Get 20% off on PresentationPro Templates, Graphics and Icons!

Today, we are excited to announce 20% off on one of our sponsoring partners' products - PresentationPro templates, graphics and icons. PresentationPro is a leading name in the PowerPoint domain. Their designs have enabled and inspired PowerPoint users to create high impact professional presentations inexpensively and quickly. Their library--known as Power Designs--exceeds over 10,000 items.

Microsoft, Coca Cola, Cisco and many other companies have used these templates to create their winning presentations. So go right ahead and choose from a range of templates, graphics and icons to create presentations that sell, communicate and get leads.

Select the PowerDesigns package and enter the coupon code “as20” in the coupon or gift code box and update your cart before checking out.

This is an exclusive, limited period offer for authorSTREAM users only. Get yours Now!

"My 2 most loved tools: authorSTREAM and iPad" - Gilbert Ross

Gilbert Ross, our iPad winner for the 2nd week @ authorSTREAM 1 Million Members Celebration Contest shares his excitement on winning the contest and also his experiences in using authorSTREAM! Here's what he has to say:

As I finger tap on the soft key board of my new iPad, writing along this post, I can't avoid feeling extremely grateful to authorSTREAM for having brought such a positive boost in my life.

First and foremost was the discovery of the site itself. authorSTREAM is an amazing warehouse of ideas which I constantly return to for fun, research and inspiration. With an ever increasing number of slideshows flowing in everyday, I know I will always come across something interesting whether by intent or serendipity. There are hundreds of thousands of brilliant contributions made by people who enjoy sharing their skills, technical know how and inspiring experiences animated by fantastic pictures and music. authorSTREAM has been a milestone for me. It has revolutionized the way I use and share knowledge. It made me rethink the boundaries of knowledge sharing and self-expression.But that's not only it.

The real reason why authorSTREAM has caught my fancy so much was the realization as a blogger that I can communicate my thoughts in an other format. The power of a slideshow presentation rests with the fact that ideas can be potently summarized in a more visually effective way. This is the power of concise yet effective communication. This is the power of the slideshow.

So this realization made me change how I communicate with my readers in my blog in an innovative new way. Instead of writing a full post with just words, I embed one of my authorSTREAM slideshows related to the topic and then simply add a few further thoughts and comments to it. Voila ! The beauty of converging two communication media.

Simple yet effective. Here is the latest post on my blog (at the time of writing this article) which exemplifies how I combine an authorstream slideshow in the post to reinforce the message. Bloggers take note ;)

The other reason for being extremely grateful to authorSTREAM is...Hey Hey they gave me the opportunity to win an ipad in the last competition celebrating 1 million registered members !!! :) Now isn't that cool!!!!

I fell in love with it since I started using it from day 1. I had a lot of expectations about it but it still blew me away by exceeding them all. It's fast, intuitive, practical, cool and most of all a beauty of a design. There are more than 300,000 applications in the app store to download. I have till now downloaded some really cool ones mostly related to productivity like flipboard, wordpress, ibooks, evernote, gmail, etc.
The ipad has truly converged a lot of my work together under my finger tips - Writing, researching, blogging, Sharing, reading and browsing. It's amazing stuff really and I am enjoying more and more each day.

So let me shout it on the virtual roof tops for everyone to hear: THANK YOU authorSTREAM!!!!! YOU RULE!!!!

Gilbert Ross
Malta

Interview With Our iPad Winners - Elgin Bolling and Bong Baylon

We know how much the authorSTREAM community enjoyed the contest. For a good part of August and September, everyone was busy uploading their awesome presentations. We had four weeks and four winners, who won an iPAD each for uploading outstanding presentations and tweeting about them.

We had a quick interview with two of our winners Elgin Bolling and Bong Baylon. They were amazingly insightful in their answers. Enjoy reading!

• How are you using authorSTREAM in your professional segment?

Elgin Bolling: For me, authorSTREAM is like an answer to prayer. I routinely use PowerPoint in the majority of my illustration projects when I'm doing any kind of sequential storytelling. I searched the web for a platform that would enable me to not only share my presentations with clients and friends, but also to covert those presentations into video that could be uploaded to YouTube. I feel confident that now I will be able to reach an even wider audience with my work on a global scales.

Bong Baylon: Basically I use authorSTREAM to upload the presentations that I use in my classes, seminars and sermons. People always ask me for copies of my PowerPoints but I tell them I cannot give them a copy. However, they can watch it again (or several times) through authorSTREAM. They like this very much. Many people do visit your site to look at my PowerPoints again and again. I'm encouraged by that.

• What was your reaction when you first came to know that you have won?

Elgin Bolling: My first reaction was disbelief! I have NEVER won ANYTHING before!! I took time to read it through, and immediately went on the website to view the videos of other past winners. It didn't quite sink in though until I had the hard PHYSICAL EVIDENCE in my hand when I opened the BOX!!!

Another reaction was in praise of how great authorSTREAM was to even HAVE a contest like this where they were giving away something of value, and not just some "little CD" which is the case for other "contests".

I always "secretly hated" my PC and longed for the chance to own one of the Apple products that are so user friendly and best suited for the work I want to do as an artist. Now, thanks to authorSTREAM, I can easily fulfill my dreams, and of course, make it easier to upload more great PowerPoint presentations!!!

Bong Baylon: When you confirmed that I actually won, I couldn't stop thanking God. You see, this news came at such a crucial time. I'm a pastor and our church is going through some financial difficulties. Before the confirmation, God was already doing some miracles in our church. Then finally we were able to overcome the problem. It was then that you confirmed your email that I won. So it was like a double blessing. I told my congregation about it and they all praise God for me.

• Anything that you would like to say about authorSTREAM and its features, and help us improve our product?

Bong Baylon: I really hope that I can use your site for uploading swf's or PowerPoints with narration but the cost is too much for me right now. I also wish that your site would allow SCORM so I can use it for teaching people online. I really think that it's a good idea and a logical addition to your current services. But your free service is already very useful. Thank you for providing people like me with a tool to do more with my PowerPoint files.

Thank you all for participating enthusiastically in the contest. We will be coming up with more such interesting contests in the near future that let you Do More with PowerPoint.