People are always asking for storyboard templates.  Personally, I just use PowerPoint.  I can put anything on the slide and if I want comments I can add those to the notes section or drop in a simple comment box.  Plus I can edit and preview on the fly. I prefer this more than I do drawing everything out on paper.

In addition, PowerPoint 2010 has some better commenting features and can link to OneNote (which I’ll cover in an upcoming tutorial).  So, I recommend starting with PowerPoint. 

But if you want to create a storyboard and you don’t want to use PowerPoint, here’s a free tool that let’s you do so.

Check the quick storyboard tutorial below.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Here’s a link to the web site that will generate the free storyboard PDF.

Resident elearning guru, David Anderson offers three really easy ways to make your audio sound good.  Instead of recording your audio in PowerPoint, record it using Audacity, which is a free audio editor.

Reduce Background Noise

In this first tutorial, you’ll learn to reduce background and ambient noise to make you narration sound much better.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Boost the Bass

The second tutorial walks through the steps of slightly boosting the bass.  It will make your voice sound warmer and give you a greater sense of presence.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Equalize the Audio Narration

In this tutorial you’ll learn to equalize the audio.  It adds a richness and warmth to your voice only equaled to a cup of hot tea and honey.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Adding Audio Back to PowerPoint

If you’re using a rapid elearning tool like Articulate Presenter, you can just import the audio into the slide using the audio import feature.

However, if you’re using PowerPoint, just select insert sounds>from file to bring the audio file onto the slide.

Hope that helps.  Do you have any audio narration tips and tricks?

You can even download the template you see below.  And it’s all free.  Here’s a quick tutorial that explains how to edit the template.

Here’s a free site that I use quite a bit.  It lets you easily calculate the missing value for an aspect ratio.  I use this a lot when I try to figure out the size of photos or widgets that I want to embed on slides or web pages.

Let’s say you have a picture that’s 800×662 pixels wide, but you can only put a 400 pixel wide image on your blog.  So you need to scale it down, but keep the same aspect ratio.

You can see the aspect ratio calculator in action in the tutorial below.

Click here to view the aspect ratio tutorial.

So now you’re never at a loss to quickly calculate the aspect ratios for any of your multimedia projects.

Screenr is a free screencasting application that lets you make a video of  your on-screen mouse movements.  It’s great for software demos.  I’ve also seen teachers use it to teach math and other subjects.

Once you have a good video, adding it to your PowerPoint slides is as easy as 1-2-3.  View the tutorial and read the basic steps below.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Here are the basic steps:

• Find the Screenr embed code and copy it to the clipboard.
• Open the developer tab in PowerPoint.  In the control panel, you will find the shockwave properties.
• Add the movie URL in the shockwave properties. Make sure to include the unique video ID.

As soon as the font post was published, I got a bunch of emails asking how to install the fonts.  So here’s a quick tutorial that shows how to install new fonts to your PC.  You’ll see it’s pretty easy.

Click here to view the tutorial.

Here are the basic steps:

• You can right click on a font, and select install. 
• Or open your control panel.  Look for the fonts folder.  Then drag and drop the font to the folder.  It should install automatically.

To view the tutorial and download the free template, go to Here’s a Free PowerPoint Template & How I Made It via the Rapid E-Learning Blog.

Or you can use Screenr to create a screencast video presentation.  It’s free and easy to do.

Here’s an excellent example of a presentation that Scott Skibell did.  It’s a great testimony to the Articulate customer service (which I like), but it’s also an excellent presentation that is captured using Screenr.  I think he used Keynote, but it would work in PowerPoint just as well.

Presentation on the iPhone Demo

Click here to view Scott’s demo.

The steps are pretty easy. 

• Just frame the Screenr record window around the PowerPoint slide and start recording.  You can use the page up or page down to advance the slides back and forth.
• If you want to capture the animations, then record from presentation mode rather than using the slides in normal view. 
• Once you have a video recorded, check out the URL in your iPhone or iPod Touch. 

Pretty slick, huh?

Here’s a quick demo I recorded when testing it out with an interactive PowerPoint file.  There’s no audio and probably isn’t the best example because it requires that the user clicks on the screen, but I wanted to see how the animations looked.

Click here to view the PowerPoint demo.

First, you probably think that the microphone that you’re using sounds fine.  And it might.  However, if you compare it to other microphones, you might find that’s not the case.

Most people I know use headset microphones because they’re portable and typically inexpensive.  But are they the best to use for even simple narration?  You be the judge.

Here’s a demo tutorial I did comparing my headset to a desktop microphone.

• $30 headset
• $72 desktop (with no pop filter or any other type of adjustment)

As you can hear, the desktop microphone has a better sound.  I’d invest in a desktop microphone if you do a lot of recording or expect people to listen to your presentations. 

I use the Samson microphone and am happy with it.  And it’s relatively inexpensive.  You can get them for about $70, now.  It’s worth the investment.

Improve Audio Using the Levelator Tutorial

Click here to view the Levelator tutorial.

Once you have a decent microphone and record your audio, use “The Levelator” to make it sound better.  It’s super easy to do and will give your narration a richer tone.  Is it perfect? NO.  But it’s better than nothing.  And overall, I’ve been pleased with the results.

Check out How To Design Custom PowerPoint Templates for E-Learning (Plus 8 Free Templates) via the Rapid E-Learning Blog.

You’ll learn how to build your own PowerPoint template and you have access to download eight high quality templates free of charge.