How to Narrate Your Adobe Spark Video

By

Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks

Adobe Spark Video makes it easy to create compelling slideshow videos to share on the Web. But to make them really memorable, why not engage another of your viewer’s senses: hearing? Adding a recorded narration to a presentation reinforces your message, increasing the likelihood that your audience pays close attention to the lessons you need them to take away from the slideshow.

Here’s how to add good-quality audio to your Spark Video slideshow.

First of all, you need a microphone attached to your device. Most laptops, tablets, and all cell phones have built-in mics, so no problem there. However, if you’re using a desktop computer, depending on the model, you may need to connect an add-on mic. (Most simply connect to your computer’s USB port.) Be sure to speak into the microphone, and remember that narration should be significantly slower than your usual conversational voice.

Read More

Create Sleek Professional-Looking Newsletter-Type Columns in Google Docs

By

Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks

Plain Jane documents look boring, especially when they are made up of long blocky paragraphs of text, like this.


But formatting your document with newsletter-like columns generates visual energy that attracts and holds your readers’ attention.

Read More

Creating Snazzy Text for Your Adobe Spark Post Social Media Graphics

By

Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks

Adobe Spark Post is a free online design interface for quickly creating crowd-pleasing social media graphics. A previous article — Quickly Create Attention-Grabbing Social Media Graphics with Adobe Spark Post — provides step-by-step guidance on using Post to design and use custom graphics. But you can take your memes even further with Spark Post’s creative and fun inspiration tools for text. Here are some tips on how to easily transform your social graphic’s message into something snazzy that leaves a lasting impression, giving a brand-recognition boost to your social media posts.

If you closed out of Adobe Spark, the graphic you were working on was automatically saved. You can find it in the My Projects page. If that isn’t the first screen you see when you log into Spark and open Post, then click on My Projects in the menu at the top of your screen. In the next screen, click on the thumbnail of the graphic you wish to edit.


Read More

How to Create Attention-Grabbing Social Media Graphics Using Adobe Spark Post

By

Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks

Social media has turned advertising on its head. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other popular social networks have become the most pervasive, powerful and — if you do it right — the potentially most effective channels for sharing your brand and message with an enormous and growing market.

The key phrase is if you do it right. Your graphics have to be impactful and memorable to capture the imagination of the millions on social media. What’s more, today’s cost and time budgets — and social media’s short attention span — require that you move quickly, without getting bogged down in production.

A great new online tools for creating cool attention-grabbing graphics for social media is Adobe Spark Post — and it’s free to use. Here’s how it works — and how easy it is to create a graphic suitable for sharing on social media.

Read More

Wrap Text Around a Photo in Google Docs (Without Ripping Your Hair Out)

By

Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks

Google Docs is a text-driven environment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spruce up your favorite document with an eye catching image.

However, if you just stick a picture into the text, it interrupts the visual flow. That stops the reader, who might not bother to pick up the narrative again. (Plus, it looks pretty lame.)


Read More