PowerPoint

Where Do You Get Your Images?

August 2, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 18 Comments

Today a reader asked me where I get my images, and since that comes up a lot I thought it might be time to write a post. In case it’s helpful, here’s where I get them.

My Own Images

My Own Photos (Click to See Example)

My Own Vector Images (Click to See Example)

Photos: I take my own photos and use them pretty regularly. I’ve also shared quite a few on MorgueFile since it’s a community that relies on both giving and getting. (You can share there, too!)
Vector: A lot of times I’ll simply make my own vector images in PowerPoint. It’s my image creation and manipulation tool of choice. Here’s a free pictogram file I’ve shared, and it links to a great tutorial from Mike Taylor about how to create vector images yourself in PowerPoint.

Free Images

Occasionally I’ll use an image with a creative commons license, but I don’t use most free image sites because I don’t have the time or inclination to read each image’s license and track its attribution. So I use:

Morgue File Images (Click to See Example)

MorgueFile: They’re my first choice for free, large, good-quality images. The license agreement is free and clear of any restriction that would require additional action from me, and I like that I’m supporting a community “By Creatives For Creatives”.
Morgue File Images (Click to See Example)

Bing or Google Images: I’ll occasionally search here using the license filter options, but even then there’s no guarantee the license information is correct, so I limit my use of these sites.
Update: Check the Comments Below!
Folks have mentioned some other free image sites they love and you might want to check them out.

Purchased Images

Characters with Transparent Backgrounds from eLearningArt.com (Click to See Example)

Photographic Characters with Transparent Backgrounds

eLearningArt.com: I have a subscription here, and owner Bryan Jones is fantastically responsive and great to work with. I used to also subscribe to eLearningBrothers.com but their subscription rate has escalated rather dramatically in the last few years and is simply more than I would pay.

Photographic & Vector Images by Subscription

DollarPhotoClub.com Images (Click to See Example)

DollarPhotoClub.com: I recently subscribed on Tom Kuhlmann’s recommendation for all of the reasons he covers in his post about it. I got a lot of mileage out of Microsoft Clipart for a long time, but they’ve largely moved on. Tom also goes over a number of other image sites you might want to check out in his post.

Photographic & Vector Images Without a Subscription

Creative Market Images (Click to See Example)

CreativeMarket.com: I’ll occasionally buy individual images here. It’s nice to know you’re supporting an individual designer, plus CreativeMarket gives away a number of free items each week and offers budget-friendly bundles of goods on a regular basis.

There’s Always More

There are all kinds of other places I’ve gotten one-off images, but the circumstances vary by project. If you see something specific on my site and you’re wondering about the images, feel free to ask!

Oh – and I made the featured image for this post using images from DollarPhotoClub.com (background and flower on the right), my own travel photos (a sweet shop in Istanbul in the middle), and Microsoft Clipart (the flower on the left). Sometimes it takes a village.

DIY E-Learning Icons (+ Free Download!)

April 12, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 8 Comments

This week’s ELH challenge is to create and share a set of icons for the e-learning community. (I’m in!)

Theme: Language Learning

Arts & Culture

List or Knowledge Check

Listening

Reading

Role Play or Discussion

Speaking

Viewing

Writing

For last week’s emoji challenge I created a language learning demo. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart, so I kept the theme going this week. These are the icons, and they align with most of the basic activities you engage in when learning a language.

Design

I created them in PowerPoint and made them simple and flat. To save time I took one of David Anderson’s challenge suggestions and pulled the basic images from The Noun Project. Credit and links back to the original images are in the file.

Colorize Your World

Snack Pack Colors

To show how you can customize them I mocked up a few color combos. They’re in the PowerPoint file, too. To color the PNG images I used Format > Color, and to add texture I used Format > Artistic Effects.

Download Them Now!

Black & White

If you’d like to download the PowerPoint file with these fully-customizable icons, you can grab it on the download page.

Feeling Neutral

Icon Feel the Blues Coming On

Texture Becomes Electra

Keeping It Odd

March 14, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 12 Comments

Select Image to Launch Demo

This week’s challenge is to make up an odd-sounding course title, then design the cover slide. I got inspired by some of the fauna here in South Carolina and went with it.

Our Gators

I love that we get to share this area with the local alligators. Sometimes on our walks we’ll stumble a bit too close to a guy and calmly give him a wide berth, but we all get along famously.

Our Golfers

Since golfers are also rife around here, especially near gator ponds, I considered what an e-learning course about alligator safety for those guys might look like.

The E-Learning Course

Teaching the golfer how to stay safe by showing him the alligator’s perspective seemed like an engrossing way to go. Especially if you realize, from screen one, that you may be dinner. Of course the goal would be to keep both parties safe.

Visual Design

I purchased my well-dressed golfer, but made the alligator out of PowerPoint shapes. For fonts, I liked the chunkiness of Clarendon against the fancy-restaurant deliciousness of Edwardian Script. All in all, I’m pretty happy with it.

Check it out!

Grab your golf clubs and enjoy this tantalizing title slide right here.

Create Your Own Pictogram Characters (With Free Character & Slider Files!)

October 6, 2014 By Jackie Van Nice 16 Comments

Select Image to Launch Demo

This challenge is to create your own characters in pictogram style. You simply take basic shapes (I used PowerPoint) and mold them until you have the custom characters you need.

The Idea

Inexplicably, the only characters I was motivated to pictogram were the Dapper Dans – a barbershop quartet at Disney. David Anderson was clear that these characters should be “aligned with an industry”, so apparently I opted for the entertainment industry’s thriving barbershop sector; strolling division.

The Approach

After finding an image of a Dapper Dan I brought it into PowerPoint and started slapping basic shapes on it to mimic the outlines. Then I added some color, smaller details, and used images of striped fabric as the fill for their vests.

Dan Before

Dan During

Dan After

Mike Taylor’s Helpful Video

Mike Taylor’s blog post explaining how he created his own pictograms – and especially this video he did to demonstrate – helped me a lot. Specifically, I’ve never been satisfied with the amount of control I’ve had over editing points on shapes in PowerPoint, but starting at 7:20 in the video he reveals finer points I never knew about, and that was a big help. Thanks, Mike!

State Change: The Dan’s Stance & Note Color Change When Selected

The Slider

I guess I didn’t get enough of a slider fix in last week’s challenge, and this one was just asking for it. The idea of having each stop be a different vocal that harmonizes with the others seemed like a good idea, so I roped Dan Sweigert into recording some quick audio and was off to the races.

I set it up so that when a Dan is selected (1) his audio plays, (2) he changes to a singing stance, and (3) the note on the musical notation below him changes to match his outfit. Those image changes are set up as states, and they’re triggered to revert to their normal states once the audio stops playing.

Have a Look & Listen

Here’s the finished product. Have your audio ready and enjoy the performance!

Download the Free Image and Slider Files!

In case these might help you in your own work, you can download the PowerPoint source file with the customizable pictogram characters and download the Storyline singing slider file, too. Have fun!

The Challenge of Storyboarding (+ Free Template!)

August 24, 2014 By Jackie Van Nice 12 Comments

Visual Storyboard Template

This week’s Articulate challenge is to show how you storyboard and to share some of your favorite tips.

Visit this Storyboard’s download page if you’d like to try it!

How I Storyboard

Most of the Time: Prototype

I normally create a quick prototype in Storyline to communicate my design. You can document what you’d like the user experience to be all day long in a written storyboard, but it never conveys the end result as effectively as a demo.

Some of the Time: Visual Storyboard (Try Out The Template!)

Sometimes I’ll do a visual storyboard in PowerPoint, which works pretty well and most SMEs seem to like working with it.

Almost Never: Text-Only Storyboard

I’ll receive text-only storyboards from clients as a way to give me their basic content, but I don’t spend time creating them myself.

My Storyboarding Tips

Communicate your ideas in the clearest way possible. For me this usually means spending time creating a working prototype rather than documenting how I’d like to build something.
Storyboarding Course on Lynda.com

If you’d like an overview of the different types of storyboards and how to use them, you might want to check out Articulate Super Hero Daniel Brigham’s course on Lynda.com.
Storyboarding Resources on E-Learning Heroes Site

If you’re looking for some free storyboard templates, the Downloads section of Articulate’s E-Learning Heroes site might have what you need.

Happy storyboarding!