(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...By Geetesh Bajaj
Introduction
PowerPoint has been adding extra capabilities over the years and the last few years have been revolutionary, after the introduction of Microsoft and Office 365 options. These new options include the Morph transition, Summary and Section Zoom, Designer that adds a new look to your slides, Cloud fonts, and amazing visual assets such as icons, stock photos and more.
Yet, there is that old adage: the more you get, the more you want. People are rarely satisfied with what they get, because increased exposure results in increased needs. These needs cannot be met by Microsoft’s options alone. So, it’s good that there is a huge industry of PowerPoint extensions, called add-ins. One of the most full-featured add-ins is empower®.
About empower
So, what is empower? Think of empower as a supercharged helper for your PowerPoint decks. It’s like having a toolbox full of fancy templates and design tricks that make your slides look professional without sweating over each detail. It keeps your presentations looking consistently on-brand, so everything has that same cool, polished style. Plus, it’s great for teams – like sharing your favorite recipe but for slides, making sure everyone’s cooking up presentations the same way. Of course, empower packs in so much more that we haven’t discussed yet!
empower is available separately for two user bases:
- empower Enterprise is the version of empower suited for larger clients that sign up for hundreds and thousands of licenses.
- empower Express is the similar offering, suited for single users and also for a smaller base of up to 50 users.
In this review, we will explore empower Express. Do note that both options are available for Windows and Mac users, although offerings on Windows are more extensive.
Also, my contact at empower for this review was Derrick Waylen. Thank you, Derrick.
Download and Installation
empower Express does have a 30-day trial option available that you can sign up for, as shown in Figure 1, below. Of course. this is subject to change. They had a 90-day trial for Black Friday. Either way, they hope you love empower enough to be a regular subscriber.
Figure 1: empower Express Sign up
You then need to choose one of three subscription levels, as shown in Figure 2, below. Do note that annual subscriptions tend to cost less than monthly ones.
Figure 2: Choose the right plan
Now, you provide your contact and payment information. You are not charged until your trial period is over. Next, you will receive an email with a download link, your username and a temporary password.
Click the link and you land up on the page from where you can install empower Express. We won’t get into much detail here, but if you follow the easy steps, you will end up doing these tasks, although not exactly in the order listed below:
- Logging into your empower account,
- Changing your password, and
- Syncing metadata from empower servers to your system. This process can be accessed from your Windows taskbar, as shown in Figure 3, below. Do note that this activity might take a while.
Figure 3: empower Sync- Installing empower as a Ribbon tab on your PowerPoint, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below.
Figure 4: empower tab of the Ribbon
Using empower Express
empower’s repertoire is too extensive to be detailed in a review of this length, so we won’t attempt to do a walkthrough. Instead, we will list some features and bring you a video from the empower folks, embedded here.
Here’s a rundown of the key features of empower Express:
- Design Elements Library: empower Express contains an extensive library of professionally designed templates, slides, layouts, graphic elements, icons and images. Just pick, click and you’re on your way to a good-looking presentation. If you are part of a team, and have company branded templates and elements, you can customize the library with these so that applying your branded elements is both quicker and easier.
- Brand Consistency Tools: The software ensures that all presentations adhere to specific brand guidelines, including colors, fonts, and logos, maintaining a consistent brand identity. It’s like having a brand watchdog that ensures everything matches perfectly. Planning a rebrand? Then these brand consistency tools and the conversion tools will make the process easier and more accurate.
- Slide Management: Users can save, retrieve, and manage individual slides, making it easy to reuse content and maintain quality across presentations. Think of this feature as a magical slide drawer. Save your best slides, pluck them out for later presentations, and voilà! It’s a real time-saver. It also includes automatic updates so you can rely on the validity of your data and a google-like search tool that searches within the content of a slide or presentation.
- One-Click Formatting: Need to align stuff or make it look neat? empower Express has one-click solutions to make everything look tidy and impressive without a fuss.
- Collaboration Features: Share slides with your team, swap ideas, and collaborate effortlessly. The empower platform supports teamwork, enhancing group productivity.
- Extend your team: empower Express is the combination of the empower® PowerPoint add-in and the global presentation design agency, Right Aligned. When you don’t have the time, or design flair to craft a visually appealing presentation, an empower® Express subscription entitles you to discounted design rates with Right Aligned’s professional designers.
Here’s an introductory video about empower Express.
Pricing and Support
We already looked at pricing options in the Download and Installation section, earlier on this page. However, what are the support options available?
First of all, you will receive frequent emails after you sign up, with links to umpteen video tutorials and training sessions. You can also opt for a live on-boarding session, even if you signed up for a trial version. Email and phone support is also available.
Conclusion
Well, this is a difficult session to write about. Why? That’s because empower provides far too many abilities that can make your workflow more streamlined and efficient. However, only sign up for empower when you have the time to explore this amazing PowerPoint add-in. You will need to look into all corners and areas within empower Express, and trust us, there’s something everywhere you look!
It has an amazing price to performance ratio, and is money well invested.
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