Archive for July, 2010

New Animations for PowerPoint

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

We’ve recently been taking some of our most popular 3D figures for PowerPoint and converting them into PowerPoint animations.  The animations below are set on infinite loop, but with our new loop feature in the Animation Customizer you can change the number of time an animation loops before it stops.

Animated 3D Stick figure with red target

Stick Figure Animation for PowerPoint

Animated 3D person reading a book

Stick Figure reading a book

These new animations are animated .GIF files but they can also be downloaded as Flash (.SWF).  They can be downloaded with a white background or with a transparent or clear background.  Also you can customize the background color of the animation using the customizer.  Customizing the color allows you to seamlessly match the animation to your presentation background.

Animated Businessman winning a race

A businessman finishes the race first in this animated clip art

Animated figure breaking through wall with hammer

Animated 3D figure uses a sledge hammer to break through a brick wall

These PowerPoint animations were created by Judd Albrecht and Josh Doohen, co-owners and artists here at PresenterMedia.  As we are the artists that create all the content on PresenterMedia, please feel free to let us know what you’d like to see on the site.  In most cases we are happy to create your suggestions and add them to the site for all our subscribers to benefit from.

View all our animations for PowerPoint here.

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Posted in Animations, New Images | No Comments »

Set the number of loops of an animation

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Adding an animated .GIF to a PowerPoint presentation can be an easy way to call attention to a point or to add a bit of life to a slide.  But animated .GIFs should be used with caution.  Nobody wants to view a slide with to many distractions.

Typically an animated GIF is set to loop over and over again forever and ever.  After a while this can get distracting for your audience if you spend any amount of time on a slide.  Wouldn’t it be great if the animation would just stop after a few moments?

With this in mind, we’ve added an new feature to our custom animation (GIF) creator in our animations section.  You can now set the number of times our animations loop before they stop.

Control the number of loops in an animated gif

Control the number of loops in an animated .GIF

By clicking the Number of Loops area in the customizer, you can set the animation to loop one to six times or choose to let if repeat indefinitely.

I particularly like choosing one or two loops for animations in my presentations as this give just enough time to spark the slide without becoming a distraction to my message.

For now, the set number of loops only works with .GIF images created with our customizer.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

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Posted in Animations, New Features, Tutorials | 7 Comments »

Animated Templates for Mac PowerPoint

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

We’re happy to announce that our animated PowerPoint templates are now compatible with Mac PowerPoint 2008.  We have been uploading mac specific templates for several of our animated selections.  Not every animated template has a mac file yet, but we are working to upload the remainder as fast as we can.  If there is an existing template you need formatted to Mac PowerPoint, please let us know.

Example of animated template for Mac PowerPoint 2008.

The mac templates function by utilizing QuickTime video(.mov) instead of Windows Media Video (.wmv) required for PowerPoint 2010 and 2007 templates.  Unlike the Windows templates, the Mac templates utilize externally linked video files.  This means the mac templates come with an additional file or two.  Using the Mac templates are easy, but please remember to keep the video files in the same directory as your finished presentations.  If you don’t PowerPoint won’t be able to find the video and the animation will not work.

Download animated templates for Macintosh PowerPoint 2008 here.

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Animated Templates and PowerPoint 2007

Monday, July 12th, 2010

If you use PowerPoint 2007 and experience a problem with our animated PowerPoint templates not playing, here are a few things do to get it working properly.  Most likely the problem is due to Office 2007 not being up to date.  Microsoft has released several updates to Office 2007 over the past few years.

PowerPoint 2007 Troubleshooting Guide

1. Be sure you are actually viewing the SlideShow (F5)

The animations in our templates will only play in SlideShow mode and not in the normal edit mode.  Under the SlideShow tab, press ‘From Beginning’ or you can simply press F5.  If the animations move in SlideShow mode, everything is working properly.

2. Run Windows Update.

Microsoft has come out with several updates and patches for PowerPoint 2007.  These patches fix several issues with PowerPoint and its ability to play animated templates with embedded video files.

If a computer is not being automatically updated by Windows Update, Office 2007 probably did not get updated with several critical patches.

Our recommendation is to run Windows Update and install any updates related to Office 2007.

Restart your computer after you have installed these updates.

Check the template again, Press F5 to see the animations move.

Use Windows Update to Update PowerPoint 2007

Update PowerPoint 2007 to play PowerPoint 2010 video

3. Make sure you have the most recent version of Windows Media Player installed.

Open Windows Media Player, select under Help, “Check for Updates”.  Update your player if necessary.

You may need to click in the lower right corner of Windows Media Player, to switch views, to make the  Help menu option visible.

PowerPoint 2007 requires Windows Media Player version 11 on XP or Version 12 on Vista or Windows 7.

4. Re-download the PowerPoint Template you were having problems with.

If you had to update PowerPoint 2007 or your Media Player, it is possible that PowerPoint has flagged the video animation in the template as unplayable.   Essentially, PowerPoint has modified the file (even if you didn’t save it), so that even though PowerPoint can now play the animation, it doesn’t think it can.  The only way around this we’ve found is to download a fresh file from PresenterMedia.

Problems with Video Playback in PowerPoint 2007

It has also been brought to our attention that if you do not have the most recent version of Windows Media Player, you may experience poor video playback in PowerPoint 2007.  This typically looks like green streaks running through the video animation in our templates.

Since our animated templates are created in PowerPoint 2010 and then made backward compatible with PowerPoint 2007, the newest version of Windows Media Player is required.  This is Media Player 11 for Windows XP and Media Player 12 for Vista and Windows 7 users.

If you are experiencing this problem, simply run Windows Media Player and then check for updates from the help menu.

View all our animated templates for PowerPoint here.

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Posted in PowerPoint Templates, Tutorials | 14 Comments »