Podiumย is a PowerPoint add-in which enables you to do quite a bit with your slide content.
You can manage your PowerPoint presentations, and you can use provided tools to enhance your presentations.
You can also create a new presentation from scratch. Podium provides a huge library of media elements such as images, vector drawings, ready-to-use backgrounds, 3D clip art and shapes, embellishments, etc. All these elements are royalty free, and most of these can also be individually customized to match the look of your slides. Once installed, Podium creates a new tab on PowerPointโsย Ribbon.
Podiumย is byย BrightSlides.com, a company based in Omaha, Nebraska. You can learn more aboutย Podium from their site. My contact at BrightSlides for this review wasย Adam Shahย โ thank you, Adam.
Using Podium
Download the installer from the link given above, and run the setup routine. Even if you do not download and install Podium, you can follow this walkthrough to understand Podium better:
Launch PowerPoint. Most of the time, PowerPoint opens a new presentation with a single slide โ you canย change the slide layoutย toย Blankย orย Title Onlyย by selectingHomeย tab |ย Layoutย |ย Blankย orย Title Only. This provides a nice blank slide to work on.
Now, access theย Podiumย tab of theย Ribbon, highlighted in red inย Figure 1.
Figure 1:ย Options within Podium tab of the RibbonThe options within theย Podiumย tab are explained below, as marked inย Figure 1 above:
Launch Podium:ย Click this button to launch theย Podiumย interface, as shown inย Figure 2.
Figure 2:ย Podium interface
The Podium interface provides six tabs โ these tabs are highlighted in red inย Figure 2, above. Each individual tab has a particular reason for existence, and their purposes are explained later in this review.
Create 3DText:ย This option takes you to theย 3D Text Renderingย engine โ refer to the 3D Text point in theย Podium Tabsย section later in this review.ย
Backgrounds:ย Click this button to bring up aย Backgroundย gallery as shown inย Figure 3. Choose any background as you require.
Figure 3:ย Background gallery
Embellishments:ย This is a toggle button which opens/hides theย Shapes & Embellishmentsย pane (highlighted in red inย Figure 4). Select and drag (or double-click) any of the available embellishments to your slide.
Figure 4:ย Shapes & Embellishments pane
Help Section:ย Within this section youโll find the Podium Help file, tips, access to the online forum, etc.
Choose any of the options to enhance the look of your slide. Seeย Figure 5ย which shows a slide with a Podium readymade background and embellishment applied.
Figure 5:ย Slide with Podium media element applied
Podium Tabs
Once you click theย Launch Podiumย button within the Podium tab of theย Ribbonย in PowerPoint, a mini-application calledย Podiumย opens with a PowerPoint-like interface, containing 6 tabs โ these tabs are explained below:
- Library:ย This tab (seeย Figure 6) provides you options to view and access backgrounds, templates, and stock photography.You can even manage your presentations by adding slides which are stored on your computer to this Library. This process is easy because Podium automatically searches your entire hard drive and categorizes every PowerPoint presentation and template that it finds. And the One-Click button makes it really easy to update the Library with any new content.
Figure 6:ย Library tab - Slide Designerย (seeย Figure 7):ย Lets you create slide backgrounds for your presentation. It offers you numerous filters to manipulate colors, effects, and transformations. You can manipulate images so that you end up with an entirely new design โ this can be used as your PowerPoint slide background. You can instantly see how your designs look with the live thumbnail preview.
Figure 7:ย Slide Designer tab - Slide Builderย (seeย Figure 8):ย This full drawing studio enables you to create backgrounds layer-by-layer with easy to use vector drawing tools provided as well as the large royalty-free library of rasterized shapes and embellishments.
Figure 8:ย Slide Builder tab - 3D Textย (seeย Figure 9):ย The new OpenGLยฎ base 3D text rendering engine enables you to create 3D text with full lighting effects and gradients.
Figure 9:ย 3DText tab - PowerPointย (seeย Figure 10):ย Within this tab you can define how your output should be applied to PowerPoint.
Figure 10:ย PowerPoint tab - Helpย (seeย Figure 11):ย This tab offers quick access to the Podium support center, customer areas, checking for updates, etc.
Figure 11:ย Help tab
Pricing and Support
Podium provides license for a month, a year, and full license. They cost $15.00, $99.00, and $199.00 respectively.
Support options include an online FAQ, email, and online demo movies.
Conclusion
Podium has a huge feature set โ and it does have a good price:performance ratio. Podium does bring in a lot of options and that can be intimidating unless you have the time to explore and play with all of them. Itโs a good product if you get to use all its features.