PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

First Look at Office 14 Next Week?

A number of online sites have started making noises about Office 14, the successor to Office 2007 on the Microsoft Windows platform. This news comes as Microsoft gears up to hold its PDC (Professional Developers Conference) next week at the Los Angeles Convention Center from October 27th to 30th, 2008.

ZDNet reports that “Office 14, as the product is code-named, will be discussed at next week’s event, with attendees likely to get a glimpse of some of its features, according to sources. Unlike Windows 7, however, attendees should not expect to leave Los Angeles with a copy of their own. Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has talked recently about the idea that the next version of Office will be able to run in various modes, including over the internet”.

PC Pro adds that “Microsoft, as with most of its major releases, has been tight-lipped about what to expect from the new Office, though back in February Bill Gates hinted that it would feature a greater online presence”.

SC Magazine puts the online focus clearly on cloud computing: “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer commented last week on a number of developments at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference at the end of this month, which has led to some euphoria”. They also add that “It’s all very well, allowing your copy of Microsoft Office 2010 to store your files in the Cloud, but what about the provisions of the Data Protection Act, which effectively prohibit the storage of employee and/or customer data on the other side of the world without the express consent of the people concerned?”

Watch this space for more news on Office 14. We’re waiting to see what they say about the new PowerPoint!

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: Microsoft Office, Office 2010

YawnBuster: The Indezine Review

A number of applications plug-in to PowerPoint and provide the ability to insert Flash based rich media objects on your slides. These objects could be interactions, training games, quizzes, and surveys. YawnBuster, the product being reviewed here, adds group activities such as audience polls, games, group exercises, and competitions—and embeds these group activities as part of your PowerPoint file.

YawnBuster includes ready-to-use Flash templates, and the group activities can be easily customized without any technical knowledge.

Read the Indezine review of YawnBuster.

Filed Under: Reviews
Tagged as: Add-in, PowerPoint, Review

PowerPoint 2007 to EXE

Among the most popular pages on Indezine are those that show you how you can create an EXE from a PowerPoint presentation without having to buy any extra software. However, we still had to update our tutorial for PowerPoint 2007, especially as PowerPoint 2003 users could no longer create an EXE successfully if they had PowerPoint 2007 installed as well.

PowerPoint 2007 includes the Package for CD feature, which we’ll use with a cool and undocumented Windows utility to create a standalone EXE file from PPT or PPTX presentations that can play on any system with Windows XP, Vista, or higher installed.

Explore our series on creating an EXE from a slide deck in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2007
Tagged as: PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint 2007, Prepare, Share, Tutorials

Freepath 2: The Lou Douros Interview

Lou Douros co-founded Freepath. His passion for story and compassion for digital storytellers fueled the desire to bridge the gap between content and audience. Lou contributed to the earliest Freepath user experience. Most recently, he co-designed a site where world class, multi-format, native content could move fluidly between communicators, Freepath’s social network MyFreepath. Lou sees the world as places made up of people described by their stories; increasingly made up of digital content. His 20+ years of remote video production experience informs his continuing quest to move and be moved by inspired ideas.

In this interview, Lou discusses the new Freepath 2.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Freepath, Interviews, Lou Douros, Playlists, PowerPoint

Motion Path Animations — Open and Close Motion Paths

Much of what you can do with motion path animations in PowerPoint relates to what you can do with the motion paths themselves. And the motion paths are essentially just ordinary paths (or lines) that have curves, points, etc. If you are familiar with drawing in PowerPoint, or if you use a graphic illustration program like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW, you know that paths can be either open or closed.

A circle is a good example of a closed path, whereas a curve is an open path. So, how is the concept of open and closed paths relevant to motion path animations in PowerPoint?

Explore open and closed paths for Motion Path animations in PowerPoint 2007, 2003, and 2002 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2002, PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint 2007
Tagged as: Animation, PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2002, PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint 2007