Friday, September 27, 2013

Express Points: A New Free PowerPoint Alternative from NCH

Need to give a report? Presenting a paper or results? Making a sales pitch? PowerPoint has been the standard for creating slide presentations for all these uses and more, but for many, it has also become a crutch. The Internet is littered with advice and the Dos and Don'ts of making effective presentations. Audiences have become numb and turned off to excessive use of standard templates and poorly planned presentations.

Hands down, no matter what program you use, thinking out the presentation, and what media, elements, and ideas you need to support and enhance what you have to say will make a world of difference more than the actual application used to make it. Like a calculator only being as smart as its user, adding slides won't make a presentation better just because they are there. That being said, if you are looking for an alternative program, we hope you will try the new Express Points Presentation Software.

As with all of our software, we have approached this application with the goal of making everything as easy as possible, so you can focus on what you want to say and do instead of how to get it done. We hope you will give Express Points a try when working on your next presentation, and give us your feedback on how we can improve it in future releases to make it even more effective.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Teaching Reading Fluency With Podcasts

Book About Teaching Reading Fluency We were excited to hear about the newly published book, From Fluency to Comprehension, part of a Teaching Practices That Work Series. Not only is this an important topic and a resource full of practical information for teachers, we first heard about this book from Sheri Vasinda and Julie McLeod who wrote one of the chapters on podcasting approaches to reading fluency. In that chapter they feature the Pocket WavePad mobile application, complete with illustrations, for recording and emailing scripts.

So if you are an educator or parent of a young reader, take a closer look at this new book about building the skills students need to read accurately, meaningfully and expressively. This guide incorporates activities, examples and technology—like our very own WavePad—to provide students with the essential components of reading comprehension. A fundamental skill for learning, and as someone who strongly believes in lifelong learning, a cause I am happy to see us support even in the littlest of ways.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

ClickCharts New Flowchart Diagram Maker

Our developers have been busy expanding to our list of software programs. Most recently we came out with a new product for creating flowcharts. This new program is named ClickCharts flowchart software and in just a few clicks it will help you make any type of flow diagram from a company organization chart to an entity relationship diagram. So if you have a processes to outline or an idea to brainstorm a mind map of, download ClickCharts free flowchart maker to create a visual representation of that information that you can easily print out or save as an image file to share with others.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Do the Splits and See Where Your Money is Going

Managing your personal finances is much easier when you know exactly where your money is coming from and where it's going. MoneyLine Personal Finance Software helps you track your cash flow quickly and easily.

split transaction to see where your money goes with MoneyLine personal finance software One of the easiest ways to see what's happening with your money is to use the split transaction feature in MoneyLine. For example, let's say you go to a store like Target or Walmart to buy groceries. Along with your groceries, you stop off in the automotive section to pick up a couple of quarts of oil, then stop by the clothing section to pick up a few pairs of socks, and finally drop by the toy aisle to buy a birthday gift for a young relative.

Once you're home and have put away the groceries and the other items you bought, enter the purchase in MoneyLine. You can either record the total amount of the transaction and stop there, or take a few extra seconds and split the transaction into different categories. After entering the total amount spent at the store, break down exactly how much money you spent on food and allocate that to the Groceries category. Record the amount spent for the motor oil to Auto, put the socks under Clothing, and finally the toy can go under Gifts.

You can even add subcategories to track things in still finer detail. For example, if you have two cars, you could make a subcategory for each vehicle underneath Auto expenses.

Over time, as you continue to categorize and split transactions you will have a better picture of exactly where you are spending your money. This helps when you are trying to create or stick to a budget—another feature of MoneyLine. You may find areas where you can cut back, or maybe you will find a few extra dollars that you can use for vacation and entertainment expenses—that's when keeping track of your money becomes fun.

Keeping track of your personal finances can be a chore, but with MoneyLine Personal Finance Software you'll find that it's actually a lot quicker than you may have feared.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Digitize Video from VHS to AVI, DVD or MPG

Recently we talked about the birthday of audio cassette tapes, and how some of you might have an old collection you might want to consider digitizing. Well, the same can be done with video cassettes too. If you want to digitize old VHS tapes Golden Videos VHS to DVD Converter is here to help with the digital video transformation.
In addition to Golden Videos, you will need a video capture device to connect your VCR to your PC, with your VCR connected and Golden Videos installed the hard part is done. Golden Videos will guide you step by step through converting VHS tapes. The only other things you need are a little patience while the video is being processed and about 80GB of disc space for each 2hr movie you are converting.

The ambitious can go a step further to enhance the newly digitized video files by taking them to other video programs. With either the easy VideoPad video editor or PhotoStage slideshow creator you can easily edit movies and combine video with other media to make video montages of life's golden memories and significant events, saving them into fun and shareable videos for this digital age.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Do More with Video - Blog Carnival September 2, 2013

do more with video Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Video:

Jerry Kokich presents Advantages Of Using Stock Footage posted at Filmmaking Stuff, saying, "If you come across a situation where you could use stock footage and don’t, you are a fool as will end up wasting time and money. Learn how to utilize stock footage, and save yourself money, time and headaches."

Earl Chessher presents 9 Affordable Approaches to Video Training posted at Videomaker, saying, "Video production rules, secrets and tricks aren’t something we’re born with or a gift gained via effortless, often unconscious assimilation."

Mike Gruszynski presents How to Produce Your Own Video Resume posted at TechSmith, saying, "Some tips and best practices for shooting, capturing audio, lighting and editing a video resume."

Jeffe Aronson presents How to Get the Best Out of Your GoPro posted at River Currents, saying, "a few nuggets of info I’ve learned along the way that will help you get best out of your GoPro camera."

Mario Gomes presents Create Amazing Animated Business Videos Yourself posted at Queness Feed.

Colin Mulvany presents The change: Video storytelling and the rise of the DSLR posted at Mastering Multimedia, saying, "In the blink of an eye, things change. It comes down to how you respond to that change."

lekan presents The Top 3 Video Streaming Websites posted at Welcome to lekan babarinde's blog, saying, "Enjoy Free Unlimited Streaming of Thousands of Movies and TV Shows"

Greg Glasgow presents Film students go behind the camera to shoot their own short documentaries posted at Denver Magazine, saying, "Following one team of Denver University students through the filmmaking process from pitch to premiere."

You might also be interested in: That concludes the first edition of Do More with Video. If you have a video story to share from home movies to video production submit your video blog posts for the next edition.