Thing #15: Presentations go social

Many of us here at the commission use PowerPoint. A lot of PowerPoint. Whether for an online presentation via Centra, live at a conference or as part of a workshop, attendees generally want a copy of the slides for post-presentation review.

In the past, PPT files were posted on a Web site for download or sent via e-mail. Trouble is, there's not much you can do using that method. Then came SlideShare. The easiest way to explain this site is "Flickr for PowerPoint".

Once you've created an account and uploaded a PPT file to SlideShare you get the following benefits:

• An easy URL to point people to for the individual presentation.
• An account into which you can place all of your presentations.
• The ability to allow others to download your original PPT file.
• The ability to allow others to embed your presentation in their Web site.

On top of that, users can:

• View presentations on SlideShare with no additional software beyond Flash.
• Mark favorites.
• Leave comments on presentations or individual slides.
• Add tags.
• Download (when allowed by the author).
• Embed presentations in their blogs and other Web sites (when allowed by the author).
• Add other users as contacts and leave messages.
• Subscribe to the presentation of other users via RSS.

In fact, here's an example of an embedded presentation which covers some of the features of SlideShare:

SlideShare Quick Tour - Summary of features & capabilities

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tutorial howto)

Now go ahead and take a look at the nebraskaccess account. There you'll find more than 50 presentations from NLC staff, our Wall where you can leave comments, our basic profile, and a list of presentations we've marked as favorites.

Let's take a look at the major features of SlideShare.

Searching & Browsing

If you're looking for a basic introduction to a topic or have been asked to give a presentation and you're looking to see how others have done it in the past, searching through SlideShare is bound to give you what you need. Searching is accessed via the search box in the upper-right corner of every page. Alternatively, you can choose browse in the menu bar at the top of the page to access presentations by category.

Once you're on the search results page you can choose to search for Slideshows, Users, or Groups/Events. You can also sort your results by Relevance, Latest, Views, and several other options.

I found an interesting one, now what?

Once you've opened the page for a particular show there are many things you can do. (Click the image to the right for a full-sized version.) The options include:

• Play the show using the player controls
• View the show in full-screen mode
• Read the show's statistics
• Use the social tools to share, favorite, add to a group, and download the show
• Add/view categories
• Find related shows and more shows by the same author

Uploading

There are several methods available for uploading a show into SlideShare. The simplest is to click the Upload link in the menu at the top, browse for the file on your hard drive and let the rest happen automatically.

Once the file is uploaded you'll be asked to supply such information as title, author, category, description, tags, and license. The more information you provide the easier it will be for others to find your work.

Two important notes about submitting content:

1. The max file size allowed is 100MB.
2. SlideShare is not yet able to accept .pptx files created with PowerPoint 2007. You'll first need to save them in the older .ppt format.

Embedding

Assuming the author of a presentation has allowed it, you can easily embed a show in your blog or Web site to share it with others. Here are the steps for doing this in your Blogger blog:

1. Find the embed code for the show you wish to embed. (Highlighted in the screenshot to the right.)
2. Click your mouse cursor in that box and the code will automatically highlight.
3. Copy the code. (CTRL-C, right-click/copy, or Edit/Copy from the browser menu)
4. Switch to your Blog post and change to the Edit HTML view.
5. Place your cursor where you want the show to appear and paste. (Best to do this on it's own blank line in your post.)
6. Switch back to Compose mode and you should see some text related to your embedded show. (Click Preview to see the actual show.)
7. Finish your blog post and publish.

Update 16 December 2008:
SlideShare has released an add-on for PowerPoint 2007 that makes all of this much easier.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Create a SlideShare account.
2. Fill in as much of your profile as you're comfortable with.
3. Search for some slideshows on topics of interest for you.
4. Set at lease one favorite and leave a comment on at least one slideshow.
5. Add nebraskaccess as a contact.
6. Write a blog post about your SlideShare experience. Be sure to include a link to your SlideShare account in your post.
7. Don't forget to post a link to your post in the comments here.

Optional:

1. If you have a PowerPoint you've created, upload it to your account.
2. Embed your slideshow (or another of your choice) into the blog post for this exercise.