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PowerPlugs: Templates for PowerPoint
reviewed by Geetesh Bajaj, June 4th 2007
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.
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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.
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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.
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Pricing & Support
A subscription to PowerPlugs: Templates for PowerPoint costs $89
annually. Support is through email, an online FAQ, and phone.
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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.
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