Software/Add-Ins

Download Office 2007 today (or pay)

In an interesting move, Microsoft will begin charging a $1.50 to download Beta 2 of Office 2007.

“We are thrilled with the incredible excitement around the upcoming 2007 Microsoft Office system as evident by more than 3 million people using the beta 2 since its release two months ago. Having exceeded our beta 2 participation goals by 500%, we have had to make the business decision to implement a cost recovery measure for future downloads of beta 2 beginning 2 August, 2006.” (source: The Register.com)

By |2016-11-17T14:08:40-08:00August 1st, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

New Ribbon UI Movie

Microsoft’s Jensen Harris recently posted this movie showing how the new Ribbon can be minimized and still used. While not a big fan when I first viewed the ribbon in the pre-beta, there has been A LOT of good work going on at Microsoft and my expectations are looking better! Check this 38 second movie here (or high-bandwidth version here).

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T14:08:12-08:00July 28th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins, Tutorial|

NXPowerlite 2.3 Released


The NXPowerLite guys over in the UK have been hard at work. There is a new update this excellent (and recommended) PowerPoint compression application. For me the install went smooth and in expirimenting with the new features I am even more impressed.
– Batch processing is great. Select 2,3,50 presentations and it will optimize them all in one step!
– The explanation for .jpg compression has been improved and it should eliminate a lot of questions.
– But the feature I like most is that you can keep the original file date/time.

Download the latest from the NXPowerlite website here (a full function trial is offered as well).

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T14:06:18-08:00July 16th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

Perspector 3 Update

This week Steve Hards from Perspector sent me an notice that they have released a minor update to its recently released version 3. The update installs on top of existing versions and in addition to fixing some minor bugs, has a huge upgrade to the image quality!

Perspector is a 3D add-in that allows you to convert any object or text on a slide to a true 3D element. It has a great library of 3D template objects which can be easily modified to match your slide.


Check out Perspector and download the update here.

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T13:50:04-08:00June 7th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

Xcelsius PowerPoint Ready Samples

PPT MVP, Glenna Shaw, has added some new Xcelsius samples and downloadable “templates” for all to use in their presentations. Even more fun, is that all of the samples are working on her site as web-page items. Play with them and download from here.

If you are unfamiliar with Xcelsius, have some good MS Excel skills, and want to really make charts and graphs POP in a presentation, this is an incredible application to use. Click here to visit the Xcelsius website.

Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T13:51:29-08:00June 1st, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

Perspector 3 adds 3D Shapes to PowerPoint


Yesterday I downloaded and installed the latest version of Perspector – version 3, which was released earlier this week. The update (from version 2) went smooth and in experimenting it is easy to see that it now has even even larger library of 3D elements and some really impressive charts. Check out all of the details at the Perspector website!

Glen Miller, has some great tutorials and samples using Perspector. Click here to see some real world samples of Perspector in use.

~ Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T13:53:02-08:00May 26th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

Making Movies SMALL and making them WORK

So the best way to assure (as much as possible) that linked movies play is to create them using a standard Windows Codec and use the most native Windows format (.wmv). The easiest way to accomplish this, reduce the file size and maintain quality is to have the PFCMedia add-in handle inserting and converting the movie.

One of the surprises is how well it optimizes the video files. Take a look at these before and after file sizes. The .mpeg1 files were supplied by client and the **PFC.wmv files created with PFCMedia, almost a 50% file size reduction and no noticeable quality loss during playback!

PFCMedia shrunk my movies by 50%!

Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:42:56-07:00April 14th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

NXPowerlite 2.2 Released

Today, NXPowerlite has released version 2.2 of their excellent PowerPoint presentation compression software. Some of the new offerings include:
– Speed and interface enhancements
– If attaching a presentation to an email message with Outlook it can be compressed without opening anything additional
– Now supported in 6 languages (Spanish and Japanese added)

Read all the info here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:32:57-07:00March 20th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

What the Font?

Matching a font from an image is just no fun. But it needs to be done for many projects and here is an online tool that might be of help.

Go to What the Font? and follow the online directions. I used SnagIt to quickly create a few .jpgs of written text in various fonts, which I uploaded to What the Font? and ran them through the system.

While many, such as the one above, did not come up with a match – many did. While not the perfect solution to a troublesome chore, it is worth a shot!

Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:31:36-07:00March 15th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

New Crystal Xcelsius Tutorial (by Glenna Shaw)

Glenn Shaw, a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP, has been up to her magic again. This time she has created a whimsical tutorial that explains and shows how Crystal Xcelius can be used to create truly dynamic charts/graphs for PowerPoint. Check out the “Visually Analyze Resource Impact” tutorial here.

Xcelius is a very powerful tool and can also be integrated into websites. For a really fun and whimsical example, check out Glenna’s Cinderella Project (as in Disney Princess).

Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:30:34-07:00March 11th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins, Tutorial|
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