PowerPoint and Presenting Blog: February 2004

Media Playlists in PowerPoint 2003
If you use Windows Media Player or any other player to create playlists of your favorite songs, you'll love the new PowerPoint 2003 feature that allows PowerPoint to play your entire playlist. Actually, you can also design a cool presentation that makes your slideshow look like a jukebox - or if you are less adventurous or corporate, you could always use the playlist feature to play a series of musical clips in sequence. In this tutorial, we are using Windows Media Player playlists, but PowerPoint 2003 can also accept standard M3U playlists - most players can create and edit M3U playlists. Read more...

The Cliff Atkinson Interview
As an independent management consultant and president of Sociable Media, Cliff Atkinson advises the senior leadership of some of the world's largest companies on how they can engage the organizational phenomenon called PowerPoint. These companies are beginning to understand PowerPoint as more than just a presentation tool, and are seeking answers to deeper questions about its organizational use. In this interview, Cliff discusses his work, the advantages of PowerPoint and why both PowerPoint and Toastmasters make a great team. Read more...

The Julie Terberg Interview
As owner and principle designer at Terberg Design, Julie Terberg develops custom presentation solutions — unique for every client and purpose. She is a contributing editor to Presentations magazine, and has recently co-authored a book on crafting medical presentations. Perfect Medical Presentations, co-authored by Terry Irwin, will be available later this year. In this interview, Julie discusses the 'art' in PowerPoint; design, color and typography; inspiration, stock and digital photography and so much more...

Using Cartoons in PowerPoint
Using cartoons within PowerPoint slides can be an amazing route to add a light moment or highlight attention towards a strong point - either way, it is a great concept that is going places as Dan Rosandich discovered much to his delight. Read more...

Omnivox - The Paul Ludden Interview
Paul Ludden is the founder and sales director of Omnivox Systems, a company dedicated to the sales and marketing of specialist audio equipment utilising the FeONIC 'smart' material technology. From its base in the UK, Omnivox Systems is developing global distribution for its brand of desktop audio presentation products. In this interview, Paul discusses FeONIC technology, Omnivox products and support infrastructure and the importance of sound in a presentation. Read more...

PowerPoint rules university's self-paced training
How effective is PowerPoint for creating self-paced training rather than instructor-led presentations? To find out, Dr Simon James, a lecturer at the university's faculty of science, engineering and technology, and colleague Anna McEldowney encouraged 31 staff at eight schools to create 35 CD-based multimedia resources across 32 units. These were distributed to 1200 students. Read more at the Sydney Morning Herald site...
You can also read an article by Dr Simon James at Indezine...

Apreso adds pizazz to storytelling
The fine art of storytelling started with people scratching stick figures on cave walls. It has reached new levels with Microsoft Corp.'s PowerPoint software. A new PowerPoint add-on, Apreso, can take presentation slide shows to the next level. Read more with James Coates at the Chicago Tribune site (requires free registration)...

An Interview with Jim Burns
Jim Burns is the CEO of Avitage! Communication Systems, a Wellesley, MA based entity that creates the Avitage! product. Avitage! is a marketing and sales communication system. By combining message management with real-time sales coaching, and all forms of electronic communications delivery, Avitage! turns the daily tactical communications of sales and marketing professionals into coordinated parts of a strategic communication initiative. In this interview, Jim discusses how Avitage! evolves, ROI, PowerPoint and so much more...

An Avitage Tutorial
If you have 10 minutes, do take a look at Avitage in action through this tutorial. Avitage is an amazing cataloging, organizing and delivering system for PowerPoint that also does rich media. See the demo...

Group Audience Response Systems for PowerPoint
Satellite, a leading presentation company in the Middle East, based at Dubai Media City, has announced that it will offer Group Audience Response Systems (GARS) technology to education and training providers in the region. GARS utilises small individual wireless keypads, similar to those used by the audience in the television show 'Who wants to be a Millionaire?'. The questions themselves are created with software that directly adds into Microsoft PowerPoint, thus making the system very easy to use by anyone already familiar with creating PowerPoint slides. More info...

Microsoft Office in Hindi
Microsoft India has launched the Hindi version of its popular Office software which includes Microsoft Word, Excel, Frontpage, PowerPoint and Outlook. Learn more at the Rediff site...

Presenting a Narrated PowerPoint Show with Apreso
If you can't be there to present your PowerPoint slideshow, let Apreso help you provide "live" narration. Learn more with Tom Bunzel...

How to Gain Control of Your PowerPoint Culture
Do you control your PowerPoint culture, or does PowerPoint control you? For many organizations, what appears to be a situation under control is in fact a system that’s out of control. Cliff Atkinson explains more...

FlashPaper could outperform PDF
FlashPaper could have a promising future but that won't be realized until the product is unbundled from Contribute. That is not because Contribute is expensive ($100) but because I bet users would be reluctant to buy the whole product just for the FlashPaper component. Read more on the Computerworld site...

Craft Your Content With A KISS
For those of you who don’t know, KISS is an acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Simplicity gets right to the heart of communicating effectively. Learn more in this article by Glenna Shaw...

An Interview with Patrice-Anne Rutledge
Patrice-Anne Rutledge is the best-selling author of more than 20 non-fiction books, primarily on communications and web design. Patrice's most recent book is Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 (Que). In this interview, Patrice discusses PowerPoint versions, "death by PowerPoint", Producer 2003 and non-conventional PowerPoint. Read more...

An Interview with Steve Rindsberg
Steve's been associated with PowerPoint since the product originated - his site is a treasure trove of PowerPoint information in the form of the celebrated PowerPoint FAQ. In this interview Steve discusses PowerPoint, the MVP program, his celebrated FAQ and so much more...

The Online Rich Media Marketplace
Look into the world of presentations and you’ll find that there is a sort of evolution taking place. Not all presentations are shown in conference rooms or board meetings any more. In fact, you don’t have to be physically present in a single geographic location to view presentations. Read the full article...

MVP Blogs
Susan Bradley, a SBS (Small Business Server) MVP (Most Valuable Professional) hosts several MVP blogs on her site and also has an extensive list that links to other MVP blogs. Check it here..

A Broken PowerPoint Culture
Cliff Atkinson looks at transforming PowerPoint to make it a reflection of an organization's positive attributes. Read the article here...

F*ree PowerPoint Services Listing
Get a free listing within the PowerPoint Services section at Indezine.com - get listed now...

New Presentation Streaming Software
TSI Strategies introduced a new Windows-based application that converts PowerPoint presentations to WindowsMedia based streaming video. The software also adds voice narration to the slideshow without significantly increasing the file size. More info here...

Macromedia Updates Breeze
Macromedia updated its Breeze Live online meeting software, adding a host of productivity enhancements. More info at the StreamingMediaIQ site...

Ulead Announces DVD Workshop 2
Ulead announced a new version of their DVD Workshop product with several new features. More info on the Ulead site...

Slides From Hell
Nowadays, of course, this god-like power is easily available to all of us, thanks to PowerPoint and products like it. Sadly, though, this is rarely backed up by the sort of design aptitude and formal layout training that I’m sure the BBC Graphics department used to insist on for its staff. How to make truly horrendous PowerPoint Slides...

The New Grammar of PowerPoint
The bullet-point construction has become ubiquitous in recent years, thanks at least in part to the PowerPoint communication revolution. Ray Blake talks about preserving clarity in a bullet-point age...

An Interview with Tom Atkins
Tom heads Right Seat Software, creators of the amazing Vox Proxy add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint that brings talking Agent characters to PowerPoint. In this interview, Tom talks about Vox Proxy, Microsoft Agent, Microsoft and the current criticism of PowerPoint blaming it for everything from the space shuttle disaster to failed board meetings. Read here...

Hemera Image Express
Trust Hemera to come up with something amazing at a price point that's so affordable and tempting that everyone will want to join this bandwagon. We are discussing Hemera's new Image Express, an online subscription based service that allows you to download loads of images for a low price. Read the full review..

Book Extract: Visual Quickstart Guide: Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
The book takes an easy, visual approach to teaching PowerPoint, using pictures to guide you through the software and show you what to do. This extract contains the entire chapter that deals with printing in PowerPoint. Read here...

Turning Point
TurningPoint allows a professor to add questions into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. Students respond with wireless keypads or an electronic keypad on a laptop computer. The professor instantaneously has the responses and can use them for grades or to gauge the understanding of the group. Read more...

Managers Toolbox for PowerPoint
Project plans, product comparisons, scenario evaluations or process maps - managers need to communicate their decisions and plans, and many managers use Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to transport their message to stakeholders and decision-makers. The Managers Toolbox for Microsoft PowerPoint is an add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 and 2003 that helps managers to create typical management charts in seconds. More info...

The Dave Paradi Interview
Dave Paradi is known as The Office Technology Lifeguard because he rescues people from "Death by PowerPoint" and other electronic sins. His articles, special reports and books help you quickly and easily leverage the technology you already own to save time and make money. In this interview, Dave discusses the true cost of bad presentations and also discusses death by PowerPoint. He also talks about creativity blocks and the importance of outlining. Read here...

Perception Is Reality
Peter Coffee, Technology Editor at PC Magazine states: "I part company with Tufte when he blames this kind of sloppiness on PowerPoint itself. He compares it to a drug with 'frequent, serious side effects' of inducing stupidity, wasting time and degrading 'the quality and credibility of communication.' He's wrong. PowerPoint doesn't corrupt; it concentrates." Read the full article...

Of The Medium And The Message
Aparna Mahalingam discusses "How to make presentations is important. These cannot substitute for the content, though" Read more...