MakeUseOf » microsoft powerpoint

Make Points Stick With PointerStick For Presentations

Dave Parrack — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:00:41 +0000

The humble cursor is a wondrous thing, allowing us to navigate our way around a computer screen with a keyboard and mouse combo. At least until we all go touch crazy and start using tablets. The problem with the cursor is it’s so tiny that it just doesn’t do the job required of it in certain situations.

I’m thinking of times when you need to show an individual or group something on your laptop or monitor. Like a formal presentation at work (on the occasions you aren’t merely trying to stave off boredom), or an informal presentation at home (when you really shouldn’t ever be bored). Thankfully there is a free tool which fills this void and is available as a download. For free. As is the MakeUseOf way.

Pointerstick for Presentations

PointerStick is a small, unobtrusive program which offers a simple solution to a simple problem. It was created by Nenad Hrg and is available to download for free from SoftwareOK.com as well as the usual outlets such as CNET Download and Softpedia.

PointerStick is far from perfect, which means we need to break this piece of software down into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I know it’s cheap, but it works on occasion.

The Good

PointerStick has many good qualities. The program is tiny (v1.55 weighs in at just 726Kb), although as more features (such as more textures) are added it will no doubt become a little more bloated. That’s true of almost every program, though.

There are a range of options available to anyone using PointerStick for presentations:

The size of the pointing stick can be changed from tiny to huge.
The transparency level of the pointing stick can be adjusted.
There are different textures to suit any mood or situation.

It’s also very simple to switch on and off; You can have the program running in the taskbar and click Show the Stick’ and ‘Hide the Stick’ to instantly make a change. Or you can click ‘#Esc’ to stop the program from running altogether. CPU usage is tiny, so PointerStick will not cause your fan to crank up and your PC to start whining.

The Bad

The biggest problem is the constant orientation switching. PointerStick has been designed so that the non-cursor end of the pointing stick is always facing outwards towards (or beyond) the edge of the screen. Which means that any exaggerated movement changes the orientation in an instant.

This harms the usability of PointerStick quite badly. I would much rather the orientation remain the same (perhaps horizontal) at all times.

The cursor also remains visible at the end of the pointing stick. I’d prefer it be hidden under the end instead so as to make the pointing stick the only focus of attention when it’s being utilized.

The Ugly

PointerStick is rather ugly, it has to be said. The program is fine; being simple to navigate, easy to use, and laid out in a way that makes it accessible to all but the dumbest of users. And I suspect the nature of the program means it will be used by some absolute beginners to the world of computing.

However, the pointing stick itself is another matter. Changing the texture, the size, and the transparency helps a little, but whatever you do you’re still left with a pointing stick that looks like it was designed by a blind person. Perhaps it was, I don’t like to judge. The gold texture (as pictured above) is the easiest on the eye, but how many of us can pull off that level of bling?

Conclusion

A mixed bag then, to say the least. PointerStick won’t win any awards for style, but it does a job and does it surprisingly well. Future versions will likely improve the product, or at least we can but hope.

If the orientation switching can first be fixed then new features could be added to turn PointerStick from a nice attempt at solving a problem to a must-use product. Still, we shouldn’t complain when the program is both free and small in size.

If you have tried PointerStick then what would you like to see added/removed/changed in future releases? Have you ever found the need for a program such as PointerStick? How have you formerly got around the problem of no one being able to see what you were directing them to thanks to the size of the cursor?

How To Display The Current Date And Time In A PowerPoint Presentation

Saikat Basu — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:30:06 +0000

Good presentations need little touches. With screen real estate at a premium when it comes to Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, you also need to justify design with functionality. One of the little touches I have always found useful as a viewer and an occasional presenter is the display of time and date on a Powerpoint slideshow.

Displaying the current time and date in a PowerPoint presentation is an essential option to select if you are using handouts too. As we will see, it’s also very easy to accomplish.

Another useful addition is using date and time formats according to the culture of the audience you are showing the presentation to. This is a tip to use if you work in a global company. Without counting the seconds, let’s dive straight into the method.

Add the Current Time and Date to a PowerPoint Slide

1. Open your PowerPoint document and got to the View tab on the Ribbon. Choose the Normal view. Select the first slide of the slideshow.

2. Click on the Insert tab and go to the Text group. Click on the little Date and Time icon which gives you options to insert the current date and time into the PowerPoint document.

3. Clicking on the Date and Time icon opens up the Header and Footer dialog box. Using the two tabs (as in the screenshot) we can add the date and time values to our main slides as well as the Notes and Handouts we usually print out and give to the audience as reference material.

4. The next few steps are pretty simple – choose the date and time format from the dropdown. Selecting a Fixed time acts as a marker that lets you know when the slide was created. It is obviously constant. The Update automatically selection displays a dynamic time that takes the current time from the system clock. The options are the same for the Notes and Handouts tab. (Preferably, don’t show the date and time on the title slide).

Remember: Each time you open or print the presentation, PowerPoint will update the time. PowerPoint does not continuously update automatically but only at the start of the slide show.

5. Select Apply to All and you are done.

Add the Current Time and Date According to the Language

1. Choose File – Options – Language. The Options dialog gives you a lineup of additional languages to edit your document.

2. Expand the dropdown for Add additional editing languages and select the language(s) of your choice which you want to use for the date and time. Click on Add.

3. Press OK and exit the PowerPoint file.

4. Reopen the presentation and position your cursor where you wish to insert the date. Take the usual route of selecting the Insert tab and then clicking on the Date and Time button.

5. If you are using something like a text box to insert your date and time, you will get a dialog box like this:

If you are adding the date and time as a footer, then the usual box appears. In both cases, select the date and time format, and pick the language from the dropdown. After the Ok, the date and time is entered in the language of the country chosen.

Using the date and time with your PowerPoint slides is a simple final step to follow before you give or distribute a presentation. Do you do so in your presentations?

Image Credit:Shutterstock

How To Link MS Word 2010 To OneNote & Use It For Writing Linked Notes

Saikat Basu — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:31:47 +0000

I speak of myself alone when I say that Microsoft OneNote gets treated like a poor cousin while MS Word and MS PowerPoint walk away with the greater share of the attention. MS OneNote isn’t a sideshow at all but a very useful package in its own right. It’s perhaps the only place in the MS Office suite where you can offload everything – from documents to images, and now even audio commentaries. You don’t even need to tell it to save as it does so automatically.

We had seen earlier how MS OneNote 2007’s screen clip and OCR tool could be used to collect information. MS Office 2010 adds another by letting you link MS Word 2010, and MS PowerPoint to OneNote 2010.

The Linked Notes Feature and the Uses We Can Put It To

The direct benefit of the Linked Notes feature is that you can take notes in a docked OneNote window on your desktop while you work side-by-side in the other programs. This linking allows you to refer back to either the note or the main document by clicking on the link. Quite simply, you don’t have to copy-paste information manually. You can use the Linked Notes feature to work with MS Word 2010 (or PowerPoint) and OneNote side-by-side. Plus, you can use Tags on OneNote (like, Remember for Later; To-do etc) to flag the notes or even assign an Outlook Task to it.

In fact, the PowerPoint blog has a very nice explanation on the uses to put Linked Notes to.

This free ‘exchange’ of information makes for a great information management and research aid. But how do we set it up? Let’s try out with a demo.

Let’s Make OneNote and MS Word Work Together

Launch MS Word 2010. Please note that the document needs to be saved in Word 2010’s DOCX format. The Linked Notes button can be found on the Review tab of the Ribbon.

OneNote opens up and displays the Select Location in OneNote dialog box. You can click and expand the notebooks to pick a location to save the linked notes.

With a click on the OK button, you can start your note taking. When you select the note, a small Word icon (or a PowerPoint icon if you are working there) appears to indicate the link with the document in context. Of course, like in the earlier versions too, if you copy-paste any content from places like web pages it appears with the source link as reference.

To show the other side of how these two Office programs work together, close both the linked note and the main Word file. Open OneNote and the saved note. Click on the little Word icon or the little link icon on the upper-left to get to the connected Word document.

Managing the Linked Note Window

One of the easiest ways to take quick notes is by clicking the Dock to Desktop button on the View tab in OneNote 2010. Dock to Desktop allows you to take notes while working from any program on your computer. To reiterate again, if it’s Word or PowerPoint; your notes will be stored in context.

Clicking the Normal View button on the View tab closes the linked note taking session.

If you want to remove any of the linked notes, click on the chain link button on the upper-left and click on Delete Links on This Page.

The ‘in context’ linking handshake between OneNote and MS Word or PowerPoint is a great help when you are looking to extend your research with extra notes and external resources. It takes away some of the headaches involved in organizing notes and puts it all within the reach of a mouse click.

Do you use this new feature of MS Office 2010? If yes, how useful do you find it?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

How To Convert A PowerPoint 2010 Presentation Into A Video With One Click

Saikat Basu — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:30:17 +0000

Converting a PowerPoint slide to a video has lots of uses. It can be used to send a cluster of pictures to someone who does not have PowerPoint or a PowerPoint viewer installed. Videos are in fact, quite an easy way to send someone a PowerPoint presentation. In any case, a video ‘show’ sounds more interesting than a PowerPoint slideshow; you can convert one and watch it on a TV. Another use I can think of straightaway is to create a novel ‘visual resume’ to stand out from the crowd. Pretty much like the one demonstrated in the said link.

Creating a video from a slideshow isn’t something new. It has been a pretty common activity thanks to the clutch of PPT to video converters. But thanks to the latest edition of Microsoft Office, you can do away with third party tools…at least for a basic video conversion job.

Microsoft Office 2010 has come in with a slew of user-friendly new features. One of the new features in PowerPoint 2010 helps you convert Powerpoint presentations to video with just a click.

Here are the steps that start with a normal presentation file.

After creating a presentation, select the File tab from the ribbon.
Click on Save and Send – Create a Video under File Types.
A few optional settings help to further tailor your video creation process.As the screenshot below shows, you can record and time voice narration and laser pointer movements in your video effectively creating a screencast. All other animations and transitions are also preserved in the converted format.
Two dropdowns fine tune your ‘production’ for the media it will be displayed on. It also determines file size. For instance, opting for Portable devices reduces the resolution. I find this quite handy if I have to carry along and watch a presentation on an iPod or a smartphone.
You can also add the recorded timings and narration to the video. You can also specify the time that will determine the transition from one slide to the next.
Finally click on the large Create Video button and choose a location to save your video as a WMV file.

As the conversion to .wmv format begins there will be a progress bar displayed in the lower right corner of PowerPoint that indicates the pace. The time taken for the conversion will of course depend on the size of the PowerPoint file. My 15-slide sample presentation took about eight minutes to turn into a movie.

The inbuilt PowerPoint video conversion is a handy aid to have. There are some limitations of course:

PowerPoint 2010 supports only one video format. A few more choices like MP4, FLV etc would have been real handy. For that, you still have to depend on third-party conversion tools. Also, the highest resolution that’s on offer is 960×720. Higher resolutions (and commonly available) like 1,280×720, 1,920×1,080, or 1,920×1,080 are not available.

The limitations notwithstanding, the Create Video feature is a great tool to have. It saves us the bother of looking for a conversion tool and allows us to quickly upload and share videos of any presentations. If you are a PowerPoint super-user, would you agree that Microsoft has plugged a gap.

How To Add Tabs To Microsoft Office & Improve Your Document Management

Saikat Basu — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:31:28 +0000

We have got so used to tabs that we routinely miss them in the other applications we use. One of our more oft used applications happens to be the Microsoft Office suite. Tabs are something which the guys at Redmond woke up late to. So far, it has escaped an introduction in MS Office; a feature I am sure many of you out there would want as a default. At least I am sure that power users around the world are hankering for it.

Microsoft Office plug-in Office Tab (ver.7.00) heeds it and adds tabbed document support to Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Office Tab is a 2.9 MB download and it comes in commercial and free editions. The free edition is for personal use and is feature limited. As we will see, the limitations of some features do not detract from the usefulness of this plug-in when it comes to managing multiple documents.

Install and First Look

Office Tab is compatible with Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit), Windows Server, Windows Vista (32 & 64 bit), and Windows XP. It fits in with Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, 2010 (32/64).

Office Tab frees up the Windows taskbar by enabling you to work with Office documents within a single window. Windows 7 has a much improved taskbar with a preview, but Office Tab is much more efficient when it comes to working with multiple documents alongside each other. Here’s how the MS Word interface looks after the install:

As you will notice, all documents can now be opened within the same Office window, and switching makes working with multiple documents much easier.

A Few More Handy Features

Though it is a feature limited edition, Office Tab gives you a few more useful (and customizable) options to work with. You can click anywhere on the tab bar to quickly open a new document. You can alternatively right click on the tab bar to select New or Open to bring up another document. You can also Close or Save a document from here. (The features marked with an asterisk are only available in the commercial version of the app).

Each program that Office Tab supports (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in the free version) has a Settings panel where you can play around with a few more options. The Settings can be individualized for each application. The Settings panel is also displayed during the installation. The options that are grayed out are only reserved for the commercial version of the plug-in.

Some of the options available change the appearance of the tabs and the way they are displayed. For instance, you can fiddle with the position of the tabs around the workspace (Select Tab Bar Position). You can go for a change in the Style and Color of the tabs by choosing any one from the eleven styles available. Go crazy with colors if you like to put some on your tabs (only Excel and PowerPoint).

Power-users should definitely settle on the shortcut keys that help to select and switch tabs. You can also drag ‘n drop tabs, an immense help to organize multiple documents within the same window.

The commercial version has a few more important features like Quick Rename and Save-All in one click. But I don’t think you will miss them because even with the basic features, Office Tab does make for a productive experience. Try out Office Tab and let us know what you think of this useful Microsoft Office Add-in.

Introducing SlideRocket Upgrades: The Power Of PowerPoint Online

Bakari Chavanu — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:31:26 +0000

Back in 2008, we briefly reviewed the online multimedia application, SlideRocket. But in the last few years, the program has expanded, making for a powerful alternative – or dare we might say, a true replacement – to Microsoft’s PowerPoint platform. I’ve tried a few online presentation programs before, and each of them seemed lacking in features or too clumsy to use. This is not case with SlideRocket.

Its beautifully designed and easily accessible features enable you to create, publish, and share your presentations without the hassle of uploading and downloading them to the Internet for updates and online collaboration. In addition, if you’re using SlideRocket for business purposes it’s a perfect interactive tool for your clients.

Stunning Features

If you have experience with PowerPoint or Apple‘s Keynote, SlideRocket won’t be a stranger to you. Many of its features are similar to the former programs, but without the extra panels that sometime get in the way of creating presentations.

SlideRocket includes about a dozen well designed themed master slides that can be customized for your particular needs. What makes SlideRocket a more practical platform is that all of your presentations and resources can be stored in one place, making it easy for you to access them on any computer with Internet access.

As SlideRocket is an online program, you can easily share and collaborate with others to create slide projects. SlideRocket won’t automatically save your presentations, but if for some reason you lose your Wi-Fi connection it will attempt to recover unsaved changes to your presentation.

Multimedia Support

Some of the newer features of SlideRocket include the ability to pull media resources such as photos from sites like the photo sharing site, Flickr, the stock media site, Fotolia, Google Spreadsheets, as well as your own computer.

Audio files included in SlideRocket must be purchased, but you can also import royalty-free music from programs like Apple‘s GarageBand and these online music sites.

Layout Features

SlideRocket includes a surprising number of layout and design tools that are comparable to what you would find in PowerPoint and say Photoshop Elements.

Beyond the ability to insert photos, movie files, charts, and audio files, SlideRocket enables you to do advance text formatting, layering and alignment of elements you add to slides. As you might expect, the program also includes a good variety of transition effects. They all may not be as dynamic as what you would find in PowerPoint and Keynote, but let’s be honest, how many presentations have you seen that were marred by the misuse of slide effects and animations?

The free version of SlideRocket includes 250MB of storage and 15MB file size; up to 5 multi-seat accounts, shared folders/items, shared libraries, public presentations, Google indexing of Presentations, PowerPoint import and printing and exporting to PDF format. The Pro version includes a lot more, but if you’re not creating presentations on a regular basis, the free version should suffice.

Presentation Formats

SlideRocket includes HTML 5 platform support, which means the presentations can be easily viewed in mobile applications like the iPhone and the iPad.

You can also download the SlideRocket Desktop Presenter which lets you synchronize presentations from your online account to your desktop. This is useful for occasions when don’t have a Wi-Fi connection. SlideRocket is also accessible as a Google Chrome application, providing a one-click process to your account.

Let us know what you think of SlideRocket. Do you find it easy to use? Also, check out these other alternatives to PowerPoint.

The 4 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft PowerPoint

Steve Campbell — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 21:31:38 +0000

Do you create a lot of presentations? If you do, you’re probably a master at PowerPoint, or Keynote if you own a Mac. Microsoft PowerPoint is the standard for slide presentation software and lays the blueprint from which all other applications are created. But what if you’re looking for something new or different?

In this article, I’m going to show you the 4 best, free alternatives to PowerPoint. If you’re looking for a new way to present your material without getting too far away from PowerPoint’s concept, you’ll find these apps useful. If you want to escape PowerPoint’s grasp once and for all, we can help you with that as well.

1. Google Docs Presentation

My favorite alternative when it comes to replacing Microsoft applications is usually Google. You may already be familiar with Google Docs, but did you know you can create presentations with the web-based app? Just click on the Create new drop down menu and select Presentation to get started.

As you might imagine, this online application is very simple to use. You can change the theme and background of your presentation, insert text boxes, images, and videos, import slides, and all that good stuff. And since you’re using Google Docs, you can share your presentation with others and work on it collaboratively.

2. SlideRocket

SlideRocket is a higher end model of a collaborative, web-based presentation application. While this is a premium app, they do offer a nice free option, which gives you 250 MB of storage (15 MB file size), up to 5 multi-seat accounts, shared folders, items, and libraries, and the ability to import from Powerpoint and export to PDF.

We covered SlideRocket in an article 2 years ago and it has only got better since then. It has a beautiful user interface and a lot of great features, including the ability to add themes, layouts, shapes, charts, tables, pictures, audio, video, and Flash animations. You can also integrate content from sites like Flickr and YouTube, as well as utilize plug-ins.

To get a glimpse of SlideRocket, check out this short video:

3. 280 Slides

280 Slides is another very easy to use presentation creation app. Last covered back in March of ’09, 280 Slides offers a host of great features, like the ability to upload your existing PowerPoint presentations and import them into 280 Slides, preventing you from having to start over.

Other great features include autosave and recovery, storing presentations online, downloading them in the PowerPoint 2007 format, adding photos and movies from Flickr and YouTube, posting to SlideShare and embedding, and running them straight from your browser.

4. Prezi

Prezi, if you haven’t heard of it by now, is one of those really cool presentation applications that is very different from how PowerPoint and the rest function. What makes it significantly different is the fact that it doesn’t invoke the traditional slide-by-slide rules of a normal presentation. Rather, each presentation you create is a flowing, motion-based depiction filled with your creativity.

I’m not going to spend much time going over Prezi’s features because Simon did a fantastic job of that already in his article on Prezi back in February of this year. If you would like to view the official Prezi introduction video, however, have at it:

Conclusion

Are you over PowerPoint yet? I wasn’t lying when I said there were some good alternative apps out there. Explore these and you will find a bunch of great features and ways of presenting your material to others. The sharing abilities and integration with other services and file types give you a diverse set of options when deciding which tool would be best for the job.

Another cool app that might be worth investigating from our directory is Spresent.

What do you think of these presentation apps? What apps are you using?

Image Credit: archerix

How To Create An Interactive Quiz Using Powerpoint Masters

Simon Slangen — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:31:36 +0000

People often wonder why Microsoft Powerpoint costs so much. After all, you can only create simple, linear ‘presentations’ with it. Wrong.

Microsoft Powerpoint is an immensely powerful suite, and can be used for much more than straightforward presentations. It can be used to create website mockups, and even interactive learning tools.

We’ll explore one example of this last category below; interactive quizzes. De facto applications that employ a functional, if simple, interface.

Masters

A slide master is the DNA that is used to create new slides. A slide stamp, so to speak, which determines how newly created slides will look. By default, the slide master is pretty boring, but we can change this to pretty much anything we want. We can even create multiple master slides with sub-layouts and change between them on the fly while we’re creating our presentation.

To open the Slide Master menu, go to View and select Slide Master. This changes the Powerpoint mode, so you’ll have to switch this back to normal before you’re able to actually create the presentation.

A Slide Master menu will be added to the top ribbon which you can use to add new master profiles and layouts. These will appear in the sidebar, as shown in the screenshot below. Slide Masters will appear independently and branch off into different layouts.

Layering

So how exactly are we planning to use the Slide Masters in our little quiz? We can use them to design different, recurring levels of the application, e.g. a main menu and different quiz categories.

Using Slide Masters, we have to create the layout once, and can retain the category buttons in all subsequent slides. This will save us a lot of work now, and whenever we want to create an interactive presentation in the future.

Important! To make sure our quizzers won’t be able to advance by simply clicking elsewhere on the slide, you’ll have to disable the ‘Advance Slide on Mouse Click‘ option for every single Slide Master.

Button Actions

Buttons, much like in real applications and websites, allow us to navigate between different slides more freely than in the default linear matter. We can jump to and fro different slides, and even create clickable categories in our Slide Master.

Interlinking

It’s rather easy to link to a different slide. Select a piece of text or a shape with your right mouse, and click Hyperlink.

By default, this option allows you to link to a webpage. Select ‘Place in This Document’ in the left sidebar. This will allow for inter-presentation linking.

Hyperlinks allow you to create relative (e.g. next, previous slide) and absolute hyperlinks (i.e. pointing to a specific slide). We’ll be using both.

Creating The Quiz

We’re using the above two tools to create an interactive quiz.

First, create as many actual slides as you have categories. These don’t need to contain much, except maybe a text element for easy reference.

Masters & Categories

We’ll lay out the foundation, second. Select the first layout and design it to incorporate the major elements of your interface. These need to be consistent over the entire Powerpoint. I added the quiz title and links to every category. Point the category buttons to those slides you created before using a hyperlink.

If you want a custom design for each quiz category, copy and paste the layout as many times as you have categories. You can now adjust each layout as you see fit; the buttons will remain in working order. I created a colored text-box, matching the colors of my category buttons. Renaming them, also possible via right-click, will improve the overview.

Landing Pages & Sub-pages

Go back to normal mode, and put a new slide at the very start of your presentation. This will be your main landing page, which you can use to give advance information, point to the different categories, or initiate the quiz. Adjust it as you deem appropriate.

You can change the layout of the existing category pages by using right-mouse -> Layout and selecting one of the designs you made earlier on.

Subsequent slides can be added using the right layout by selecting them from the dropdown box below the New Slide button.

We’ve now got almost everything set to create our quiz. Simply add one additional slide to the end of your document. This will be the slide people get to see when they select the wrong answer. Make it universal, so do not relate to any one question. Add a button below that the user can click to return to the question(e.g. Try Again, or Go Back), but instead of creating a hyperlink, select Insert -> Action -> Hyperlink to: -> Last Slide Viewed.

A Quizzical Questionnaire

Make sure the questions appear per category and in running order. This allows us to use relative links.

Now, to add a question, create a page using the right categoric lay-out. Add as many additional media as you deem appropriate and as many possible questions as you feel like. All but one of these answers need to point to your wrong answer-slide with a hyperlink. The correct answer links to the next slide in sequence.

Do you know any other great uses for Powerpoint? Let us know in the comments!

Use Microsoft Office for Free with Microsoft Web Apps

Matt Smith — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:30:29 +0000

Google Documents has its problems. Its features are not comprehensive enough for truly serious office work, and it can be a bit slow and finicky when compared to a traditional office program. Still, Google Documents has started a revolution. The ability to access a document from any computer and share it with co-workers is immensely useful.

Microsoft knows this. It has been flat-footed so far, as the company’s investments in the mighty Microsoft Office Suite can’t be turned on (or with) a dime. They are not blind to the situation and to respond, Microsoft has released Microsoft Web Apps, a set of free applications which emulate the functions of Google Documents.

There Is Some Office In My Firefox

Microsoft’s new Web Apps platform is accessed through Windows Live. If you have a Windows Live account you just need to log into it and you’re good to go. If you don’t have a Windows Live account you will need to create one before you gain access.

Once you log in, you will be greeted by what Microsoft calls Skydrive. The Skydrive is simply your online storage. It works a lot like a normal hard drive, although of course, you have to access it through your web browser. You can create new folders for storing and sharing documents and you can move documents from folder to folder. The interface is different from Google Documents, but not quite as robust in functionality. You can’t view documents as thumbnails, for example.

What Can You Buy For Free?

As you might expect, the functionality of Microsoft Web Apps is limited compared to the complete Microsoft Office suite. You will only be able to use web-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote. The functionality of each Web App is limited when compared to the full version, as well. The Word Web App, for example, is only really suitable for basic text editing. You an also add photos and links, but that is about it. You can’t add comments, create annotations or edit footers.

If you already own the Microsoft Office suite, however, you’ll be able to open any Web App document in the full version of Microsoft Office. The value of this feature can’t be overstated. While browser-based office suites are interesting, they are never as smooth or as functional as a office suite installed on your local machine. By integrating the ability to open a Web App document with just one click Microsoft gives Office users the best of both worlds.

The interface of Microsoft’s Web App’s will be immediately familiar if you use Microsoft Office. This means that is better than other popular free suites, like Google Documents and Zoho. Rather than relying on old-fashion drop-down menus, Microsoft Web Apps follows a more modern tabbed design aesthetics. Icons are large and intuitive, and the most frequently needed functions are represented by large buttons which are easy to find. I was able to start using Microsoft Web Apps in no time at all.

A Real Alternative to Google Documents?

It is easy to pigeon-hole Microsoft as the senile old curmudgeon of the tech world, slowly dying as it makes desperate attempts to keep with the times. This portrayal is common (those lovely “I’m a Mac” ads didn’t help) but it is starting to seem inaccurate.

Microsoft’s Web Apps is an extremely solid platform. Its interface is actually better than that of Google Documents in many respects. Microsoft’s Web Apps also feels even quicker than Google Documents, which is by no means a slouch when it comes to speed. I noticed this somewhat when I was using Word, but the biggest speed difference seemed to come in the presentation apps. Microsoft’s Powerpoint Web App felt a lot smoother than Google’s implementation.

It is the integration with the paid version of Office that is killer, however. As an dedicated OpenOffice user, I’m now considering actually purchasing Microsoft Office 2010 just to gain access one-click integration with Microsoft’s Web Apps. If any OpenOffice users out there know a way to enable similar functionality for OpenOffice I’d love to hear it.

How to Make a Visual Resume with PowerPoint in 3 Steps & Stand Out from the Crowd

Jessica Drew — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:30:42 +0000

Almost every employer requires traditional CVs, but visual resumes are increasing in popularity and can make you stand out of the crowd and land the job. After looking at hundreds of visual resumes (there are thousands on YouTube), I can say that these types of resumes can either be ingenious masterpieces or flops (or at the worst case, something that’s just painful to watch).

Why make a visual resume? With the job market in a vice, the competition is fierce. Visual resumes are becoming more and more popular, but not everyone and their mom are submitting a visual resume along with their traditional one (yet) ““ so at the moment they can really help you stand out.

More and more employers are seeking to get to know a potential employee on a personal level and visual resumes can give employers this insight. Visual resumes tell a story and this can give potential employers an interesting snapshot of who you are ““ making them want to learn more and visit your website or blog, read your traditional resume or better yet, give you a call.

Job search engine sites are getting hip to the idea of visual resumes; Jobster.com allows users to upload visual resumes right onto their site, while MyWorkster.com has a place for a link to a visual resume on a user’s profile.

What Not To Do: Don’t be an Elle Woods or an Aleksey Vayner

In the feature film “Legally Blonde,” bubbly and blonde protagonist Elle Woods gets accepted into Harvard Law School because of her visual resume, which shows her flouncing around in a pink bikini. Sex appeal is something you definitely do not want to show off in your visual resume.

Secondly, don’t lie in your visual resume like Aleksey Vayner, a Yale graduate who was pursuing a career as an investment banker. Vayner’s resume, which he uploaded to YouTube in 2006, was full of outlandish lies and hilarious. The visual resume showed Vayner, who had a thin and lanky build, supposedly bench pressing a 495lb weight and hitting a tennis ball at 140 mph. The resume went viral ““ the entire blogosphere got a great laugh. MSN and several other national news organizations even picked up and broadcast the story. Bottom line; you don’t want anything even remotely like this happening to you. Showing your sense of humor in a toned down way is a good thing ““ looking ridiculous will just give everyone in human resources something to talk about around the water cooler.

Video vs. PowerPoint

This tutorial is about how to make a visual resume using PowerPoint, not with a video camera. There are a couple reasons why I think this the PowerPoint resume method is superior.

First, videotaping takes a lot of time. You have to get a haircut, dress up, find someone to film you, think long and hard about what you’re going to say (and more importantly – how you’re going to say it), re-record the whole thing since you’ll inevitably mess up at least ten times and then edit the entire piece. PowerPoint is simple, quick and easy.

Secondly, after viewing hundreds of video resumes, I came to the conclusion that most people just end up looking slightly cheesy, silly, camera-shy or dorky. A few people looked great, and they were mostly in the fields of journalism, public relations or marketing. However, the rest of us who are not in these fields just aren’t movie stars ““ that’s totally OK and nothing to be ashamed about. However, I think a visual resume made via PowerPoint will serve this group of people (myself included) much better.

Thirdly, a visual PowerPoint resume can really showcase someone’s creative side and personality, while being quite entertaining without being too far out there. Video resumes typically start out the same way; “Hi my name is so and so ““ I am looking for a job as a xx.” This can start to get rather drab. If you do decide to do something outside the box with a video resume, there is a greater chance of you missing boat completely.

How to Make a Visual Powerpoint Resume

This is such an easy how-to, a six year old could probably do it!

Open up PowerPoint and make a slide show as you would any other. You can stop here if you’d like and save it as a PowerPoint file and upload to SlideShare.net, if you’d like to feature your resume entirely as a slide show presentation.
If you’d like to make it a movie then once you’ve made the show, simply click the “Slide Show” tab and then click “rehearse timings.” Carefully give yourself enough time to read each slide before clicking the next button. You can then view a preview and your show will automatically move from slide to slide at the intervals you set earlier.
Save the show as movie and upload to YouTube, Jobster, your website or blog and wherever else!

And that’s all it takes! The harder part is deciding what to include in your visual resume. In general, you’ll want to include what’s on your traditional resume in a very concise format ““ while showing off a glimpse (keyword here is glimpse) of your personality. Now how you do this is completely up to you ““ but here are some standout examples of slide show visual resumes for you to use as inspiration.

10 minutes of me: Giordano Scalzo’s Visual Resume

View more presentations from giordano scalzo.

Reproduced with permission

Visual resume

View more presentations from Saranyan Vigraham.

Reproduced with permission

Has anyone else created a visual PowerPoint resume? If so, let us know in the comments what kind of response you received from potential employers and if you thought it helped you at all in the job application process.

Image Credit: Devo In Regress