Tools to Create Captivating Presentation

01.Presentation Slides

• Microsoft powerpoint is now available as a free online service on www.office.com

• Google Presentations (Click create when you login to your Google Drive and select Presentations). You can also access them from Google Docs (docs.google.com).

• Apple’s KeyNote now free with Mac and iPhone. apple.com/mac/keynote/

• haikudeck.com/ if you want to create presentations on iPad.

• projeqt.com/ if you want your presentations to appear modern incorporating stories, tweets and social media news which relate to your topic. Check out their examples and gallery for inspiration.

• libreoffice.org/ is a powerful free tool based on Open Office. It even includes a version which gets installed on your usb drive in case you need to use somebody else’s laptop for presenting.

Remember that if you use any of these software then you must also save them in the universally readable pdf format so you are not dependent on the software installed on your personal laptop.

It is possible that your laptop may die or you may need to use someone else’s laptop or you may need to mail your presentation to the participants.

02. Variety In Content

• Use screenr.com to create a screencast video and then embed it in a slide in your presentation.

• Record yourself in webcam while speaking or record another person answering a question you ask, using iphone camera. Embed this video into a slide.

• Find a short recorded video on youtube and embed it in your slide. Remember that if you use any online video you will have to count of having an internet connection during your presentation.

• Other screen recording software: You can one of these to record something on your desktop and save as a video to be embedded in your slide.

• Find free icons on the web and create an infographic on a slide. Search google for infographics related to your topic for inspiration.

• Find free interesting images which you can illustrate your points.

03. Make It Alive: Whiteboard

Plan on atleast some – even if minimal – amount of whiteboarding to make your session dynamic. There is energy in the room when something is being created in front of the audience’s eyes.

You have several choices for whiteboarding:

• Use the whiteboarding feature in Microsoft Powerpoint:

• Whiteboard: Fire up one of your presentations; while it is running, tap the W key, which will present a totally white screen. Now, right-click on the screen and you’ll get a pop-up menu that lets you select a type of drawing instrument–pen, highlighter, brush–and color. You can use the mouse to draw stuff on the screen.

• Use the whiteboarding features in Microsoft Visio (not free) on your laptop.

• Use the whiteboarding features of your web-conferencing tool like webex.

• Free whiteboarding tools you can use:

• http://open-sankore.org/en is a feature rich free tool. You need to install it on your desktop.

• http://awwapp.com/ is an online whiteboarding tool. No registeration required. To invite others to view your whiteboard as you draw, simply send them the link to it.

There are many other whiteboarding tools if you search on internet. However our advice is to keep it simple. You are using whiteboarding only to introduce variety not for a complex demo.

04. Make It Dynamic: Annotate

Annotate your slides when talking to emphasize key words and points.

• Easy Annotations With Microsoft PowerPoint: You can also use the above technique to emphasize a word or phrase during a presentation. Simply right click when your powerpoint is in presentation mode and choose a pen. Using this you can underline words in your powerpoint or draw additional elements (arrows, lines etc) in an image of a drawing.

• Convert your slides into pdf document and use the free nitro reader to annotate, underline or highlight text. Unfortunately this doesn’t have a pen tool so you can not use free hand annotations, drawing lines etc.