Anyone who has ever given – or sat through – any kind of presentation is familiar with PowerPoint. It’s the Microsoft Office (Windows and Mac) application used to build all those presentation slides full of bullet points, charts and diagrams. It’s also a very nice platform for building multimedia scrapbooks. It’s not the only presentation application out there. There’s iWork’s Keynote for the Mac, OpenOffice.org’s Impress (Windows, Mac and Linux) and WordPerfect’s Presentations X4 (Windows). Like automobiles, each has the same basic functionality and each has additional features exclusive to them.
These applications let you include photos, captions, video clips, audio and music and even larger blocks of text – all the things you need in a scrapbook. Yes, many of the packaged themes are business oriented, but I’ve noticed personal styles showing up more frequently. A quick Internet search will find even more.
To take full advantage of any of these presentation applications, you will need to distribute your presentation in that application’s native format – .ppt for PowerPoint or .key for Keynote. Your viewers will need a copy of the application to view your presentation properly. Considering that each of these applications is updated regularly, using the native format is not a good option for long-term viability. Within just a few years, technology will have left your beautiful presentation by the wayside. We surely don’t want to see that.
I’m not sure about the latest version of PowerPoint, but I do know each of the other applications include an option to convert the slideshow to PDF format. This is not a multimedia option, but it never hurts to produce a PDF version of everything you create. Why? Printability. Uncle Fred – who wants nothing to do with any of that “new-fangled junk” – would still enjoy a printed copy of the photos. This is a way to make that happen.
Each application has some video export facility – Windows Media for PowerPoint, Quicktime for Keynote and Flash for Presentations X4 and Impress. Once you’ve exported to a video format, upload it to a video-sharing system of your choice. Why? If, some day in the future, a new video format comes along and replaces all the current formats, do you think YouTube or Vimeo will allow the hundreds of thousands of videos currently on their platforms to become virtual bricks? Neither do I. And, I’ll be more than happy to let them spend the money and effort it will take to convert my videos so they are still functional. What if one of them gets into financial trouble? Again, all those videos are assets and someone will come along to buy them out and continue serving up videos. Is this a perfect solution? No, but it’s a lot better than what my small skills and smaller budget can do alone.
Okay, so let’s get to the fun stuff. Where to begin? If you’re new to presentation software, start simply. Insert some photos, resize and arrange them, add captions. Build your story slide by slide. Save the file often so your don’t lose anything if something goes wrong. Even if you do nothing more than this, you’ve created a delightful photo album your family will enjoy.
Next steps: experiment with shapes to use as frames for your photos, transitions between slides, adding narration and background music. Here’s the same presentation with background music and slide transitions added.
Even if you don’t have video clips to add to your presentation, you can still create motion using actions on each individual slide. Actions can be used to display the objects (images, text, graphics, etc.) on the slide at different times, move them around and zoom in/out. This clip shows a couple of actions at work.
If you already have an office suite or you are a presentation guru from your job, you will find this a good option for building your own multimedia projects. If you don’t own or have never used presentation software, this may not be the best application for you. No problem. There are many other options and we’ll be discussing them in upcoming articles.
This new collection of Halloween presets for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements includes 15 spooky custom shapes and 3 dozen layer style sets with Halloween colors and glow effects.
This digital scrapbook freebie provided by Corine Papier Related Items: Digital Designs for Scrapbooking 1: Getting Started with Photoshop(tm) Elements Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 [OLD VERSION] Wacom Intuos4 Large Pen Tablet
I know, I know… for a site called “Scrapbook Ideas” there sure have been a lot of cards and other crafts here. But I think there must be enough of you out there who dabble in multiple paper crafts like I do, that I can get away with it . Why limit yourself to only scrapbooking when there are so many other wonderful things you can do with your craft supplies? Plus I love the instant gratification of sitting down to complete a whole card from start to finish, and the joy I *hope* it will bring to the recipient. Another great benefit of expanding my horizons to include card making has been that it is a less intimidating way to experiment with new crafting techniques on a smaller scale.
A Birthday Wish (handmade card)
Supplies:
From Prima: Coquette Collection paper (#602017), Caliope Collection paper (#602239), Whispered Words (#812010 and #812027). Non-Prima supplies: Distress Ink by Ranger (vintage photo), chalks, stitching, glitter glue, white cardstock.
Steps:
Trim the patterned papers to a size just a tiny bit smaller than your card front. Cut around the floral design on the Caliope paper, removing the top portion, and adhere the lower portion to the Coquette paper. TIP: try to avoid using adhesive along the outer edges, as you will be sewing them shortly.
Sew a border around the outside edge of the patterned papers, with a sewing machine as I did (for tips on machine sewing paper, check here), or by hand. If you sew by hand, it helps to pierce the holes in advance – I just place the card on an old cushioned mousepad, and use a paper piercer or needle to poke all the holes.
Use chalks in coordinating colors around the outer border of the card, then ink the edge of the card and the papers.
Adhere the papers to the center of the card, and adhere the card greeting to the papers.
Add some glitter glue to select areas of the floral design on the Caliope paper.
Can You Start a Legacy With Your Memories? Start Scrap booking Now and Create a Family Heirloom! The idea of scrapbooking began as a way to store memories when paper became an affordable commodity during the 15th century. At this time, scrapbooking was pretty basic, nothing like the outlandish scrapbook pages we see now. It was simple a method for placing photos and memorabilia on paper. Preserving a photo album or photographs is one novel method of having an essence of freshness in your mind. Every time a picture album is seen, values and feelings associated with memories are brought in front as snapshots in our minds. Pictures do utter more than any word could express. Every scrapbook has a well prepared starting point which should carefully analyzed before creating the actually scrapbook. It's a good way to set a time for the end of your scrapbook just to make a plan of what you are doing and make things easier.
I know, I know… for a site called “Scrapbook Ideas” there sure have been a lot of cards and other crafts here. But I think there must be enough of you out there who dabble in multiple paper crafts like I do, that I can get away with it 
. Why limit yourself to only scrapbooking when there are so many other wonderful things you can do with your craft supplies? Plus I love the instant gratification of sitting down to complete a whole card from start to finish, and the joy I *hope* it will bring to the recipient. Another great benefit of expanding my horizons to include card making has been that it is a less intimidating way to experiment with new crafting techniques on a smaller scale.
