5 PowerPoint Alternatives for Making Presentations with More Fun

Microsoft’s PowerPoint is almost a must-have for Windows based computers. Making PowerPoint presentations is quite a usual and common task for students and white-collar workers. But do you sometimes feel tired of using this program? If you don't have Microsoft’s PowerPoint on your computer, do you know any alternative presentation tools? Today let’s find some paid and free PowerPoint alternatives.

No.1 Keynote (Mac)

Microsoft has launched PowerPoint 2011 for Mac, but it seems apple’s native Keynote is more popular on this platform. With strong PowerPoint compatibility, Keynote has an easy to use interface and lots of templates. That is to say, you can make good-looking presentations with Keynote’s built-in templates without spending too much time. The program has great graphic tools to edit pictures and supports video playing in the slides as well. Moreover, Keynote allows you remotely control your presentation with your iPhone or iPod touch.

No.2 Prezi

This impressive presentation tool is very different from PowerPoint. As what it introduces itself on the official page, Prezi is a presentation tool to help you organize and share your ideas. Each presentation you create with Prezi is a flowing and motion-based depiction with your creativity, other than a traditional side-by-slide presentation. Prezi is now available for Web, Windows, Mac, Linux and iOS platforms.

No.3 Google Docs

Google Docs is a web-based office suite for users cloud storage, collaborative editing and file sharing on presentations and other files. The service provides lots of templates, animations, slide transitions and presentation creation tools for users, which is similar to PowerPoint. However, some features are unavailable on Google Docs, for instance, you can't embed local videos in the slides (embedding YouTube and other videos are OK). In one word, Google Docs is a free and fast online tool for making good-looking presentations.

No.4 OpenOffice/LibreOffice Impress

To tell you the truth, I’m not interested in the history of OpenOffice.org and the reasons why it was divided into two. As an open sourced tool, Impress supports PowerPoint presentations and provides easy-to-use interface for making new presentations. As a matter of fact, it’s the most similar tool to PowerPoint, with drawing and graphics capabilities extenuations. You can also save the presentations as SWF format in the suite.

No.5 SlideRocket

SlideRocket is a high-end web-based presentation suite for cloud sharing and collaborative editing. The tool has a beautiful interface and lots of great features, like adding themes, tables, pictures, audio, video, Flash animations, etc. It allows you import files from PowerPoint and export files to PDF format. Another unique feature is the content integration of Flickr, twitter and other sources.

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How to View PowerPoint on Sony Xperia ZL?

Sony Xperia ZL, a high-range Android smartphone, was announced at CES 2013 in January, along with another model --- Sony Xperia Z. The Xperia ZL is a cheaper variant of Xperia Z. Both models have almost the same configurations except the ZL lacks waterproof and dust-proof features.

For specs, the Xperia ZL has a 5.0-inch full HD Reality display with 1080 x 1920 pixels and 441 ppi. A 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor is equipped to help the phone run fast. What’s more, it has 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot. As to cameras, the handset comes up with a 13 MP rear camera witch supports 1080p HD video recording. The Xperia ZL is now available in US, India, Australia, Russia and Canada.

Highlights
Full HD Reality Display. The Xperia ZL brings 1080 progressive scan --- the highest level of HD available to users. Expertise from BRAVIA TV engineers goes into mobile screens, to bring users the same quality of a top quality HDTV.

Better battery life. Like Xperia Z, Battery STAMINA Mode is also used on the Xperia ZL. The phone knows when the screen is off and shuts down the battery-draining apps you don’t need, and then starts them up again when the screen is back on.

Playing PPT on Xperia ZL
Thanks to the combination of HD display and battery saving mode, playing 1080p videos on Xperia ZL is really an enjoyment. Besides entertainments, could the phone be used in business working? For example, how to play PowerPoint on Xperia ZL?

Showing PowerPoint on Xperia ZL perfectly is like a fancy story. We know there are some PPT apps on Google Play for your choice. With these apps installed, users can watch PowerPoint on Xperia ZL --- with all transits, animations and background music lost. After all, a mobile Office app is not as functional as Microsoft’s Office tool yet. Here comes a question: is there any other method to play PowerPoint on Xperia ZL and other smartphones with PPT elements remained? The answer is YES. Currently the most effective way is to convert PPT to Xperia ZL suitable videos. By using this PowerPoint to Xperia ZL HD video converter, users can easily change PPT files to suitable video formats and play them on their phones fluently with PowerPoint effects remained.


Related articles:

How to Play PowerPoint on Xperia Z

New Mid-Range Smartphone from Sony, Enjoy Watching PowerPoint on Xperia SP

How to Retrieve Deleted Videos on Sony Xperia Z?

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New Mid-Range Smartphone from Sony, Enjoy Watching PowerPoint on Xperia SP

How to play PPT on Sony Xperia SP?

Sony recently unveiled a mid-range Android smartphone named Xperia SP, which has some same configurations as last year’s flagship --- the Xperia Z. The Xperia SP has a 4.6-inch 720p display, a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, and an 8MP rear camera. One of the differences between 2 models is that the Xperia SP runs older Android 4.1 OS, rather than the latest 4.2 version. The Xperia SP will be sold in Asia and Europe by the end of June, price issues are not mentioned yet. It’s currently unknown if the device will be available in the US market.

Specifications

• 4.6-inch display with 1280 x 720 pixels and 319 ppi
• Corning Gorilla glass
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4
• 1GB of RAM
• 8 GB of ROM
• Supports MicroSD card expansion, up to 32 GB
• 8.0 MP camera with auto focus, supports HD video recording (1080p)
• Front-facing camera (VGA)
• Supports Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, NFC
• Li-Ion 2370 mAh battery

Highlights
Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2. The technology delivers a better viewing experience by adding new real-time contrast optimization to the sharpness enhancement, high-quality color management and noise reduction. It’s also able to analyze content type and adjust the image accordingly.

Battery STAMINA mode. The same feature has been used on Xperia Z. This special mode saves you wasted battery drain by recognizing when your display is off and turning off functions you don’t need, while keeping the notifications you want.

Play PowerPoint on Xperia SP
As a mid-end handset, the Xperia SP is already good enough for entertainments. Thanks to its 4.6-inch display, users can watch 720p movies conveniently. The phone’s 8MP camera helps users shoot HD videos, too. Besides entertainments, people may also do business work with this gadget. Let’s say, how to view PowerPoint on Xperia SP?

As a member of the popular Android affiance, the Xperia SP never lack applications. To play PPT on the phone, users can find and download an Office app from Google Play, such as Documents To Go or Kingsoft Office. However, these mobile apps are quite different from Microsoft’s Office suite on PC. Some PowerPoint effects, like background music, transitions and animations can’t be shown on the phone with Office apps. As a consequence, we recommend an alternative to display PowerPoint on Xperia SP. By converting PowerPoint to Xperia SP suitable videos, users can play these converted videos on the smartphone with PowerPoint effects remained.

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How to Remove Image Background in PowerPoint 2010

PowerPoint users, if you want to insert an image into a slide without background, what would you do to handle this? Using Pen Tool to remove the background? No. In PowerPoint 2010, there's a more simple tool to remove image background. Let's take a look.

For example, inserting the following Easter themed picture into the PowerPoint.

Step 1 Open or create a document in PowerPoint 2010. Click Insert and select Picture in the toolbar.

Step 2 Click the picture, then choose Picture Tool -> Format -> Remove Background.

Step 3 Under Background Removal tab, click Mark Areas to Keep button to indicate which part of the picture you don't want to remove automatically.

Step 4 Click Keep Changes to confirm and close. Done.

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How to Play Flash Videos in PowerPoint

Nowadays, for various kinds of reasons, for example, making the PowerPoint slideshow more interesting or attractive, people are required to add some effects to PowerPoint files, especially animations and videos when they are preparing a PowerPoint slideshow. Of course, Microsoft Office PowerPoint allows people to add videos to PowerPoint slideshow, so it would be very easy to make it. But in fact, in this process People always encountering such a headache of failing to play a flash video inserted in their PowerPoint files.

Why could this happen? Actually it is very easy. As we already know, People always finding out videos they need mainly on the Internet. And a vast majority of these videos are flash videos which are not supported by Microsoft Office PowerPoint. In this case, they surely will fail to play the videos inserted in their PowerPoint files.

As a matter of fact, to solve this problem is as easy as a piece of cake. We just need to convert the flash videos to another format that supported by Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Then, what formats are supported by Microsoft Office PowerPoint? To the best of my knowledge, such video formats as AVI，MPG，WMV，ASF are ok. Among them AVI is strongly recommended.

Next I will introduce how to convert the flash videos to AVI so as to play them in PowerPoint. Undoubtedly, you are required to turn to a third-party app which is known as Leawo FLV Converter. It is a much-loved video converter which allows you to easily convert FLV to common video and 3D video in popular formats like AVI, MP4, MPEG, WMV, MOV, MKV, etc easily.

Step 1 Import Flash Video

Click "Add"icon to import one or more flash videos you want to convert into the powerful FLV to AVI converter.

Step 2 Set Output Format

Choose “Common Videos” > “AVI-Audio-Video Interleaved (*.avi)” in the drop down list of “Profile” .

Step 3 Start Converting

Finally, click "Start" icon to start converting the flash videos to AVI format.

After all the steps, you are free from the problem of failing to play a “flash video” inserted in their PowerPoint files. If you think it is useful, please share it with more people around you!

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3 Methods to Encrypt Your PowerPoint File

Recently, I find many netizens are concerned with a problem which is how to encrypt PowerPoint file. For various kinds of reasons, these netizens expect that others can just view the PowerPoint files but cannot edit them, so they naturally hope to find a method to protect their PowerPoint files by encrypting PowerPoint files.

Actually, it is incredibly easy. On one hand, Microsoft Office PowerPoint itself has provided us with a method to encrypt our PowerPoint files. On the other hand, many PPT masters also concluded good ways to encrypt PowerPoint files. Today, I would like to introduce 3 methods to encrypt your PowerPoint file, and I will take Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 as an example, hope it is useful to you！

Method 1 Encrypt PowerPoint File by Password

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 allows its users to encrypt their PowerPoint File by setting Passwords. Clicking “File” > “Save AS” to open a new dialog box. Click the “Tools” button in the lower left corner of the dialog box and choose “General Options” in the drop down menu. Immediately you can see another dialog box in which you are enabled to set Passwords for the PowerPoint file. “Password for open” is used to view the PowerPoint file and “Password for modify” is used to edit the PowerPoint file.

Method 2 Save the PowerPoint Files as PPS format

Another easy way is to save the PowerPoint files as PPS format. Click “File” > “Save AS” and set “Save as type” as PPS format.

Method 3 Save the PowerPoint Files as PDF format

This method is similar to the above one, you just Substitute PPS format with PDF format.

The 3 methods are free and also very easy to handle, if you think it is useful to you, please try it by yourself. And you can also share these methods with your friends. Then there will not be so many people disturbed by this problem.

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Two Methods to Insert Webpage into PowerPoint

Nowadays, PowerPoint is becoming a more and more popular tool to efficient presentation. It is common to see people work with PowerPoint. Sometimes it requires some information from certain webpage. However, it is impractical to copy the whole webpage to the PowerPoint. So it is of great significance to insert the webpage into PowerPoint. In this case, this post is focus on how to insert a webpage into PowerPoint. You have two choices.

Method 1 Insert Hyperlink

Select the object on which you want to build a link including pictures, words and buttons. Then click "Insert">"Links">"Hyperlink" and input url in the "Address" option in the dialog box appears before you. Finally click "OK" button to create a hyperlink in the PowerPoint.

The advantage of this method is that it is easy for you to handle. On the contrary, its disadvantage is that it fails to allow you to display the webpage directly in the PowerPoint. Only turn to other browsers can you show the information in the webpage.

Method 2 Insert the VB Code Absolute Path

Step 1 Insert a Micro Web Browser Control

Click "Developer" > "More Controls">"Micro Web Browser" to insert a Micro Web Browser control. And then click the "button" icon which is exclusively designed to add a button in the PPT to insert a button.

Step 2 Write the Codes

Check out the inserted button and right click to choose "View Code" and then you will see a new dialog box. In the box you can see the following codes:

Private Sub GoBtn_Click()


WebBrowser1.Navigate（"http://space.30edu.com/04670463/"）


End Sub

You just need to write down the url of the webpage in the bracket.

After all the operations, you can view the webpage directly in your PPT file when you play the PowerPoint. It is really very convenient.

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How to Make an Efficient Presentation

In my opinion, an efficient PowerPoint presentation owes much to the speaker’s elaborate planning and careful preparation as well as consummate PowerPoint skills. Then I would like to express my view of how to make an efficient PowerPoint presentation.

Content: use more graphics rather than technical terms

If necessary please try your best to express your thoughts by graphics which can make sure your idea understood by your audience easily. And at the same time make your presentation more attractive and impressive.

If your speech content is relatively professional, please take your audience into consideration. You’d better make every effort to avoid the terms which is difficult to understand by your audience. If you have to, please make sure you explain it clearly. Remember that if your audience can not understand what you are talking about, you are just wasting of your time. No need to say make an efficient PowerPoint presentation.

Effects: avoid or reduce the use of effects on formal occasions

It is not recommended to add effects when making PowerPoint presentations on formal occasions. A simple and regular PowerPoint is always above praise but also criticism. Of course it is favored to add some effects on informal occasions but in my opinion it is better to add not more than three kinds. Then your PowerPoint can still keep concise instead of messy.

Image: wear suits and keep smiling

Please wear suit when making a PowerPoint presentation. It helps you to leave an authoritative impression to your audience. I have not ever seen anyone wearing jeans or shirt to make a speech. Do not mention about Bill Gates, he can do this and if you were Bill Gates I would say nothing. And before the presentation, keep energetic and positive while making sure you are proper dressed up. I believe your attitude will have a great influence on your audience. Besides, make sure that keep eye contact with your audience during the speech so that you can communicate with them through eye contact. You can recognize what they want and respond them in time. Thus the audience will know you care about them.

These are all my advice and hope it is useful to you.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Look Like a Book

Several days ago, I found an excellent PowerPoint blog online. From that blog I have learned unintentionally a wonderful PowerPoint skill – how to make a PowerPoint look like a book. It is really amazing. So today I cannot help to sharing the skill with all of you. I am sure you will like it.

Step 1 Turn on your Microsoft Office PowerPoint, click “Insert”> “Picture” to insert a picture into the PPT. Adjust the size of the picture to the size of a book.

Step 2 Copy the picture and paste it on the same slide show, and then put the two pictures together. It looks a little like a book now, isn’t it? Add some words on it will be more vivid.

Step 3 Click “Insert”> “Text Box” to insert a text box into one picture and then write some words in it.

Step 4 Click “Design” to choose a theme, then it looks more perfect.

The following is my work, hope you will like it!

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How to Make Two Pictures Move at the Same Time in PowerPoint 2010

As we know, using animation program in the PowerPoint will make our PowerPoint looks more vivid and interesting. It has great significance in attracting audiences' attention. The more attention the audiences paid to our PowerPoint, the more possible we make efficient presentation.

PowerPoint 2010 provides its users with many animation effects. This was supposed to be an advantage, but, in PowerPoint 2010, animation effect of each picture can only be showed one by one. That is to say, we will have trouble in making two or more pictures move at the same time.

Is there any cool way to solve this problem? Of course there is. Actually, it is very easy. If you turn the two or more pictures into one, you can make it. Can you guess the resolution? Ok, let me introduce it to you.

Step 1: insert pictures Open Microsoft Office 2010 and click "Insert" > "Picture" to insert the pictures. Here I just insert two pictures.

Step 2: Combine pictures Select both the two pictures and right click, choose "Group" > "Group". Then the two pictures become one.

Step 3: choose animation effects Click "Animations" > "Animation Styles" to choose animation effects for the picture. Then you have made it. You can see the effects when you click "Slide Show" > "From Current Slide". Here I choose "Swivel".

It is incredibly easy to make it. Three simple steps are all it takes! Can you make it by yourself?

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2 Methods to Import PowerPoint into Windows Live Movie Maker

Windows Live Movie Maker cannot only be used as a tool to create movie from pictures and videos. In fact, you can create movie from PowerPoint too. And in this article we will show you 2 methods to import PowerPoint into Windows Live Movie Maker.

Windows Live Movie Maker supports Windows Vista and Windows 7, for XP users you can use the original Windows Movie Maker. Before we begin, make sure you have Windows Live Movie Maker installed on your computer.

Import photos and videos from portable devices

Windows Live Movie Maker allows you to import photos and videos from digital camera, camcorders and portable devices like smartphone or tablet.

First of all connect your camera or smartphone to your computer and then run Windows Live Maker on your computer. Click Movie Maker button and choose "Import from Devices".

A message will show up notifying that photos and videos will be imported into Windows Live Photo Gallery, click "OK" to go on.

Then select the devices where the photos and videos are stored and click "Import" button.

Then you Windows Live Movie Maker will scan your device to find photos and videos. Then you can choose preview and import part of the items or just import all items at once. After you have decided, click "Import" to begin.

Then open Windows Photo Gallery and click "Create" > "Movie" to send all the photos to Windows Live Movie Maker.

Import PowerPoint to Windows Live Movie Maker

Because PowerPoint formats are not actually supported by Windows Live Movie Maker, that’s why we choose to import PowerPoint to Windows Live Movie Maker as images.

Microsoft PowerPoint support converting PowerPoint slides to images directly. Click "File" and choose "Save As" to export PowerPoint as out file formats.

In the pop up window, choose an image format in the "Save as Type" frame.

A prompt will show up, choose "Every Slide" to save all the PowerPoint slides as images.

Then run Windows Live Movie Maker and click "Home" > "Add videos and photos" to import all the output PowerPoint images.

Tips:

During the PowerPoint to image conversion process, because all the animations, transitions, music, video clips and internal hyperlinks have been removed, so you should further edit PowerPoint images in Windows Live Movie Maker to create a good movie.

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How to View PPS in Android

PPS is another commonly use format to store PowerPoint file. PPS is show for PowerPoint Show, which opens PowerPoint file directly in full screen Slide Show mode. After saving PowerPoint presentation as PPS format, people are not able to edit it anymore and thus keep your PowerPoint file safe. If you want to save PPS as PPT format, read the guide.

Back to the topic, Android is widely used on smartphones and tablets nowadays. And it will be great if we can view PowerPoint on Android on the move. So the below guide will show you how to view PPS in Android, by converting PPS to video format, with the help of PPS to Android converter.

Step 1: Installation. Free download and install the PPS to Android converter on your Windows computer. On the main interface, you will see the brief guide of operation.

Step 2: Add PowerPoint files. Run the program and click "Add" to import PPS files. Unlike other PowerPoint converters which limited PPT files up to 12, you can add as many PowerPoint files as you want in this PPS to Android converter.

Step 3: Select video output. Click on the "Profile" frame and select an output video profile according to your Android device, such as HTC, Motorola, Samsung, etc.

Step 4: Convert. After all the settings are ready, click "Start" to start converting PPS to Android video file. You can preview the output video in real time during conversion.

OS: Windows 8/7/Vista/XP/2000/NT

Retail Price: $49.95

Link: http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/ppt-to-video/

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How to Display Colored PowerPoint in Black and White

For some reason you may need to view a normal colored PowerPoint in Black and White style. You know Black and White color usually gives audience a sense of history, nostalgia, sad, serious, etc. Of course the best way is create a Black and White style PowerPoint at the very beginning.

There is one Black and White template available within PowerPoint 2010. Click "File" > "New" > "Sample templates" and choose the "Classic Photo Album" and finally "Create" a new PowerPoint presentation.

You can see the new PowerPoint slideshow like below. Just remember to adjust the picture color as to Black and White too.

However, if your PowerPoint presentation has already been finished, how to display the colored PowerPoint in Black and White then?

Click "View" tab on the ribbon and find the "Color/Grayscale" group down, there is a "Black and White" button.

Click it and your colored PowerPoint will turn into black and white style.

The problem is that the Black and White style cannot be saved or even view in Slideshow Mode. So I think it's better to create a Black and White PowerPoint at the first hand.

More PowerPoint Tips, you can find here:

http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/blog/category/knowledge-tips-skills/

http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointtipsandfaqs/tp/powerpoint-slide-show-tips.htm

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