presentations

Get Kingsoft Office Professional 2013 for free

A couple weeks back I suggested that Kingsoft Office Free 2013 might just be the best Microsoft Office alternative you can get, especially if you need only the core elements: word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Kingsoft offers a Pro version, of course, one that includes more goodies. A one-year license normally sells for $29.95, but today only, Giveaway of the Day has Kingsoft Office Professional 2013 (Win) absolutely free.

Let me note right here that this version has just a few key benefits over its free counterpart: a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor, support for macros in the … Read more

Free iPad presentation app keeps it simple

A recent Microsoft television ad for the Surface implies that the iPad can't open PowerPoint presentations. One of the many options for creating, viewing, and editing PowerPoint and other presentations on an iPad is the free CloudOn app, which I described in a post from last June.

The advanced features of PowerPoint and other Office apps are overkill for tablet screens. The iPad needs a presentation app such as the free Haiku Deck that's designed for the tablet's strength: showing pictures.

Haiku Deck emphasizes telling your story in pictures: your own images or royalty-free photos in the … Read more

Review: Win them over with Presentation Pointer's competence

Presenters owe it to themselves to check out Presentation Pointer since it's one of the most flexible and easy-to-use presentation tools we've seen. With a few easy, closely-matched keystrokes, you can toggle your cursor into an enlarged pointer, highlight, or spotlight effect; draw on the screen; zoom in and out; and perform other effective, easy-to-remember enhancements. That's key, as anyone who has stood in front of an audience can attest: It's a bad time to get muddled. Presentation Pointer takes that into consideration with several easy-to-find access points, but even more so by grouping commands. For … Read more

Kingsoft Office 2013: The best free Microsoft Office alternative?

For over a year now I've championed Kingsoft Office Free 2012 as one of the top Microsoft Office alternatives for Windows, and with good reason: It's one of the best-looking clones out there, with superb file-compatibility to boot.

Yesterday, Kingsoft unveiled Office Free 2013 (Windows). (Please see below before you install it.) I'll go out on a limb and say it's now the single best free replacement for Microsoft Office, for a couple of very good reasons.

In case you're unfamiliar with it, Kingsoft Office includes three modules: Writer, Spreadsheets, and Presentations. Needless to say, … Read more

LinkedIn turns online resumes into professional portfolios

LinkedIn is letting users take their online resumes to a whole new level. The social network announced Wednesday that people now have more options to visually showcase their work experience and talent with videos, images, and photos.

For example, graphic designers can show images of their past projects, photographers can show examples of their snapshots, and advertisers can launch videos of previous campaigns. With this new feature, LinkedIn is aiming to let users turn their text-only resumes into interactive lookbooks.

"You can illustrate your greatest achievements in the form of stunning images, compelling videos, innovative presentations and more," … Read more

New Chrome extension can open Office docs

Direct browser support for Microsoft Office documents is coming in fits and spurts to Chrome. Google's latest effort is a portly extension for Chrome beta.

If you're running Google Chrome Beta on Windows or Mac, you can now install the Chrome Office Viewer. It will allow you to open links to Office files directly in the browser, a feature that was first announced with the Chromebook Pixel.

However, you're limited right now to merely viewing the files. To edit, you'll have to upload the file to Google Drive, or open it in Microsoft Office or another … Read more

Presentation Assistant 2.7.1 Review

Anyone who has ever given a presentation understands how valuable it can be to have an assistant to handle A/V duties while you're up front on "the business end" of things, but most of the time you're on your own. GoldGingko's Presentation Assistant might be all the help you need, though. It doesn't help prepare your presentation. No, Presentation Assistant helps you out when it's too late to make changes (or would be, without it). This screen annotating tool lets you draw and write on the screen while delivering your presentation. So … Read more

Create personalized slideshows in minutes thanks to FotoMagico for Mac

Making a beautiful slideshow personalized enough not to resemble any other might be harder than it seems. For people looking for some customization options while keeping things simple to use, FotoMagico for Mac might be the solution. However, it comes with a rather hefty price tag.

FotoMagico for Mac can import images from iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom to integrate with the photographer's workflow. The documentation is rich enough to get you started in minutes. The strong point of this software is clearly its interface. It's well thought out and really intuitive, and everything behaves exactly as expected. Drag-and-drop … Read more

Free LibreOffice office suite beefs up with version 4.0

Fans of LibreOffice will discover a new and improved version with several features typically found only in Microsoft Office.

For those unfamiliar with the product, LibreOffice is an open-source desktop suite, one of several free alternatives to Microsoft Office. The suite includes applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, and drawings.

Released today by the Document Foundation, LibreOffice 4.0 builds on its foundations with a host of new features and fixes.

As just a few examples, users of the Writer word processor can now add comments to entire blocks of text, more easily create different headers and footers for … Read more