PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Ric’s Podcast: Why You, Too, Should Kiss Your Frog!

Ric Bretschneider has released the newest episode of his podcast, which is now live on the Presentations Roundtable site.

In this podcast, Ric interviews Echo Swinford and Geetesh Bajaj about their new book, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit. The discussion is essentially an enthusiastic and candid conversation on the state of makeovers today—and how this book evolved.

The authors also explain more about the content of the book, and how readers can benefit from the makeover samples.

Make sure you put up a comment on the podcast page!

Filed Under: Books
Tagged as: Books, Echo Swinford, Geetesh, PowerPoint 2007, Ric Bretschneider

What Office:mac 2008 Reviewers are Saying

Over the last few days, there have been tons of reviews on Microsoft’s new Office 2008 for the Mac. In this post, we’ll look at two of these reviews, and link to them as well.

Glenn Fleishman has put up a strong verdict for Office:mac on the Seattle Times site. He finds that “Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X is prettier than its predecessors. Fortunately, the upgrade is more than skin deep…..Two of the biggest interface changes you’ll find across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are a toolbar that is now part of a document rather than a separate floating item, and a host of separate features (and some new ones) that have been stuffed into a floating palette. These additions may seem minor, but better access can save serious users many minutes. I use both features perhaps thousands of times a day.”

Read more on the Seattle Times site.

Elsa Wenzel of CNET Reviews compares Office 2008 for Mac with Office 2007 for Windows when she says: “Unlike Microsoft Office 2007, the interface changes don’t look radically foreign next to the 2004 edition. That’s good news for anyone who doesn’t want to relearn the locations of common functions. The 2007 applications for Windows arrange functions within tabs, while the 2008 Mac software largely clusters functions within the same drop-down menus including File, Edit, and View. By and large, most of the changes focus on attempting to help users craft more attractive documents. For instance, Office for Mac features the same templates and Smart Art graphics as the Windows counterparts. These are premade templates with 3D and translucent designs.

Read more on the CNET site.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2008
Tagged as: Office for Mac, PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2008

Quick PowerPoint Tricks

This Quick PowerPoint Tricks webcast was done last month as part of Microsoft India’s initiatives—it’s an hour long, and is available for download.

Register online, and download the webcast.

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: Microsoft Office, PowerPoint, Tutorials, Webinar

Mac Office File Converters Delayed at Expense of Mac Office Update

Mac users will have to wait four more months to work with documents produced by Office 2007 on Windows and Office 2008 on the Mac. The delay-plagued Open XML converters were slated to show up six to eight weeks after the debut of Office 2008, a schedule that would have put their release by the end of February at the earliest and mid-March at the latest. As recently as last month, Microsoft had confirmed that the converters were on track. Today, however, Microsoft said it would not appear for months.

Read more on the Computerworld site.

Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit on Thursday said the first update for Office 2008 should be available in mid-March. However, getting the update out will push back the release of the final Open XML File Format Converter Update to Office 2004 for Mac. “The final converter was previously scheduled for delivery 6-8 weeks after U.S. availability of Office 2008; instead, the final converter will be available to customers by late June 2008,” the company wrote on its Mac Mojo Web site.

Read more on the MacWorld site.

Geoff Price, product unit manager for Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit, posted information about an upcoming update for Office 2008 for Mac on the Mac Mojo blog. The good news is that the developers are working feverishly on the new update, which reportedly “contains fixes for high-priority issues we’ve identified.” What the high-priority issues are no one will say, but a spokesperson assured us that the team “will provide further details prior to the release,” scheduled for March 11.

Read more on the Ars Technica site.

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: Microsoft Office, Office for Mac, PowerPoint, PowerPoint 2008

Open XML Standards: An Update

A standards committee will next week begin the next stage of the process that could see Microsoft’s new Open XML formats formally adopted as a global standard – or not. A vote by standards bodies from 87 countries last September went against the immediate adoption of Open XML as an ISO standard. This gave an immediate boost to the Open Document Format (ODF), which is already an ISO standard, but it did not rule out the Microsoft formats.

Read more on Personal Computer World.

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday responded to continued regulatory scrutiny by reiterating promises to make information about its products more easily available to software programmers, while vowing not to sue those who use such information for noncommercial purposes. The move underscores an ongoing shift for the tech behemoth, as it has sought recently to present its technology as increasingly open to outside developers and compatible with competing products. It also comes only days before delegates from an international standards body are scheduled to convene in Geneva to discuss Microsoft’s Open XML file format, which has been derided by critics as insufficiently accessible.

Read more on MarketWatch.

Filed Under: Microsoft Office
Tagged as: Microsoft Office, ODF, OpenXML