New PowerPoint add-in ribbon from authorSTREAM searches and inserts videos and images from the Web into your slides

authorSTREAM Desktop, a new add-on "ribbon" for PowerPoint can search and fetch videos and images from the Web, from right inside PowerPoint, and insert them in slides with a few clicks. This will make it very easy for PowerPoint authors to make presentations, rich with multimedia, very quickly.

Raleigh, USA, July 14, 2009 - authorSTREAM, the PowerPoint community slide-sharing platform, launches today its authorSTREAM Desktop software, which installs in Microsoft PowerPoint as an add-in "ribbon" and helps presentation authors to quickly create rich multimedia presentations. authorSTREAM Desktop fetches images from Microsoft Bing and videos from Google's YouTube right within PowerPoint. Authors can simply search from within PowerPoint and quickly add images or videos from search results. Images and YouTube videos can also be added by using Web address paths if authors already know what they want to add, without using the search feature. All these actions can be accomplished from within PowerPoint without the need of a browser.

authorSTREAM Desktop allows presentation authors to create compelling, rich multimedia presentations in a quick and easy way through a very simple, usable interface. Authors can also make photo albums very quickly by selecting multiple pictures using a command to insert each selected image on a separate slide. This makes the process even faster by cutting the need of inserting images one-by-one on separate slides, enabling anyone to create quick picture albums for projects, assignments or just entertainment, which can be then shared online on authorSTREAM.

Once a presentation is created to satisfaction, it can be uploaded right from within the ribbon to the author's personal authorSTREAM account. Although an Internet connection is needed to proceed, there is no need to use a browser and all uploading options offered online on authorSTREAM are available in a single desktop application interface that runs right within PowerPoint. authorSTREAM provides access to multiple sharing options and other features for PowerPoint presentations like converting to video, porting to YouTube, downloading to iPods, organizing in custom channels, synchronously presenting in real-time to a global audience etc. authorSTREAM also offers a Premium, paid service with more, advanced features like presentation statistics, custom branding, Google adsense revenue sharing etc.

Harman Singh, the CEO of authorSTREAM shares his vision for this latest offering for PowerPoint authors, "authorSTREAM Desktop brings the Internet to PowerPoint. We believe that presentation creation also can be a Web2.0 process by plugging in and using content from the Internet while creating a presentation." He also adds, "Retaining the nature and elements of a source file are important so that it remains universally shareable and works the same way online as well as offline. authorSTREAM desktop does exactly that."

The authorSTREAM Desktop PowerPoint "Ribbon" coupled with the added handling abilities on authorSTREAM is all set to bring in a sea change in presentation creation and sharing with all the fast presentation enhancement features, and easy, multiple sharing options. Creating a multimedia presentation including images, and complete Youtube videos, making photo albums by selecting multiple images from the search pane and choosing an option to insert each selected image on a separate slide, and uploading the presentation without even using a browser, makes authorSTREAM Desktop, the new revolutionary PowerPoint application. The software is very light and can be quickly downloaded from http://www.authorstream.com/desktop/

About authorSTREAM

authorSTREAM is the popular PowerPoint sharing website for presentation authors who want to do more with PowerPoint and take presentation sharing to the next level. authorSTREAM delivers the previously missing key benefit of "as-is" online presentation sharing to the PowerPoint user community, as it keeps PowerPoint presentations intact after being posted online—just the way they were created. Additionally, authorSTREAM showcases authors' communications to the world via the Internet and provides access to dozens, hundreds or thousands of views instantly. Presentation downloadable formats offered by authorSTREAM greatly enhance file distribution, e.g. via video conversion, for podcasts, YouTube and iPod downloads.