A big step up for small online presentation pieces

About once every two weeks, somebody asks me about tools that can take a set of PowerPoint slides and convert them into a web-accessible format with audio narration. There are a number of systems that do this, of course, but they usually involve a fairly hefty price tag — or require licensed software on the user end — and some of the cheaper methods can involve a fair number of tricky bits that confuse new users.

So the recent emergence of VoiceThread is most welcome. (I got your linktribution right here, dog.) Simply upload your images (directly from Flickr, if you wish), add text and/or audio annotation as desired, and you are left with a multimedia presentation that can be shared via hyperlink or embedding into whatever environment, including one of those CMSs…

I haven’t used this for a full presentation, but did do a few test runs and can testify that the system does indeed work as claimed.

Add in that nifty flickrCC search and image editing tool (more doggy linktribution), and it’s remarkably easy to find legally reusable and groovy images, add content, add narration (mad mixer/clumsy talker that I am, my only feature wish for VoiceThread would be the ability to upload prepared audio rather than live recording), and share via pretty much any web space imaginable.