But what does this mean for you?
If you are using a Mac computer with either Keynote or PowerPoint, these new files will look fabulous.  You can download the QuickTime files with a transparent background and even have semi-transparent shadows and reflections included.  The transparent versions of the QuickTime files include an alpha channel which defines the transparent areas of the animations.

The QuickTime files can also be downloaded with a solid color background.  The solid color background animations will even work with the Keynote App on the iPad.

Things to keep in mind.

1. QuickTime files are best used on a Mac computer.
   PowerPoint 2010 does have support for QuickTime, if you have QuickTime installed, but we recommend sticking with the animated .gif files on the PC.
2. The iPad will only support the solid color background versions.
3. The file size for the transparent versions is larger than the solid versions, so go sparingly if you want to keep your presentation file size down.

We often get asked if PresenterMedia will work with Prezi.  The good news is that our animations and clipart work great!  View the sample Prezi above to see our 3D animations in action.  Click here to view our entire collection of animations for Prezi and PowerPoint.

Sample Animation

Sample Animation

Sample Animations

A few notes about Prezi:

1. Download our animations as .SWF (Flash animations)
2. Use the largest size available for the animations
3. PNG clipart works great
4. Our Video Backgrounds will work when inserted as a .flv video, but will not automatically loop.

You can also post your PowerPoint presentations created with our templates on Prezi, but, since the presentation is converted to PDF by Prezi, the animations are converted to still images.

Let us know if you are using Presi and PresenterMedia together.

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.

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.

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.

Press the play button to view a video on how to use PresenterMedia’s 3D animations and clipart in PowerPoint.

Covered in this video:

• Selecting and downloading our PowerPoint animations and clipart
• Inserting animations and clipart in PowerPoint
• Customizing the color theme of an animation or clipart to match your presentation.

You may also enjoy viewing our getting started video about our PowerPoint templates.

We hope this helps you get started using PresenterMedia’s animations and clipart.  If you have any questions, please feel free to use the comments section or our contact form.

This feature will allow you to customize our animations to your company’s colors or to match the theme colors of your presentation.

Here is a video demonstration of the new feature:

Press the play button above to watch the video of our new color changer for animations.

We’d love to hear how you are using this new feature.  Leave us a comment below.

Here are a couple of sample animations we made using the new color customizer:

Original Red Image

Modified to Green

Modified to Blue

Try our our new color changer on any of our animated graphics for PowerPoint.

Animated GIFs work great in PowerPoint for Mac

This is all great unless you’ve been running PowerPoint 2008 for Mac.  The original version of PowerPoint 2008 didn’t have good support for the venerable animated GIF format.  But Microsoft has come to the rescue with an update to PowerPoint 2008.   The update is called the Office 2008 Service Pack 2 and it was released in July of 2009.

This free update fixes various issues and adds complete support for animated .GIFs.  If you’ve been updating your software all along, you likely are already running this patch.  But if you are experiencing difficulties with our animated gif animations in Mac PowerPoint 2008, it’s likely that you need to update your software.

Update PowerPoint 2008 to use animated gifs.

Here is a link to the Office 2008 Service Pack 2 for Mac.  You’ll want to browse for downloads at the bottom of the page to find the appropriate download.

Stick Figure Animation for PowerPoint

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.

A businessman finishes the race first in this animated clip art

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.

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

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.