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Contribute: Online Presentations
Contribute > Tools | Online Presentations | Publications | Downloads | Animations | Teaching Materials

Related Resources & Tips

Templates & Forms

The following PowerPoint templates are provided for the convience of our contributors, usage is not mandatory.
PowerPoint template
Video Taping Authorization Form

Examples

View all online presentations on memsHUB

Ready? Start a Contribution Now!

Contribution Steps at a Glance

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You will need:

1. A PowerPoint presentation

2. A microphone

You may have one built-in to your computer. If not, you can purchase one and plug it into your USB port. Read tips on how to select a microphone.

3. Our Breeze plug-in

You can get Macromedia Breeze plug-in from our website.

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1. Download and install the plug-in

Get Macromedia Breeze plug-in from our website and install it on your system.

Note that before you can download the plug-in, you must be a registered user on this site, and you must be logged in. Registration is free and easy. If you don't already have an account, register now. We'll automatically follow up by sending an email to your address. Click on the link in the email to activate your account. Once you've done all that and logged in to this site, you'll be able to download and install the plug-in.

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2. Voice your PowerPoint presentation

Once you've installed the plug-in, launch PowerPoint and load up your presentation. You'll notice a new Breeze menu on the PowerPoint menu bar. This menu contains the functions you'll need to record your presentation. Select Record Audio to get the recording started. Breeze usually does a quick test at this point to make sure that your microphone is plugged in and calibrated. Then, you'll see the dialog box that is used to control the recording. Press the red Record button to start recording, then speak naturally, and click the Next> button to advance your slides.

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3. Publish your voiced PowerPoint presentation

When you're finished recording, select the Publish option from the Breeze menu. This allows you to save your presentation in a form that can be uploaded onto our hub. Be sure to select the Zip Files option, so your presentation is saved as a single zip file.

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4. Upload your presentation to our hub

The last step is to upload your presentation to our hub. Click on the Start a Contribution link. We'll walk you through the process with a series of forms. The whole process feels like purchasing something on the web. You'll enter an abstract for the presentation, click Next, upload your zip file and perhaps a PDF version of your PowerPoint slides, click Next, enter the list of contributors who should be credited with this work, click Next, and so forth. The final Submit button submits your contribution for approval.

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5. See your presentation live on this site

We take a quick look at each submission, and approve it for publication within 24 hours. As soon as your contribution is approved, you'll see it appear on the What's New list for our hub.

Guidelines for Good Breeze Presentations

We prefer to use Macromedia Breeze as a delivery technology for seminars and presentations. Viewing of a Breeze Presentation by any user only requires installation of the Flash Player, which is installed on 99% of the world's browsers.

  1. Create your PowerPoint presentation as a PPT file with proper titles and such that it is suitable for presentation on a PC. Titles are important as they are used to generate the table of contents for your presentation. If the title conflicts with the layout of the slide, use it anyway and position the title so it is off the slide. If the title does not appear in the outline summary (located to the left while in normal viewing mode), the slide is not properly titled.
  2. At this time, the Mac is not supported as a platfrom for Breeze encoding. The main concerrn with Mac PowerPoint presentations is that of images that do not appear when moved to the PC. To avoid this, always insert pictures from a JPEG or TIFF file rather than using cut-and-paste operations.
  3. Those wishing to embed animations and videos within there presentation can do so. Breeze uses Flash SWF files for animations, and there is an option on the Breeze menu in PowerPoint to embed a Flash animation. Convert your animations to Flash files using either Macromedia Flash MX for Animated GIF files or Sorenson Squeeze for other movie file formats.
  4. Be mindful of ambinent noise (such as computer fans, room air conditioning, and lighting hum) when recording your presentation. These can apear as background noise in your presentation

A Few Do's and Don'ts

  • Do NOT talk through the transition from one slide to the next. It's a good time to pause for a moment and take a short breath.
  • Do remember that the person viewing your presentation will not be able to see your hands, fingers, or laser pointer.
  • Do remember when referring to an item on a slide to either articulate clearly what it is on the slide you are talking about, or make use of PowerPoint animations to highlight the area of discussion.
  • Do remember to title your slides.
  • Do realize that this technology requires a linear progression of your slides during the talk. Should you need to refer to a previous slide, please duplicate the slide in your presentation.
  • Do introduce yourself at the beginning of your presentation. Example: "Hello, my name is ..., I am professor of ..., etc., my background is ...."
  • Do use a lapel microphone, if you can. Clean audio makes all the difference in the quality of one's presentation. Wireless is recommended for lecture style presentations.