PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

PowerPoint Heaven eConvention 2008: Conversation with Shawn Toh

Shawn Toh is based out of Singapore and loves to do advanced animation tricks using PowerPoint. He is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP(Most Valuable Professional) and runs the PPT Heaven site.

In this discussion, Shawn discusses the PowerPoint Heaven eConvention 2008.

Geetesh: Tell us more about how you evolved PPTH eCon, and what it is?

Shawn: PowerPoint Heaven eConvention 2008 is an annual online convention, which will be held this year on 27 September, a month after the PowerPoint Heaven anniversary date.

The eConvention starts off with the voting of the eCon Awards 2008: Animation/Artwork/Game/Broadcast of the Year, which involves works submitted on the PowerPoint Heaven site in the year 2008. The voting process is a pre-eCon event starting from September 1st to 26th. Winners will then be reflected on 27 September, along with Contributor of the Year, who will be interviewed with a list of questions given by the board members.

Any new PowerPoint works, demos, or trailers can also be submitted during the eCon period by anyone. Also, expect to see screenshots, demo, and trailer of an upcoming RPG game in PowerPoint and sophisticated 3D animations by Han Byul Jang (Zzangdol).

The eConvention was inspired by several of our existing board members, who suggested we have an event where all members on the PPTH board can participate.

Geetesh: What is the motivation and objective of PPTH eCon, and who can participate?

Shawn: PowerPoint Heaven eConvention 2008 is a day where PowerPointers get together to discuss, review, and submit their latest PowerPoint works on PowerPoint Heaven. The purpose of this eConvention is to recognize our contributors for their hard work and efforts for the year and enable them to get together to discuss and keep each other updated on what they have been doing.

For the viewers, this is also a day where you can get to see a wide variety of PowerPoint works created by the contributors.

Throughout the eConvention, participation and involvement from the Guests and PPTH board members are welcomed, where the discussion board will be the communication channel for discussions, feedback, suggestions, submissions, and more.

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: Animation, Contest, Design, Interviews, PowerPoint, Shawn Toh

Enable Presentation Download on SlideBoom

You already learned how you can upload your presentations to SlideBoom—but do you know that, unless you enable the option, all downloads of the original PowerPoint presentation (PPT or PPTX) are disabled when you share the URL of your online presentation. Most of the time, you might be happy with this default behavior, but it is good to know that this can be changed on a presentation-to-presentation basis.

This and other similar options can be found within the Privacy options values within the Uploading your presentation screen within the SlideBoom site. If these options are only visible as a thin strip, as shown in Figure 1, below, click the downward-pointing chevron to see all the options, as shown in Figure 2, below.

Figure 1: The Privacy options strip shows you options

Figure 2: Click the chevron, and you can edit the privacy options

Thereafter, click the Submit button, and you are done.

Filed Under: Companion Programs
Tagged as: Companion Programs, Online Presentations, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Flash, SlideBoom

DesignScience Releases MathType 6 for Macintosh

DesignScience announced that the new MathType version 6 for the Macintosh is now shipping. This is a major upgrade that adds support for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and Intel Macs, and Microsoft Office 2008. New features include TeX/LaTeX input, the ability to copy equations to and from Wikipedia, and more. MathType is the full-featured, professional version of the Equation Editor in Microsoft Office and many other products, and is used by math and science educators, engineers, research scientists, students, and publishing professionals to include mathematical notation in printed documents, presentations, and web pages.

Read the full press release on the DesignScience site.

Filed Under: Companion Programs
Tagged as: Companion Programs, Mac, MathType, Office for Mac

slide:ology: The Nancy Duarte Interview

   Nancy Duarte has been a Principal of Duarte Design since 1990. Her firm is in the heart of Silicon Valley, and the client list is loaded with Fortune 500 companies. Her passion for business communications that are clear, meaningful, and attractive has opened doors for her in a business world full of cluttered and complex visual communications. Nancy’s much awaited book slide:ology was released this month. Nancy discusses herself and the importance of stories in slides. And then talks about a scraped book cover!

In this interview, Nancy discusses how the book evolved, how she decided what makes it to the book, and more.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Books, Design, Duarte Design, Interviews, Nancy Duarte, PowerPoint, Slideology

Edit Word and PowerPoint files on the BlackBerry

Most BlackBerry users rant about the fact that it’s not possible to edit Microsoft Office files on the BlackBerry out of the box, and of course, that’s because you can’t even view them most of the time! However, that could change soon as RIM’s new beta version of the BlackBerry handheld operating system (OS) v4.5 looms on the horizon. Now, they include the Standard Edition of Documents to Go.

Documents to Go is a viewer for Microsoft Office applications on the BlackBerry and other smartphone platforms, but the Standard edition only lets you view and edit the files, not create them. To create new files, you need the Premium version. But this is one limitation that’s easily rectified using the process outlined by Al Sacco on his CIO Blog site.

And there’s also a link to the CrackBerry site, where you can learn how to upgrade to a new RIM BlackBerry operating system (OS).

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: BlackBerry, Microsoft Office, PowerPoint