PowerPoint and Presenting Blog: January 2005

One of the most important things notebooks do is to connect to a projector that beams PowerPoint presentations to an audience. Fujitsu's LifeBook P7010D is light and has a great battery life. Is it a match made in heaven for PowerPoint users? Read what Matthew Fordahl has to say on the Miami Herald site (free subscription required)...

"We've all endured them - PowerPoint presentations that drone on forever. I call this "Death by PowerPoint". At the end of this release, learn more about how to get your free PowerPoint First Aid Kit via email."
"Again, presentations should always start with "Why this is important to you (the audience)".
"I can't emphasize enough that if you want to succeed as a leader, you must master the art of group presentation. If you just aren't comfortable with it, there is only one way to cure your discomfort; do as many presentations as possible! Comfort and an air of controlled self-confidence will only come from experience. The more you avoid developing your presentation skills, the heavier this anchor will become on your career."
Read more by Rob Waite at the eMediaWire site....

Valentine 01 and 02 are the names of free PowerPoint templates from Indezine.

Macromedia announced that the U.S. Army’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team (BCT) utilizes Macromedia Breeze Live to power real-time battlefield collaboration. Using the intuitive Breeze interface, the 172nd Stryker BCT delivers mission-critical information such as enhanced satellite images and greater situational awareness throughout the brigade. More at the Macromedia Press Room...

"This more competitive software from Apple might finally get Microsoft to overhaul PowerPoint, and might also get Microsoft and the developers of other Windows-based productivity packages to rethink their software design. And that could lead to more innovation than we've seen in office suites for a long, long time." Michael J. Miller discusses more on the PC Magazine site...

Producer is a nifty tool that’s worth experimenting with by anyone who has to do PowerPoint presentations on a regular basis. In essence, Producer allows you to capture audio and video while you do a PowerPoint presentation, allowing you to replay the session at a later date. More info at the Windows IT Pro site...

"Have you ever dreaded the day of the inevitable science fair and the cumbersome boards?" begins a description of the session, which promises to demonstrate how PowerPoint can come to the rescue....... "We're obviously in a time of change," said Gerry Wheeler, the association's executive director. "Things like PowerPoint can support the teacher and student in a 21st-century kind of way." More on The New York Times site...(requires free registration)

Sony Media Software announced the launch of Sound Forge 8 Professional, the latest version of its award-winning professional digital audio editing product. New features include the addition of CD Architect 5.2 software for professional CD mastering, with direct track export functionality from Sound Forge software for fast and efficient Red Book audio CD creation. More info on the Sony Media site...
PowerPoint designers often use Sound Forge to edit presentation background scores and narration. Here's a sound fade tutorial using Sound Forge...

It's been a while since Apple released Keynote 2 and the reviews are pouring in. I've used Keynote 1 and although I loved the look and interface, the product itself was seriously underpowered. Steve Jobs might have used it for his presentations but that's hardly surprising - if he started using PowerPoint, who would use Keynote? Meanwhile, PowerPoint:mac 2004 was probably the best PowerPoint release ever across versions and Microsoft is already working on the next PowerPoint version on both the Mac and Windows. One very crucial advantage that Microsoft has over Apple in the presentation arena is its presence on both platforms. If Apple is serious about Keynote, it has to become a cross-platform product like QuickTime and FileMaker.

Meanwhile, the reviews make interesting comparisons.

Mike Wendland thinks Keynote is not as "full-featured as one would like". Read more on the Detroit Free Press site...

Mike's review sparked off an intense debate on the Mac Observer site. The editor, Bryan Chaffin says: "Though the iWork suite is a fraction of the price of just Word, for instance, many consumers and professionals alike will be making the comparison, whether or not either of Apple's offerings are intended to replace Word or PowerPoint." Read more here...

Dan Pourhadi sings a different tune: "Now that I’ve had a taste of Keynote 2, I realize that this new version of Keynote is much more a PowerPoint Killer than Pages is a Word Killer. In fact, I don’t see much of a need to use PowerPoint at all anymore." Read more on the macteens site...

The coming months are definitely going to be even more interesting. If nothing else, the emergence of Keynote has certainly woken up Microsoft like nothing else. Microsoft typically has focused more on Word and Excel than PowerPoint - will this change?

Quick - you selected the AutoShape and want to add or edit a gradient - how many clicks away are you from the Gradient dialog box?

Did you answer 3, 2 or 1?

3 Clicks

You select the AutoShape and choose Format | AutoShape. Or you might right-click the AutoShape and choose Format AutoShape... Then click the downward pointing arrow next to Color and choose Fill Effects in the resultant dropdown box. This gets you to the Gradient tab of the Fill Effects dialog box.

2 Clicks

You double-click the AutoShape to get to the Format AutoShape dialog box. Then click the downward pointing arrow next to Color and choose Fill Effects in the resultant dropdown box. This gets you to the Gradient tab of the Fill Effects dialog box.

1 Click

You select the AutoShape and click on the downward pointing arrow next to the Fill icon on the Drawing toolbar (the icon that looks like a paint can). In the resultant flyout menu, choose Fill Effects - this gets you straight to the Gradient tab of the Fill Effects dialog box.

A technology marketing tool that appears to be gaining popularity in the life insurance sector may soon be available to property-casualty agents sometime this year. Brainshark Inc., of Waltham, Mass., is a Web-based market and education presentation tool that is being used by life insurance carriers to send marketing materials to life brokers over the Internet in the form of presentations that supply PowerPoint slides paired with audio material. More on the National Underwriter site...

Take-off announced DataPoint version 1.0.723 that includes new sample and tutorial presentations. DataPoint links PowerPoint presentation to Excel worksheets, text files and databases for online data. Learn more at the Take-off site...

If you've always wanted to create a photo org chart, look no further. In this tutorial, you can learn how to create a photo org chart in SmartDraw and then insert it inside PowerPoint. The tutorial is accompanied by lesson files and a finished slide that you can download. Start creating your photo org chart now...

Two years after its first launch, Apple released the second version of Keynote as part of its iWork office suite that also includes Pages, a word processor. Until now, Keynote has made no dent into PowerPoint's hold of the Mac presentation market. In fact, Microsoft's last release of PowerPoint for the Mac platform was probably amongst its most capable releases. Will Keynote be different this time? Find out what's new at the Apple site...

TechSmith announced SnagIt 7.2, a new upgrade that offers enhanced desktop integration and an all-new task pane giving easy access to editing options. In addition to capturing image files from web sites, you can now capture audio files, video files, documents, spreadsheets, and more. Find more information and download a free demo at the TechSmith site...

Such a program would be an interesting move for Apple, which has for years kept its office software ambitions limited, counting instead on Microsoft to produce a Mac version of Microsoft Office. Having a version of Microsoft Office for the Mac has been a key selling point for Apple as it tries to convince people who use Windows-based machines at work to have a Mac at home. In fact, Apple's Web site lists the Mac version of Office as reason No. 8 of 10 to switch to a Mac. More on CNET News.com...

Betsy Weber, Technical Evangelist from TechSmith shares her secrets of creating perfect DVDs from PowerPoint presentations in this Indezine exclusive.
Learn how you can create DVDs from PowerPoint presentations...

In this excerpt from It's Show Time!, John Mackenzie takes an unconventional look at sales meetings with 15 black-belt meeting master moves. Learn how to use these moves to advance your career...