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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.
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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 .
Here’s the official link to the official site with official information:
……….TD
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 8:34 PM .
Extending PowerPoint with Freepath by ZDNet’s Dan Farber — Demo 2006: Grass Roots Software demoed a new presentation application, Freepath (the site is still not live at this writing) that lets you build a playlist by dragging and dropping elements into a composer. The software leverages PowerPoint content and also supports audio, video, PDF, Word and other data types. Freepath is available for $249 ($149 for the next [...]
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 1:34 PM .
I was contacted by Mark Rosenthal of One World Presentation Mgt about his product the Presenter that enables large scale conferences to organize and present many different presentations. The Presenter™ is an application to manage large numbers of presentations at medical and association meetings. The program loads, sorts, organizes, and launches PowerPoint presentations from outside PowerPoint. It is database driven allowing for management and reporting for hundreds to thousands of presentation files.
The only thing I can compare it to from a look at the web site is Slide Manager and other similar server driven technologies, but my sense is that this product may be more performance based in real time and integrate well with high end conferences. The list of testimonials is also impressive.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 2:22 PM .
To: All News and Wire Services
For Immediate Release:
Professor PowerPoint™ Loses Tenure
By Tom Bunzel
As an active member of the Visual Being web log, the Presentations Council of InfoComm International and the presentations community at large, I need to inform you all of a change in my circumstances necessitated by my recent correspondence with Microsoft’s law firm, Katten Muchin Rosenman.
I was contacted by a member of that firm a short while ago and informed that my use of the phrase “Professor PowerPoint™” was an improper use of its trademark and among other matters, potentially created confusion as to my relationship with Microsoft.
As many of you know, I have spent a fair amount of time and effort writing articles and books, educating users and in many ways promoting the use of PowerPoint™ in creating and enhancing presentations. However, when I explained these circumstances in some detail, I was informed that while Microsoft certainly appreciated my endeavors, my continued use of the trademarked name PowerPoint™ in my business and web site was inappropriate.
After consulting Microsoft’s web site pertaining to the proper use of its trademarks, I realized that there was no way I could continue as Professor PowerPoint™ without violating the clearly set forth canon of: “Do Not Use Microsoft Names or Trademarks as Part of Your Name”. There was very little wiggle room in that sentence.
To my relief the attorney added that Microsoft was not taking an aggressive posture in this issue. Since I had no great interest in retaining a law firm with the names of three partners on its letterhead, I appreciate that position immensely and sincerely.
So it is with some regret that this week I am publicly and irrevocably renouncing my position as Professor PowerPoint™, and now also admit that I got most of my diplomas through self study. (My B.A. in English from Tufts University is, alas, legitimate).
Obviously I had hoped to complete my career as a fully tenured Professor PowerPoint™ basking in the glory of a position in an albeit virtual and wholly nonexistent campus, but that is not to be. As of today the ProfessorPowerPoint™ web site is no more, and I have assumed a new position…
Henceforth my web site will be www.professorppt.com, and I hope that those of you who have linked to me in the past or referenced me in your own work will make the necessary adjustment.
The title of this web site has now been changed to “The Presentation Professor” (even though I shall remain, in reality, a humble untenured teaching assistant).
Let me make it perfectly clear that this entirely new web site has no relationship with either Presenters University or Presentations Magazine (even though I am an intermittent Contributing Editor at Presentations). Let me state for the record that I am also in no way connected to the “Ask the Professor” professor at Presenters University, the Video Professor on national television, nor any other real or virtual institution of higher education in the presentations industry. If in fact there are any other professors, real or virtual, teaching in the presentations community, I simply ask, can we all just get along?
It is indeed with a sad and heavy heart that I leave this entirely nonexistent campus, and set forth in search of new vistas in the presentations (and not just PowerPoint™) universe. I hope you will not forsake me for my past transgressions and continue to count me as a valued colleague as I carve out what I hope will be a new area of specialization and expertise beyond PowerPoint™ and into the virtually infinite realm of communicating more effectively using technology. (Oops, not to be confused with David Paradi’s http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com).
I will post my new office hours shortly but drop in any time. With fondest memories of a great ride, I remain sincerely,
Tom Bunzel
The Presentation Professor
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 4:10 PM .
Those of you who missed the webinar can get a summary of many of the points I made about why video doesn’t play at my InformIT column. There is also more info on the PFCMedia tool for avoiding problems with codecs.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 12:48 PM .
During my webinar yesterday I covered the MediaPlayer object as a way of using DVD in PowerPoint, but it has limitations. About an hour after I finished, it occurred to me that there is a much better way to do it–put an empty button on the Slide Master and give it an Action Setting with a Hyperlink to your default DVD Player: Intervideo WinDVD or even Media Player. With your DVD player launched during the presentation, and a DVD disc in your drive, you can move from Title to Title whenever you want to play your content, and then close the player and continue whenever you want. This beats the MediaPlayer object which does not have the navigational capability to go through a DVD.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 12:19 PM .
The PowerPoint Universe session at PPTlive last month was well attended and appreciated by attendees and technology providers alike.
See this release from Turning Technologies who provided their TurningPoint audience response system (ARS) for the session.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051020/flth017.html?.v=33
Todd Dunn and Mary Waldera are quoted.
Posted by Ray Guyot at 7:40 AM .
Those of us who provide services and content for the presentation professional community tend to overlook a sect of the marketplace, largely because they are difficult to define. For our conference, I can tell you that locating them could be the holy grail of our marketing efforts.
I refer to the administrative assistant.
Do they get a fair shake with regard to inclusion in our professional community? Perhaps not…
It’s almost insulting to think that I would have to reiterate this, but an admin is much more than a secretary (and in my best Seinfeld tone, I would quickly say “not that there’s anything wrong with that”). Today’s admins are called upon to provide support and execution in a dizzying array of categories, and in that regard, they are representative of a very real dynamic of our PowerPoint community: there is no one job title or description that can ever suffice.
We would overlook the admin at our own peril, in our Presentation Council activities and here at Visual Being. And I can tell you with certainty that if I knew how to tap into the ever-so-diffuse association of administrative professionals, I don’t think I would ever have to worry about marketing PowerPoint Live again…
Posted by Rick Altman at 10:24 AM .
While I did not post LIVE as Rob Lindstrom did, I managed to write up my experiences and insights at the recent PowerPoint LIVE conference for InformIT.com. Here’s the link.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 2:09 PM .
Jeri Taylor from San Mateo, California, takes pride in her profession.
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 2:34 PM .
It is day five here in beautiful San Diego. The 3rd annual PPT Live! Conference has now ended. By far, this year’s conference was the best one yet. Kudos to Rick Altman, his staff, all of the speakers, and attendees.
The number one highlight of the conference for me (again) was the Late Night Guru Session with the Microsoft PowerPoint program management team. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Mary Waldera at 2:01 AM .
Live from PowerPoint Live, Sept. 28, 2005
Korie Pelka, corporate communications manager for EFI in Foster City, California, is unofficially the hands-down winner of the PowerPoint Live Award for the longest conference session title: “A Day in the Life of a Corporate Presentation Creator: Crafting Meaningful Presentations in Today’s Corporate Environment.”
Pelka, who is responsible for executive presentations and employee newsletters, began by offering her list of the seven most pressing challenges facing presentation specialists in the corporate environment:
In her presentation, Korie stressed the importance of developing a method for creating presentations that streamlines the process as much as possible AND is flexible and adaptable enough to work effectively with all of various personalities and styles of in-house clients.
Some of the tips she offered to her peers:
Hey, Korie, maybe that last one would have been a better name for the session. 
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 12:49 PM .
Live from PowerPoint Live, Sept 27, 2005
QUESTION: What happens during a typical PowerPoint presentation if you take away the forward and reverse buttons on the presenter’s remote?
ANSWER: You have a one-slide slideshow.
Except if you are Bob Lane. In that case, you deftly navigate your presentation from one screen by hitting hidden hyperlinks and menus that allow you to jump to more than 1,000 slides and presentations in your master file.
Making him a candidate for the most innovative use of PowerPoint at the PPT Live conference. Bob’s standing-room-only presentation on Tuesday was a demonstration of “Relational Presentation,” the name he has given to his evolving concepts for a new approach to file organization and nonlinear navigation using PowerPoint. In his design concepts, which represent more than six years of research and development, slides–or entire presentations–are organized into a hierarchical tree structure by categories. A navigation screen with hidden links, icons and lists allows him to drill down through the layers of information and return at any time to his starting point. Using a Gyromouse (www.gyration.com) to run his cursor around the screen, Bob demonstrated that it is possible for PowerPoint to break free of the bonds of linearity.
Linear presentation (following a pre-set series of slides and ideas) limits the ability of a presenter to respond interactivity to the audience using graphical elements. Even though still in a rough state, Bob’s approach is an creative and well-reasoned example of efforts to move beyond the linear format of presentation without abandoning PowerPoint as the central presentation tool. Judging by audience reaction, the interest in such a capability is running high.
Ironically, during the presentation, Bob revealed the potential and the pitfalls of nonlinear PowerPoint presentation. Although the audience was clearly impressed by his ground-breaking concepts and his freeform, interactive presentation style, his presentation ultimately suffered from information fragmentation. His presentation did not have a predetermined destination, and that is exactly where it arrived. Many of the attendees voiced the opinion that the session lacked a clear takeaway. When you present nonlinearily, “it is hard to keep in mind what you want to convey to the audience while letting the audience drive the presentation where they would like to see it go,” commented author and consultant Kathy Jacobs.
PowerPoint-based, nonlinear information design and presentation may well be the wave of the future, but it does not come without hidden riptides and undertow.
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 11:23 AM .