PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Instant Effects Presenter v3.5: Conversation with Don Brittain

Don Brittain is the CEO and founder of Instant Effects, a California-based company that develops software to visually enhance presentations, communications, and collaboration.

In this conversation, Don discusses the new v3.5 release of Instant Effects Presenter.

Geetesh: What’s different in this release of Presenter v3.5, and what are “brandable” themes?

Don: The Presenter product line is known for producing very fluid presentations from content authored in PowerPoint. In addition to a large number of included professional looks, 3D artists have always been able to add fully-branded backgrounds, transitions, and logo treatments to Presenter by using our free theme authoring tools.

Presenter v3.5 takes this ability to create customized motion backgrounds and transitions to a whole new level. With the new “brandable” looks introduced with this release, 2D user-supplied images are seamlessly integrated with our brandable themes in such a way that everyone can produce custom-branded broadcast-quality results.

This feature raises the bar for visual branding by allowing people to easily produce customized results that are not possible with any other presentation package available today. And you should see the effect on potential clients and customers when they see their own logos and brands appearing in your presentation in TV-like fashion!

Moreover, with a single button press, the custom-branded looks can be captured, in still form, as PowerPoint backgrounds, so that branding remains consistent across live motion presentations, traditional PowerPoint presentations, audience handouts, and user-produced digital movies made with Presenter.

With Presenter v3.5, we’ve also enhanced the user interface for dual monitor shows, improved support for HD video, and enhanced playback performance for all ranges of hardware. Users can often pay for the Presenter software license with just the savings that come from reduced video equipment rental and setup charges at their first video-rich show!

Geetesh: How well does Presenter v3.5 work with PowerPoint 2007 files?

Don: We put a lot of work into Presenter v3.5 to provide tighter integration with PowerPoint 2007. Due to bugs and missing features in Microsoft’s programming interface for PowerPoint 2007, some features in the previous release of Presenter were only available to people running PowerPoint 2002 or PowerPoint 2003.

Presenter v3.5 uses alternative approaches to get around many of the limitations present in the PowerPoint 2007 programming support. In particular, support for bitmapped text has been dramatically improved. This feature is critical for presentations that contain text that reads right-to-left, and for improving text clarity on computers with minimal 3D graphics support (e.g., integrated Intel graphics).

As with earlier releases of PowerPoint, we now support the use of external sound files and event triggering in PowerPoint 2007. And all-new features and benefits of v3.5 also work well with PowerPoint 2007.

Geetesh: Do you provide any samples that can be downloaded and viewed?

Don: Yes. We encourage people to try our software with no need to buy anything. The free version runs with a “watermark” on the images that is removed if you purchase a license. There is no time limit to the trial, so you can test out various features of Presenter as your schedule permits.

We also have videos throughout our website that show our software in action, and, of course, we would be very happy to discuss how Presenter can help you improve your presentation effectiveness. Feel free to contact us via the links or numbers on the contact page of our website.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Add-in, Interviews, OfficeFX, PowerPoint

Apply Preset Effects to Shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows

PowerPoint 2007 offers six effect types that you can apply to most slide objects including shapes. However, there may be times when you don’t want to go through the trouble of experimenting with these six effects to see if a particular shadow effect style works well with another bevel effect. If that sounds familiar, you will love the Presets option that combines effects that generally work well with each other.

Apply preset effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2007
Tagged as: Effects, PowerPoint 2007, Shapes, Tutorials

Apply Shadow Effects to Shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows

In a previous tutorial, we showed you how to apply the preset effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows. In this tutorial, we’ll show how you can apply Shadow Effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

Learn how you can apply Shadow Effects to shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2007
Tagged as: Effects, PowerPoint 2007, Shapes, Tutorials

Applying Effects for Shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows

PowerPoint 2007 shape effects can be applied to selected shapes on a slide. There are six shape effects available in PowerPoint 2007: shadow, reflection, glow, soft edges, bevel, and 3-D rotation. In addition, you also have presets. We’ll explain each of these effect options in individually detailed pages. In this tutorial, we’ll explain basics of applying effects.

Explore effects that can be applied to shapes in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2007
Tagged as: Effects, PowerPoint 2007, Shapes, Tutorials

CS Odessa Announces ConceptDraw Office Update

We reviewed ConceptDraw Office in November 2008, and already the folks at CS Odessa have released a free update for all registered users of ConceptDraw Office. For those of you who are not aware of ConceptDraw Office, it is a three-program suite comprising:

ConceptDraw PRO

A diagramming and vector drawing software program.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP

A brainstorming tool that utilizes mind mapping techniques to help organize ideas and tasks.

ConceptDraw PROJECT

A professional project management software application.

Tanya Kozovaya sent me this list of improvements:

• ConceptDraw MINDMAP adds a new Full Screen mode, making it easier to present mind maps during meetings, and still maintain full editing capability. Now there is more space to show ideas, while navigation and product features are still available through keyboard shortcuts. In ConceptDraw MINDMAP, hyperlinks can now be added by dragging and dropping a file on a topic, this makes it easier than ever before to manage all project-related documentation and sources.
• The new updated version of ConceptDraw PROJECT contains additional visual reports to help project managers follow and control everyday activities and project progress. Project and task status can rapidly be presented in a visual, easy to understand manner, improving information flow within a project team.
• New libraries in ConceptDraw PRO for the Transport industry, and professional themes that have been added to build professional-looking business graphics and presentations.

You can learn more about these updates on the CS Odessa site.

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: ConceptDraw, Graphics, Microsoft Office