Our templates for older version of PowerPoint, like PowerPoint 2003, come in .ZIP archive files so there are a few extra steps to get them animate properly in PowerPoint 2003.

1. Download the template.  It will download as a .zip file.

2. Extract the .ZIP file to a folder on your computer.  I like to extract it to my Desktop, but you can extract it anywhere you want. Just remember where you saved it.  To extract the .zip, I like to right click on top of the zip file and choose “Extract All” from the menu that appears.

3. Go to PowerPoint and then using the Open command in PowerPoint, browse to the folder you just extracted, and open the .ppt file.

4. Press F5 or View the SlideShow to see the animations move.

IMPORTANT: In the extracted folder, there is a .ppt file (the template) and one or move .wmv video files.  These .wmv video files must remain in the same folder as your completed presentation.  PowerPoint 2003 is linking to these files and if your presentation is not in the same folder as these video files, PowerPoint will not be able to find the files and the animations will not play.

View all our templates we have available here.

Many of our users are looking for ways to help their presentations stand out.  How can selecting the right music make a presentation shine?

Music is that extra bit of polish that can help one presentation stand apart from another.  Getting this right is like undergoing a military inspection from the colonel and not just having everything in top shape, but actually having  a big sign outside saying, “Welcome, Inspector!”. Getting the music part right communicates that you hold yourself to a higher standard.

What defines a business music track?  Are there certain instruments, tempos or musical styles that represent business music?

 You want to keep it very, very middle of the road. Just having music at all says quite a lot so there’s no need to push the envelope of musical innovation here. Energetic classical music or some upbeat acoustic guitar music will be fine 98% of the time. Stay away from big bashy drums, screaming guitars or song lyrics. This isn’t a TV commercial.

What are your feelings on sounds effects?  Do things like button clicks, and transition sounds help or hinder a presentation?

Having a subtle sound effect occur when you move from one slide to the next  is actually doing the audience a favor.  If I, as an audience member, am jotting down notes, daydreaming or answering a text message, It’s helpful for me to have an additional queue that the speaker has moved onto the next slide. Just being honest.

Why should I license a professional background track, can’t I just use a popular song I have purchased?

The laws about this are very clear. Unless you are using a piece of music in the public domain (which fortunately includes a lot of good classical stuff), you need permission from the copyright holder to use that piece of music in a gathering of people outside of just family and friends. A business pitch made to people you barely know requires this permission. There are tons of production music sites out there with super-reasonable prices and great service that can meet this need.

What common mistakes do first time users of background music make?

Using a popular song that alienates audience members and shows that they didn’t do their legal homework.

Do you have any specific examples how the right music has elevated a project to new heights?

In the 1990′s a good portion of my income was earned composing soundtracks to meeting openers for Coca Cola.  They wanted big accounts, like McDonalds for example, to know they took those relationships very seriously. 

The largest sum of money I’ve ever been paid to write a single piece of music was a fund-raiser video for GA Tech alumni. Every week when I drive through downtown Atlanta I see two very large buildings funded by money raised in that campaign.

Can you tell me a bit about MusicRevolution.com?

MusicRevolution.com is the brain-child of my good friend, Chris Cardell who used to run the stock image company Jupiterimages. We saw how the stock photo industry moved to a point where the best deals in stock imagery were coming from amateur photographers, hobbyists, and professionals who had made their work available online for licensing. That was a big shift away from the offline hegemonies that previously existed.

We knew the same phenomenon would occur in stock music so we set up a comprehensive website (http://www.musicrevolution.com) to help musicians upload and sell their music online at prices they choose. We’ve been very blessed to receive tens of thousands of music tracks from in incredibly talented community of musicians. All of that music is available for license and download from our website. And yes, our license does include corporate presentations!

Note: Due to limitations in older versions of PowerPoint, video backgrounds are designed to be used in PowerPoint 2010, or PowerPoint 2011 (Mac) or Keynote 09 (Mac).

Covered in this video:

• Download and Insert a Video Background in PowerPoint
• Using the Selection Pane to select or hide items on a slide
• Using the Animation Pane to control the visibility of items on a slide over time.

View all our video backgrounds for PowerPoint.

While there are several options available for converting a PowerPoint presentation into a format that can be watched anywhere. Probably the best option when dealing with a presentation containing animation, video or sound is to convert the entire presentation to a video file.

PowerPoint 2010 makes this easy with a Save As Windows Media Video function directly as an option when you save the presentation.  Many of the videos on our website were originally saved as .WMV files from PowerPoint 2010.  Keynote 09 also has an Export feature that allows you to save your presentation as a easily watched Quicktime video.

Here is a sample video from PowerPoint 2010:

After you have the final video, you could easily use a service like YouTube to display your final presentation video.

If you are using a different version of PowerPoint, you can still save your final presentation as a video by using a screen capture program.  I use Microsoft Expression Encoder 4′s Screen Capture program to record my video tutorials. If your presentations are less than 10 minutes long, you can get by with the free version of Microsoft Encoder 4.

For Mac users not using Keynote 09, TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia, has a nice screen recorder called Jing.  You can record up to 5 minutes with the free version.

Here is more on creating a video of your presentation from Microsoft Office’s blog.

Click the Play button above.
How to download animations for PowerPoint.

Covered in this video:

• For PowerPoint, always download the largest animation available.  This yields the best quality.
• After clicking the download link, always choose “SAVE” to save the image to your computer.  Choosing OPEN may end up removing the animation from the image.
• In PowerPoint, always use the “Insert/Picture” function to place the animation in your presentation.  Inserting it as a video or copying and pasting it into your presentation can yield poor results.

View all our Animations for PowerPoint.

Most of our templates can be edited with the methods outlined in this video.

Press the play button to view a video about changing our PowerPoint Templates.

Covered in this video:

• Changing Theme Colors
• Accessing and Editing the Slide Master
• Changing the Images in a PowerPoint Template

Change this Chemistry Template into a Leadership Template

If you found this video helpful, you may also like to view our Getting Started With PowerPoint Templates tutorial.

You can view all our PowerPoint Templates here.

In most cases using the clear background versions of our PowerPoint animations work great.  But in some software, such as Flash, clear animations are not supported.  Here are a few examples when customizing the background color of our animations may be needed.

• Using a Flash (SWF) animation in Captivate or Articulate
• Using an animated gif with Keynote on the Mac
• To get the best image quality possible.

Our customizer application makes it possible to exactly match the background color of an animation to the background of your project.

Press the play button to view a video on how to use PresenterMedia’s customizer to change background colors.

Covered in this video:

• Finding the exact color value of your presentation’s background.
• Applying the exact color to a PresenterMedia PowerPoint animation’s background.

If you have any questions, please feel free to use the comments section or our contact form.

New Tint Feature

In the customizer check the TINT box to apply a color tint to the entire image.  The HUE, SATURATION and BRIGHTNESS sliders now affect the color qualities of the tint.  Use the tint feature to add color to our gray images to match the color scheme of your presentations.

Sample Tinted Images

Screen Shot of Tint Feature

My Custom Media Folder

When you are signed it to your account, you may have noticed a new link to My Custom Media in the upper right corner.  Every time you create a custom image using one of our online tools, your final image is saved in the Custom Media folder.  So if you don’t want to wait around for that animation to finish building, you can always pick it up later in your Custom Media folder.

Screen Shot of Custom Media Folder

We are working on several new on-line tools to further enhance your presentations.  A tint feature for our animation section will be available in the next few weeks (Note: This is now available).  If there are features you would like to see us add, please let us know.

Below is a video tutorial about PresenterMedia’s PowerPoint templates and Camtasia from Camtasia super trainer, Lon Naylor.  Learn more about Camtasia at Lon’s site, learncamtasia.com.

If you are one of the few PowerPoint users who have experienced the problem, there is an easy work around.  Unfortunately you need to do this work around every time you start a new presentation that contains animations.

1. Choose ‘Save As’
2. Click the ‘Tools’ options.
3. Choose ‘Compress Pictures’

Choose Compress Pictures from the Tools Pulldown

4. Click on ‘Options’

Choose the Options for Compress Pictures

5. Uncheck ‘Automatically preform basic compression on save.’

Uncheck Automatically Preform Basic Compression on Save

6. Click ‘Ok’ in the compression settings.

7. Click ‘CANCEL’  on the Compress Pictures dialog.  Choosing OK here will apply the compression and freeze the animations.

Choose Cancel to avoid applying the compression.

8. At this point, you can either save your presentation, or go back to working on it.  This setting is now saved as part of the document and you will not need to do it again for this document.

Unfortunately, you will need to reinsert any animations that have been compressed, as there is no way back after the compression has been applied.

If anyone knows why this happens for a few PowerPoint users, we would love to know.  Leave your comments below.

Here is more on this problem from the PPTfaq.