How to make flowcharts in PowerPoint
Source of the Article: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/ms-office-tips/how-to-make-flowcharts-in-powerpoint/
With Powerpoint you can create effective presentation materials but most users are not familiar with the fundamentals of creating flowcharts. Flowcharts are good for showing step by step process using different kinds of labeled boxes and arrows.
Below are the steps on how to make a flowchart:
Step 1: Create a new slide where you want to make your chart (right click on the slides tab and then choose “New Slide” on the menu:
Step 2: Enable the grids to guide you on drawing objects. Click View menu then click Grid and Guides:
Check the “Display grid on screen” to enable the grids. Click OK to close the window:
Step 3: Use the AutoShapes menu to access the Flowchart objects:
Choose any flowchart object to draw on the slide. For this tutorial I will start with a “terminator” block as a starting point:
Step 4: Put text inside the boxes to act as labels. Right click on the object then choose “Add Text”:
You can then type any text inside the object:
Step 5: Draw other objects using the steps above. In this example, I put two steps and another terminator block:
Step 6: Connect the objects using connectors:
Remember to always use connectors instead of lines. Connectors are bounded with the objects so they are easier to manage than lines.
You can see from above that even with the boxes are moved, the connectors are still intact.
These steps should get you started with making your own flowcharts. There are many other types of flowchart objects available in the flowchart AutoShapes so make sure to choose the right type of box for each of your operations. You can also edit the look of the items by right clicking them and choosing the “Format AutoShape” menu:
With this window, you can edit the colors, line style, weight of borders, transparency and other cosmetic parameters.
I hope this article will help you impress your colleagues with your own flowcharts.
Create and Distribute a Class PowerPoint Presentation (II)
Creating a good PowerPoint presentation is the first step. Remember to practice over and over your class PowerPoint presentation until to a perfect extent. The next thing is distribution of the class presentation. How to distribute it depends on several factors, where the class PowerPoint presentation is made, where it is going to display, and how many students or classmates will attend to your class, etc.
I have mentioned in my previous post (Section I) how to make a fine class PowerPoint presentation, now I am to share with you how to distribute a PowerPoint masterpiece in the following Section II.
Section II: Distribute a Sound Class PowerPoint Presentation
1. Save your class PowerPoint file on the same computer
If your class presentation is created at and is to be distributed with the same computer (usu. your laptop), then simply leave it there. But by this method, you may run on certain risks of the vulnerable PowerPoint – computer corruption, Internet disconnection, and virus attacks. Many people do that, however, it is not recommended, especially when your class PowerPoint presentation is of critical importance.
2. Simply e-mail your class PowerPoint file
It is a PowerPoint presentation of homework, and you are required to email to your teacher’s account for review. In that case, simply e-mail the presentation.
Note -
- Don’t email a class presentation unless you are sure that the recipient use the same OS (don’t email from a PC to a Mac), the same version or later of PowerPoint program. Some people don’t have MS PowerPoint installed on their computers, nor do they have a proper PowerPoint Viewer to read your class presentation.
- Don’t forget to include the whole PowerPoint components (the presentation itself, the sound file, the video file if there is any) in the same folder before zipping it to email. Otherwise, the sounds or video clips embedded in your class presentation will not play on the recipient’s computer.
- And don’t email your class PowerPoint presentation if you are afraid of unwanted modification by others.
3. Save your class PowerPoint content to video
For an online class, you can apply this simple but effective means – save your class PowerPoint content to video, which is more flexible for Web share. When your class PowerPoint content is finalized in protective video, you can email it with comfort or upload it to your website, blog, MySpace, or YouTube, and invite your students or classmates to join in. Nevertheless, finalize your PowerPoint presentation in video first, using some excellent conversion software like Moyea PPT to Video Converter
4. Save your class PowerPoint presentation onto a DVD disc
If you are to take your PowerPoint presentation from home to school, consider burning or saving it to a DVD disc. A DVD backup is a wise relief from your vulnerable PowerPoint presentation. You will neither suffer from such computer risks as computer corruption, virus attacks that may occur by Method 1, nor bother to any version trouble or cross-platform inability as may happen by Method 2. An additional benefit of this PowerPoint to DVD method is that you can play your class PowerPoint at a DVD player on big screen TV, just like a professional movie.
Software to burn your class PowerPoint to sleek DVD: Moyea PPT to DVD Burner
5. Save your class PowerPoint file as PDF
As to printing and reprinting, you can save your class PowerPoint as PDF. Before taking this means, you should make sure your recipient has Acrobat Reader or else PDF viewer on his/her computer. If your class presentation is composed on MS PowerPoint 2007, you can save it direct to PDF since there is a Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007. You can also use a standalone conversion app, e.g. Moyea PPT to PDF converter, to turn your class presentation into organized PDF. Save as PDF, and give a PDF copy to each attendant, when you intend to deliver your class presentation with full sense.
Voila. The remarkable teaching aid PowerPoint deserves your effort and taste. Take all the tips here on class presentation creation and distribution, and make full use of PowerPoint to improve your teaching.
Create and Distribute a Class PowerPoint Presentation (I)
As an easy and dynamic presentation tool, MS PowerPoint has been a popular alternative to the traditional blackboard aid in class. For teachers, a well-planned PowerPoint presentation appeals more to students of this digital epoch than a plain lecture without illustration. For students, a class report or research project delicately composed in PowerPoint is always more organized in look and more convenient for archive. So how to make and share a wonderful class presentation? In this post, you will find useful tips on creation and distribution of class PowerPoint presentations.
Section I: Create an Effective PowerPoint presentation
We know there are geniuses of speech, but there are very few. Most of us may fear to speak in public unless very very well-prepared. Never risk a successful class to a hasty PowerPoint presentation. Instead, build a written summary of your course carefully in PowerPoint. Here are several points you should bear in mind when composing a class presentation.
1. Define the topic
To give a persuasive presentation, you need to keep in mind what you are conveying to the audience. Make sure you have a thorough understanding of the class topic. How long do you have to make your presentation? Are you able to use visual aids or handouts? You don’t have to become an expert, or read every book or website ever written about your topic, but you should be able to answer any questions your teacher or classmates might give you.
2. Know the style
To be classic or to be trendy? It depends on both the course stuff and the targeted audience. For example, if you are going to tell a serious subject to a group of college students, take on a PowerPoint template of lofty color; if it is a DIY class to kids less than 8, employ a colorful background along with funny animations in your presentation. Be sure the style and the subject matches in the class presentation. Click here for free PowerPoint templates and backgrounds
3. Picture & animate it
As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand of words”. So do animations, video clips, and background sounds. A decent use of all those visual effects can bring a dramatic impact to your class PowerPoint presentation. Try to add some dynamics to set your class presentation off.
4. Less is more
The key is simplicity. Use less stuff to convey more ideas. Avoid abuse of PowerPoint components, esp. animations and wipes. Include in each slide points of 3-7, in each bullet words of 3-7. Never put all points in one slide at once, or the audience will lose interest in listening further to your presentation. Use simple sentences rather than long complete ones. Keep one theme or background, one font set and one text animation effect.
5. Edit by rehearsal
Rehearse your class presentation once done. Ask someone to comment on your rehearsal so that you can edit the PPT presentation for improvement.
3 Don’ts with PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a fine authoring tool for you to build a dynamic presentation. But there are some actions you’d better avoid in your PowerPoint presentation unless you are clearly aware of what you’re doing and why.
Think these three don’ts when you work with PowerPoint:
Don’t save PowerPoint to an earlier version
PPT serves as a common format for Windows PowerPoint 97/2000/2002/2003 and Mac PowerPoint 98/2001/2004. An earlier PowerPoint version simply ignore stuff that it doesn’t identify in PPT files saved by later versions. Just save your PowerPoint file the way it is if you want to share it with users of the same version.
Things are somewhat different if you use PowerPoint 2007, where you may want to save back to PowerPoint 97-2003 format for using on a computer installed with 97-2003 version. But maybe there are still compability problems. To prevent version trouble, the safest way is to save your PowerPoint to video or DVD with Moyea PPT to DVD Burner.
The only other backward-saving options are PowerPoint 95, PowerPoint 4 (in older versions of PowerPoint) and “PowerPoint 97-XXX & 95 Presentation” which saves both current and PowerPoint 95 versions of a presentation in the same file. However, the result is not satisfying - you will get bloated oversize PowerPoint files.
Unless a must to share files with people who still use PowerPoint 95, it is not necessary to save your PowerPoint presentation as anything but the normal PPT file type. And for those people, you may find it simpler to give them a DVD or video copy of your PowerPoint presentaiton.
Don’t copy and paste pictures or any other stuff from the Internet into PowerPoint
Instead, right-click the picture, choose Save Picture As and save it to your hard drive. Then use Insert | Illustrations | Picture in PowerPoint 2007 or Insert | Picture | From File in PowerPoint 2003 to bring the picture in to your presentation.
If you copy and paste a picture or elsething direct from Internet, you will run the risk of creating a hard-to-remove link to the internet from your presentation. This may cause Windows to try to connect to the internet every time anyone opens the presentation. A real annoyance if ever there was one. And one that can be darned hard to track down and get rid of.
Don’t link images to your PowerPoint
Similar to Don’t 2, if you insert images by its link, you may notice an option to Link to the file. Unless you have a good reason for doing it, don’t. PowerPoint’s image links break very easily. It’s generally safer and more effective to embed the files (in other words, insert them normally, not linked) into a PowerPoint presentation.
Get More Traffic from YouTube with PowerPoint
YouTube, now the world’s largest free video hosting site, is also a great tool for E-marketing. When mentioned a video, the first idea that flashes in most minds is nothing but the all-mighty YouTube. You know every day, there are millions of netizens surfing on YouTube, the heaven of videos, to search, watch, share, upload or download a favorite clip. If you have a website, and an account on YouTube, you would probably gain a great traffic from that to your site. YouTube’s free video sharing along with the enormous network of visitors is a perfect consideration to promote products and services on your site.
Then how to maximize the traffic of your website by a free video ad on YouTube? Here are a set of useful tricks for you:
First of all, create a definite video with PowerPoint.
You can use a digital camera to capture some pictures or video clips. Furthermore, you can take MS PowerPoint, which hosts a dazzling collection of animated effects, to make a video advertisement that is more amazing and organized. I see many PowerPoint generated videos posted on YouTube, some with a logo of a brand, some with a site URL at the end, some even embedded with a movie clip, and they look the same professional yet more creative. And you can try this innovation of video making. Personally, I recommend you try some reliable conversion software (like Moyea PPT to Video Converter) to brief the process from PowerPoint to video.
OK. Let’s go back to the very content of video ad making. Pay attention to these:
1. Name the video nice.
Think before compose on PowerPoint. What is the objective of this video presentation? What is an appropriate name for the video ad? How can it capture your potential customers at the first sight? Things like that do deserve your careful analysis. A nice name that is informative and has good rank in Google (and other search engines like Yahoo, MSN live) will work wonder. Exercise your imagination to make an eye-catching name for your YouTube video. The key is to get your audience involved. You can use an interrogative beginning with “What” or “How” or anything attractive to arouse their curiosity.
2. Use right PowerPoint template.
You should know the preference of your target audience first. If your video slide show is targeted at professionals, then take a formal PowerPoint template rather than a casual one. If it is for kids and youngsters, you can pick up a cool colorful tune.
Google one at the Internet, like Free PowerPoint Template Download, or make a distinctive template yourself.
3. Organize the message in your presentation.
Specify a focus of your video ad. Then try to give clear and concise description of the focus. Take advantage of the animations and wipes in PowerPoint. In addition, you can insert some relevant photos, sounds, clip arts, or even movie clips to colorize your presentation. Before finalizing it to video, check the whole presentation and see if it contains the very message you want to convey.
4. End the video with a teaser trailer writing your site URL.
The video is made to increase visits of your website. While promotional info that is too obvious in the video may cause a force-out from YouTube, you can put a subtle teaser trailer, writing the URL of your website at the end of the video. This will bring more chances to publicize your site.
5. Trim the video slide show within 5 minutes.
Don’t test the patience of your audience. No matter how perfect the content is, an over-long video show will weary its viewers. Measure the timing (slide transitions) in your presentation, and ensure it is no more than 5 minutes in total.
6. Watermark the video with your company/site logo.
Add a watermark on each slide to identify yourself, brand your company or site, and protect your video slide show from prying hands.
After your ad PowerPoint presentation converted to video, you can forward to
The second step - upload the video ad to YouTube with your account.
Put your video on YouTube and just leave it there? No, never stop unless you don’t expect a winning traffic from it!
There is still a lot of work to do for a satisfying achievement. Run your brains to make your video one of the top on YouTube. Only does your YouTube video win a sound stance among SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), can it attract more traffic to your relevant website.
Here follows several tips for increasing visits of your YouTube video:
a. Post your YouTube video to all the blogs, Podcasts, websites of yours and others. Link it to anywhere available. Exact practice: copy the Embed code of your YouTube video to where you want to insert.
b. Email it to all your friends and clients. YouTube allows such “Email to a friend” action. The more, the better.
OK. Just try your best to promote your video ad on YouTube. Never give up, even it is not that satisfying at first. Good luck!
How to Adjust Slide Transitions in PowerPoint 2007
I once failed to convert a PowerPoint presentation to FLV video wihtin 30 minutes. Why the smart Moyea PPT to Video Converter couldn’t figure it out? - it never took more than 10 minutes before that! Later, I found the fault is in the timing, or the transition between slides in the original presentation (MS PowerPoint 2007). Most transitions were set to 999 seconds, and there were 30 slides in total! See, that’s the real problem.
After an adjustment to the transition, the PPT to Video Converter finally managed to output a nice video in one minute.
That is why I would like to write this post, - to tell those who are blank of transition setting in a PowerPoint presentation.
Here discusses 4 situations of slide transition adjustment:
A. Change all the slide transitions in PowerPoint presentation
1. Go to the pane with the Outline and Slides tabs, and click the Slides tab.
2. On the Home tab, click a slide thumbnail.
3. On the Animations tab, in the Transition To This Slide group, click a different slide transition effect.To see more transition effects on the Quick Styles list, click the More button.
4. To re-set the slide transition speed, in the Transition To This Slide group, click the arrow next to Transition Speed, and then select the speed that you want.
5. In the Transition To This Slide group, click Apply to All.
B. Change some slide transitions in PowerPoint presentation
1. In the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tabs, click the Slides tab.
2. On the Home tab, click the thumbnail of the slide that you want to modify the slide transition for.
3. On the Animations tab, in the Transition To This Slide group, click a different slide transition effect for that slide.
To see more transition effects on the Quick Styles list, click the More button Button image.
4. To re-set the slide transition speed, in the Transition To This Slide group, click the arrow next to Transition Speed, and then select the speed that you want.
5. To change another slide transition, repeat steps 2 through 4.
C. Remove all the slide transitions from PowerPoint presentation
1. In the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tabs, click the Slides tab.
2. On the Home tab, click a slide thumbnail.
3. On the Animations tab, in the Transition To This Slide group, click No Transition.
4. In the Transition To This Slide group, click Apply to All.
D. Remove several slide transitions from PowerPoint presentation
1. In the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tabs, click the Slides tab.
2. On the Home tab, click the thumbnail of the slide that you want to remove the slide transition from.
3. On the Animations tab, in the Transition To This Slide group, click No Transition.
4. To remove a slide transition from another slide in your presentation, repeat steps 2 through 4.
Put PowerPoint presentation to the iPod
I don’t mean a simple patchwork of slide images onto iPod. Rather, what I mean is to put a whole PowerPoint slideshow to the iPod, without any loss of dynamic animations or recorded narrations.
Expecting your presentation to go on as sleek as a movie on the iPod, you can choose to convert PowerPoint to an iPod ready video. MS PowerPoint has a set of Save As options, like HTML and PDF, yet it doesn’t support a Save As iPod Movie function. Nevertheless, that doesn’t matter, while you can take some standalone conversion apps like Moyea PPT to iPod Movie. The PowerPoint to iPod converter is really a two-click option, never bothering you to those complicated yet vain techniques.
Here is the exact practice:
First, download a copy of Moyea PPT to iPod Movie and install it on your computer.
Go to the download center of Moyea PPT to iPod Movie, and pick a trial or a registered copy. It is recommended that you try the free demo to test its effect. If the program works well with your OS, then you can consider installing a full version on your PC.
Second, input one or more PPT file(s) that you would like to convert to iPod movie.
Click Add to import a PowerPoint file (PPT, PPS, PPTX, and PPSX) to the converter.
Make sure the Style has been set to “iPod Movie”.
Finally, start converting after every essential is well set.
Customize the conversion parameters, e.g. watermarking the movie, adjusting video quality, inserting background music or your own narration, if it is necessary. Otherwise, simply click Start to begin the conversion.
When an iPod movie comes out, it’s easy to hook it onto your own iPod. The sounds, animations, and your recorded voice narration can play as well on the iPod as you deliver the same PowerPoint presentation with a projector. Moreover, you can upload it to your blog or YouTube, making it quickly available to your friends and readers.
Apart from the above method I’ve mentioned, there are several other tips on putting PowerPoint presentation to iPod:
How to view PowerPoint on iPod
Put PowerPoint in Your iPod
HOW-TO: Put PowerPoint on your iPod Photo
Turn Your iPod into the Ultimate PowerPoint Accessory
Enjoy your PowerPoint tour on iPod!
10 Font Tips for PowerPoint Presenters
Before using our professional converters to webify and extend your PowerPoint presentation to video, you need to make a fine one out of your own talents. And here, you can get tips and tricks of how to make a stunning presentation. In this post, you are to get an illustrative idea of fonts in PowerPoint. Let’s go to Wendy Russell, an PowerPoint expert from About.com.
Below is Wendy’s advice on fonts in PowerPoint:
Presenters use PowerPoint or other software for the thousands of presentations that are given daily around the globe. Text is an important part of a digital presentation. Why not make the best use of the fonts to get the job done right? These ten font tips for presenters will help you make a successful presentation.
From PowerPoint to the Web
From PowerPoint to the Web, it’s just one step with Moyea PPT4Web Converter
A companion article has introduced 6 channels to put a PowerPoint presentation on the Web, respectively as:
If you don’t care the loss of PowerPoint animations, sounds, video clips or any other effects, just turn your presentation to a plain image show by a direct linking to the Web. Not to mention the vulnerability of a PowerPoint file. Occasional strike on a different computer, easy victim of a hacker, submissive to a covetous eye, possible to get unwanted changes… So much uncertainty of a PPT file on the way!
But if you do care, never wanna to lose a full control of your presentation, or to lose your audience, you should consider the conversion of savvy. Transfer your entire presentation to an authentic flash video. You know, videos are not editable in content, and more professional on look. And it is a cinch with the PowerPoint for Web converter. When your PowerPoint presentation is reshaped to FLV, you can publish it to the Web with comfort and ease.
3 Ways to Play a PPS on Another PC
PPS is short for PowerPoint Show. A PPS file is identical as a PPT (PowerPoint Presentation) in content. There is only a slight difference in the extension - PPS ends with an “S” while PPT ends with a “T”. A PPS means to open PowerPoint directly into slide show view rather than editing view. You can make conversion between a PPS and a PPT simply by renaming the files. Note that you need the same software to view either one.
The coming question is, how to play a PPS or PPT file on a computer different from your own?
I would like to introduce 3 ways of viewing a PPS at cross platforms.
I. Use a PowerPoint program
II. Use a PowerPoint viewer
III. Use a PowerPoint to video conversion app
View a PPS via PowerPoint
Perquisite: The destination computer has the same or higher version of PowerPoint installed. If you have made your PPS with MS PowerPoint 2003, then a 2003 or later version would be OK to open it.
Otherwise, you have to buy a PowerPoint program from Microsoft. All that you need is to copy a whole folder of your PPS file (also remember to include backups of the embedded sounds, video clips) to a flash disk, then carry and place it to the destination computer.
OK. You can access your PSS when running the compatible PowerPoint on the destination PC.
View a PPS via a PowerPoint Viewer
Before download, get a clear idea of the running environment for each viewer at my previous post Free PowerPoint Viewers, Viewer Capabilities
Download and install a PowerPoint Viewer to access your PPS.
Download PowerPoint Viewer 2007 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 1
Download PowerPoint Viewer 2003 for Windows 98SE and Later
Download the free Open Office or Mac (for there is no PowerPoint viewer available for Mac)
View a PPS in video using Moyea PPT to Video Converter
It is a good consideration when you want to
* Play your PPS on either a Windows or a Mac without PowerPoint
* Prevent your PPS from unexpected computer corruption
* Keep away prying hands on your PPS stuff
* Share your PPS with all the online audience
To get a free edition of the PowerPoint to video converter, click here
Install and run the PPT to video software. Import your PPS file, set the output video format as required, and click Start to begin converting to video.
After converted, the PPS video can be sent and played on any computer just as it was.
