How to create an awesome presentation using Cooliris

We’ve all seen plenty of boring presentations. Well, that doesn’t have to be you! Since Cooliris is a stunning way to view media content, why not bring this experience to your presentation audience?

Instead of using cookie-cutter slides and transitions, wow your audience by switching slides in the Cooliris 3D interface! In this post, we’ll give you some tips to take your presentations to the next level.

Step 1: Preparing your slides

At its core, Cooliris is built as an image viewer. This does not include PDF files or locally saved videos, unfortunately. So, you will need to import your slides into Cooliris as image files.

First, create your presentation. This could be in PowerPoint, Keynote, or even Google Docs. Note that in-slde transitions such as appearance of text and images will not be preserved when you export your slides as images.

When you are done creating your presentation, the next step is to create separate image files for each slide in your presentation.
Power Point
1) Go to File –> Save As
2) Select either JPEG or PNG
3) Select Save
This will export each slide as a separate JPEG or PNG file

Keynote
1) Go to File –> Export
2) Select “Images” at the top of the window
3) Select “All” to export all of your slides, or choose “From” to only export a portion
4) For “Format” choose either JPEG or PNG
5) Select “Next”
6) Save the export with the name you want
7) Select “Export”
This will create a separate image for each slide in your deck

Google Docs
1) Go to File –> Download as –> PDF
This will export your presentation as a PDF file. Open this file.
2) In your PDF viewing application, go to File –> Save As
3) Choose the option for either JPG or PNG
4) Choose Save
This will save the selected slide as an image file
5) Repeat this process for all of the slides in your presentation

Step 2: Getting your slides into Cooliris

There are a couple of options for displaying your slides within Cooliris.

1) Displaying the slides directly from your computer
2) Displaying the slides via the internet (slides are accessible from any computer)

Option 1:
Save your images from Step 1 into a single folder on your computer. You could perhaps name the folder the title of your presentation. You will access this folder in order to display your files in Cooliris

Option 2:
Upload your images to one of the following services:
1) Flickr
2) Picasa
3) Facebook

Step 3: Displaying your slides in Cooliris

If your images are stored on your local computer, here’s how you access them:
1) Open Cooliris
2) In the “Channels” sidebar on the left, select “Your Computer” or “My Computer”
3) Navigate to the folder where you have saved your images
4) Select this folder and…voilà!

If your images are stored on a service like Flickr, Picasa, or Facebook:
1) Navigate to the page where your photos are stored on one of these sites
2) Launch Cooliris (via the browser toolbar icon or the image hover icon)
3) Your slides should show up in Cooliris!

Step 4: Display mode

There are a couple of options for displaying your slides in Cooliris. There is Wall Mode (which uses the default Cooliris 3D interface) and there is Slideshow Mode. We recommend Wall Mode, since Slideshow Mode accomplishes the same thing that your default presentation software could have!

A benefit of presenting in Wall Mode is that it makes it much easier to go back to a previous slide or jump forward to later slides without having to press the Back/Forward button a bunch of times. This is especially useful during Q&A sessions, where you may want to reference a specific slide. This functionality is definitely something that current presentation software does not employ.

If you do want to launch Slideshow Mode, click the icon in the bottom right corner of Cooliris that says “Slideshow”. If you would like to make the menus disappear, you may press F8 (PC) or Alt+Esc (Mac).

That’s it! We’d love to hear your stories in the Comments about how Cooliris ‘Wowed’ your audience. Also, be on the lookout for a future blog post called “Advanced Presentations in Cooliris”. Enjoy!