Many companies end up with multiple versions of the same Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint Template and let everyone know by sending daily email attachments around the office.

Wouldn’t it be convenient if someone, like Google for example built a program that would allow people to simultaneously edit Microsoft Office files.

Lucky for us, Google is always a few steps ahead. They have found a solution and launched Google Cloud Connect…

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Our current crush is Google Image Swirl. This is a nifty little tool which is still in development at Google Labs. You may be familiar with the Google Wonder Wheel, a text search tool which allows you to see related keyword searches and displays them in an easy to view mind map.

Google Image Swirl works in a similar way, but instead of showing just one image you will get stacks of image groups relating to your search term. You can then choose the most relevant for your search and click through to the Image Swirl which mind maps variations of the image.

See what happens when I search for: apple

I then select the most relevant image for my search and click through the mind map variations of the image.

And the image mind map continues…

The PowerPoint experts and design team at Presentation Studio Sydney are pretty excited about this idea. Great professional PowerPoint presentations need strong visuals to help bring the key messages to life, so we are always searching for inspiration. This tool will be great time saver when searching for ambiguous terms which relate to many different products, such as ‘apple’ and beetle’. It will also allow you to easily view images in different perspectives, such as the beach during the day or at sunset.

Our fingers are crossed in the hope that Image Swirl graduates from the Google Lab soon!

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Suddenly, your once fully engaged audience is straining to see and getting annoyed that they can no longer follow. You knew this would happen. It is a critical slide with important facts and figures but there was nothing you could do…Or was there?

Let me introduce you to ZoomIt. ZoomIt is an incredible application that allows you to literally zoom into small text on your PowerPoint presentation and annotate.

Setting it up is easy – there is functionality to assign hotkeys for zooming in and out of the screen and some great tips on what can be done and how!

ZoomIt also has ‘break timer’ feature. You can set a timer to appear on a background image that you previously selected or on your faded current desktop. Activating the timer can be easily done by entering hotkeys.

If you are a frequent presenter, I highly recommend you look into ZoomIt.

More information about ZoomIt

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RockMelt has landed as the latest internet browser that is undoubtedly distinct from any others floating the channels.

So how is RockMelt different?

RockMelt actively thinks about the way we use the internet to share. This internet browser is organized around your personal Facebook account. Every time you open RockMelt, it automatically logs you into your Facebook.

On the left of your screen, the browser lists all your Facebook friends and by clicking on their display picture a pop up box will appear. The small pop up gives you the opportunity to start a live chat or post something on someone’s wall without navigating away from your other activity.

On the right side of the browser is the Facebook icon. By clicking on the icon, a small pop up appears of your live Facebook feed. You can also add various other feed style websites to the icons on the left. This includes sites such as You Tube, Slideshare and Twitter where new information and postings are constantly being shared. The idea is to easily share everything online. It’s like bookmarking, with all your friends as followers.

The most impressing aspect of RockMelt, is that even with all these sharing applications; it is FAST!

To add to the hype – you must wait to be invited before you can download the new internet browser onto your personal desktop. To download RockMelt you need to be invited on Facebook by a friend or by clicking here: http://www.RockMelt.com/

The team at Presentation Studio Australia, love the new internet browser. We can share our favorite blogs, PowerPoint Presentations and websites with all our fans and followers daily. We can’t wait until everyone is able to download RockMelt and start sharing all their favorite sites with us.

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This year, they have included the most contagious ideas in everything from design to branded applications, from technology to real time media. 

One of my favourites is the MIT Media Lab application that featured at TED in February. Their SixthSense application combines a webcam, battery-powered projector and mirror in communication with a cell phone. This allows the wearer to use their hands to interact with information projected onto any surface – from a wall to a hand, newspaper or entire person. Removing the boundaries of where and how you can share information. Check it out here and download the free annual review.

 Merry Christmas from everyone at Presentation Studio and we look forward to sharing more with you in 2010.

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Tweets in real-time, embedded directly within your presentation.

Use it for;

• A live audience voting device,
• A live text/comment tool or to receive audience feedback,
• Crowd meter – measuring the noise level in the room to determine an outcome on a choice.

All using mobile phones in the audience… no more expensive conference voting devices!

Our thoughts: SMS polling might still have the advatage but this is a cool interactive component and with the “Twitter” name could resound well with any audience.

It is in prototype stage, but you can check it out and download it from SAP here: http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools/

Enjoy

PS

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Based on internationally renowned explorer Matt McFadyen’s 5 record breaking expeditions to both Antarctica and the Arctic (see www.mattmcfadyen.com.au), your audience is taken on a fully interactive journey that shares real human experiences in leadership, teamwork and motivation.

We’ve combined learnings from Ernest Shackleton’s leadership methods used in his attempt to cross the Antarctic in 191 5 and we have Australia’s youngest polar explorer to help lead, unite and ignite your people through their very own expedition using the latest multi-media technology.

A choice of 2 Key Note Polar Xpeditions:
North Pole Xpedition
Join Matt on his expedition to become the youngest Australian to trek to the North Pole. Help make critical decisions : whether to brave the storm, emergency extraction due to frostbite, or what to do as a polar bear charges?

Southern Ocean Xpedition
In a tiny yacht facing 50 foot swells, engage with Matt as he unravels the deep troughs of despair, multiple capsizes, team camaraderie and euphoric elation.

“The most successful staff engagement event to date: 96% of people found the Polar Xpedition inspiring. 93% of people found the overall firm briefing valuable.” PWC Australia

For more information: Check out the video below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5PdW_WTJQU

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