When used effectively, PowerPoint can be a highly versatile tool when conducting a presentation. The application is easy to learn and can do many different things to give your presentation a boost.
One problem is trying to do more with your presentation, including working in PDF content into your slides. Can you put PDFs in PowerPoint? The answer is yes, you can.
You’ve graduated. You’ve secured a job. Now what? As the reality sinks in, you’ll realize that getting that coveted position was only half the battle. Making the leap from a full time student to a full time professional is the other, much tougher, half.
By far, the biggest challenge is finding the right balance as you adjust to your new position. It calls for a shift in your daily habits, your lifestyle, and your productivity. And effective tech habits are part of that. They’re crucial to how we work. If they can’t be efficiently put to use, neither will your time.
Obviously, we all have our own ways of working with tech. Yet what habits you had in business school might not work in your new position. Fortunately, it’s possible to make a smooth transition with a few productivity tech tips that will keep you on track and well-adjusted.
To start, make sure your computer is set up to complement the way you need to work. Put your everyday files within one or two clicks by optimizing your desktop station with Dropbox. A simple cloud service like Dropbox can keep you constantly connected and highly organized.
If you’ve used this as an MBA student then you know how well it can back up your documents across mobile and desktop platforms. And as a business pro, it can bump up your productivity by using it to create an effective file folder and labeling system.
Labeling your folders is key. When working with documents, we usually work with them as a part of an on-going process.
So name your folders according to stages in your work: Working Drafts, Documents To Review, Finalized Documents, and so on. Then create subfolders for different categories—Clients, Office documents, Monthly reports, and the like.
This system lets you instantly dig up and locate a file according to where it is in the workflow rather than having to sift through broad categories first.
Make sure you set up a good daily routine that includes a task list. Setting up goals safeguards your time and keep you from multitasking because the amount of time spent on different things doesn’t always equate to productivity.
An app like To-Doist is simple yet powerful enough to keep you on task. It has both a web and free app that are easy to use.
To work effectively, sort your tasks by priority and length of completion time. Tasks of high priority with short deadlines go to the top of the list. Low priority tasks with longer deadlines go at the bottom.
For on-going jobs, break them down. Schedule them in for the next day at the end. This way you’re constantly working on them bit by bit until completed.
Also, reserve blocks of time for emails, phone calls, lunch, and frequent breaks to prevent you from getting side tracked and ensuring that you have a well balanced routine.
Scheduling your day is important during the first weeks when you’ll naturally be working slower than usual. Setting up your task list like this allows you to focus and give you time to accomplish one task at a time.
For the first week, you will probably be shown around the company as part of your orientation. Remembering everything from procedures to document processing is key.
Simplify this by getting an app that can raise your mobile productivity. For instance, an app like Evernote is a popular utility that will let you take notes right on the spot.
Create a New Note for every reminder you need and categorize them into Notebooks for different aspects of your orientation: Procedures, Team Members & Roles, Clientele, and so on.
The best part is that you aren’t limited to typing your notes. You can record voice memos when you don’t have time to type and take snapshots of examples you may need for reference later on.
With the many services and apps you can use, Evernote becomes a powerful cheatsheet tool that can make the first few weeks a breeze.
As the new kid on the block, you’ll want to be prepared for any project that comes your way. Whether this means turning to an image editing tool for custom graphics and media projects or YouTube videos for MS Office how-to’s, you should have the right resources at your fingertips.
For times when you need guidance and advice, you should join Quora, one of the top Q & A sites where you can connect with experts.
If you follow top business influencers in your field, you can gain valuable insight based on real life experience.
The advantage of this site is that you can get in touch directly with professionals. First, you can visit their profiles and send them a simple message introducing yourself.
Or second and more effectively, you can use the network’s Ask to Answer feature. This allows you to have your question sent to a professional of your choice directly. So the more active you are the better a resource Quora can become!
You’ve worked hard to earn your position, so don’t let a few snags affect your performance. There are many ways to improve your technical game. Use what works for you. Give these tips a test run and let us know how you plan on making the transition easier.
As the school year starts up, you’re probably just getting yourself oriented with your classes and gauging the size of the workload you’ll have to deal with.
It may be daunting after a long lazy summer, but anticipating the amount of reading you have ahead of you is a good idea. It’s never fun to all of a sudden find yourself lagging behind. You need to get ahead of the curve way before the heavy reading assignments even start. And we have a perfect tip for that: to help lighten the reading load use a convert text to speech tool.
Converting speech to text can come in handy in so many ways. It can free you up to get away from the screen for a bit or help you learn a language. Also, students with disabilities can use text to speech tools to easily access digital content. Text to speech tools are perfect if you need help with proofreading, catching up on your notes, or getting some eBook reading done.
So here’s a look at 5 different ways to listen to your reading assignments with these free easy to use text to speech tools.
For those who need to catch up on reading while commuting, running errands, working out or multi-tasking, SpokenText is a straightforward online text to audio converter. SpokenText allows you to convert any number of files such as PDF, DOC, PPT, TXT, HTML and Emails to an MP3 file. Once you have your MP3 files are created, you can then download and put them onto a mobile device. You’ll be able to take your readings with you.
Have a document online that needs to be proofread? If the file is shared on the web with a file sharing or collaboration tool like Google Docs, then you can have the text read to you directly from within your browser. You can listen for grammatical errors while working with other things on your computer–all without missing a beat.
SpeakIt! is available for Chrome and allows you to read text displayed in the browser. For FireFox, there’s Text to Voice which can also let you download your text in MP3 format. And Opera users can try VozMe. Once any of these extensions are installed, just highlight the text you want read out to you and activate the plugin.
NaturalReaders is a popular text to speech tool whose online version comes with basic yet advanced features to get the job done. Click on Add Documents and you can start building and accessing your list of files from popular services like Dropbox, Google Docs, and more. Handy for students working on public computers or using Cloud services.
People who are used to in browser music players will love the look and feel of YAKiToMe! It’s a free online text to speech service and network rolled into one where you can share your audio books and files with other YAKiToMe user groups. If you’re lucky, you may find a user with an audio version of a book you’re looking for.
YAKiToMe! lets you convert text from .doc, .pdf, .txt, .html, .xml, and email to speech. Choose a reader, a reading speed and an input method for uploading text: Field (copy-paste text directly), File, RSS, and Email. Then click on the Run Text To Speech button.
PDF2Speech is exactly what its name suggests. It’s a free online PDF to speech converter. This is perfect for professional and academic uses where PDF reading is a common task. On-screen PDF reading can sometimes be a chore, but listening to one doesn’t have to be.
To use this tool, simply upload your PDF files to the site and hit the Convert button. This free service allows you to convert up to 20 pages which will allow you to get a good chunk of your readings checked off your list.
There are many simple yet powerful text to speech freeware tools to suit any occasion or need. The good news is that it doesn’t require a lot of money or any bloated text to speech download.
Summer’s almost over and it’s time to get yourself into school-mode. But with the last few reserved for back- to-school shopping and last minute registration issues, you may be too swamped to think of anything else outside of school supplies and dorm room arrangements.
And we aren’t talking about the usual back-to-school preparations. We’re talking about your life as a student. Are you emotionally and mentally prepared? Can you juggle your schedule effectively, go beyond your comfort zone, adjust to different learning styles? How do you plan on staying inspired?
Because there’s no way you can buy the help and advice you’ll need at a sale, we put together a small round up of 7 timeless and highly relevant TED Talks you’ll definitely want to check out.
These will provide you with some enlightening and trustworthy guidance in your personal development as a student.
College is the place to try new clubs and sports, but getting out there might have you avoiding the sign up lines. If you need a little push, look no further than this TED Talk by Google Engineer, Matt Cutts. He shares his experience on trying something new for 30 days including writing a novel, taking a picture each day, and even hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro! What will you try?
As a student, you may be worrying about economic challenges waiting for you when you’re academic career is over. What will the job market have in store for you? Watch economist Andrew McAffee as he explores what future jobs will look like and offers insight on how to prepare for a highly technical job market.
Procrastination. It’s inevitable. The good news is that you can overcome it. Vik Nithy, co-founder of 3 companies at age 20, offers a highly motivating TEDxYouth Talk on mentally beating procrastination with a few actionable steps you can easily put into play.
From speaking up in class to delivering a presentation, most of us dread talking out loud and attracting the spotlight. However, sound consultant, Julian Treasure, makes it less scary with his break down on how and by what means we use our voice to talk to each other. Watch and get some pointers on how to feel at ease before you speak.
In college, you’ll be faced with choices that will have an impact on your future, and whether you like it or not, the sole responsibility of those decisions will lie on you. So how do you know what the right decisions are? There’s no definite answer, but Dan Gilbert, Harvard psychologist and Happiness Expert, offers an insightful discussion on the reasons why and how we make the choices we do.
Before you join up for an online class, you’ll want to hear what Peter Norvig, director of research at Google Inc., has to say. He shares his experience on approaching and implementing effective online teaching strategies that are aimed at engaging students and enhancing the way they’re being educated. This is a great talk you’ll want to keep in mind when you’re in an online class with a thousand other students.
Amidst assignments and the daily study grind, it’s easy to lose sight of your passions. Whether you’re at school for sports, music, science, or writing, you’re there because it’s what you want to do with your life. When you forget that, listen to some words of inspiration from the author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert. She discusses her successes and failures, giving viewers advice on how to continue doing what they love to do.
If you’re a student, you’re probably always on the lookout for ways to cut costs wherever possible. And a free online word processor like Google Docs, is a popular alternative. It’s where you go when you need to share, edit and store documents.
But do you always have what you need when working with Google Docs? Now that Google Drive offers Google Docs and Sheets add-ons, you do. They offer more functionality and flexibility when creating complex documents online. If you haven’t tried these out yet, you should.
The life of a student is made up of a lot of information, and you need to be able to break down, organize, write, and carefully cite your arguments. With Google Docs and Sheets add-ons, you can now accomplish almost everything needed to write a paper, from start to finish.
Here’s a quick guide on what we thought were the handiest add-ons for the job.
One of the first steps for creating any paper is the outline. For an essay of any notable length, you need to map out your arguments clearly and effectively. In Google Docs, you can use the Gliffy diagrams add-on where you can easily create a flow chart or mind map on your topic.
Image Credit: Gliffy.comThe add-on takes you to the Gliffy site where you can start creating a simple map out of your ideas and then access or insert it right into Google Docs to keep yourself on track. With a free account, you can create up to 5 diagrams.
When it comes time to sift through class notes and first drafts, it can be frustrating to have to go through them all one by one and extract what you need. But by using the Texthelp Study Skills highlighting tools add-on, you can speed up the sorting process significantly.
These highlighting tools allow you to highlight important points and then collect that highlighted text into a new document. This is handy as you can then start filling out your paper around the text. No need to copy and paste or toggle back and forth. An extremely helpful add-on for integrating your research notes with the actual writing of your paper.
As you write and incorporate your research and quotations, use EasyBib to create a bibliography. This eliminates the tedious task of manually documenting sources, especially when they can come in every possible type of format.
You can cite sources into MLA, APA, or Chicago style directly in the side bar. Easybib makes it as easy as pasting in the title, ISBN, or URL of your source.At the end, clicking on the Generate Bibliography button will add it neatly to the end of your paper. This way you can focus on the writing instead of the details of your citations.
When you’re ready to edit and proof read your finished draft, make sure you catch all errors by using the ProWriting Aid add-on.
It not only performs instant checks for grammar, but also checks consistency, plagiarism and overused words. ProWriting Aid will provide you with a full report in the side bar. And from there, you can edit and rewrite your text as needed.
As an added measure, the Thesaurus add-on is helpful when adding the finishing touches to your writing. Just select a word in your document and activate the add-on. A side-bar will pop up with suggestions right within Google Docs, which is more convenient than having to Google around for another word in another window.
By no means do you have to pigeon-hole yourselves to these add-ons. All the offered add-ons are general enough to help with any writing need you may have. So check them out and let us know which ones help you the most.