The Rapid Elearning Blog

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - airport template

I had a great time at recent presentations in Minneapolis and Nashville.  It’s really fun to meet people from different parts of the country.  Like in most sessions, I find that many are struggling to work by themselves with limited resources.  So I’m always looking for ways to help people get more out of the tools they have.

During these trips I tend to have extra time at the airport, so usually play around with template ideas.  They help me eat up some of the time waiting and I know that I’ll be able to give away the templates.

Here’s a template I was playing with recently (and a few additional templates for you to download).

Business Time PowerPoint Template

This template is designed around four sections.  Of course, once you break it apart and see how it’s built, you can add as many sections as you like.  I also used a couple of fonts from the free Google web fonts I mentioned a couple of weeks ago: Airstream and Arvo.

If you want to change the images in the sections, that’s easy to do.  They’re just shaped filled with pictures.  Right-click on the shape and then fill it with a different image.  You can move the image around the shape using the offset X and Y axis.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free PowerPoint template - Business Time

Click here to view the template demo.

Bluegreen PowerPoint Template

The template below is from the Skyscan demo I did a couple of years ago.  I wrote about it in this blog post on how you can save your job in this economy.  This template works really well with Articulate Engage.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free PowerPoint template - Bluegreen

Click here to view the Skyscan demo.

Subtle Sky PowerPoint Template

Below is an idea I was playing with a while back. It has a very subtle blue accent to it.  It’s made up of two basic screens like the Skyscan demo.  I never did anything with it because it was too subtle.  You’re free to use it if you like.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free PowerPoint template - Subtle Sky

Click here to view the demo.

Community PowerPoint Templates

Jeanette’s recently added a couple of templates to the Articulate community.  They’re pretty cool.  You can see them in action below.  Feel free to download them and use as you wish.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free PowerPoint template - Forecast

View the Forecast template demo.

The Rapid E-Learning Blog - free PowerPoint template - Spectrum

Click to view the Spectrum template demo.

All of these demos are available to you via the E-learning Heroes community.  You can find them in the free downloads section or download them individually using the links below.

Hope you enjoy the templates and can find some use for them.

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.

Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs

Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills

Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.

Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.

Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.



31 responses to “5 Free PowerPoint E-Learning Templates”

April 26th, 2011

Hi Tom! Thank you for the free templates! They are always appreciated! I was wondering though if you or any of the E-Learning Heroes would be able to share your “Color Schemes” in the Download area under the E-Learning Templates section as it mentions them in the description, but there aren’t any available (at least that I can find). I suppose a short Screenr might be needed in order to show folks where to put the file so it can be used. Thanks again for all you do!

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Hey Tom! Thanks for the free templates. I really like the Subtle Sky template. It’s right on time! It’s what I was looking for to use in a training I’m building.
P.S. Where did you find the hamster video?

[…] Traduzione autorizzata tratta dal post originale di Tom Kuhlmann sul “Rapid E-Learning Blog”. Il post originale è disponibile qui […]

Leggi la traduzione (autorizzata) in italiano di questo post qui:

http://www.mosaicoelearning.it/blog/?p=925

@ron: I got the hamster video from some online ad. It’s a great filler video for my demos.

April 26th, 2011

@Pink Lady: The 5 templates above use the default PowerPoint color scheme called “Office.” You can change the PPT color scheme in PPT by clicking the Design tab on the PPT ribbon and using the Colors dropdown. But maybe you’re referring to the color scheme of the Articulate Presenter player instead? If so, you can switch the colors on your player by editing the player template. Here’s a tutorial that shows how: http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/changing-your-player-s-color-scheme.aspx Hope that helps! If not, let us know by posting in the E-Learning Heroes forums (http://community.articulate.com/forums/)and we can help you out. 🙂

April 26th, 2011

@Jeanette: Thank you for your response. I was actually just hoping to see if any of the heroes have any custom made color schemes for Presenter, Engage and Quizmaker that they would be willing to share on the E-Learning Heroes Download page. I have tried to customize some myself but it is very time consuming and they never come out as professional looking as I would like. Thank you!

@PinkLady – In addition to Jeanette’s tutorial, have you seen this interactive job aid for quickly identifying the parts of the player to customize: http://community.articulate.com/downloads/p/786.aspx

What is it about your colors that don’t look professional? The color combinations or the quality of the colors?

April 26th, 2011

@Pink lady: Right now we don’t have a dedicated place in the downloads specifically for color schemes, but a lot of the downloadable items in the E-Learning Examples section (http://community.articulate.com/downloads/g/examples/default.aspx) do have the color schemes embedded in the project, since color schemes are saved within the project’s player template. That said, if you have a project that you’d like some help developing a color scheme for, that would make a great post in the forums – I’m sure folks would love to collaborate with you & produce some great color scheme ideas.

April 27th, 2011

When I try to download the business time demo file, I get a message saying the file is corrupt. Is it possible to post another one of email me one.

@David Mark: I just checked and the file works fine. It’s possible that the download didn’t complete for you. It’s a normal .zip file. make sure to unzip it before you access the PowerPoint templates.

Thanks for the templates! They downloaded just fine for me. I love that picture at the beginning. Hilarious! I needed that laugh today. Thanks!

Can I know how do you insert the video that shown in Forecast template demo.

Hello and thank-you for all your tips and guidance. Do you have any tips for creating eLearning for software tutorials? I love a lot of your ideas and creativity but I find it difficult to incorporate any of these ideas into courses that are trying to teach software functionality. I feel stuck with screenshots, text bubbles and simulated pop-outs……….
I have yet to see any templates that cover that type of learning….
any ideas?

@Maddy: the video is inserted using Articulate Presenter’s insert Flash movie option (which allows you to insert .swf, .flv, and .mp4 videos).

Hi Tom,
Thanks.

Just the thing i was looking for, i just downloaded the Blue Green Template.

I am working on adding my custom content and is pretty simple and atleast need not know HTML for this.

Industrial-Style Flip Card Template is a little more professional and i am targetting to spend the next couple of weeks to make a killer presentation. This is specifically useful for product launces with testimonials and if i am successful in making a vid out of this, i know i have done a good job

Thanks for the great sure

Thanks Tom

May 11th, 2011

Having a great time using these templates. Quick question. I am working with the Business Time template and have figured out how to change the pictures however, I’m having a hard time resizing them and just selecting the part of the image that I want. Thanks for the help.

@Heather: it takes a little practice, but you have to play around with the X,Y options in the fill with picture feature.

This is so hilarious! I know all the people on the first slide, since I’ve seen, and used, those images in my content! It’s almost as if they are hired to do e-learning work for us.

@Learning Curve: those people get around; the economy’s tough right now and they do a lot of moonlighting

Thanks for the templates! I’d like to use the Section 1 photo from the Business Time template in a training project. How can I get the rights to use it?
Thanks, Sarah

@Sarah: the image came from MS online so if you have PowerPoint you have the right to use the image in your MS office content.

Thanks, Tom!

Hi Tom, I am a new user and really appreciate your blog, tutorials and great resources. Question: I downloaded the “business” template to see how the internal hyperlinks were set up. When I click on any of the sections/faces in the main menu I land on Section 1. I looked at the hyperlink dialogues for each section (on the main menu) and the targets look correct. Could I be doing something wrong on my end? I set up a similar structure yesterday in PowerPoint and had a similar problem (the hyperlinks led to the next slide, not the target slide). Any ideas? Thanks!

The hyperlinks should work as you set them. Sometimes when you publish (if you’re using a PPT to Flash product) grouped objects with links won’t work right in Flash. Jump into the Articulate community and pose the question there so we can look at it in more detail and see what you’re doing.

[…] 5 Free PowerPoint E-Learning Templates If you’re like me, when you use PowerPoint to build your rapid elearning courses, you end up doing a lot of copying and pasting of objects. […]