Everyone who knows me at all knows I LOVE video marketing. I like to turn everything into a movie… why not? People would much rather watch than read online these days so why not give them what they want?
So, today I thought I would show you a really fast way to take a text file and turn that into a stunning video in less than 5 minutes…
Here are the step by step instructions:
- Create your text file
- Save your text file (.doc with no spaces for Mac users/ .txt file with spaces for PC users)
- Fire up PowerPoint
- Create a new presentation
- Insert – Slides from file
- Choose the file you want to import
- When they load edit the slides so they are “title slides”
- Add any backgrounds, themes, animations, images, etc that you want to your presentation.
- Slideshow – View Show
- Start up your Screen Capture software
- Record and save
That’s it!
So, get to it… Start making really cool text based videos for your business.
Got questions? Leave them for me by clicking the “Ask Erica” button on the right.
Got comments? I’d love to hear them! Drop them below.
Make it a great day!
Erica
24. July 2010 at 2:03 pm
This was great.I would love to talk since I use lots of video too.I have a PC so I will have to play with it some.
Beverly Monical recently posted..Four Powerful Strategies for Becoming The “Go To” Person In Your Business
24. July 2010 at 2:10 pm
Sure Beverly. We’ll do a skype chat and work out the kinks… Have fun. Can’t wait to see your next video. Cheers! Erica
24. July 2010 at 2:58 pm
Hi Erica,
Thanks for the heads upon this post. I found it very helpful. I have yet to create a video like this and I really wasn’t sure how to go about it. Your tutorial shows just how easy this process can be. I appreciate you sharing this with us.
Thanks!
Don Enck recently posted..Are You Participating in an Online Tribal Community
24. July 2010 at 3:01 pm
Hey Don you are so welcome. I hope it helps you make some awesome videos to send out with your video email account. Cheers! Erica
24. July 2010 at 3:40 pm
Hi Erica,
Thanks for this useful tutorial! I am excited to try the process you outline here. I also now understand that the title slide is the best type for me to use in PP for videos. Great stuff!
Mary Lou
Mary Lou Kayser recently posted..Are You Investing in The Hottest Commodity Right Now
24. July 2010 at 3:53 pm
Hey there Mary Lou- you are very welcome! There is so much you can do with PP and this technique. I’ll have to brush up on it to make mine a little fancier. Have fun with it and let me know how you go with it. Cheers! Erica
24. July 2010 at 4:30 pm
Hi Erica,
Thanks so much for this info. I have been procrastinating about doing a video because I did not know where to start. This looks like an easy way to get up and going. I will give it a try! Regards, Laurie
Laurie Morin recently posted..Do you have a millionaire mind
24. July 2010 at 5:02 pm
Hey Laurie. You can totally do this. It’s really simple. If you get stuck send me a message and I’ll be glad to help you out. Cheers! Erica
24. July 2010 at 5:06 pm
Hi Erica,
I have been wondering how people do this and thanks to you I now know. Just need to sort ot my screen capture software to record powerpoint as it’s not working at the moment. If anyone has any ideas?
Thanks for sharing this post.
Tristram Lodge
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24. July 2010 at 5:12 pm
Hey Tristam
What kind of screencapture do you use? I did this with Camtasia. There is also CamStudio and Jing. Jing is free but you have limitations with it. They have a $15 a year pro plan that is good though.
Cheers! Erica
24. July 2010 at 8:20 pm
I’ve done a couple of PowerPoint videos, but I didn’t know that you could import your text. Great tip!
Just wanted to say that I love your style … a lot of your posts are hilariously funny and I really enjoy them!! I loved your video email with a special appearance by your cat!
Wendy
Wendy Hewlett recently posted..Keyword Research Is More Important Than Ever
24. July 2010 at 10:32 pm
Hey Erica,
Great video! Awesome content for anyone looking to shoot a quick PP video.
Camtasia ROCKS hey?!
BTW, love your blog, looking clean!
24. July 2010 at 10:37 pm
Hi Erica,
That was an awesome presentation… I have yet to do a video, and I have never used Powerpoint, so I guess I have my work cut out for me.
It is great to know that information like yours exists, so I will come back to your site often looking to learn more.
Thank You,
John Engle
John Engle recently posted..The Fundamentals of Comments for Personal Brand Marketing!
24. July 2010 at 11:16 pm
Thanks Erica,
I love using screen capture and powerpoint… unfortunately one of my machines (the better one) doesn’t have powerpoint… Open office is ok but I can’t use my Bamboo Pen without powerpoint and my powerpoint slideshows don’t look the same… but you’re right they are a great combination.
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25. July 2010 at 4:01 am
Hi Wendy- I really hope it helps you make impressive videos faster. And btw, my cat says “Hello!” She is very helpful when I don’t want her to be… Cheers!
25. July 2010 at 4:04 am
Thanks Ryan! And YES! Camtasia does rock! I just got a new iMac and that was one of the first things I put on it. My old computer wasn’t configured to use it and I am wishing that I would have upgraded a lot sooner- just to use Camtasia. Cheers! Erica
25. July 2010 at 4:08 am
Hey John- if I can do it- so can you! Really! I have very limited skills with powerpoint but you don’t need to do anything fancy to make this work. A basic pp template or slide background and a text file. Drop it in, make sure the slides are all titles and that’s about it. Start up the screen capture (Camtasia makes stunning videos almost on autopilot for you), turn on the show and start to narrate.
Video is really powerful and I use it in almost every part of my business. You have great things to say, so let the world see and hear you!!
Cheers!
Erica
25. July 2010 at 4:12 am
I have a bamboo pen too and love it! You will see more of those videos on here too in the next few weeks. I haven’t been able to use it as much because I had an older mac that camtasia wouldn’t work on and for mac, that is really the best option for screen capture. Now that I have it, watch out! No, really watch out- my drawing is terrible!
Can you save the office .exe file on an external hard drive and move it to your better machine or do you have to buy another copy of it? Technology is great when it works right?
Cheers!
Erica
25. July 2010 at 8:21 am
Hey Erica,
This is absolutely awesome. I have just set up blog number two which is going to be based around 5 minute how to videos so this is great timing for me.
Thank you so much.
Also what screen capture software do you use? Will this work with Jing?
Beth
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25. July 2010 at 8:53 am
Hey Beth great to have you here. It will work with Jing. Jing has the pro plan and the free version. If you are using the free one you will need to think about the size of you blog content space. Mine is about 600 px wide and if you record a video larger than that you will have to edit the jing embed code to fit it in your site.
Or you can set up the pp show to be viewed by an individual. This will allow you to record a smaller window instead of your entire screen.
Go to slide show – Set up show – show type – and click the ‘viewed by individual’
Then when you view the show it will come up in a screen you can scale back.
This will make your file size smaller and easier to load into your site too.
If you have the pro plan ($15 a year) you have other options as well. Send it over to YouTube and then embed that code on your site.
You might want to check my post about Cyberbullies and Youtube before you rely on this too much though. I would hate for you to loose all the content you’ve added to your new blog if you get your account hacked like mine did.
I used Camtasia for this video and it works like a dream!
Cheers!
Erica
25. July 2010 at 7:06 pm
Hi Erica,
This is so helpful and simple. I like simplicity!
Thanks for sharing this information
~Katherine
Katherine Droguett recently posted..If you register your site for free at
25. July 2010 at 9:29 pm
Erica,
Wow, what great information. I have not yet done this, but your instructions will make it easy for me. Thanks so much!!!
Blessings,
Karen
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25. July 2010 at 9:46 pm
Hello…Just wanted to know if you had any ideas at all about how to create a video using “slides” with audio for each slide AND than being able to market that “video slideshow” as a product. My wife and I tried Slideshare and Brainshark and both leave much to be desired. Some of the software mentioned in the comments is very expensive and we have a limited budget for this.
Any ideas on how to do this and/or any tools (affordable) to use?
Great blog! We are subscribers now…(-:
26. July 2010 at 2:36 am
Hey Katherine
You are very welcome. Glad to have you here and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Cheers! Erica
26. July 2010 at 2:37 am
Hi Karen- let me know how it goes when you try it! I love to hear and see how people implement things. Cheers! Erica
26. July 2010 at 2:57 am
Hey Rico, glad to have you here!
Happy to help give you some product creation ideas.
First, is this going to be just one video or multiple? How long will it (they) be? Or will it be a “Sign up and get our 5 day how to video course on blah blah blah…”?
Because there are different tools for each of those things.
But to create the videos, you can use jing. It is free or only $14 a year. It has a time limit of 5 minutes (which I don’t mind because attention spans aren’t very long these days) and you can capture your screen and then upload it to your screencast account (free) then take the embed code and drop that into your site.
Or you can use this to create fantastic slideshows – I love this site for making social networking profile videos from your favorite pictures. But you can upload your own audio so, you might be able to make a slideshow with your voice over on it.
The software that I used to create this is free for 30 days. So if you are ready to shoot your video you can get the free trial, make the video and get it out live. Hopefully, it makes you enough money to buy the software within 30 days!
It really depends on where you’re going to put it too. Where you want your videos to ‘live’ on the web.
Send me some more info and I’ll see if I can narrow down my recommendations.
Cheers!
Erica
26. July 2010 at 6:02 am
Hi Thats a really useful tip,thank you for sharing it.
For people who are not happy using powerpoint, you could make text slides using any of hundreds of different program’s and them upload them to any photo sharing site that allows you to make slideshow’s of you photo’s (thats most of them).
Also you could use – Wix – Thats a free webbuilding site that allows you to easily make all sorts of different graphics.
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26. July 2010 at 7:23 am
HI Glynn. Thanks for stopping by. I have used Wix and really didn’t like it. It was really slow and the pages I made load even slower. I do everything in wordpress now. There is no reason not to. I can create capture and sales pages in a snap and I don’t have to worry about relying on code created in another site to make my online presence work.
You can create slideshows in here as well. Just do a search for slideshow plugins wordpress on google and I bet you find something that would work. Cheers! Erica
26. July 2010 at 7:54 am
Hi Erica
Excellent video thanks. You made it look very simple which is excellent for non techy people like me.
Cheers
Sue
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26. July 2010 at 7:56 am
Hey Sue, I bet you are more techy than you think! When we got started I had no idea what I was doing. Keep learning, find the easiest way for you to get what you need done and repeat.
Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers!
Erica
26. July 2010 at 12:27 pm
Hi Erica,
awesome presentation, thanks for sharing. I’m going to dive into text-based videos soon !
Take care
Oliver
Oliver Tausend recently posted..The Anatomy Of Quitting – Would You Like To Change Places With Another Person
26. July 2010 at 12:30 pm
Hey Oliver- make sure you send me the link to check them out! Cheers! Erica
27. July 2010 at 12:17 am
Wow that was great. FAST and right to the point. Thanks
Carl TE Randolph recently posted..Don’t Wait For Your Guests
27. July 2010 at 12:49 am
Thanks Carl. I hope it helps you make some awesome videos. Cheers! Erica