Links
Categories
Archives
Search
Features
Presentation Facts is an on-going series of posts exploring what is known for sure about presentations and presentation visuals. The series is moderated by Robert Befus.
Recent Posts
Meta
If you’ve never come across this before you should add it to your favorites or bookmarks. Steve Rindsburg of RDP Slides and the PowerPoint MVP folks have loaded the answers and solutions to almost everything PowerPoint related. Many of the responses in the PowerPoint Discussion Group refer to this site: www.pptfaq.com
RDP Slides is also the home of the very useful PPTools – PowerTools for PowerPoint
…………..TD
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 3:18 PM .
Comments Off
A week or so ago I did a webcast for Microsoft on the newer features in Office 2007 and Vista that are of interest to business owners — the link to it is:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=927550
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 8:30 PM .
Comments Off
From ZDNet:
Excerpt:
Microsoft officials confirmed first thing on November 6 that Office 2007 has gone gold. (The Softies aren’t saying exactly when the product was released to manufacturing, but word is it happened on November 3.)
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 5:15 PM .
Comments Off
For those who have admired Xcelsius but have been afraid to learn it or unwilling to buy it, now you can download the new FREE light version that comes with lots of tutorials.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 2:16 PM .
For those interested in presentation best practices the issue always arises what is the most effective way to avoid stale bullets and sameness in slides. Inevitably the issue of creativity and resourcefulness leads to the concept of metaphors and analogies – using images or diagrams. The problem for non-artists or designers like me is where to get the nuts and bolts building blocks of these types of tools.
Recently a colleague, Gene Zelazny, the author of Say It With Charts! put me together with an entrepreneur who has launched an interesting site in this space. PowerFrameworks is an online gallery of conceptual metaphors in the form of PowerPoint shapes, professionally designed and ready to download into your presentation. The site also features concrete examples of how the metaphors can be implemented, and even a best practices section mirroring many of Zelazny’s own principles.
Kathy Villela, the site’s founder, actually worked at the consulting firm where Zelazny has worked for decades before beginning this site. Her concept, and what I like about the site, is that it is more than a gallery of shapes or clip art; it is also well constructed and searchable and mentally stimulating.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 2:49 PM .
Serious Magic, creators of Ovation, the popular PowerPoint enhancement software, has been acquired by Adobe. Adobe seems to be primarily interested in their video-related products. In the press release, Ovation isn’t even mentioned until the boilerplate verbiage at the end. They also say they will continue to sell the Serious Magic product line. However, as we’ve all seen in the past with acquisitions of this sort, there’s a big difference between selling and supporting/developing.
Posted by Lee Potts at 8:11 AM .
Comments Off
My new business book about PowerPoint is now available to read online. “Solving the PowerPoint Predicament: Using Digital Media for Effective Communication” is not a book specifically about PowerPoint, but the use of the program with third party tools to convey a message for business, academia or religious content. You can also buy the book on Amazon.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 1:00 PM .
Comments Off
See more info here:
Congrats to Ernie Bailey, CTS, for getting Arkansas to be the first state to recognize AV Week.
California and others to follow.
Arkansas recognizes AV Week Oct. 22-28, 2006
…………….TD
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 9:58 PM .
Comments Off
I’ve been using my Boom Bag for almost a year now with no problems. It’s a 21″ short trip suitcase like many others except for one thing. It’s also a portable sound system. The sound is decent and the volume will fill most small to medium sized hotel and meeting rooms. Forget lugging around sound dock solutions for your portable players. Just plug them into the Boom Bag and you’re set. It also has USB ports for charging anything able to charge via USB connection. I recently got the new rolling back pack version and was able to get almost everything out of my trusty Wenger bag and into the back pack. The new bag fit better in the smaller regional jet overhead compartments. All of these bags, or pieces of luggage, are great for the road warrior presenter with moderate presentation audio needs. Plug in your computer and you will have enough sound for a room of at least 50 people. There is a line out available to connect multiple bags for even more sound reinforcement. So far, I think it’s a great product. The luggage has a limited lifetime warranty and the sound system comes with a one year warranty. After the one year Boom Bags will replace a failed sound system for $50 for the lifetime of the bag. Is there anyone else making something like this?………….TD
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 2:24 PM .
Comments Off
If you want to pick up some tips about using PowerPoint with real bullets, read Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks, and/or visit Arms and Influence where the editors highlight the role played in the Iraq conflict by Microsoft’s infamous software. Bloggers at Crooked Timber add to the discussion with a long, lively and fascinating series of posts that are well worth reading. Of course, the core of the issue is more about flawed visual communication styles and techniques than about the warmongering tendencies of presentation software, but it is soberingly apparent from the citations and discussion that visual illiteracy is as rampant in the military as it is in business. The main difference being that in business when a project bombs no one dies (usually).
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 2:06 PM .
I’ve struggled with the dual-screen (multiple) monitor feature in Windows for the past year. After a coworker showed me this feature on a job I was working, I was anxious to learn how to do it because it looked so cool! Well I found out that it wasn’t such an easy task… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Mary Waldera at 9:40 AM .
Here’s the official link to the official site with official information:
……….TD
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 8:34 PM .
Comments Off
Lifehacker: Erase permanent marker from your dry erase board, part 2
Never would of thought of that.
(tags: technology tips tools whiteboards)
Mother Tongue Annoyances: How to Lose the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ from Your Speech
Not a quick fix.
(tags: presentations speaking speech tips)
Posted by Lee Potts at 6:51 PM .
Comments Off
Cool Presenters University article by TechSmith’s Betsy Weber.
Screencasting Tips for Beginners
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 11:31 PM .
Comments Off