Presentation Tools

If you need to rapidly add some notes, text, highlights or arrows to a screenshot or a photo, there is no better and easier free tool that I know of than Evernote Skitch.

The newly released version 2.5 introduces full PDF annotation capabilities, and a great set of superuseful "visual stamps", that further enhance Skitch fast and elegant markup capabilities. 

At its core Skitch is a super-handy image capture and editing utility that allows you to resize, crop, and add unique annotations and highlights to any image while allowing you to save and export in all major image file formats.

Skitch fully integrates with Evernote allowing you to automatically save all of your annotated images into one or more dedicated "notebooks".

Free to download and use.

More info: http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/04/18/the-new-skitch-for-mac-and-ios-the-fastest-friendliest-way-to-give-feedback-on-pdfs/

Video intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XE325A4RvQc

iTunes info: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skitch/id425955336?mt=12

Official site: Try it out: http://evernote.com/skitch/

Downloads:

• iOS download: http://appstore.com/skitch/skitch/
  
  
• Windows download: http://evernote.com/download/get.php?file=SkitchWindows
  
  
• Windows 8 (touch): http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/skitch/95a8df2f-f779-4034-a995-82d8e723b246
  
  
• Mac: http://evernote.com/download/get.php?file=SkitchMac
  
  
• Android download: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.evernote.skitch

If you are looking for an outstanding collection of public domain images that you can use immediately on your website or blog, Pixabay offers more than 65,000 free images, photos, vector graphics and clipart contributed by its community.

Developed by Hans Braxmeier and Simon Steinberger this is a great image resource to bookmark right away.

From the official site: "...a repository for outstanding public domain images. You can freely use any image from this website in digital and printed format, for personal and commercial use, without attribution requirement to the original author."

Free to use.

Recommended.

Forum: http://pixabay.com/en/forum/

Try it out now: http://pixabay.com/

Instant Timeline is a new web-based app which allows you to easily create professional-looking timelines and Gannt charts (that you can use and publish anywhere) in a matter of minutes, from any device or OS, and for free.

The process is very simple. You first select the style/look of your template, and then you manually add tasks, dates and milestones that you want to be displayed in your timeline. As a last step you can further personalize the look and appearance of specific elements before seeing your timeline fully displayed on your monitor.

At this point you can go back and edit the data, the look and feel, or download the newly created timeline as PowerPoint or as an image file ready to be used anywhere.

Instant Timeline is a close relative to Office Timeline, a free timeline maker PowerPoint add-in that allows you to easily create and share beautiful timelines, gantt charts, and project schedules inside PowerPoint.

A "Plus" version of Office Timeline (starts at $29.95) allows for even greater visual customization options, for direct copy-paste of data directly from Excel, and the leveraging of a large set of professionally-designed ready-made templates plus the ability to do all these things directly within PowerPoint.

Free to use.

Try it out now: http://timelinemaker.officetimeline.com/

Pin Photo is a great free web service that facilitates your task of finding free, Creative Commons licensed images that you can utilize on your web site, ebook or blog. 

"Using the open API of Flickr, Photo Pin searches the whole Flickr image database, which carries almost 39 Million pictures, if you reduce it to CC-BY-SA.

Switches in the Photo Pin surface allow for the filtering of search results and limiting them to commercial or non-commercial licences. Results are sorted by date, relevance or interestingness.

The search results page resembles the new look of Google Images and presents the pictures in an endless grid. Each image carries a link “Get Photo” which becomes visible on hover. Clicking on it opens a modal window from where you can perform the rest of the necessary tasks. Here you can see the available resolutions and, and this is the unique selling proposition of Photo Pin, the preformatted attribution link to just copy it out and paste it back in.

...Compared to manually performing these tasks on Flickr, you will save loads of time, especially when you are a heavy user."

(Source review: Noupe.com)

Free to use.

Try it out now: http://photopin.com/

If you want to know what characterizes the new PowerPoint 2013 from the version you have been using unitl now, here is all you need to know.

Key new features you should be aware of:

• Wide-screen friendly  There’s a 16:9 layout, and new themes designed to take advantage of widescreen possibilities.
  
  
• Start an online meeting from within PowerPoint   Send out a link to the slides, or start a full-on Lync meeting that displays the deck with audio and IM. Your audience can join you from anywhere, on any device using Lync or the Office Presentation Service.
  
  
• Improved audio and video   PowerPoint now supports more multimedia formats, such as .mp4 and .mov with H.264 video and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) audio, and more high-definition content. PowerPoint 2013 includes more built-in codecs so you don’t have to install them for certain file formats to work.
  
  
• Touch device support 

  Now it’s possible to interact with PowerPoint on most any device including a Windows 8 PC. Using typical touch gestures, you can swipe, tap, scroll, zoom, and pan your way through your slides, and really feel the presentation.
  
  

• Share & Save to the cloud   Save your Office files to your own SkyDrive or to your organization’s site. From there you can access and share your PowerPoint presentations and other Office files. You can even work together with your colleagues on the same file at the same time.

• Use Presenter View on one monitor       Presenter View no longer requires multiple monitors. Now you can rehearse in Presenter View without hooking up anything else.
  
  

• Zoom in on a slide    Click the magnifying glass to zoom in on charts, diagrams, or whatever you want to emphasize for your audience.
  
  
• Theme variations   Themes now come with a set of variations, like different color palettes and font families. And, PowerPoint 2013 provides new widescreen themes along with standard sizes. Choose a theme and variant from the start screen or from the Design tab.
  
  

• Jump to a slide    Use Slide Navigator to browse to other slides in the presentation.
  
  

• Automatic set up    PowerPoint can automatically sense your computer setup and choose the right monitor for Presenter view.
  
  

For more info check: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en/powerpoint-2013-preview

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/powerpoint-help/make-the-switch-to-powerpoint-2013-RZ102925029.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en/try-office-preview

Freepik is a search engine dedicated to find, index and make available good quality images, photos, vector illustrations and clipart and PSD files.

Having given a few tries to Freepik, I can confirm that there are plenty of good, free images that this search engine will find for you in a matter of instants.

Here is for example the results that you get if you look for some cool, professional ribbons: http://www.freepik.com/index.php?goto=2&searchform=1&k=ribbon

Free to use.

Try it out now: http://www.freepik.com/

Latest arrivals: http://www.freepik.com/new

Popular files: http://www.freepik.com/popular-vectors

Fotor is a free cross-platform image editing tool and web app which makes it easy for everyone to crop, resize, filter or optimize any image without needing advanced skills or an expensive piece of software.

Key features include an easy-to-use gallery of over 60 image filter effects, ability to control contrast, brightness, manually controllable tilt-shift effect, borders, backgrounds, clipart, instagram-like presets, and full file export support for JPG, PNG, BMP and TIF formats.

The interface is excellent, intuitive, easy to understand and use even after a few seconds of use, and the app, both on the web as well as in its dedicated OS versions is very responsive to every action and commnd applied.

The collage making facility is excellent and provides a good selection of ready-made collage layouts which can be further adjusted and personalized.

Fotor is available both as a web-based app, immediately accessible here: http://www.fotor.com/ as well as a free download app for Windows 8, Mac OS X, iOS and Android.

Free to use.

Try it out now: http://www.fotor.com/

Downloads:

• Windows: http://www.fotor.com/windows8/index.html

• Windows: http://www.fotor.com/desktop/index.html

• Mac: http://www.fotor.com/desktop/index.html

• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.everimaging.photoeffectstudio&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5ldmVyaW1hZ2luZy5waG90b2VmZmVjdHN0dWRpbyJd

• iOS: http://www.fotor.com/iphone/index.htm

Slideshark is a free mobile app which allows you to show and broadcast PowerPoint presentations to anyone across the desk or around the world while providing you with tens of useful features. PPT presentations maintain all of their original look, fonts, graphics, animations and links.

Slideshark is a great tool for any professional presenter, who travels, moves from conference to conference but needs to have always access to all of its presentations in a reliable fashion. Additionally Slideshark makes your iPhone/iPad/iPod act as super-efficient remote controller and preview unit for your slide, giving you the possibility to deliver and control your presentations directly from your iPhone or iPad.

Key features included in version 3:

• Broadcast Slides over the Web
• Slide Annotation
• Laser Pointer in iPhone
• Import Files from SkyDrive, Syncplicity & Google Drive, Box & DropBox
• Support for .wmv sound effects (PPT 2010)
• Remote Control via iPhone/iPod of the presentation
• Support for embedded video
• Pinch to "zoom in" on slides on iPhone or iPod touch
• Support for projector or TV (iPhone 4 and later)
• Access presentations from multiple iOS devices
• Support for streaming to a projector/monitor via Apple AirPlay
• View slide notes
• Slide and presentation timers
• Animation counter
• See previous and next slides
• Hide or re-order slides
• Share presentations online for on-demand viewing
• Share via email and social media
• User & permission management
• Usage reporting and analytics
• Auto-advance slides and "looping mode"

  
There are two versions of SlideShark available: a Individual Free version that is completely free and which offers up to 100MB of storage space or a Slideshark Plus version which includes 500MB of space and costs $49/year.

For businesses there is SlideShark Pro version which costs $95/year (less than $10/mo) and it provides 1GB of presentation space for one user. The Team Edition, which costs $149/year offers access to unlimited team members and 5GB of storage space.

Pricing info: https://www.slideshark.com/Products/Compare-Products.aspx

Find out more: https://www.slideshark.com/

Download free mobile app here: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/slideshark-view-share-presentations/id471369684?mt=8

(Thanks to Baiba Svenca for reporting on this new release)

Slideshark allows you to view and present PowerPoint slide shows using your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, without compromising animations and graphics.

You can store presentations in an online SlideShark account and connect your tablet or smartphone to a projector to display presentations.

You can also beam slide shows to mobile devices in the audience and track views.

Key features include:

• 100 MB of online storage free (with option to buy more or refer friends to earn more)
  
  
• File management with your own secure, cloud-based account, plus option to import from leading cloud storage providers (Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, etc.)
  
  
• Offline access to presentations – no internet connection required when presenting
  
  
• iPhone remote control capabilities when projecting from your iPad
  
  
• “Presenter Mode” – see your slide notes, timers, animation counter and next/previous slides when presenting from your iPad

Cost: Free for 100MB of storage, then starting at $49 a year for 600MB of storage.

Full pricing info: https://www.slideshark.com/Products/Compare-Products.aspx

Getting started video: https://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/SlideSharkforIndividuals?tb=0&dm=5&tx=Web_HELP_Support-Center

FAQ: https://www.slideshark.com/Help/Support-Center.aspx

More info & try-out: https://www.slideshark.com/

Dblcam is a new iPhone app which allows you to capture images with both front and back cameras integrated in your iPhone.

The unique double-images can be instantly posted to Instagram.

Free to use.

App store download: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dblcam/id605269890?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

More: http://dblc.am/

(Image by @birthdaypartyisfun)

Adobe Revel is a new app, working across Mac and iPhone and iPad which makes it extremely easy to import all of your photos, help you organize them into "libraries" and "albums", and to share them privately with your selected contacts.

Adobe Revel also makes it easy to edit any image with a number of intuitive real-time controls and Instagram-like "effects".

I must say, after having imported nearly 25,000 photos, that Adobe Revel is very simple, intuitive and straightforward to use. Learning time is zero and everything works like you expect it too.

The free plan allows you to import unlimited pictures for the first 30 days, and then a maximum of 50 additional pics every month.

The paid option, at $5.99/month, allows you to upload unlimited number of photos always.

N.B.: For users with Android phones you can download Revel Importer. Revel Importer is not a full version of Revel but it does give you a way to import the photos on your Android phone into your Revel photo library.

There is also a web version of Revel at www.adoberevel.com. The web version of Revel includes almost all the features of Revel EXCEPT the ability to edit your photos.

Features: http://www.adoberevel.com/features

FAQ: http://www.adoberevel.com/support

Pricing: http://www.adoberevel.com/pricing

Mac App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-revel/id455068834?mt=12&ls=1

App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-revel/id455066445?mt=8&ls=1