Build a CNN-Style Q&A Interaction with PowerPoint 2010's Blur Tool
Have you noticed how the CNN website uses blurred images as a design element in some of their posts? Since the new image-formatting features in PowerPoint 2010 include a handy blur tool, it’s pretty easy to create a similar effect in your rapid e-learning courses. And it’s a really nice alternative to traditional bullet-style slides!
So, with inspiration from the CNN folks, below is a published example I cooked up, using PowerPoint 2010 and Articulate Presenter ‘09, with content adapted from heart.org. Following the example is a series of tutorials that show how to build the effect yourself if you have PowerPoint 2010.
You can also download the source files here if you’d like to take a look under the hood and adapt the project for your own courses.
27 Comments
Hi Michael and Jeanette, The links that do not work are on the thumbnails - I used them to not only signal where the learner is in the course where the thumbnail of the image is in focus and bright when you are on that slide - but also as a navigational device, where the learner can click on a thumbnail to navigate within a module (my course has 5). It is the links on the thumbnails that so not work and clip art graphic that links to a hidden slide with extra "tidbits" of knowledge that are not on the quizzes or final exam. I followed your instructions about branching to and from hidden slides, but the links are still not working. On the separate issue of the .wav file, it is a short video, not just sound, and when I browse to it to add it, Articulate does not see the wav file. I... Expand
Hi Kendra, How are you today? Looking forward to seeing the course, to get a better feel for what's happening with your links... Are the modules separate from one another, or are they all included in a single PPT? Using a WAV import function probably won't work with AVIs, as the WAV file format is pure audio and the AVI is a combination of audio and video. If you have Articulate's Video Converter, you can export the AVI as a Flash file format, then use the Flash Import function to bring the video on to a slide, If you don't have the Video Converter, you can use one of the free online programs such as www.any-video-converter.com or standalone programs such as Camtasia Studio to import the AVI and export it as a SWF, SWF, or MP4 video, all of which are importable on to a PPT slid... Expand