I like the Brainshark application. And I like the presentation philosophy of Andy Zimmerman, Brainshark’s VP of Product Marketing. On the last day of 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek’s tip was by Mr. Zimmerman and I could not say the opening line any better:
“[Everyone] knows how to use PowerPoint software. Using it well can be a different story.”
Read the full story, which is brief and has good presentation recomendations, here.
– Troy @ TLC
In PPT 2010 when you click the upper left button the Backstage opens.
On a recent call with the Microsoft PowerPoint team I heard this quick definition of the backstage area that is great:
“Backstage has things you do to a document” (such as save, print, convert, etc.).
– Troy @ TLC
One of the Technical Directors I work with sent me a link to this great deal over the weekend (thanks Paul!). The company, Footage Firm (as in film footage), is doing a special promo and basically giving away a selection of their DVDs (approx. $9 each in shipping vs. regular price of $139 each).
With PPT 2010 supporting video and audio as embedded and ability to add content on top of them, this is a great opportunity to expand your video library with professional footage. Only 500 copies of each DVD is available on the promo (now 499 as I purchased a full set). Here is the webpage with details.
– Troy @ TLC
Presentation messaging expert Joey Asher has a new book out “15 Mintues Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations“.
From the book he offers a FREE 38 page eBook titled “How to Create a Seven Minute Rifle Shot Presentation”. In the first 2 pages it will either have you applauding or revolting at the idea (I applauded). I, of course, like the way Mr. Asher always carries the concept of a quality, visually appealing presentation as an underlying priority.
Go to the PDF here.
– Troy @ TLC
Indezine.com has an interview with fellow PowerPoint MVP Glenna Shaw that talks about using the new PPT 2010 Dynamic Content transitions to solve an animation request – And I am mentioned in the article for offering suggestions on how to use the new transitions.
See the interview write up here.
– Troy @ TLC
On a recent show I was asked to develop the speaker IMAG slides with a curved design to match the set design (IMAG = Image MAGnification, and for this event it was live video of the speaker). The solution was to work with the video switch department and setup a green screen video area. Here is my slide:
We went with the standard green screen green. The key was to assure no slide had any solid green on the left half of the slides. During the show, the video switch would bring in the camera shot (rectangular) and it would fill the curved green area to create a custom speaker IMAG window.
– Troy @ TLC
Beginning tomorrow, and ongoing weekly for the next 8 weeks, Ellen Finkelstein has coordinated 8 top presentation speakers to each keynote a free webinar.
The “Outstanding Presentations Workshops” should be great and I have already registered. Get all the details here.
– Troy @ TLC
The Free PowerPoint Files website is a collection of PowerPoint templates. It looks to be a companion site to the “PowerPoint Styles” website I reviewed back in June offering the same template designs. Free PowerPoint Files offers several hundred PowerPoint templates that are image based with stock images for the background and text placeholders formatted to coordinate with the background image.
The templates are all the legacy .ppt format. But they are free. What you download is a nice background image, but not a very functional template. The images used for the template backgrounds are very modern and work well for templates. When I opened the template I downloaded it looked good from the thumbnail view with multiple layouts and PowerPoint placeholders positioned well on the background image.
But the Title slide (viewed in edit view, not master slide view) showed a single text box vs. separate text boxes for the title and subtitle text, which have different formatting. And the background was a placed .jpg (eg. not from a preset master slide).
The Master Slides revealed no formatting, just a placed .jpg for the background. No text placeholders, named master, title slide master, etc.
If you are familiar with the basics of setting up templates with default placeholders, color scheme and transitions the PowerPoint Styles templates offer nice backgrounds to start with.
– Troy @ TLC
Following the previous post, this is another confusing issue I am hearing a lot. Here is the scenario:
– Super cool new 64-bit operating system computer
– Install the latest and greatest MS Office 64-bit
– Attempt to install favorite PowerPoint add-ins and nothing works….
Add-ins need to be written/coded to work specifically with the 64-bit version of PowerPoint. At this moment there are very few add-ins that have 64-bit versions. So, if you are running the 64-bit version of PowerPoint, do not plan on using any add-ins.
This of course will change over time as the add-in developers have opportunity to create 64-bit versions of the existing 32-bit versions (and I am waiting just like you for this to happen!).
– Troy @ TLC
This question, or rather confusion, seems to be coming up quite a bit and I thought it would be good to clarify things.
1. Your computer operating system (Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7) can be either 32-bit or 64-bit. To be 64-bit the computer hardware/motherboard must support 64-bit processing. BUT you can have a 64-bit capable computer running a 32-bit operating system (OS).
2. Office 2010 is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. To install the 64-bit Office 2010, the computer must have a 64-bit operating system. AND the 32-bit Office 2010 can be installed on a 64-bit operating system.
– Office 2000, XP and 2007 are only available in 32-bit versions.
Basically, Office and the operating system are separate entities. Just because it is a 64-bit computer, does not mean it must use a 64-bit version of PowerPoint.
– Troy @ TLC