presently, there are more than 6000 templates
My contact at PowerPlugs: Templates for this review was Nicole Ha - thank you, Nicole.
Downloading Templates
Once you buy an annual subscription, you are provided a unique password that is sent to you by email. You sign in with your email address and the password to download unlimited templates for a year.
Follow these steps to download the templates:
- Click
this link... (or copy the link and open it in a new browser
window). This opens the PowerPlugs: Templates page that you can
see in Figure1.
Figure 1: PowerPlugs: Templates page
- Assuming that you have subscribed, click on the Sign In link
which opens the page you see in Figure 2. Here you can
type the e-mail address and the password provided to you.
Figure 2: Sign for PowerPlugs: Templates
- Once you have signed in, you'll see all the templates available for
download, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 : PowerPlugs: Templates available for download
Choose the template you wish to download from the thumbnails displayed -- choose a category to browse templates within that category. You can also search the template collection with the keyword search option.
- Once you decide which template you want to access, click the Download
link placed below the template thumbnail (see Figure 3 above).
- This opens the download page with download instructions (see Figure
4). Then click on the prominent Download button.
Figure 4 : Download templates
Save the template in your system.
Note: There is a limit of 25 template downloads during a 24 hour period.
There is also an Add to Favorites option that adds selected templates to your Favorites collection -- although there's no option to download all your favorites.
Pricing & Support
A subscription to PowerPlugs: Templates for PowerPoint costs $89 annually. Support is through email, an online FAQ, and phone.
In Conclusion
A subscription is certainly well worth the price if you like to acquire new template designs all the time. Also, there are a large number of designs that are varied enough to provide you with ample choices.