Demo: VisualBee makes it simple to create pretty PowerPoint slides

More than 500 million people use Microsoft PowerPoint to make presentation decks. Visual Software Systems, maker of a product called VisualBee, helps presenters make slides more easily with its automated design plugin.

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The company is launching version 3.0 of its tool, which automatically enhances presentations for individual and business users, today at DEMO Fall 2011. VisualBee emulates a human graphic designer, analyzing the text and structure of a presentation before rebuilding it with new templates, pictures and graphics. The newest version of the product will also include animation and transition features, based on feedback from initial users who cited these features as big pain points when making slides.

After a user downloads VisualBee from the company’s website, the tool appears as an icon in the PowerPoint ribbon. Users can access 50 design templates and more than 3,000 images for free, and beyond that, VisualBee premium and enterprise products are available starting at a fee of $75 per year.

The company has acquired 30,000 users who have designed 400,000 slides since its soft launch four months ago, and about four percent of users upgrade to the premium product. To start, the company is particularly focused on small business users who are unlikely to have in-house graphics support, though VisualBee does have two large customers using the enterprise product today.

Founded in 2008, the company is based in Tel Aviv, Israel and previously raised $600,000 in funding from theTime Investments, an investment firm based in Israel.

VisualBee is one of 80 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2011 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.There’s still plenty to see at DEMO, and VentureBeat readers can get a special discount on registration for the remainder of the show at demo.com/VBDay.