Create, Produce, Present

To sell a product or service, you need a way to connect.  Having a quality presentation can do the job, but how do you find the software tools to create or produce a presentation?  Where do you start?

• Looking for software and tools to create or produce a presentation?
• Possibly in need of software to do the presentation offline or online?
• On a budget?  Need free presentation tools?

Articulate Presenter: (price) Powerful program takes PowerPoint’s to another level. If you already know MS PowerPoint, this integrates with it.

Animoto: (free) With upgrade available. Takes photos / slides and gives them pizazz in a Hollywood style of presentation. Automated after you upload photos and music. Variable outputs. http://animoto.com

Windows Movie Maker: (free) Similar visual to Camtasia. More limited but does allow for a variety of media to be inserted into a presentation including a variety of video, audio, graphics. Variable outputs.

Microsoft Photo Story: Bring your digital photos to life with Photo Story 3 for Windows. Download Photo Story 3 for free and experience your photos in amazing new ways.

SlideShare: (free) Upload and share your PowerPoint presentations and Word documents on SlideShare. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to make a webinar.  This is not a production tool, simply a means to present.

SlideRocket: Appears powerful with lots of options to take a presentation to the next level.  Other than minor testing, I am not familiar enough with it.  They offer a demo though!  For online presentations.

Audacity: No presentation can be produced without good audio and audacity is the one I use.  FREE and powerful software.

Brain Betty: I know the name is silly but Brain Betty provides FREE tools, templates, audio, music and more to help you create a PowerPoint presentation.

Microsoft PowerPoint: Can't leave this off the list.

Impress:The FREE option from OpenOffice.org to Microsoft's PowerPoint and some say it is even better.

Wildform: Get everything you need to create great multimedia presentations and e-learning projects. Converts PowerPoint to Flash and many tools to take your presentation to the next level.

WikiHow: WikiHow can get you started if you feel stumped.

Screenr: Instant screencasts for Twitter. (Can be used beyond Twitter)  Now you can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. Just click the record button and you'll have your ready-to-tweet screencast in seconds.

my.brainshark.com:  Online Presentations...On Demand.  Create, Share, and Track multimedia presentations with ease.  Brainshark helps business people and organizations communicate faster and more cost-effectively than ever before.

I am finding Camtasia: to be a top contender. It does have a price tag but for the options and power it is well worth every penny. The others have great potential for filling needs for small projects.

You may not want to invest the money if used rarely for smaller projects. Jing, Camtasia and Snagit are all Techsmith products. Techsmith offers great tutorials.

If your budget is low, go with Jing (limit of 5 minutes each screen capture but first class).

If your budget is low and you want to learn the software quickly, add narration, and keep it simple, go with Wink.

If you value your time and need to have power, go with Camtasia.

If you want to keep it simple and low cost, use OpenOffice.org Impress and upload to SlideShare.  As long as you have the internet connection, you can present to a group in a conference room or online. 

Step up from Slideshare and add sound to your PowerPoint with My.BrainShark.

I gave you the full menu since each person has their own budget and knowledge base. The latest MS PowerPoint in Office 2007 has plenty of options as well. The issue, of course, is HQ if you are using it for conferences or streaming online, etc. This lead me to PowerPoint / Camtasia / Articulate / Animoto if you intend to show it on a screen. They have been successful for me in rooms up to 100+ (if the screen size is very large, I have not tested these as of yet).

Once you go to "flash" output from smaller / cheaper recorders, there is degradation of quality. Camtasia and Articulate Presenter have output options (as does Animoto).   In my original search for options, I came across a few more resources but did not follow up so no testimonial or testing done: Netbriefings (for very large groups)  ConnectLive (for larger events, including live)

I hope this streamlines your search or at least eliminates what not to look for. Keep me posted if you find something!

We invite all of you to get a discussion going.  Please submit your comments at the end of this article, Thanks.

Michael Hartzell: Entrepreneur, author, speaker, magic marketing professor, coach, inbound marketing certified professional.   You can find his Blog here