PowerPoint is the standard for slide show presentation software, but can you afford it? If not, what’s the PowerPoint alternative and FREE? This article will show you the free PowerPoint alternative software.
1. PowerPoint Online (Microsoft Office Web Apps)
2. OpenOffice.org
3. Google Docs
You might not realize that Microsoft also provides a free online PowerPoint software! Microsoft Office Web Apps are free online application to Microsoft PowerPoint and other Office programs and you can use them to view, edit, and share Office files. The features are much more limited than the regular software you use on your computer, but if your needs are simple, there are also numerous advantages:
1. Upload PowerPoint files that you create on your computer.
2. Download presentations that you create online and open them in PowerPoint
3. Store presentations online
4. Share them with others
5. Create and edit them online
OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for presentations, word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, databases and more. It works on cross platforms and provides many languages support. OpenOffice stores files in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other popular office software packages (Microsoft Office included). OpenOffice can be downloaded and used for completely free of charge and for any purpose.
This is why you should try OpenOffice.org: Great software, easy to use and totally free.
Google Docs lets you create and share your work online and access your documents from anywhere. Manage documents, spreadsheets, presentations, surveys, and more all in one shop! And totally free.
Google Docs is securely powered by the web, giving you the flexibility to be productive from your desk, on the road, at home and on your mobile phone. However not on the plane. In my opinion, Google docs never catch up with Microsoft PowerPoint, which also is consistent with the title said, but you can have a simple and convenient presentation anytime and anywhere with Google Docs (internet connection required). This is definitely cool. Try it!
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Still using PowerPoint, OK, maybe you can convert PowerPoint to DVD to present on computer without PowerPoint installed using PPT2DVD Pro. Get it for free today!
Every excellent PPT presentation starts from ppt template: blank or impressive. Imagine a presentation that look like everyone else. If you don’t want your presentation to lose score from the beginning, get a personalized PPT template first. You could use free PPT templates that are available by download free PPT templates online, or even purchase PPT template if necessary. This post shows you how to get free PPT templates.
Start by going to the Microsoft site for free PPT template downloads. Those PPT templates will work appropriately with PPT and that no viruses or malicious will be downloaded at the same time. Read the Microsoft PPT template downloads have viewer ratings, it brings a high level of confidence to see that hundreds have rated a template at a high level.
Search on the web for free PPT templates, many of the free PPT templates are found on template sites that also sell premium PPT templates. Before you download to evaluate the selection, see if the free PPT template comes in a bundle of a title slide, text slide, printable version (white background behind text) and a display version that suit your needs or not. Do read the terms of service before using free PPT templates, free PPT templates are usually intended for individual use and are not to be passed on to other PPT Users. See my Google result of free PPT templates websites below.
Add search terms “free powerpoint templates” in your RSS reader such as Google Reader. In such case, when free PPT templates are released, you will get informed and update to your favorite PPT templates.
Keywords are really very important. For example, if you are using PPT to make a 4th of July party invitation or to give a speech at the civic center, use search terms such as patriotic, holidays, government etc. Using Powerpoint to make a Christmas party invitation or give an end of the year accomplishment speech at work, then just add search terms such as Christmas, New Years, Calendar, Holiday etc. Consider searches that are targeted to specific professions such as educational, nurses, law enforcement etc.
You can always download free PPT Templates on these websites:
http://www.templateswise.com/
http://www.free-power-point-templates.com/
http://www.presentationfx.com/
http://www.powerpointstyles.com/
http://www.presentationmagazine.com/
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See more free PPT templates >>
Everywhere now is involved with the atmosphere of New Year. It tells us that New Year of 2011 is around the corner. How is your 2010? And what kind of year would you expect in coming 2011? At the end of 2010, we may spare sometime to review our past 2010, and make wishes and plan our new life in the coming 2011.
Summarize Your 2010
We have joy but also tears in 2010. Photos are something good to record our life. It shows vividly what events you have gone through in the past days. We may organize our thoughts and summarize our life based on the photos. Slide show tools are helpful for making your photo albums and share them online. And some people love to make summarization report with PowerPoint program. If you are good at making presentions with PowerPoint, it can be definitely a great tool to create compelling summarization report with pictures and send it to your friends. It is a time of sharing. We are not going to hide ourselves even on the Internet. To let more people know where have you been, what have you done, what how is your life going, you may convert your reports of photo albums or summarization reports to videos and upload them to video sharing sites like YouTube. Samuel is an enthusiast who loves travelling, and he is willing to sharing his stories to people around the world. After making a slide show with pictures and some text, he converted the PowerPoint slide show to video with PowerPoint to video converter. So everyone can enjoy his wonderful story online.
Make Wishes for 2011
Tomorrow is another day. And we love to hug the New Year with sweet wishes with bright smiles. So what are your New Year wishes? Do you have some ambitious goals that your have been trying to achieve?Do you want to blaze some trail and do something challenging? We may write down our wishes and plan our new life in the next year. Now more and more people don’t want to hide their wishes and dreams; they show their wishes to friends and motivate themselves to make the progress in future. So, why not make your wishes visually? Making wishes but also a general plan on some visible media can reminds you to act and make your wishes come true. So, just type your wishes on your presentation file and convert it to video and share it online or distribute it on your portable devices.So, are you ready for 2011? You may start your new year in a good beginning. well begun is half done. Best wishes for you and happy New Year!
Resource article: Create a Photo Album with PowerPoint and Distribute
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
The Christmas season is a time that you will certainly love to spend with your family and friends. It is not even the sharing of gifts that matters, although you cannot discount the wide smiles it brings. It is the presence of people you care about as you celebrate the season’s highlight, Christmas Eve. You should be prepared with some activities that can keep up the fun in the air and avoid what every party host fears most, which is boredom. One of the wonderful activities you can do is to have everyone sing in unison all the Christmas songs that they know.
Just as it is done traditionally, you can prepare printed Christmas lyrics sheets and hand them out to your guests. Then you can all go near the piano to sing the songs one by one. That is, of course, if you have a piano. If not, then you can do it in the most convenient and modern way, through your computer and PowerPoint. All you have to do is to download Christmas music online, particularly those karaoke audio files, and play it. With great stereo sounds and a couple of microphones, you and your guests will surely enjoy Christmas Eve.
- Materials
A Karaoke song with lyrics
A proper PowerPoint template or background image
Some pictures – related to the theme of the song
- Tools
Microsoft PowerPoint (2010/2007/2003)
PowerPoint to DVD converter
Step 1: Insert pictures to PowerPoint and add the music file to the slideshow
- Create a folder in your local disk directory.
- Put all pictures and the song file you collected into this folder.
- Open up the PowerPoint program.
- Select “Blank” presentation and save the file with a suitable file name.
- Insert all images with “Photo Album” mode and each picture will be placed separately to its own slide. The first slide is used to show the title of the song.
- Adjust the order of slides.
- Each slide contains one line of the lyrics.
- Put an “End” slide to show the ending of the song.
- Apply a designed background style or a delicate PPT template to enhance slides.
- Insert karaoke song to the 1st slide. Click on “Automatically” when a message box pops up (To make the song play across the whole presentation, you can view this tutorial.).
Step 2: Set the animation effects of the lyrics
- Set transitions from one slide to the next. Select all the slides and go to the “Animations” tab and choose “Apply to All”. Then the transitions between all slides will display as the same as the transition you have set to the current slide.
- Click the “Custom Animation” button under the “Animation” tab.
- Click and hold the “Add Effect” button, and select “More Effects” under the “Entrance” category.
- Select both “Appear” and “Color Typewriter” option.
Select “After Previous” from the drop-down menu in the right-hand “Custom Animation” frame.
- Select ”Color Typewriter” and choose ”Effect Options”, then you can set the highlight color and timing of lyrics transition.
Repeat this step to make sure all lyric texts appear and shift properly.
Step 3: Rehearse timings of your karaoke PowerPoint
- Rehearse timings of your karaoke presentation.
- Check and fine-tune the timing of lyrics to song timing.
- Replay the song to confirm timing of lyrics is OK.
- At last, you may need to polish the animation on certain slides. You may have to go back and redo some adjustment. You can view the current slide by pressing ”Shift+F5” or preview the whole Karaoke slide show by pressing “F5” key.
When coming to last step, you need to use the tool I have mentioned before – a PowerPoint to DVD converter like Wondershare PPT2DVD Pro. It’s a powerful yet handy converting tool that enables you to convert PowerPoint presentations to DVD. After the conversion, you can view your karaoke DVD on TV through a DVD player. Also, the program can help you to generate video clips from your PowerPoint slide show, which makes it possible to share your karaoke music video online with friends or families easily.
Now, an eye-catching karaoke DVD is ready, share it with your friends and enjoy the fun that Karaoke PowerPoint brings to you!
Tags: Christmas, PowerPoint Tips, PPT idea
Who says Halloween is just for kids? Halloween is, of course, a time for trick-or-treating, and mom and dad surely can’t go out begging in the streets for candy, but the holiday can also be a swell time for some full-grown fun.
If you are planning a Halloween party for grown-ups, you will want to have some adult Halloween games on hand. It is all part of the fun.Transform an old classic into a game with a Halloween twist or create your own scary games that will make your Halloween party a blast for all your guests.
Some funny adult Halloween games include:
1. Scavenger Hunt.
Supplies needed: Digital camera, list of items to record.
All you require to do is make a list of Halloween-related items, give out the list to each team, and post them on their way to collect the items. Some great targets to put onthe list include: a Hangman’s noose, a black veil, an obit,etc. Just include items that make to do with being scared, ghosts, Halloween, or whatever.
Team people up in groups of 8 -10 people and send them out in their Halloween costumes with a list of things them must get photos of. These items are in different order so that the teams are not doing the same thing at the same time.
Each team dressed in Halloween costumes races around to get photos at landmarks, with police officers, bouncers, next to funny signs, at a restaurant, etc… Once they get everything completed they return to the house with the photos. First team to return with everything completed (photos taken) is the winner.
As the teams return you can download the photos and create a slide show and let it run on the computer throughout the evening. And everyone can share and tell stories about his/her adventure.
If you want to make things more difficult, make the list clues as to where they need to go to take the photo rather than just saying go to this place to take a photo. Adapt for your crew and have fun.
2. Pass The Orange
Supplies needed: Oranges or tennis balls.
Arrange for teams of about 8 to stand in a line, one behind the other (arranged guy, girl, guy, etc… or random order).
Give each team an orange which the first person should tuck under his chin. Then this person must turn around and without using their hands transfer the orange from them to next person in line without dropping it. If the orange drops you must start from the beginning again.
The team to get the orange to the end of the line first wins.
Make it more challenging, have the orange go from front to back and then back to the front of the line again. First team to finish wins.
3. Harder Adult Version of Bobbing for Apples
Supplies needed: Large steel tub, water, apples.
This adult version is silly and fun and is best played with a oblong steel tub rather than a round one.
In this version, we need tub, apples, buckets / pails and instead of making the string go around the wrist the string must be long enough to be tied around the waist or belt loop (basically they have to tie it so the bucket swings between their legs) and two or more teams. We also recommend a video camera to record this.
Once the bucket / pail is attached the player must go from the start line to the tub and squat down to catch an apple in the bucket without using their arms. Might sound easy, but it is difficult and funny.
When they have the apple in their bucket they must walk with the bucket and the apple between their legs and safely return to the apple pile where they can remove the apple from the bucket.
Once that is complete they untie the bucket and hand it to the next person, who must do the same thing. The game continues until every member has completed the task. First team done wins.
4. Quick Changing
Supplies needed: some costumes
Before the party, head to the costume or dollar store and choose some cheap costumes and wigs. Fill up two plastic tubs with bow ties, bras, spandex shorts and old clothes including dresses. Divide your party into two groups. At the finish line, place two plastic tubs full of the costume choices. Spray-paint a finish line about ten feet away. This relay race is funny to play and funny to watch. Tell guests that they must, one at a time, put on all the clothes and run to the finish line. At the finish line, guests will strip down and run the outfits back to the beginning for the next guest to put on. Whichever team finishes first wins! Give a goofy prize to the winning team.
As you can picture adult games can be a lot of fun and the types of games can be endless. It just takes a little preparation to come up with adult Halloween games. Enjoy your Halloween Party!
For more great Halloween ideas, Be sure to check out our blog Holiday categary for even more spooky fun including our full list of Halloween costumes, recipes and decorations.
Learn how to make a DVD/Video slideshow with PowerPoint to memorize this Halloween >>
Tags: Halloween games ideas
Creepy, maybe, but these Halloween recipes and treats for Halloween will put a smile on the face of every goblin around. Scare up some Halloween snacks and get inspired with fun Halloween party ideas.
1. Black Bean Cat Crudités
Ingredients :
Black Bean Dip
Assorted vegetables of your choice, such as
- Celery -Cherry tomatoes
- Broccoli - Carrots
-Green beans – Mushrooms
- Zucchini
Instructions:
Arrange vegetables in the shape of a cat, as shown. Serve with Black Bean Dip.
2. Carrot-Finger Food
Ingredients:
- vegetable dip – 4 long carrots
- 1 medium carrot – softened cream cheese
- sliced-almond – baby carrots
Instructions:
-To prepare them, just fill a serving bowl with your favorite vegetable dip. Wash and peel 4 long carrots for fingers and 1 medium carrot for a thumb.
- With a paring knife (a parent’s job), cut a flat, shallow notch in the tip of each carrot. Then use a dab of dip or softened cream cheese to glue a sliced-almond fingernail atop each notch.
- Stick the fingers in the dip, as shown, and serve with plenty of peeled baby carrots for dipping.
3. Apple Bites
Ingredients:
- Apples – Slivered almonds
Instructions:
- Just quarter and core an apple, cut a wedge from the skin side of each quarter, then press slivered almonds in place for teeth.
Tips: If you’re not going to serve them right away, baste the apples with orange juice to keep them from browning.
4. Eerie Eyeballs
Ingredients:
- Apple rings (1 per eye) - Dried Apricots (1/2 per eye)
- Raisins (1/2 per eye)
Instructions:
- For each pair of eyes, gently flatten two dried apple rings with the palm of your hand.
- Carefully slice a dried apricot through the middle so that you end up with two circular halves. Press a half, sticky side down, onto the center of an apple ring, covering the hole.
- For pupils, use kitchen scissors to cut a raisin in two, and press the halves, sticky side down, onto the apricots.
5. Ghost Toasts
Ingredients:
- White Bread (1 slice per ghost) – Whipped cream cheese
- Currants
Instructions:
- For each, toast a slice of white bread and then cut a ghost shape from it. You can do this freehand using a knife, or you can use a gingerbread-girl cookie cutter.
- When the cutouts have cooled, spread on a generous coating of whipped cream cheese.
- For eyes and mouths, add currants.
6. Melon Brain
Ingredients:
- 1 small seedless watermelon
Instructions:
- Use a vegetable peeler to remove the entire green rind, exposing the inner white rind.
- Slice off the bottom of the melon to create a flat base that will keep it from rolling. With a toothpick, outline squiggly furrows that resemble the folded surface of a brain.
- Finally, carve narrow channels along the tracings with a sharp paring knife (a parent’s job) to expose the pink fruit beneath the rind.
7. Pizza Mummies
Ingredients:
- English muffins – Pizza sauce
- Black olives - Scallions
- Red or green pepper – Cheese sticks or slices
Instructions:
- Heat the oven to 350o F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).
- Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils.
- Lay strips of cheese (we used a pulled-apart cheese stick) across the muffin for the mummy’s wrappings.
- Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.
8. Salty Bones
Ingredients:
- 1 tube of refrigerated breadstick dough (we used an 11-ounce tube to make 12 bones)
- Coarse salt
Instructions:
- Unroll a tube of refrigerated breadstick dough and separate the rectangular pieces.
- Working with one piece at a time, stretch the dough to lengthen it a bit and then use kitchen scissors or a knife to cut a 11/2-inch slit in the center of each end.
- Roll or shape the resulting four flaps of dough into knobs that look like the ends of a bone.
- Place the dough bones on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing them a few inches apart, and sprinkle on a little coarse salt. Bake the bones until they are light golden brown, about 12 minutes.
9. Snack-o’-Lantern
Ingredients:
- Navel orange – Canned or fresh fruit salad
Instructions:
- To make one lantern, use a small knife to slice the top off a navel orange and cut around its interior to hollow it out. Scoop out the orange segments, chop them, and mix them with canned or fresh fruit salad.
- Carve small facial features in one side of the orange, then cut a slit in the lid to accommodate the handle of a green plastic spoon. Fill the lantern with fruit salad. Insert the spoon and set the lid in place.
10. Cheese-Finger Food
Ingredients:
- Mozzarella string cheese – Green bell pepper
- Cream cheese
Instructions:
- Wearing plastic gloves or sandwich bags over your hands to keep the cheese as smudge-free as possible, use a paring knife (parents only) to cut each string in half and then carve a shallow area for a fingernail just below the rounded end of each half.
- Mark the joint right below the nail as well as the knuckle joint by carving out tiny horizontal wedges of cheese, as pictured.
- For the fingernails, slice a green bell pepper into 3/8-inch-wide strips. Set the strips skin side down on your work surface and trim the pulp so that it’s about half as thick.
- Then cut the strips into ragged-topped nail shapes and stick them in place at the ends of the fingers with dabs of cream cheese.
11. Pear Witch Project
Ingredients:
- Sharp knife - Fresh green pear (makes 2 heads and noses)
- 2 raisins (eyes) - 1 chocolate chip (wart)
- Red apple (mouth) - Canned chocolate frosting
- Oreo ice-cream cone (hat) – Carrot (hair) and grater
- Large, soft chocolate cookie (hat); we used an Archway Dutch Cocoa Cookie
Instructions:
- Cut the pear in half lengthwise and remove the core (a parent’s job). Place one pear half on a plate as shown.
- Slice a piece off the top of the pear, cutting away from the forehead at an angle. Shape that piece into a nose; carve a notch into the witch’s face to hold it, and set it in place.
- Attach the eyes and wart by carving small circles in the face to hold them.
- Cut a grin from the red apple. Carve out an area on the face to hold the grin, and put it in place.
- To make the hat, use frosting to glue the cone to the cookie. Let the frosting harden a bit, then place the hat on the head.
- Grate lengths of carrot hair and tuck them underneath the hat. Tip: If your child is too young to handle a knife, cut the nose and mouth and have him assemble the face with frosting.
12. Goblin Grins
Ingredients:
- 1 pea pod – 1 red bell pepper
- few slivered almonds
Instructions:
- For each one, use the tip of a paring knife to cut a slit centered in one side of an edible pea pod (a parent’s job).
- Cut out a tongue shape from red bell pepper and insert the top of it through the opening in the pea pod (it looks best if the inside of the pepper faces up).
- For the finishing touch, insert a few slivered almonds for teeth.
13. Edible Eyeballs
Ingredients:
- Carrots - Cream cheese
- Pitted black olives
Instructions:
- Simply slice carrots into 1-inch-thick chunks, top each with a blob of cream cheese and one half of a pitted black olive, and serve.
14. Banana Ghosts
Instructions:
- Remove any stringy fibers from the peeled banana, then cut it in half widthwise. Push a Popsicle stick into each half through the cut end, then cover each pop with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (about 3 hours).
- Next, place a 1.5-ounce piece of white chocolate candy in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high until melted (it generally takes about 1 minute). With a butter knife, spread the melted white chocolate on the frozen banana halves.
- Set the pops on a waxed-paper-covered dish. Press on candies or currants for eyes and mouths and return the pops to the freezer until ready to serve. Makes 2.
15. Worms on a Bun
Ingredients:
- Hot dogs – Hamburger rolls
- Ketchup
Instructions:
- Cut the hot dogs into thin slices and score the edges (about three cuts per slice).
- Boil or microwave until the slices curl like wiggly worms. Serve three or four worms to a bun. For an extra-icky touch, add a few squiggles of ketchup and serve with Putrid Punch.
For more great Halloween ideas, Be sure to check out our blog Holiday categary for even more spooky fun including our full list of Halloween costumes, makeups and decorations.
Learn how to make a DVD/Video slideshow with PowerPoint to memorize this Halloween >>
Resources:
http://familyfun.go.com/halloween/halloween-recipes/halloween-treats/
Games and activities are the key to a fun Halloween party. Here we list some Halloween party games and activities: These fun and easy-to-play kids’ Halloween party games make Halloween a little more spooky and are great for children Halloween parties.
1. Bobbing for Apples
Supplies needed:
- A large metal or plastic tub
- At least one apple per player
Fill the tub with cold water and place all apples inside.
With their hands clasped behind their backs, children take turns trying to fish an apple out of the tub using only their teeth. Children can either all bob for apples together (the first one with an apple out wins! ) or individually ( the kid who gets an apple the quickest is the winner! ).
2. Eyeball Relay
Supplies needed:
- Ping pong ball for each team (painted like an eyeball)
- Spoon for each team
Divide children into teams. Give the first child on each team a spoon and a ping pong ball.
Set up the course to where they have to carry the "EYE" on the spoon and keep the eyeball balance on the spoon as they quickly walk or run down to the end of the course and come back. Hand off to the next child to perform the same task until all children have played on the team. First team done wins!
If however the eyeball falls off the spoon during their walk to and from the obstacle then that player must then return to the start line and begin again.
3.Halloween Corners Game
Supplies needed:
Halloween themed pictures (ie witch, bat, ghost and black cat)
This random Halloween game is always a lot of fun for kids and it is totally random who the winner is.
Stick up large pictures in the four corners of a room. Play some music and when it stops, each child runs to a corner ( if you have small numbers you can limit the number of children in each ).
The music operator without looking then calls out one corner or pulls a piece of paper from a hat and the image on the paper identifies which the corner is out of the game. Continue to play until there is one person left and they win a prize.
4. Make a Spiders Web
Supplies needed:
Different colored yarns and time (can take an hour or more to untangle).
Gather all the children round in a large circle and give them all a ball of wool each. Try to use different colored wool as this makes a much more interesting web. Get each child to tie the end of the wool loosely around their waist. When everyone is done, each person throws their ball of wool to anyone else in the circle, preferably all at the same time. They then put the wool around their waist and throw it to someone else. This carries on until they run out of wool.
To add a little spice, they can wrap the wool around legs, arms, etc. At the end what they have created is a massive multi colored spider’s web which they can’t get out of very easily. Hours of fun and entertainment and if you’re really lucky they will spend the next hour trying to free themselves!
5. Pass the Pumpkins
Supplies needed:
Pumpkins, gourds, music
This musical chairs type game involves passing small pumpkins and gourds and when the music stops the person without a pumpkin is out. Play until there is a winner.
Kids sit in a circle and you hand out one less pumpkin then children in the group. Then instruct the children to start passing the pumpkins when the music begins to play and continue passing until the music stops.
Once the music stops the child without a pumpkin is out of the game. Now remove a pumpkin from the group and restart the music. This pattern continues until you have one pumpkin with one winner.
For more great Halloween ideas, Be sure to check out our blog Holiday categary for even more spooky fun including our full list of Halloween costumes, recipes and decorations.
Learn how to make a DVD/Video slideshow with PowerPoint to memorize this Halloween >>
Looking for a great Halloween song to thrill and excite your child at the classroom party or to greet trick-or-treaters at your door? Here’s a great list of Top 10 Halloween songs for children. Let’s take a quick look of them. Check it out!
Songs list of Top 10 Halloween songs for children:
A Pirate’s Life – Pam Minor
All the Candy I’ll Eat – Rachel Rambach
Haunted house – Gene Simmons
Witches’ Brew – Hap Palmer and Martha Cheney
Skeleton Stomp – Pam Minor
The Addams Family Theme – Vic Mizzy
Highway to Hell-AC/DC
This is Halloween-Danny Elfman
The Boogie Woogie Pumpkin Man –Wendy Rollin
Zombie Jamboree – Rockapella
Further Reading:
5 Ways to Convert PowerPoint to Video
How to convert PowerPoint to YouTube video with PPT2Video
A Free Halloween PPT template for you
Download this Halloween template at the link below:
Happy Halloween day!!
Further Reading:
Celebrate Halloween this Season with a Perfect Halloween Party