PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Punch Up Your PowerPoint in Court

Microsoft Corp.’s PowerPoint presentation software can be an effective way to present information in the courtroom, but few lawyers use it to its full advantage. Here are some tips to add more punch to your next trial arguments.

Learn on Law.com with Donna Payne.

Filed Under: PowerPoint All Versions
Tagged as: Legal, PowerPoint

Interlink’s New Remote

Interlink Electronics announced the sucessor to its Navigator presentation remote control. The latest edition, known as the Champagne Edition, includes numerous new features including dedicated ‘Forward’ and ‘Previous’ slide buttons, an integrated laser pointer and an extended wireless operating range of over 50 feet. The Navigator works with Mac or Windows platforms to allow users to control their PowerPoint or Keynote presentation without the need for additional software. The Champagne Edition Navigator retails for $150 and is available now.

Read more on the MacNN site.

Filed Under: Hardware
Tagged as: Interlink Electronics, PowerPoint, Remotes

FlashSpring Pro

To buy a product that converts PowerPoint presentations to Flash SWFs is no longer an easy decision to make–what with twenty-plus offerings out there! And since each of these applications has something different (and seemingly better) than the other, this decision can be downright confusing. FlashSpring Pro is one such application. What does it do different, how does it perform, and what is my opinion?

Read on to learn more.

Filed Under: Add-ins
Tagged as: Add-in, iSpring, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Flash

ActiveSlide: Conversation with Tobias Windbrake

  pharus53 software solutions GmbH, a company based out of Hamburg, Germany creates ActiveSlide, a simple Flash authoring solution that uses the slide metaphor rather than the conventional stage metaphor that other Flash authoring systems use, thus making it a natural fit for PowerPoint users.

In this exclusive conversation, Tobias Windbrake of pharus53 discusses ActiveSlide including the different versions available, and how they integrate with PowerPoint.

Geetesh: Tell us more about ActiveSlide and its different editions.

Tobias: ActiveSlide is a program that easily creates interactive content. The software is not a PowerPoint add-in, but a powerful, stand-alone authoring tool. You can use it for your presentations as well as for e-learning courses and even websites.

The main advantage of this product is its ease of use. You can work with ActiveSlide as you would do with PowerPoint: You have slides (and a master slide) where you can place text, images, and shapes on. In the second step, you can visually assign interactivity patterns to your slide elements. If desired, this step is completely supported by helpful wizards. One basic interactivity pattern is that elements can be dragged. Advanced patterns allow you to use an element as a carrier (that can transport other elements), or to synchronize the movement of two elements. As interactivity patterns can be combined, there is an unlimited number of possibilities.

The product is available in two editions, Thunder and Professional. The Thunder Edition is the little brother of the Professional one. While Thunder is perfect for PowerPoint users, content developers for e-learning courses normally prefer the Professional Edition. The latter provides additional functionality, e.g. a full-featured scripting language and an export option for Java Applets.

Geetesh: How do you position ActiveSlide Thunder in the world of PowerPoint?

Tobias: Let’s put it in one sentence: With ActiveSlide you can touch your PowerPoint slides! The software allows you to easily create dynamic slides where you can drag and drop images, shapes, and even text objects. That may sound like a breathtaking effect. Well, that’s true! However, interactive slides can do much more for a presenter and his audience. I will give you a few examples:

• When presenting a complex chart you can use a virtual pointer to focus the relevant part of that chart. You can drag and drop this focus element step by step, to point at the subarea you are talking about. Doing so, your audience is able to follow you all the time.
• You want to have a surprising intro for your product launch? Draw a curtain to uncover the title of your new product.
• You have to present complex tables? No problem anymore! Use a yellow, semi-transparent rectangle to highlight the row you are currently talking about. This visual aid makes it easier for your audience to concentrate on the relevant numbers.
• When presenting the new layout of your client’s business cards, you can construct different options, instead of just showing them. Move the logo, name, title, and address block to any position desired. This will not only impress your client, it will involve him.

As you can see from the examples, there are many different possibilities where interactivity can have a great benefit, for you and your audience. So, how is it done technically? You can export your ActiveSlide project as a Flash movie. After that, add-ins like the Flash Toolbar (reviewed at Indezine) make it very easy to place ActiveSlide movies on any PowerPoint slide. In this context, please allow me to announce another product of the ActiveSlide family: Shortly we will offer ActiveSlide Thunder for PowerPoint, a special product that bundles ActiveSlide Thunder and the Flash Toolbar mentioned above.

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, PowerPoint Flash, Tobias Windbrake

Snagit: Conversation with Tony Dunckel

  Tony Dunckel is Product Manager for Snagit, the versatile screen capture program from Okemos based TechSmith Corporation that functions more like a Swiss-Army knife of graphic tasks. We interviewed Tony more than a year ago, and Snagit already looks like a different, newer product that adds more usability and feature improvements with each release.

In this conversation, Tony discusses new Snagit improvements and usage patterns.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Add-in, Interviews, Snagit, Techsmith, Tony Dunckel