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What is PowerPoint?

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 With PowerPoint on your PC, Mac, or mobile device, you can:

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What is PowerPoint: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

What is PowerPoint? This blog provides the essence of PowerPoint, a versatile presentation software by Microsoft. Discover its features, uses, and the art of crafting compelling slideshows. Whether you're a student, professional, or simply curious, explore the power of PowerPoint and learn how to create impactful presentations effortlessly.

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According to Glassdoor , a PowerPoint designer's average salary in the UK is about £37,811 annually. In this blog, you will learn What is PowerPoint, its key features, its benefits, and how to use it, as well as learn some tips for creating effective presentations.   

Table of contents       

1)  What is PowerPoint?  

2)  Understanding the PowerPoint Interface  

3)  Key Features of PowerPoint 

4)  How to use PowerPoint to create a presentation? 

5)  Benefits of PowerPoint  

6)  Tips for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations 

7)  Conclusion      

What is PowerPoint?   

PowerPoint is a versatile and popular presentation software developed by Microsoft (MS). It is a part of the Microsoft Office Suite and offers various features and tools to create visually appealing and engaging presentations. MS PowerPoint allows users to combine text, graphics, multimedia elements, and animations to convey information effectively .   

Evolution of PowerPoint   

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Understanding the PowerPoint Interface   

The PowerPoint interface provides a user-friendly environment for creating and editing presentations. Familiarising yourself with its essential components will help you navigate the software efficiently. Here's a breakdown of the MS PowerPoint interface:   

1)  Ribbon : The Ribbon is located at the top of the MS PowerPoint window and consists of multiple tabs, such as Home, Insert, Design, Transitions, and more.    

2) Slides pane : The Slides pane is on the left side of the PowerPoint window. It displays thumbnail images of your presentation slides, allowing you to navigate and rearrange them easily. You can add, delete, duplicate, or hide slides from this pane.   

3)   Notes pane : The Notes pane is located below the Slides pane. It provides space for adding speaker notes or additional information related to each slide.    

4)  Slide area : The Slide area occupies the central part of the PowerPoint window. It displays the selected slide, where you can add and arrange content such as text, images, charts, and multimedia elements .    

5)  Task panes : Task panes are additional panels on the PowerPoint window's right side. They offer various functionalities such as formatting options, slide layouts, animations, etc. Task panes can be opened or closed based on your specific needs.   

Understanding the MS PowerPoint interface will help you navigate the software effectively and make the most of its features. Whether you are creating slides, adding content, or applying formatting, having a good grasp of the interface ensures a smooth and productive experience .  

Key Features of PowerPoint  

When it comes to creating captivating and professional presentations, MS PowerPoint stands out as versatile and feature-rich software. Its array of tools and functionalities enables users to bring their imagination and ideas to life. Moreover, it also helps engage their audience effectively .    

What are PowerPoint's key features

1) Slide Templates : PowerPoint provides a collection of pre-designed templates that make it easy to create visually appealing slides.   

2)  Slide Master : The Slide Master feature allows users to define the overall layout, font styles, and colour scheme for the entire presentation .   

3)  Animations and transitions : PowerPoint offers various animation effects and slide transitions to add visual interest and captivate the audience .   

4)  Multimedia integration : Users can embed images, videos, and audio files directly into their presentations, enhancing the overall impact .   

5)   Collaboration tools : MS PowerPoint allows multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously, making it ideal for team projects and remote collaboration .   

6) Presenter View : The Presenter View feature gives presenters access to speaker notes, a timer, and a preview of upcoming slides, enabling a seamless presentation experience .   

These features collectively contribute to PowerPoint's versatility and make it a powerful tool for developing engaging and impactful presentations.  

How to use PowerPoint to create a presentation?   

Creating a presentation in PowerPoint is a straightforward process. Whether it's simple animations or explainer videos learning H ow to use PowerPoint is an extremely valuable skill. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create a presentation:   

1)  Launch PowerPoint and choose a template or start with a blank slide. 

2)  Add slides by clicking "New Slide" or using the shortcut key (Ctrl + M). 

3) Customise slide content by entering text and inserting visuals.  

4)  Rearrange slides for a logical flow by dragging them in the slide navigation pane.  

5)  Apply slide transitions for visual effects in the "Transitions" tab.  

6)  Add animations to objects in the "Animations" tab.  

7)  Preview your presentation by clicking "Slide Show".   

8)  Save your presentation and choose a format (.pptx or .pdf).  

9)  Share your presentation via email, cloud storage, or collaboration tools.   

By following these steps, you can create a well-structured and visually appealing presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint. Remember to keep your content concise, use engaging visuals, and practice your presentation skills to deliver an impactful presentation .   

Benefits of PowerPoint   

What is PowerPoint's key benefits

1) Visual appeal : Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to create visually appealing presentations with its wide range of design tools and features. You can use templates, themes, and customisable layouts to make your slides visually engaging and professional .   

2)  Easy to use : PowerPoint has a user-friendly interface, making it accessible to users of all levels. The intuitive tools and straightforward navigation make it easy to create, edit, and deliver presentations efficiently .   

3)   Flexibility : PowerPoint provides flexibility in terms of content creation. You can include various types of content, such as text, images, charts, graphs, videos, and audio files, to enhance your message and engage your audience effectively.   

4)   Organisation and structure : PowerPoint offers features to help you organise and structure your content. You can create multiple slides, use slide masters for consistent formatting, and arrange the sequence of slides to create a logical flow .   

5)  Presenter tools : PowerPoint includes built-in presenter tools that aid in delivering presentations smoothly. You can use presenter view to see your notes and upcoming slides while your audience sees only the presentation. Additionally, features like slide transitions and animations add visual interest and help you control the flow of information .   

6)  Collaboration and sharing : PowerPoint allows for easy collaboration and sharing of presentations. Several users can simultaneously work on the same presentation, making it convenient for team projects. You can also share your presentations via email, cloud storage, or online platforms, ensuring easy access for viewers .   

7)   Integration with other tools : PowerPoint can seamlessly integrate with other Microsoft Office applications, such as Word and Excel. You can import data and charts from Excel or copy and paste content between different Office applications, saving time and effort .  

8)   Presenter-audience interaction : PowerPoint provides features that facilitate interaction between the presenter and the audience. You can include interactive elements like hyperlinks, buttons, and quizzes to engage your audience and make your presentations more dynamic.   

9)   Portable and accessible : PowerPoint presentations can be saved in various formats, such as .pptx or .pdf, making them easily accessible on different devices. This portability allows you to deliver presentations on laptops, tablets, or even projectors without compatibility issues .   

10)  Time and effort savings : PowerPoint simplifies the process of creating presentations, saving you time and effort. The pre-designed templates, slide layouts, and formatting options enable you to create professional-looking presentations efficiently .   

Unleash your creativity to deliver captivating presentations that leave a lasting impact with our Microsoft PowerPoint Masterclass – Sign up now!   

Tips for Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations   

What is PowerPoint Tips for creating presentations

1) Simplicity is key : Keep your slides clean and uncluttered. Use concise bullet points and simple visuals to convey your message effectively .   

2)  Visuals matter : Incorporate relevant, high-quality visuals such as images, charts, and diagrams to enhance understanding and engagement .   

3)  Limit text : Avoid overwhelming your audience with excessive text on slides. Use brief phrases or keywords to communicate key points .   

4)  Choose legible fonts : Opt for clear and readable fonts that are easy to read, even from a distance. Maintain consistency in font styles throughout your presentation .   

5)  Consistent design : Maintain a consistent design theme, including colours, fonts, and layout, to create a visually appealing and professional presentation.   

6)  Emphasise important points : Use visual hierarchy techniques, such as font size, colour, and formatting, to draw attention to essential information .   

7)  Use transitions and animations sparingly : Incorporate slide transitions and animations thoughtfully, focusing on enhancing content and transitions without distracting the audience .   

8)  S lide notes for guidance : Utilise the slide notes feature to include additional details, explanations, or reminders for a well-prepared and confident presentation.   

9)  Practice and time yourself : Rehearse your presentation to ensure smooth delivery and stay within the allocated time. Practice helps you refine your content and delivery.   

10)  Engage the audience : Encourage audience participation through interactive elements, questions, or discussions to foster engagement and make your presentation more memorable.   

By implementing these tips, you can create effective MS PowerPoint presentations that capture attention, communicate information clearly, and engage your audience effectively.  

Conclusion      

We hope this blog has helped you understand What is PowerPoint and how it can help you. It offers powerful features with a user-friendly interface for creating visually appealing presentations. With its tools for organising information, incorporating text and visuals, and delivering impactful content, PowerPoint is a valuable tool for beginners to communicate their ideas effectively .   

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Presentation

  • Written By Gregg Rosenzweig
  • Updated: November 8, 2023
We’re here to help you choose the most appropriate content types to fulfill your content strategy. In this series, we’re breaking down the most popular content types to their most basic fundamentals — simple definitions, clarity on formats, and plenty of examples — so you can start with a solid foundation.

What is a Presentation?

A communication device that relays a topic to an audience in the form of a slide show, demonstration, lecture, or speech, where words and pictures complement each other.

Why should you think of presentations as content?

The beauty of content creation is that almost anything can become a compelling piece of content . Just depends on the creativity used to convert it and the story that brings it to life.

computer presentation define

The long and short of it

Although the length of a presentation in terms of time can depend on the overall approach (Are you talking a lot? Are you referring to the screen in detail or not?), consider the number of informational content slides when tallying the overall presentation length. For instance, don’t include title slides in your tally when conveying length to a content creator.

A general guide to presentation length:

  • Short Form (5 content slides)
  • Standard Form (10 content slides)
  • Long Form (20+ content slides)

Popular use cases for presentations…

Let’s consider TED Talks for a minute: one of the best examples (bar none) of how words, pictures, and a narrative can make people care about something they otherwise might not.

These “talks” pre-date podcasts and blend a compelling use of language and imagery in presentation format to spread ideas in unique ways.

TED Talks have been viewed a billion-plus times worldwide (and counting) and are worth considering when it comes to how you might use video-presentation content to connect with your customers in creative, cool, new ways.

Business types:

Any company that has a pitch deck, executive summary , sales presentation, or any kind of internal document that can be repurposed into external-facing content pieces — without pain.

Presentation Examples – Short Form

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Presentation Examples – Standard Form

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Presentation Examples – Long Form

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Understanding Content Quality in Examples

Our team has rated content type examples in three degrees of quality ( Good, Better, Best ) to help you better gauge resources needed for your content plan. In general, the degrees of content quality correspond to our three content levels ( General, Qualified, Expert ) based on the criteria below. Please consider there are multiple variables that could determine the cost, completion time, or content level for any content piece with a perceived degree of quality.

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Impress your clients, co-workers, and leadership team with exceptional content for your next presentation, product demonstration, and more. If you need help getting your message across in a succinct, attention-grabbing, and persuasive way, talk to one of our content specialists today.

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PowerPoint is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is included in the standard Office suite along with Microsoft Word and Excel . The software allows users to create anything from basic slide shows to complex presentations.

PowerPoint is often used to create business presentations, but can also be used for educational or informal purposes. The presentations are comprised of slides, which may contain text, images, and other media, such as audio clips and movies. Sound effects and animated transitions can also be included to add extra appeal to the presentation. However, overusing sound effects and transitions will probably do more to annoy your audience than draw their attention. (Yes, we have all heard the car screeching noise enough times for one lifetime.)

Most PowerPoint presentations are created from a template, which includes a background color or image, a standard font , and a choice of several slide layouts. Changes to the template can be saved to a "master slide," which stores the main slide theme used in the presentation. When changes are made to the master slide, such as choosing a new background image, the changes are propagated to all the other slides. This keeps a uniform look among all the slides in the presentation.

When presenting a PowerPoint presentation, the presenter may choose to have the slides change at preset intervals or may decide to control the flow manually. This can be done using the mouse , keyboard , or a remote control. The flow of the presentation can be further customized by having slides load completely or one bullet at a time. For example, if the presenter has several bullet points on a page, he might have individual points appear when he clicks the mouse. This allows more interactivity with the audience and brings greater focus to each point.

PowerPoint presentations can be created and viewed using Microsoft PowerPoint. They can also be imported and exported with Apple Keynote, Apple's presentation program for the Macintosh platform. Since most people prefer not to watch presentations on a laptop , PowerPoint presentations are often displayed using a projector. Therefore, if you are preparing a PowerPoint presentation for a room full of people, just make sure you have the correct video adapter.

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What Is Microsoft PowerPoint and How Do I Use It?

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Customizing PowerPoint Presentations

Where to find powerpoint, how to use powerpoint, collaborating with powerpoint, powerpoint competitors, what to know.

  • PowerPoint is a standalone program, a subscription service, a website, and a mobile app.
  • Use PowerPoint by creating and customizing presentations with text, images, and other graphics.
  • PowerPoint is the most popular presentation software, but Google Slides and Apple Keynote are popular, too.

Microsoft PowerPoint creates slideshows suitable for projectors or big-screen TVs. Usually, a presenter speaks to the audience and uses the PowerPoint presentation to hold the listeners' attention and add visual information. However, some presentations are created and recorded to provide a digital-only experience. This article addresses PowerPoint 2019 and 2016, PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, PowerPoint 2016, and PowerPoint Online.

PowerPoint presentations output to photo albums—complete with music or narrations—shareable on CDs, DVDs, or flash drives. The software supports charts, images, and org charts. Make your presentation into a web page for emailing purposes or as a promotion displayed on your company's website.

It is easy to customize presentations with your company logo and dazzle your audience by using one of the many design templates that come with the program. Many more free add-ins and templates are available online from Microsoft and other websites. In addition to an on-screen slideshow, PowerPoint features printing options that allow the presenter to provide handouts and outlines for the audience and notes pages for the speaker to refer to during the presentation.

PowerPoint is part of the Microsoft Office package and is also available as:

  • A standalone program for Windows computers and Macs
  • Part of a Microsoft 365 subscription
  • PowerPoint Online
  • PowerPoint apps for Android and iOS mobile devices

PowerPoint comes with many templates that set the tone of a presentation—from casual to formal to off-the-wall.

Select a template and replace the placeholder text and images with your own to customize the presentation. Add additional slides in the same template format as you need them and add text, images, and graphics. As you learn, add special effects, transitions between slides, music, charts, and animations —all these features are built into the software—to enrich the experience for the audience.

A group can use PowerPoint to collaborate on a presentation.

In this case, the presentation is saved online on Microsoft OneDrive , OneDrive for Business, or SharePoint. Send your collaborators or co-workers a link to the PowerPoint file and assign them either viewing or editing permissions when you're ready to share. Comments on the presentation are visible to all the collaborators.

If you use the free PowerPoint Online, work and collaborate using your favorite desktop browser. You and your team can work on the same presentation at the same time from anywhere. You need a Microsoft account.

PowerPoint is by far the most popular  presentation software program available. Approximately 30 million presentations are created daily in the software. Although it has several competitors, they lack the familiarity and global reach of PowerPoint. Apple's Keynote software is similar, and ships free on all Macs, but it has only a small share of the presentation software user base.

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Computer Hope

Presentation program

Presentation program may refer to any of the following:

1. In general, a presentation is a speech given by one or more speakers in front of an audience covering a new product or idea. For example, Steve Jobs gave a presentation in 2007 to introduce the iPhone .

2. A presentation program is a program that helps create a slideshow that addresses a topic. Presentation programs can be used in businesses and schools for discussing a topic or for teaching. Often, the presenter uses a projector to project the slideshow up on to screen that everyone can see. Below is an example of Microsoft PowerPoint, a commonly used program that creates presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Once created, a person or group of people stand in front of other people and present the presentation . Presentations are shown one slide at a time, to explain the slides topic and then moving to the next slide until all are shown. For example, in a business presentation a co-worker may go through slides that illustrate how well the company is doing, its profits, sales, and other important information.

Examples of presentation programs

Below is a short list of popular presentation programs available today.

  • Google Slides
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • iWork Keynote on the Apple
  • OpenOffice Impress.

Tips on presentations

  • Follow the Guy Kawasaki "10-20-30 rule." Presentations should be no more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes, and have text no smaller than 30-point font.
  • Keep text simple with the "6 by 6 rule," which is six lines of text with six words per line.
  • Keep the text sparse and include pictures. There is a reason people say a picture is worth a thousand words.
  • Don't read the slides. Your slides should remind you of your talk and allow your audience to see only the important facts.
  • Prepare and arrive early to set up so your audience does not have to wait or watch you troubleshoot problems.
  • Always look into the audience and not only the slides, keep a steady pace when speaking, and speak loud and clearly so everyone in the room can hear you.
  • Do not use bright or flashy colors in an attempt to keep peoples attention. Use pastel colors as the backgrounds with a dark font.
  • Enjoy yourself. If you are not having fun or making the slide show entertaining, no one else is going to enjoy your presentation.

Related information

  • Creating a presentation slide show online .
  • How to create or add a slide in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Business terms , Google Slides , Office , Office 365 , Office Online , OpenOffice , Productivity tools , Projector , Slide deck , Slide show , Software terms

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How to Make a Presentation on a Computer: Effective Guide

How to make a presentation on a computer

In our work or study, we often need a presentation to make a report, prepare a speech, present a task as completed, even to present ourselves favorably for a CV or portfolio. If you struggle with creating presentations or want to clarify or delve into some aspect of the presentation making process, then our instruction article on how to make a presentation on a computer will help to answer the main questions: What to start with? What a presentation must include? What software may be used? Where to find inspiration, cool examples and lifehacks?

Getting prepared: What to consider?

We have collected the best tips in our detailed guide on how to make a presentations more professionally so that they achieve their goals. But what do you need to consider at the very beginning?

Before opening your presentation program and adding a new slide, it’s important to answer questions that will define the composition, structure and style of your future presentation. Let’s discuss them one by one.

  • What is your presentation for? Here, elaborate for yourself on why you are creating the presentation, what its purpose is, what you want to change by these words or slides. Perhaps, this is the main question to ask in order to define your subsequent work.
  • Who is this presentation for? A lot of depends on who will see your presentation, the presentation’s structural logic, the arguments to be used and the graphic style. Before preparing the presentation, define who you viewers will be and what they expect to see on your slides.
  • How are you going to present? You also need to realize what is going to happen with the presentation after you finish the last slide: Will you distribute it by email and wait for a reply or will you present in person? That influences the amount of text on slides, the design and your preparation.
  • Are there host or client requirements for the presentation? An important point that is often forgotten. Before making a presentation, inquire what the required format is, if there are restrictions for slides or a fixed structure, how long the presentation shall take, and other organizational issues. If you check for it in advance, you will have time to comply and will be confident about your material.

Writing down ideas is an important step in making an engaging presentation

Presentation ideas and important notes can be conveniently gathered in  Miro  or other similar services

Basic components of a presentation

Having answered the questions above, you can proceed to the presentation preparation itself. And if you have already clicked ‘New Slide’, please wait. Don’t hurry. We have cool lifehacks for you to facilitate you further work. Let’s start with discussing the basic components of any presentation.

Structure of a presentation

Nice presentations are not created spontaneously. Talks by TED speakers are a huge work that is prepared and perfected long before they come on stage. The resulting simplicity, irony and fascination of presentations by professionals of such level are achieved owing to the perfected structure – the control of the listeners’ attention is exercised naturally and consistently. So, what do you need to elaborate to be listened to with the same fascination? 1. Basic problem What do you talk about in your presentation, i.e. , what pain, problem, statement? It is important to describe in a literally single sentence the specific problem you’re going to talk about and call to solve, so that a person who has attended or read your presentation would get solid understanding. 2. Plan of the presentation Now, compile a plan for your presentation – anything that can be used as a framework for your argumentation and scenario, you may even us the approach taught to us back in school at literature classes: exposition, developments, climax, resolution. First, define the major sections, then elaborate on your statements within each section. The beginning of your presentation is the entry point for your story and problem, here you can have an introduction and describe the subject briefly. The last slide is good for the speaker’s contact details, main idea, acknowledgements or emotional conclusion. 3. Arguments To have the audience dive into the problem and come to the decision, idea or conclusion that you need, you have to carefully choose your arguments for every item on your plan. Appropriate arguments would be facts from studies, various projects, quotes, opinions by experts, case studies (as experienced by you or other people involved). Visualized data would work well here, since it’s always easier to comprehend — as well as speaker’s experience or stories that are relatable to anyone. This helps put the audience in the particular context.

Lifehack 1: Barbara Minto Pyramid The Minto pyramid principle  is an argumentation system invented by Barbara Minto from McKinsey. This system is based on a strict principle: We structure our points in the form of a pyramid and move from the basic idea, issue or problem to arguments, stating conclusions in the end of each group of arguments. This versatile approach helps structure either compelling short meetings or full-featured addresses.

Lifehack 2: Put your plan on paper Researches and empirical observations show that information on physical media is easier comprehended and structured by our brain. This also matters when you think of how to make a presentation more engaging. In the process of coming up with the plan and arguments, it’s usually easier and more efficient to deal with paper: you strike through, draw, arrange sheets in a different order and experiment — electronic environment will not pressure you to promptly compose a slide layout and perfect design, so the process will move faster.

The preparation of the text for a presentation on business or studying issues depends on your chosen purpose, as discussed above, and whether you are going to present in person or the presentation is for reading only.

  • If your presentation is for reading only: It is important here to have your ideas understood as accurately and correctly as possible. Therefore, work on your arguments and information visualization – diagrams, hyperlinks to supplemental materials, clearly structured text, fully covering the presentation’s subject and problem — this is what a good presentation for reading must have. Depending on the situation, such presentation may be built from a report, your portfolio, or a completed task. 2.  If you are to present in person:  You have 2 tools at your disposal: the text on your slides, and your speech. The basic rule is that they shall differ and not duplicate each other. Otherwise, the audience will not appreciate your work at all and will lose their focus at the 3 rd slide already. The text in the presentation should better be shortened and in separate statements, emphasizing only main points, while the conclusions and some details should be spoken out. It is most convenient to prepare it when you already have at least draft presentation – try to tell it in usual and simple words on a voice recorder. A couple of such rehearsals will help to get rid of excessive words, phrases and terms that would be challenging for you to articulate during your speech.

Visual design

The finishing touch for every presentation is its visual design. It is the design of slides that helps us hold and control the viewers’ attention, and it’s also what may put off a person and provoke mistrust. How to make a presentation look nice and sound? The points below will help with that:

Colors Choose several, like 2 or 3, harmonious colors. Typically, these are the background color, the body text color and the color for accents in headers and graphics. You can pick cool combinations with the help of some tool like  Paletton.com ,  ColorPalettes .  Example selection of a three-color scheme for a presentation

Selection of colors for the presentation, useful tools

Fonts You shouldn’t overdo the fonts, too — better limit them to 1 or 2, one for body and one for headers or accents. Pick fonts that are easy to read, like Century Gothic, Muller, Roboto, Monserrat, Oswald. Even a single font might be enough, if it has various variations: Bold, Italic, Regular, and their combinations. It can help emphasize your main points and form easy-to-read text blocks.

Original fonts for presentations

 Google’s font selection service

Images Cool pictures in your created presentation help convey the main idea without words, create a bright visual image that will highlight your arguments. To find quality images, use stocks ( e.g. , pexels.com ,  unsplash.com ) or specialized services, like  Popsters : if you authorize in Flickr on it, you can search for the most popular images by key queries that suit you (make sure to check the license to use).

Graphics Data visualization is the power of a presentation. Anything that can be presented visually is better to form into visual elements rather than text. To find cool templates and blanks for diagrams and plots, also use specialized services and stocks, such as Freepik ,  flaticon.com . 

How to make your presentation look pretty

The design and formatting of presentations, as we have already found out, are a complex subject where a lot can be perceived subjectively. To avoid such an approach, assume that design has to solve a certain problem, for example, to effectively and simply get your ideas across to the listeners. The following principles may also help you throughout all the steps of presentation creation:

  • Express yourself briefly and point by point The clearer is your thought from a slide, the better. Try to remove excessive phrases and words at all, read it out loud to check that no meaning is lost. And, of course, add new slides, use bigger font sizes and, if necessary and the number of slides is not limited by the requirements, you shouldn’t try to fit everything in one slide.
  • Don’t be afraid to use a template If you have little time to prepare or you are not confident in your skills, take a presentation template and focus on working out the structure and text. Thus, you will get much more detailed and quality result. However, there’s always a chance that your template was already used by someone, so, if possible, you should customize it or work on the design by yourself.
  • Less is better This principle is applicable to texts, images, fonts and colors in presentations. A frequent mistake made by beginners when creating slides is to use all at once. Remember that your best beginner’s kit to help create a really stylish presentation is point-by-point narration, few same-style quality illustrations, 2 fonts and 2 to 3 colors at most.

Presentation services and software

Presentation preparation and formatting is quite a common task, which is often has to be done in a wide variety of areas. A lot of services have been developed to facilitate this task, so we are going to discuss the major ones below. They offer a convenient and simple way of creating a presentation on your computer.

PowerPoint This is, perhaps, the best-known presentation software, from the Microsoft Office suit. Therefore, it is quite natural to have a desire to know the features of how to make a presentation in PowerPoint. PowerPoint’s advantages include wide functionality, clear and user-friendly interface; newer versions, starting 2019, also use automatic tips and settings that make your work easier, for example, accelerate alignment to grid. It is distributed on a paid basis, however there’s a 1-month trial version available.

The guide on how to make a presentation in PowerPoint

 PowerPoint’s initial interface

Lifehack:  Check with the organization where you work or study, if they have Microsoft Office subscription available for their employees/students — quite possibly, they have.

Google Slides Google’s cloud presentations for teamwork — a convenient platform for those who work on a project in team or remotely. Google Slides has a simple interface, which is clear and easy to learn from scratch, however the set of fonts, transitions and visual elements is limited.

Keynote A standard presentation application by Apple. It offers simple and clear basic functionality similar to Google Slides. One disadvantage is platform restriction, so you’ll have to convert you presentation to PDF or PPTX to be able to open it in another program.

Canva An online platform for slide preparation with a large set of various templates that are suitable for both work and study. There are paid functions but the free functionality and set of templates are sufficient to make a nice presentation.

Prezi A website for creating animated presentations with many transitions and animation effects. It offers clear functionality and possibility to work online. Drawbacks include controversial perception that may be caused by continuous animation, the necessity to present information very briefly, limited visualization capabilities.

Where to find useful materials and inspiration?

To make your presentation interesting and engaging, your visual experience also matters, as well as the ability to quickly find a certain useful tool, get a tip or advice. We have collected for you several recommendations on where to get those.

TikTok and Instagram Social media have long become not just a place for likes and pictures but a real tool for education. The format of quick educational videos and posts more and more rapidly takes over these platforms, so TikTok and Instagram now already have many cool accounts with useful tricks, analyses, secrets and tools that are helpful in creating presentations. On TikTok, for example, this is  @Thatrelatablestudent  talking on how to quickly create stylish slides, useful services and lifehacks for presentation structuring, colors and fonts; and on Instagram —  @deardatapostbox  with her selections of tools, simple and bright ways to visualize table and data.

Useful Instagram profile for designers

Accounts on presentation creation:  @Thatrelatablestudent  and  @Nandovtwork

Slideshare The best-known presentation hosting  website  — you can find here presentations on very different subjects, from TED talks to educational materials and portfolios. It is useful to follow companies who are particularly specialized in presentations, to draw ideas, experience and inspiration.

Behance A website  for designers that exhibits a lot of graphic works and illustrations from all over the world. It helps to develop your visual experience, find trends and ideas for presentations and interior designs.

Pinterest Perhaps, the best-known  platform  for inspiration. If you use a search query associated with presentations and design, you can get nice selections on various subjects, find illustrations, get inspiration from examples of working with fonts and prepare a mood board for your presentation.

Slide Bank by Bonnie & Slide The bank of free slides  from the Bonnie&Slide Presentations Academy will help to find specific sample slides for numerous topics, check what similar tasks others solved in presentations, and get inspired to create effective and bright works.

Creating a nice presentation for your study, work or public talk seems an uneasy task at first glance. However, constant training, use of advices and lifehacks will provide you with the needed experience. So, now that you have all the knowledge on how to make a presentation interesting and engaging, it's time to start with the very first step. Try, experiment, present – and we’re sure you’ll be able to make cool and effective presentations on any subject.

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Definition of presentation

  • fairing [ British ]
  • freebee
  • largess

Examples of presentation in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'presentation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing presentation

  • breech presentation

Dictionary Entries Near presentation

present arms

presentation copy

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“Presentation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/presentation. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

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Computer Basics  - What is a Computer?

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Computer Basics: What is a Computer?

Lesson 2: what is a computer.

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What is a computer?

A computer is an electronic device that manipulates information, or data. It has the ability to store , retrieve , and process data. You may already know that you can use a computer to type documents , send email , play games , and browse the Web . You can also use it to edit or create spreadsheets , presentations , and even videos .

Watch the video below to learn about different types of computers.

Looking for the old version of this video? You can still view it here .

Hardware vs. software

Before we talk about different types of computers, let's talk about two things all computers have in common: hardware and software .

viewing hardware

Everything you do on your computer will rely on both hardware and software. For example, right now you may be viewing this lesson in a web browser (software) and using your mouse (hardware) to click from page to page. As you learn about different types of computers, ask yourself about the differences in their hardware. As you progress through this tutorial, you'll see that different types of computers also often use different types of software.

What are the different types of computers?

When most people hear the word computer , they think of a personal computer such as a desktop or laptop . However, computers come in many shapes and sizes, and they perform many different functions in our daily lives. When you withdraw cash from an ATM, scan groceries at the store, or use a calculator, you're using a type of computer.

viewing a variety of computers

Desktop computers

showing a desktop computer

Many people use desktop computers at work, home, and school. Desktop computers are designed to be placed on a desk, and they're typically made up of a few different parts, including the computer case , monitor , keyboard , and mouse .

Laptop computers

showing a laptop computer

The second type of computer you may be familiar with is a laptop computer , commonly called a laptop. Laptops are battery-powered computers that are more portable than desktops, allowing you to use them almost anywhere.

Tablet computers

showing a tablet computer

Tablet computers —or tablets —are handheld computers that are even more portable than laptops. Instead of a keyboard and mouse, tablets use a touch-sensitive screen for typing and navigation. The iPad is an example of a tablet.

showing servers

A server is a computer that serves up information to other computers on a network. For example, whenever you use the Internet, you're looking at something that's stored on a server. Many businesses also use local file servers to store and share files internally.

Other types of computers

Many of today's electronics are basically specialized computers , though we don't always think of them that way. Here are a few common examples.

  • Smartphones : Many cell phones can do a lot of things computers can do, including browsing the Internet and playing games. They are often called smartphones .
  • Wearables : Wearable technology is a general term for a group of devices —including fitness trackers and smartwatches —that are designed to be worn throughout the day. These devices are often called wearables for short.
  • Game consoles : A game console is a specialized type of computer that is used for playing video games on your TV.
  • TVs : Many TVs now include applications —or apps —that let you access various types of online content. For example, you can stream video from the Internet directly onto your TV.

PCs and Macs

Personal computers come in two main styles: PC and Mac . Both are fully functional, but they have a different look and feel, and many people prefer one or the other.

showing a pc

This type of computer began with the original IBM PC that was introduced in 1981. Other companies began creating similar computers, which were called IBM PC Compatible (often shortened to PC ). Today, this is the most common type of personal computer, and it typically includes the Microsoft Windows operating system.

showing a mac

The Macintosh computer was introduced in 1984, and it was the first widely sold personal computer with a graphical user interface, or GUI (pronounced gooey ). All Macs are made by one company ( Apple ), and they almost always use the Mac OS X operating system.

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Computer Concepts - Application of Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the powerful tools of MS-Office, which helps in creating and designing presentations. PowerPoint Presentation is an array of slides that convey information to people in an attractive manner.

In this chapter, we are going to discuss in detail about the applications of presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint, opening and saving a presentation, creating presentation using templates and a blank presentation, entering and editing text, inserting and deleting slides in a presentation, preparing slides, inserting word table or an excel worksheet and other objects, adding clip arts, resizing and scaling of objects, providing aesthetics by enhancing text presentation, working with colors and line style, adding movie and sound, header and footer, viewing a presentation, choosing a set up for presentation, printing slides and handouts, Slide Show, running a Slide Show, transition and slide timings, automating a Slide Show.

Example Program

We will look at the below example to understand the concept clearly −

To create a simple presentation with at least 5 slides on the essay, "An astrologer's day" by R. K. Narayan.

Boot the system under Microsoft Windows 2013.

Click start → program → MS-Office → MS-PowerPoint.

Once you open PowerPoint, choose the type of presentation you want and click Ok.

Select Insert → Text box.

Draw the text box in the slide and enter information about the essay, "An astrologer's day".

Right click on the text box and select custom animation in it.

Select an effect and click ok.

Right click in the empty space of the slide.

Select background color and click apply button.

Click Transition select an effect and press ok.

Click the first slide and drag the mouse to select all the slides.

Run your presentation by clicking on "From Beginning" option from Slide Show or by pressing F5 key.

Thus, a simple presentation for the essay "An astrologer's day" by R.K.Narayan is created.

Astrologers Day Slide

In this chapter, we have clearly learnt various concepts in PowerPoint presentation such as opening and saving a presentation, creating presentation using templates and a blank presentation, entering and editing text, inserting and deleting slides in a presentation, preparing slides, etc.

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What are Presentation Graphics?

Pre-requisites: Introduction to Computer Graphics

Graphics are defined as any sketch or a drawing or a special network that pictorially represents some meaningful information. Computer Graphics is used where a set of images needs to be manipulated or the creation of the image in the form of pixels and is drawn on the computer. Computer Graphics can be used in digital photography, film, entertainment, electronic gadgets, and all other core technologies which are required. It is a vast subject and area in the field of computer science. Computer Graphics can be used in UI design, rendering, geometric objects, animation, and many more. 

Presentation graphics provides predefined backgrounds and simple page layouts to help in the creation of slides. These slides can be moved automatically within seconds.

Slides: 

Slides mean we have text, graphics, audio clips, video clips, animations, and other effects   Presentation graphics is also known as Presentation Software. The best example of presentation graphics is Microsoft PowerPoint. 

In recent days we have a new presentation tool that is: our Web browser and that is for creating Web pages, like Microsoft’s FrontPage and Adobe’s PageMill. 

Rules to Design Presentation:

  • Keep it simple: Make it simple to understand. It only contains information regarding your topic.
  • Correct Spelling:   We have to be careful with the spelling that we have written.
  • Consistency: There is need to be continuous flow from one slide to another.
  • Don’t put too much on a Slide: Don’t write too much. just give a brief description and important points.
  • Use Fonts Properly: Only you can use two font styles in the presentation.
  • Find Your Equipment: First, you have to be confident with your topic and details about it.

Uses: 

Presentation graphics programs are mainly concerned with the display of graphs and charts but now allow users to attach anything from text to animations. When Compared to other programs like Excel, PowerPoint follows a slideshow format.

Applications:  

In the following areas we can use presentation software:

  • Google Slides
  • Microsoft Office
  • WPS Office 
  • Photo Slideshow with Music

Advantages:

  • Less Cost: The cost is low to use presentation software
  • Logical Ideas: Tables and graphs are used to represent information then a logical order is created to give a clear idea for viewers.
  • Acceptability: By using this busy person can easily get an idea about the topic.

Disadvantages:

  • Time-taking process. It needs more time to prepare.
  • Data can sometimes be lost.
  • Errors and Mistakes can occur during design.

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What is a computer?

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What is a computer?. Monitor. A computer is an electronic machine that accepts information ( Data ), processes it according to specific instructions, and provides the results as new information. Floppy Disk Drive. System Unit. CD-ROM / DVD-ROM Drive. Keyboard. Mouse. Chapter:o1

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What is a computer? Monitor A computer is an electronic machine that accepts information (Data), processes it according to specific instructions, and provides the results as new information. Floppy Disk Drive System Unit CD-ROM / DVD-ROM Drive Keyboard Mouse

Chapter:o1 Computer overview => Computer: A computer is an electronic device that can perform a different types of operations in accordance with set of instructions is called program. => Data: Data are raw facts. =>Information: Information is meaningful data.

INPUT UNIT CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT OUTPUT => Input-Process-Output(IPO Cycle) : Certain input is needed to accomplished a task , a process is carried out on the input to obtain the output. Functional Components of a computer: In IPO Cycle, First stage is performed in computer by input unit, Second stage is performed by its central processing unit and the Third stage is performed by output unit. The main memory holds the input and intermediate output during the processing. MAIN MEMORY

=>INPUT UNIT: The input unit is performed by the input devices attached to the computer. Input unit is responsible for taking input and converting it into computer understandable form(the binary code). EXAMPLES:KEYBOARD,MOUSE MICR, OMR, OCR, JOYSTICK. => Central Processing Unit: The CPU is the control Centre for a computer .it guides , directs, governs, its performance. It is brain of computer.

=> The CPU divided into two parts: (a).Arithmetic Logic UNIT(ALU): The ALU performs all four arithmetical (+, -,*,/)and some logical operations(<, >,<=,>=,<>). (B) CONTROL UNIT(CU): The CU control and guides the interpretation , flow and manipulation of all data and information. The CU sends control signals until the required operation are done properly by ALU and memory. It also responsible for execute the program. The CU gets program instruction from memory and executes the one after the other. After getting the instructions from memory in CU, the instruction is decoded and interpreted.

=>OUTPUT UNIT: The output unit is performed by the output devices attached to the computer. the output coming from CPU is in the form of electrical binary signals which needs conversion in some form which can be easily understood by human beings i.e. characters, graphical or audio visual. Examples: Monitor, printer , plotter, speaker. => MEMORY: The memory is a device which can store the data and information. => MEMORY CELL: It is a device which can store a symbol selected from set of symbols. bit cell 0 cell 1

=> BYTE OR NIBBLE: A group of 8 bits is called byte and a group of 4 bits is know as nibble.

=> There are two types of memory (a). Primary (Main ) Memory: It is also know as temporary Memory. Ram and Rom (b). Secondary Memory: To store the data and information permanently. CD, Hard disk. => Hardware : The physical and tangible parts of the computer. i.e. The components that can seen and touched. Monitor ,mouse etc. => peripherals: The peripherals are devices that surround the system unit. Examples: keyboard, mouse, speaker, printer, monitor. =>Software: The set of program that govern the operation of a computer system.

Types of Software There are two types of software 1.System software 2. Application Software System software: The software that controls internal computer operations is called system software system software Divided into two parts Operating system Language system.

Operating system(os): An operating system is a program which acts as an interface between a user and the hardware(i.e. all computer resources) Functions of operating system: (i).It provide the instructions to prepare user interface.i.e, way to interact with user whether through typed commands or through graphical symbols. (ii). Loads necessary programs (into the computer memory) which are required for proper compute functioning. (iii). Coordinates how programs work with the CPU , keyboard, Mouse, Printer, and other Hardware as well as with other software (iv). Manages way information is stored on and retrieved from disks

A set of software instructions that tells the computer what to do is called a computer program. • Major Component of Computer System are:

TYPES OF OS: 1.Single Program OS. As the name suggests , this OS is single user operating system , so only one user program can be supported and executed by it at any point. 2.MultiProgram OS. It supports multiprogramming.i.e., more than one user can be supported by it, therefore ,more than one user programs are loaded and active in the main store at he same time. 3.Time Sharing OS.This OS uses the time sharing technique. Each active user program is given a fair share of CPU time(δ),if the time elapses or an I/O operation is requested, CPU shifts over to the next jobs waiting and the previous program. 4.Real Time os: The jobs have fixed deadlines and the jobs have to be completed within their deadlines. the system performance is measured by its ability to complete its jobs within specified deadlines. If a job cannot be complete within its deadline, its situation is called deadline overrun. 5. Multiprocessing os: The Multiprocessing os is capable of handling more than one processors as the have to be executed on more than one processor(CPU)

Examples of operating systems are: Unix, Windows NT, Windows XP, MS-DOS, Linux, Solaris, VMS, OS/2 and System =>Language processors: It is a collection of program that convert high level language program into machine level language program. High-level language: A high-level language consists of instructions, or statements, that are closer to English and common mathematical notation. When programming in a high-level language, you do not have to concern yourself with the specific machine language of the CPU. Assembler: It translates(converts) the assembly language program into an equivalent machine language program. .

Interpreter: IT Converts a High level Language program into machine language by converting and executing it line by line. if there is any error in any line, it reports it at the same time and program execution cannot resume until the error is rectified. Once a given instruction has been executed, then it translates and executes the next, and so on. Compiler: It Translate(convert) the Entire HLL program into machine language program in one go, and reports all errors of the program along with the line numbers. All instructions are compiled before any are executed by the CPU.

Application Software: It is a set of programs necessary to carry out operations for a specified application. => Application software Categories into two types: (a). Customized Application software : This type of software is tailor –made software according to a user’s requirements. The software is developed to meet all the requirements specified by the user. (b). General Application software : This type of software is developed keeping in mind the general requirements for carrying out specific task

Strength and Weakness of a computer: => Computer Strengths: (i). Speed: Computer are much faster as compared to human beings. A computer can perform a task in a minute that may take day if performed manually. (ii). High storage Capacity: Computers can store a large amount of information in very small space. (iii). Accuracy: Computer s can perform all tha calculations and comparisons accurately provided the hardware does not malfunction. (iv). Reliability: Computers can immune(protect) to tiredness and boredom or fatigue(mental exhaustion) . (v). Versatility: Computers can perform repetitive jobs efficiently. They even can work in the area where human brain can err.

Computer Weakness: (i). Lack of Decision Making Power: Computer cannot decide on their own. (ii). IQ Zero: Computers are dumb machines with zero IQ => FIRMWARE: It is prewritten program that is permanently stored in read only memory (ROM). It configures the computer and not easily modifiable by the user. Example: BIOS(BASIC INPUT OUTPUT SERVICE) => Liveware: The people associated with and benefited from the computer system.

The History of Computers • The origin of computers can be traced back to inventors who were interested in processing information and developing devices to simply tedious arithmetic calculations.

Calculation in Early Times • Abacus(3000BC) • allowed the user to manipulate data • Babylon, 3000 BC • Still in use today • beads on rods to count and calculate

I- Ancient Counting Machines 2- The Roman Numerals I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X 3- The Arabic Numerals (base 10) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ancient Time

Napier’s Log’s and Bones(1550-1617) Slide Rule • Slide Rule 1962 • based on Napier’s rules for logarithms • used until 1970s • It simplified and used logs to transform multiplication problem to addition problem and division to subtraction

Pascal’s Adding Machine The Pascalineis a mechanical calculating(adding) deviceinvented by the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642. It capable of addition and subtraction .it worked on clock work mechanism principle. 1642

Leibnitz’s calculator The Leibniz Wheelwas invented by the famous mathematician Leibniz in 1671.It perform ( + , - , * , / ) . this machine performed multiplication through repeated addition of number. 1671

JACQUARD’S LOOM =>Punched Cardswere used by the French weaver Joseph Jacquard in 1801. The cards carried weaving instructions for the looms, later this idea offered a great use for storing info. 1801

CHARLES BABBAGE’S DIFFERENCE ENGINE 1822 =>In 1822 Charles Babbage (English mathematician, philosopher), sometimes called the “father of computing” built the Difference Engine. =>Machine designed to automate the computation (tabulation) of polynomial functions (which are known to be good approximations of many useful functions) 1852 =>Based on the “method of finite difference” =>Implements some storage

Analytical Engine As designed, it would have been programmed using punch-cards and would have included features such as sequential control, loops, conditionals and branching. If constructed, it would have been the first “computer” as we think of them today. • Difference Engine c.1822 • huge calculator, never finished • Analytical Engine 1833 • could store numbers • calculating “mill” used punched metal cards for instructions • powered by steam! • accurate to six decimal places

The Tabulating Machine • Herman Hollerith, American inventor, worked at the Census Bureau & later taught at MIT • A machine which used punch cards and did the mechanical work of tabulating the population • Won the Census Bureau contest and contract; selling 56 of his Tabulating Machines • Organized his own company and continued to produce the machines for the census • Merged with other companies eventually becoming known as International Business Machines – IBM

1943 – Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper – Harvard Mark I Computer • The IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) Computer was created by IBM for Harvard University, which called it the Mark I. First universal calculator.

Mark-I • It used electro magnetic signals • It was slow machine took 3-5 seconds to perform a calculation • It was inflexible • It could perform basic arithmetic as well as complex calculations

(GENERATION OF COMPUTER) • Modern age of computers is divided into five generations of computers • First Generation (1949-1955) • Second Generation (1956-1965) • Third Generation (1966-1975) • Fourth Generation (1976-Present) • Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond)

The First Generation of Computers The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts. The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

CHARACTERISTICSFirst generation computers were based on vacuum tubes. • The operating systems of the first generation computers were very slow. • They were very large in size. • Production of the heat was in large amount in first generation computers. • Air conditioning required • Machine language was used for programming. • First generation computers were unreliable. • They were difficult to program and use. • Frequent hardware failure • Applications:These computers were used for record keeping and payroll processing

ENIAC • ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) • Developed by John Presper Eckert (1919-1995) and John W. Mauchley (1907-1980) • Developed in 1946 • Space requirement 30 X 50 sq. ft. • 30 ton weight and 18000 vacuum tubes • 70000 registers, 10000 capacitors • 6000 switches and 150,000 watts electicity • cosr $ 400000

ENIAC • When ENIAC completed calculations it inform the users by turning on a sequence of lights • It was used until 1955 • Only one system of ENIAC was developed • When operated the lights of near by area were dimmed

EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Calculator) • Developed by John Von Neuman (1903-1957) • It contain a memory to store data and programs as well • EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) • Developed in 1949 by BritishesProp.M.V.Wilkes . • IT uses mercury delay lines for storage.

UNIVAC • UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) • Developed by John Presper Eckert, Jr., and John Mauchly • Developed in 1951 • First commercial computer • Could manipulate numeric as well as textual data

SECOND GENERATION TIME PERIOD : 1956s- 1965s TECHNOLOGY USED : Transistors SIZE AND SPEED:Lesser size and increased speed LANGUAGE USED : Assembly language and languages like COBOL and FORTRAN COST : Cost decreased OTHER FEATURES : More efficient and reliable. Though the transistors still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punchedcards for input and printouts for output. EXAMPLE : UNIVAC 1108, IBM 1401, CDC 1604 TRANSISITORS UNIVAC 1108 IBM 1401

THIRD GENERATION TIME PERIOD : late 1966s-1975's TECHNOLOGY USED : Integrated Circuit SIZE AND SPEED : Size Lesser and speed further increased LANGUAGE USED : Operating System was developed. COST : Cost decreased further OTHER FEATURES : Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors. EXAMPLE : IBM-360 series, Honeywell Model 316, Honeywell – 6000 series, CDC – 1700. IBM 360/50

FOURTH GENERATION • TIME PERIOD : 1976s-todayTECHNOLOGY USED : MicroprocessorSIZE AND SPEED : Reduced size and tremendous speedLANGUAGE USED : High Level Languages like PASCAL, • COBOL, C, C++, JAVACOST : Reduced CostOTHER FEATURES : Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors. • As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. • Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.EXAMPLE : Intel 4004, Apple Macintosh The Macintosh 128K, the first Macintosh, was the first commercially successful personal computer to use images, rather than text, to communicate. Intel 4004D microprocessor

FIFTH GENERATION • TIME PERIOD : today--beyondTECHNOLOGY USED : MicroprocessorSIZE AND SPEED : Reduced size and tremendous speedLANGUAGE USED : Based on Artificial intelligenceCOST : Reduced CostOTHER FEATURES : Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. • The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. • The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.EXAMPLE : Parallel Inference MachineNote:Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. • Voice Recognition is the field of computer science that deals with designing computer systems that can recognize spoken words.

Classification of Computers of On the basis of How It Functions • The current classifications of computers place them into Three categories: • Analog Computer • Digital Computer • Hybrid Computers

Classification of Computers of On the basis of How It Functions Digital Computers • Operate on continuous data, like measuring temp. changes • Faster • Accuracy of an analog computer is restricted to the accuracy with which physical quantities can be sensed and displayed. • Specific Purpose computers Analog Computers Digital Computers • Digital computers work on discrete data. • digital computer can process data with greater accuracy • We generally use digital computers for business and scientific data processing.

Hybrid Computers • Hybrid computers are computers that comprise features of analog computers and digitalcomputers. • The digital component normally serves as the controller and provides logical operations, while the analog component normally serves as a solver of differential equations.

Digital Computer classified into two types • (i). Purpose –wise • (ii). Size and Performance wise • (i). Purpose –wise digital computer are classified into two types. • (a). Special-purpose computer: It is designed to performed a specific task. the instructions to carry out the task are permanently stored in the machine. • (b). General-purpose computer: it can work on different types of programs input to it and be used in countless applications. The program are not permanently stored .

Size and Speed Based Classification of digital Computer Systems • The current classifications of computers place them into five categories: • Embedded computer, • ,Microcomputers (Personal Computers)  • Minicomputers, • Mainframes, • Super Computers,

=> Embedded computers: These computers are typically preprogrammed for a specific task, such as tuning to a particular television frequency. Examples: television, washing machine.etc.

PERSONAL COMPUTER • The term microcomputer, also known as personal computer (PC), or a computer that depends on a microprocessor. A microcomputer contains a central processing unit (CPU) on a microchip (the microprocessor), a memory system (read-only memory and random access memory), placed on a motherboard.Example:  desktop, notebook, laptop, handheld devices.Charcteristics: • developed in 1980 •  designed for single user •  not very powerful or expensive •  found in homes

Micro computer also divided into three types • PDA(Personal digital assistants) • Laptops and desktop personal computer. • Workstations: • Between minicomputer and microcomputer- in terms of processing power. • Looks like PC and used by one person.

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OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

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OpenAI has built a striking new generative video model called Sora that can take a short text description and turn it into a detailed, high-definition film clip up to a minute long.

Based on four sample videos that OpenAI shared with MIT Technology Review ahead of today’s announcement, the San Francisco–based firm has pushed the envelope of what’s possible with text-to-video generation (a hot new research direction that we flagged as a trend to watch in 2024 ).

“We think building models that can understand video, and understand all these very complex interactions of our world, is an important step for all future AI systems,” says Tim Brooks, a scientist at OpenAI.

But there’s a disclaimer. OpenAI gave us a preview of Sora (which means sky in Japanese) under conditions of strict secrecy. In an unusual move, the firm would only share information about Sora if we agreed to wait until after news of the model was made public to seek the opinions of outside experts. [Editor’s note: We’ve updated this story with outside comment below.] OpenAI has not yet released a technical report or demonstrated the model actually working. And it says it won’t be releasing Sora anytime soon. [ Update: OpenAI has now shared more technical details on its website.]

The first generative models that could produce video from snippets of text appeared in late 2022. But early examples from Meta , Google, and a startup called Runway were glitchy and grainy. Since then, the tech has been getting better fast. Runway’s gen-2 model, released last year, can produce short clips that come close to matching big-studio animation in their quality. But most of these examples are still only a few seconds long.  

The sample videos from OpenAI’s Sora are high-definition and full of detail. OpenAI also says it can generate videos up to a minute long. One video of a Tokyo street scene shows that Sora has learned how objects fit together in 3D: the camera swoops into the scene to follow a couple as they walk past a row of shops.

OpenAI also claims that Sora handles occlusion well. One problem with existing models is that they can fail to keep track of objects when they drop out of view. For example, if a truck passes in front of a street sign, the sign might not reappear afterward.  

In a video of a papercraft underwater scene, Sora has added what look like cuts between different pieces of footage, and the model has maintained a consistent style between them.

It’s not perfect. In the Tokyo video, cars to the left look smaller than the people walking beside them. They also pop in and out between the tree branches. “There’s definitely some work to be done in terms of long-term coherence,” says Brooks. “For example, if someone goes out of view for a long time, they won’t come back. The model kind of forgets that they were supposed to be there.”

Impressive as they are, the sample videos shown here were no doubt cherry-picked to show Sora at its best. Without more information, it is hard to know how representative they are of the model’s typical output.   

It may be some time before we find out. OpenAI’s announcement of Sora today is a tech tease, and the company says it has no current plans to release it to the public. Instead, OpenAI will today begin sharing the model with third-party safety testers for the first time.

In particular, the firm is worried about the potential misuses of fake but photorealistic video . “We’re being careful about deployment here and making sure we have all our bases covered before we put this in the hands of the general public,” says Aditya Ramesh, a scientist at OpenAI, who created the firm’s text-to-image model DALL-E .

But OpenAI is eyeing a product launch sometime in the future. As well as safety testers, the company is also sharing the model with a select group of video makers and artists to get feedback on how to make Sora as useful as possible to creative professionals. “The other goal is to show everyone what is on the horizon, to give a preview of what these models will be capable of,” says Ramesh.

To build Sora, the team adapted the tech behind DALL-E 3, the latest version of OpenAI’s flagship text-to-image model. Like most text-to-image models, DALL-E 3 uses what’s known as a diffusion model. These are trained to turn a fuzz of random pixels into a picture.

Sora takes this approach and applies it to videos rather than still images. But the researchers also added another technique to the mix. Unlike DALL-E or most other generative video models, Sora combines its diffusion model with a type of neural network called a transformer.

Transformers are great at processing long sequences of data, like words. That has made them the special sauce inside large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google DeepMind’s Gemini . But videos are not made of words. Instead, the researchers had to find a way to cut videos into chunks that could be treated as if they were. The approach they came up with was to dice videos up across both space and time. “It’s like if you were to have a stack of all the video frames and you cut little cubes from it,” says Brooks.

The transformer inside Sora can then process these chunks of video data in much the same way that the transformer inside a large language model processes words in a block of text. The researchers say that this let them train Sora on many more types of video than other text-to-video models, varied in terms of resolution, duration, aspect ratio, and orientation. “It really helps the model,” says Brooks. “That is something that we’re not aware of any existing work on.”

“From a technical perspective it seems like a very significant leap forward,” says Sam Gregory, executive director at Witness, a human rights organization that specializes in the use and misuse of video technology. “But there are two sides to the coin,” he says. “The expressive capabilities offer the potential for many more people to be storytellers using video. And there are also real potential avenues for misuse.” 

OpenAI is well aware of the risks that come with a generative video model. We are already seeing the large-scale misuse of deepfake images . Photorealistic video takes this to another level.

Gregory notes that you could use technology like this to misinform people about conflict zones or protests. The range of styles is also interesting, he says. If you could generate shaky footage that looked like something shot with a phone, it would come across as more authentic.

The tech is not there yet, but generative video has gone from zero to Sora in just 18 months. “We’re going to be entering a universe where there will be fully synthetic content, human-generated content and a mix of the two,” says Gregory.

The OpenAI team plans to draw on the safety testing it did last year for DALL-E 3. Sora already includes a filter that runs on all prompts sent to the model that will block requests for violent, sexual, or hateful images, as well as images of known people. Another filter will look at frames of generated videos and block material that violates OpenAI’s safety policies.

OpenAI says it is also adapting a fake-image detector developed for DALL-E 3 to use with Sora. And the company will embed industry-standard C2PA tags , metadata that states how an image was generated, into all of Sora’s output. But these steps are far from foolproof. Fake-image detectors are hit-or-miss. Metadata is easy to remove, and most social media sites strip it from uploaded images by default.  

“We’ll definitely need to get more feedback and learn more about the types of risks that need to be addressed with video before it would make sense for us to release this,” says Ramesh.

Brooks agrees. “Part of the reason that we’re talking about this research now is so that we can start getting the input that we need to do the work necessary to figure out how it could be safely deployed,” he says.

Update 2/15: Comments from Sam Gregory were added .

Artificial intelligence

Ai for everything: 10 breakthrough technologies 2024.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT reached mass adoption in record time, and reset the course of an entire industry.

What’s next for AI in 2024

Our writers look at the four hot trends to watch out for this year

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Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Deploying high-performance, energy-efficient AI

Investments into downsized infrastructure can help enterprises reap the benefits of AI while mitigating energy consumption, says corporate VP and GM of data center platform engineering and architecture at Intel, Zane Ball.

  • MIT Technology Review Insights archive page

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    Microsoft PowerPoint, virtual presentation software developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin for the American computer software company Forethought, Inc. The program, initially named Presenter, was released for the Apple Macintosh in 1987. In July of that year, the Microsoft Corporation, in its first significant software acquisition, purchased the rights to PowerPoint for $14 million.

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  19. Computer

    A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks.

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