PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

KsanLab: Conversation with Stanislav Kravets

  Stas Kravets is COO of worldwide markets at KsanLab, a multimedia design company. Stas has worked in IT since 1997, acting as a product engineer, project manager, and marketer. He has an MA in Applied Mathematics and writes for online marketing media and for KsanLab’s E-xperiential blog.

Geetesh: Tell us more about yourself and your work.

Stas: I am COO of worldwide markets at KsanLab and responsible for defining and implementation of worldwide marketing and sales strategy of KsanLab’s products and services. KsanLab is an international interactive agency with a specialization in multimedia tools for marketing, PR, IR, and HR communication. At the moment we work on US, German, and Russian markets and have many world-famous clients. As a COO, I participate in planning, business development, negotiations with clients and partners, and project management.

Geetesh: How do you decide if PowerPoint is not suitable for a particular job – and then, which program do you normally use?

Stas: Well, the first time I understood that I need something different was on my previous job when we needed an introduction movie and a document shell for a corporate CD business card. The introduction had to be a movie — not a video, but rather cartoon with music, animation, and finally with an update-able guide of PowerPoint presentations written on the disc. PowerPoint’s animation capabilities are well geared for slide presentations with schemes and diagrams, but not for movies or cartoons, so we made a request for a Flash reel with support of an external XML file that contained links and descriptions of files stored on the CD.

KsanLab started as a small web design studio and later, reacting to market demands switched from static design to interactive multimedia products. Macromedia Flash is a de facto standard for multimedia information tools — it possesses all necessary capabilities for rich graphic design, animation, integration of various kinds of info (video, sound), and interactivity. Now it is used all around the world for the development of product demos, internet games, banners, training, and so on. I want to highlight that it is not comparable with PowerPoint — it is always a question of selecting the right tool for your task. In some cases, Flash is a pure excess that will eat the time and money and in some cases, a PowerPoint presentation will be just boring and give you a back eye.

My article for MarketingProfs contains several criteria when you should switch to Flash (or other technology such as Apple QuickTime, Java, etc) from PowerPoint. I’ve chosen them based on our expertise from the projects we’ve done for our clients in the past. Those projects are mature ones — so we were able to analyze their impact and potential. In short, the cases when you need to consider multimedia are:

1. When you need to impress. Flash gives you a great deal of opportunity to make your message look great and different from others.
2. When you need to catch and keep the attention of your audience. Sometimes information is too complicated, or the audience is too passive to read and understand every single word. With multimedia you can show this information using images and animations — of course, this becomes much more comprehensible and interesting to see.
3. Sometimes you have a lot to say. 80 slides — are you sure that everyone will get all of them? Instead, you can have something absolutely different, the series of dynamic reels with professional voice over. Note, that such presentations can be used even without your personal attendance.
4. Multimedia presentations can put together pieces of information of different nature — video, audio, music, 3D, interactivity, and animation, without loss of control of them.
5. Very important topic is that with multimedia you can transfer not only information, but you can also transfer emotions. Multimedia product is capable to express your feelings, express the spirit of your company or product. This feature is used by virtual tours — the best way to present the beauty of resort or atmosphere of restaurant.
6. When you need interactivity. Think about quizzes, trainings and games (educational or advertising).

In all cases, a multimedia product delivers on several goals simultaneously. For example, a virtual tour not only conveys lots of information but also creates a great impression and attracts the attention of customers.

You May Also Like: When PowerPoint Is Not Enough

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: Case Studies, Interviews, PowerPoint, Stanislav Kravets

Microsoft Confirms Office 2008 for Mac

Microsoft will update its Office productivity suite for Apple users later this year with a new version that for the first time takes advantage of the Intel processors in new Macs. The update, Microsoft’s first in three years to the Macintosh version of Office, will help speed graphics processing in PowerPoint and other apps.

Read more on the InformationWeek site.

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

Microsoft Schedules Eight Bug Fixes Next Week

According to eEye Digital Security’s Zero-Day Tracker, three bugs in Microsoft Word and one in PowerPoint remain unpatched, while two more in Windows and another in Internet Explorer need fixing…. The updates will be available for manual download from the Microsoft Web site Tuesday at about 10 a.m. PDT. As usual, automatic updates to users’ computers will begin shortly after that.

More on the InformationWeek site.

Filed Under: PowerPoint All Versions
Tagged as: Malware, Microsoft Office, PowerPoint

When PowerPoint Is Not Enough

  Microsoft’s PowerPoint long ago became one of the most popular tools for business presentations. That’s likely because of its efficiency and simplicity (I have never read a manual nor used the help key): It helps you to easily present the theses of your presentation, demonstrate the dynamics of processes, and even provide training.

But I want to talk about cases when PowerPoint’s resources are not enough to deliver on the goals of communication.

Stanislav Kravets explains more on MarketingProfs.

You May Also Like: KsanLab: Conversation with Stanislav (Stas) Kravets

Filed Under: Case Studies
Tagged as: Case Studies, PowerPoint, Stanislav Kravets

Convert VideoCD DAT Movies To MPEG

The easiest way to convert the DAT movie files within a VideoCD disc to a common movie file format like MPEG is to use a free application called VCDGear.

Read the tutorial here.

Filed Under: Audio and Video
Tagged as: Movies, Multimedia, PowerPoint, Video