PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Ovation for PowerPoint

Presentations often fail to leave an impact on the audience not because of the content but because all presentations look so similar and predictable.

That’s where Ovation can make a difference. Instead of redoing the presentation all over again, you can use Ovation to enhance your existing presentations into great looking productions. This review will explore if Ovation lives up to that promise.

Read the full review.

Filed Under: Add-ins
Tagged as: Add-in, Ovation, PowerPoint

Advanced Graphics for PowerPoint

  Mike Wilson is a founder and VP of Business Development at Instant Effects, Inc. in Santa Barbara, CA. In this Indezine exclusive article, Mike explains how recent changes in technology and choices has made advanced graphic abilities available right inside PowerPoint.

Read the article here.

Filed Under: Guest Posts
Tagged as: Add-in, Animation, Mike Wilson, OfficeFX, PowerPoint, Templates

MathType: Conversation with Bob Mathews

  Bob Mathews is Director of Training for Design Science. MathType from DesignScience is probably the foremost equation program available today. It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Office programs including PowerPoint.

A former military pilot, Bob came to Design Science in 1999 after teaching high school mathematics for several years. He has been using Microsoft Office since version 2. Bob and his wife Sandie live near San Antonio in central Texas.

In this conversation, Bob discusses MathType and PowerPoint.

Geetesh: Bob, tell us more about Design Science and MathType.

Bob: This year is the company’s 20th year in operation. Next April, we will celebrate the release of our first product, MathType. Both Design Science and our product line have grown tremendously over the last 20 years. We now offer 6 products, 3 of which are provided at no charge to the consumer. All of our products are related to math, science, and engineering typesetting — whether the document’s final form is a printed page, a projected presentation, or a web page.

Geetesh: How is MathType placed in the world of PowerPoint?

Bob: When you install MathType, it detects PowerPoint on your system and installs an icon onto the PowerPoint toolbar. When you’re ready to insert a MathType expression on the slide, you click the icon. MathType opens in a separate window, and you create the expression in this window. There is a link from MathType to PowerPoint, so when you close the MathType window, the equation is inserted onto the slide. You can edit the equation by double-clicking it, which opens it in MathType.

Many, if not most, of our customers who use MathType in PowerPoint also use it in Word. Clearly, the size of the font you’d use in PowerPoint will be larger than what you’re using in Word, and the font face may be different as well. MathType gives you an easy way to save different preference files so you can switch easily from one font & style combination to another. You can also set the color of your equations to be exactly the same as the color you’re using for your PowerPoint text. If you want to focus attention on part of an equation, you can use a different color for that part of the equation.

Most of us have formulas, expressions, and other special symbols & constructs we use often. MathType gives you an easy way to customize the toolbar so these commonly used items are readily available. If you want to change the keyboard shortcuts, you can do that too.

We have a free 30-day evaluation of MathType available at our website. The evaluation version loses many of its features after 30 days, but is usable indefinitely in MathType Lite mode, giving you the ability to continue to use and edit presentations you’ve created during the evaluation period.

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, Bob Mathews, Design Science, Education, Equations, Interviews, PowerPoint

New Zero-Day PowerPoint Exploit Hits

A new zero-day exploit was disclosed over the weekend for an unpatched flaw in Microsoft’s PowerPoint software, which could allow for an attacker to take complete control of an affected system and run arbitrary code. Although details on the exploit are scant, it is known the malware that is distributing the exploit is a trojan horse.

Read more on the BetaNews site…

Meanwhile, you may want to know what a zero-day exploit for PowerPoint is?

A zero-day exploit for PowerPoint is a malicious code that takes advantage of a previously unknown vulnerability in the PowerPoint software. This means that the software developer, has no knowledge of the vulnerability, and therefore, no patch or fix exists to protect against it. As time goes by, such vulnerabilities are found and are fixed.

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: PowerPoint All Versions
Tagged as: Malware, PowerPoint

Rich Chart Builder

Probably the only thing more boring than text-filled slides is to endure a series of slides with figures in tables — something that looks like a screenshot of an Excel spreadsheet!

And since PowerPoint’s version of animated charts are so omnipresent, you might want to create your charts in another program and then bring them inside PowerPoint.

Rich Chart Builder, the product we are reviewing can help.

Read the review here.

You May Also Like: Rich Chart Live: Conversation with Manuel Fernandes

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