I’ve been impressed by an online video editing and archiving tool that lets you create a
“private label YouTube” - check it out.
http://members2.viditalk.com/view/?id=9DGHQ6GWTSYT34RF6B7S1
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 4:45 PM .
February 22nd, 2008
New Event/Presentation, Coaching and Marketing Tool
September 18th, 2007
Transmedia expanding Glide Presenter to mobile devices…
November 6th, 2006
Free and Easier Xcelsius
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 .
October 19th, 2006
Industry News: Adobe Aquires Serious Magic
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 .
October 14th, 2006
Read My Book Online
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 .
July 19th, 2006
Screencasting Tips for Beginners
Cool Presenters University article by TechSmith’s Betsy Weber.
Screencasting Tips for Beginners
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 11:31 PM .
July 5th, 2006
PC Mag Article on HD Video
For those of you considering a move to HD video in your presentations check out a short and sweet piece in PC Mag “Are You Ready for HD?” Besides the Sony HD camcorder referred to in the article, I also suggest a look at some offerings from JVC. Ulead software has a plug in to work with HD content on your desktop but the article mentions the big problems using these gigantic files. Those who worked with digital video years ago will think they’ve been down this road before.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 1:18 PM .
June 13th, 2006
Images are king
From “Top Ten Truths About the Digital Ecosystem“, a recent post on the Dealing with Darwin blog:
“10. Images are king. Verbal content, by virtue of its sheer volume, is increasingly perceived as noise. We are entering a new era of collage, where the mind of the viewer is the assembling artist. Verbalization happens post facto, the residue of headline skimming and subconscious synthesis. The esthetics of digitally enhanced images will become increasingly powerful as a vehicle for cutting through the clutter. Manipulating semantics or semiotics via images will become increasingly sophisticated, both in the private and public sectors. High-definition displays and portable form factors will be popular mass markets. Indexing and searching images, on the other hand, while technologically interesting, will be of peripheral impact.”
Posted by Lee Potts at 8:00 AM .
April 27th, 2006
“Rocketboom Online Video Tool List: See all video, edit all video, create all video “
“Instead of going over all the options here, I’m going to highlight the tools and some of the methods we use to create Rocketboom because, consequently, I have amassed what I would call not just a killer app, but a killer briefcase filled with lots of killer apps that all together allow us to see all video, hear all video and speak all video, not to mention create, tweak and seek. I haven’t been stopped by a file yet (knock on wood).
“This is what we use to make Rocketboom: “
Posted by Lee Potts at 9:51 PM .
February 25th, 2006
Presentations Council Webinars
Of all the programs the Presentation Council makes available to the presentation professionals community, one of the most useful is their series of live webinars exploring various presentation tools, techniques and technologies. In case you missed the live events, here are links to the archived versions of the three most recent:
Tom Bunzel, “Using Video Effectively In Your Presentation”
Rick Altman, “Too Many Chefs?: The Fragile Art of Collaboration”
Julie Irvin, “How to Effectively Communicate Data Charts & Graphs”
As the schedule of future webinars are announced, we’ll post it here.
Posted by Lee Potts at 9:33 PM .
January 21st, 2006
Video Blogging Tool from Serious Magic
This 
“>thumbnail image provides link to an example of vidoe blog created with the demo version of the new Vlog It! tool from Serious Magic.
I originally created the video in Communicator using the V-screen and teleprompter and then dropped it into Vlog It! Amazingly Vlog It! itself has these same features — the main difference from the Communicator product is that it doesn’t output the same range of professional quality higher res video files.
As a bonus of this product, the FLV file (which normally takes Flash to create and use) along with the thumbnail images from your blog are in My Documents\Vlog It!\My Output.
Perhaps the coolest feature is the way to instantly create a blog thumbnail file and then drag and drop it into your blog’s editor. (Note: there is a slight glitch with the music coming up twice in this version but I think it serves to give you the idea). I see the Video Blog as a great presentation follow up tool to provide professionals with a way to follow up with their clients and audience.
As more and more portable devices play video, the subscription capabilities of text blogs will also be easier to incorporate into video downloads, making this a very cool rich media tool.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 1:45 PM .
January 9th, 2006
The Age of Me-TV Dawns at CES
Video-on-the-go stole the show last week at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show. More than 150,000 people swarmed Las Vegas to see the latest electronic gadgets, gizmos and thingamajigs, demonstrating once again the bottomless demand for products and services that nobody needs.
Many of the announcements by hardware and services companies focused on devices to create, transmit and display video whenever and wherever. Giants such as, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Cisco, Sony, Palm, Starz, RCA and Verizon focused much of their hype on bringing television and video to the Web and to portable devices.
Video Podcasting, as both entertainment delivery and personal communication, is shaping up to be the NBT (next big thing.) And that has major implications for anyone who creates and delivers presentations.
The trend suggests that, just as Web conferencing and collaboration moved presentations out of the meeting room and into cyberspace, the arrival of portable, wireless, video-capable capture and display devices makes it possible to deliver rich media presentations on demand to any location at any time.
As video becomes more available, it also becomes more desirable. Video will quickly become expected fare in mobile business communications, which presents significant production, budgetary and skillset challenges to professional media communicators.
In addition, video is becoming a two-way street. Someday soon, video capture and transmission will be as commonplace as cellphone snapshots are today. Video will move from being push media to being interactive media. Presenters and audience alike will have mobile video capability.
The age of Me-TV is upon us. Watch it.
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 1:38 PM .
November 28th, 2005
Presentations Council Webinar: “How to Effectively Communicate Data Charts & Graphs”
From the Presentation Council listserv:
“Julie Irvin, President of Keystone Resources, is presenting the upcoming InfoComm International Presentations Council webinar, “How to Effectively Communicate Data Charts & Graphs,” on Wednesday, December 7, 2005 beginning at 4:00pm EST. If you are able to join the webinar, please send a RSVP to Shana Rieger, srieger@infocomm.org. The meeting link and call-in instructions will be emailed to you December 2nd.
*******************************************************
When you and your clients are tired of regular bar & column charts, what do you do and how do you make sure you are communicate your point(s). Julie will walk you through real client scenarios on how they went “out side of the box” to communicate the client’s data effectively.
* Pie of Pie Charts
* Use of Small Multiples
* Using PowerPoint & Illustrator to enhance basic charts
* The importance of chart labeling, titles and colors
* Other Software & Tools that help you illustrate points”
Posted by Lee Potts at 9:09 PM .
November 26th, 2005
Professor PowerPoint is No More
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 .