PowerPoint? Who Knew?!

I think that most folks who've are comfortable with PowerPoint think that it is a simple tool. Even if you've dabbled in animation, you might think that you've mastered PowerPoint. But there is so much more to learn. And the nice thing about it is that it is packaged in the familiarity of PowerPoint. Tom posted 5 Must-Know PowerPoint Tips That Will Save You Time. I bet there's at least one that most PowerPoint users don't know about.

PowerPoint as a Graphics Tool?

Finding out you can create some really neat images using PowerPoint. Here's a cool folder image that can be created in PowerPoint using simple drawing tools. Once created, the drawing can be saved as an image, making it easier to reuse.

Templates, Templates, Templates

Templates seem to be the key to making elearning rapid and powerful. Tom Kuhlmann at the Rapid e-Learning Blog opened my eyes to the POWER of PowerPoint. He's made several posts on designing your own templates. Here's just some of them.

How To Deisgn Custom PowerPoint Templates for E-Learning

Here's a Free PowerPoint Template & How I Made It

The Secrets to Creating Your Own PowerPoint Templates for E-Learning

Here's How I Built That PowerPoint E-Learning Template

Color Schemes

Ran across a couple of tools to help you develop a color scheme. Kuler has over 15,000 color schemes. It shows you large blocks of the colors in the scheme. This should be useful when you are looking for something fresh. These schemes are accessible through Adobe CS4.
Pixie is useful for determining the colors that are used on images that are visible on your computer screen. Just hover over the color to determine its RGB representation.
The Color Scheme Designer is basically a color wheel that gives you monochromatic schemes, complementary schemes, triadic schemes, etc., at just a touch of a button.
The Color Schemer allows you to make your own color scheme. This could be useful even in scrapbooking.

Screenr - Screencasts by @elearning

Screenr - Screencasts by @elearning
Just found this set of videos by David Anderson. More amazing things that can be done in PowerPoint. I'm really interested in creating a photo cube effect in PowerPoint and the photo wall effect in PowerPoint. There's even a video on using Wordle to create graphic elements for elearning. The first video that I stumbled upon was creating a Polaroid, page curl image effect. PowerPoint is really powerful, especially when you leave the bullets behind.