PowerPoint Blog
Microsoft Office 2007 may be delayed again -- and that might be a good move after all, because I'm quite happy with Office 2003 and would rather wait and use a better release of Office 2007.
Microsoft delays Office 2007 again
Microsoft said Thursday that it is making another slight delay to the planned arrival time for Office 2007, citing performance concerns with recent test versions. The software maker now plans to finish the code for the revamped Office suite by the end of the year, rather than in October, the date it set in March. The company said in March that it would wait to start selling Office until January, to coincide with the launch of Windows Vista. Now, though, it says Office may not be ready for store shelves until "early 2007."
More on the CNET News site...
More hitches at Microsoft delay launch of new Office software
Microsoft has delayed the launch of its next Office software package while it tackles "performance issues", in the latest in a series of hold-ups affecting the company's key products. The group last night announced it is aiming to make the new version, Office 2007, available to business customers by the end of the year, rather than its earlier target of October.
More on the Guardian site...
Microsoft delays Office '07
The Office delay comes three months after Microsoft again pushed back the release of its flagship Windows Vista operating system, now scheduled for broad availability in January, missing the holiday shopping season. "The bottom line is Microsoft gives guidance, which businesses are trying to make plans around, but consistently is unable to meet the dates in the guidance," said Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. "At some point, that's got to impact somebody's confidence in Microsoft."
More on The Seattle Times site...
Categories: microsoft_office, powerpoint_2007
Today's free template is Happy Healthy - download here...
Neuxpower Solutions announced new Server and Desktop versions of NXPowerLite, a presentation compression tool, at the C3 Expo in New York. NXPowerLite radically reduces the size of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations , as well as StarOffice and OpenOffice.org presentations saved in the PowerPoint format by compressing the graphics and embedded documents contained within them, making them easier to manage, distribute and use.
More on the PRWeb site...
Categories: add-in, powerpoint
In a unique move, Microsoft has put up a trial of Office 2007 online on their site that uses a Citrix browser plug-in. It seems like a novel idea -- so rather than download or get a CD of the beta, you can play with it through an online experience.
News24.com reported that the goal of the online preview is to let people play around with the software without going through the trouble of downloading the large beta versions, which are less reliable than final products. Still, to use the online demonstration, users may need to download a plug-in and must register with the company.
Ars Technica adds that once the test environment is set up, users can explore a limited Windows desktop running Office 2007. The preview can be described as a series of tutorials meant to highlight the new features of the Office 2007 System. For example, Outlook 2007 launches with a fully loaded inbox and a window devoted to telling you what you should try out.
Categories: microsoft_office, powerpoint_2007
Today's free template is Call Action - download here...
Today's free template is Positive Energy - download here...
Today's free template is Theatre Grey - download here...
PowerPoint slides can be visually appealing and informative, but what really makes or breaks a presentation is the person talking you through it, expanding on the bullet points and breathing life into the words on the screen. But what if a company wants to send out its presentation to potential clients? The live and dynamic element is lost: since no one will be there when they watch it; all the client sees is one slide after another, with nothing to link them together.
Tania Hershman discusses Speech-Over Studio on the ISRAEL21c site...
Categories: add-in, powerpoint
Today's free template is Wise Weave - download here...
Today's free template is Powder Blues - download here...
Today's free template is Hall of Mirrors - download here...
Today's free template is Blooms 07 - download here...
Such a deal could catapult Creative Commons from a fairly small user base to much wider acceptance as a method for protecting one's work. Microsoft estimates that there are some 400 million Office users worldwide.
Microsoft and non-profit licensing organization Creative Commons said Wednesday that they had struck a deal to allow Office users to add the group's licensing to their documents. Although the two companies have worked together in the past, this latest agreement is the most significant project to date.
More on the BetaNews site...
Today's free template is Smudged - download here...
So what is PowerPoint Live? It's an annual event held in the USA every fall. All sorts of people use PowerPoint to create presentations of every imaginable type -- PowerPoint Live is where all these people get together to learn more and share ideas.
Read more here...
Categories: powerpoint
Today's free template is Forest Window - download here...
This is just a simple educational presentation on Photosynthesis that we developed in our office as a fun project - download here...
This is a members-only download -- and membership is free! You'll be provided an option to become a member when you download, unless you already have your members-only password!
Creating a product-development timeline in PowerPoint is well worth the effort. What exactly is a product development timeline? Simply put, it visually portrays the development process of a product from concept to release.
Learn more and download a members-only presentation...
Categories: presentation_samples, powerpoint
Howard Cooperstein is Program Manger for PowerPoint at Microsoft -- he along with other Program Managers Ric Bretschneider, and Mark Jaremkohave has put up the new PowerPoint/OfficeArt blog at the MSDN site. Unlike other MSDN blogs, this one has nothing to do with programming -- in fact, this one is filled with splashes of color and design!
Howard's newest post shows how you can create a distinctive 3D title using the new WordArt engine in PowerPoint -- almost like a movie title! Check it out here...
If you look down at the categories, you'll find a new category called PowerPoint 2007 -- I'll add all PowerPoint 2007 related posts to this category.
Categories: powerpoint_2007, microsoft_office, powerpoint
Easily the most used presentation development tool on the planet, Microsoft PowerPoint hasn't seen a significant upgrade to its functionality or its basic engine since the Office 2000 version. But with Office 2007 Beta 2 now fully underway, the company's senior product manager for the Professional Plus suite, Mark Alexieff, showed off the completely rewritten graphics engine for PowerPoint 2007, along with its much-anticipated ribbon control, in a demonstration for TechEd last Friday.
More on the TGGDaily site...
Categories: powerpoint_2007, powerpoint, microsoft_office
Today's free template is Peacock Feathers - download here...
It's happening again -- self proclaimed soothsayers are predicting the beginning of the end of Microsoft PowerPoint -- and frankly, I have lost count of how many times this has happened before. To give due credit, I quite like S5, the new set of simple standards that is built on XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Yes, S5 is the new competition.
So what's different this time? And how is S5 better? Frankly, S5 still leaves many questions unanswered and for anyone who has seen the look and polish of PowerPoint 2007, it really is funny to compare S5 with PowerPoint!
But let us not discount S5 -- it has its advantages. About disadvantages, it's not too easy to create S5 presentations for ordinary folks although some people might tell you that S5 is so easy -- all you need to do is edit simple XHTML files! What about all those who find PowerPoint easy to use -- is the "S5 easy" and "PowerPoint easy" the same? Everyone knows that the answer is no.
But as I want to say, S5 has its advantages -- for simple presentations, S5 has a much better output than PowerPoint's own HTML output that is bloated and slow over not-so-fast internet connections. So what if someone created a S5 output add-in for PowerPoint? That would be the best use of both technologies!
Related Links:
Categories: s5, powerpoint
Today's free template is Purple Sun - download here...
Today's free template is Cracklight - download here...
In March, Google bought an online word processor, Writely. Recently, it launched the Google Spreadsheet. What's next? Maybe a Microsoft PowerPoint wannabe?
That's what a recent report from Gartner speculates. Actually, the scenario is that Google will buy Thumbstacks, which is a Web2.0 presentation app.
Tom Taulli discusses more on Blogging Stocks...
Categories: microsoft_office, powerpoint, google
Fortinet, a provider of multi-threat security solutions, said that its security research team was key in discovering the latest Microsoft critical vulnerability, CVE-2006-0022, which impacts users of several versions of Microsoft PowerPoint.
These vulnerabilities, the company said, are due to error manipulation of PowerPoint's Record Type and Record Data. Fortinet has advised PowerPoint users to immediately apply the update provided by Microsoft.
More on IT News Online...
Categories: microsoft_office, powerpoint
Today's free template is Fire Rays - download here...
Today's free template is Marble Puzzle - download here...
Labels: interviews, powerpoint 
Cliff Atkinson advises the senior leadership of some of the world's largest companies on how they can engage the organizational phenomenon called PowerPoint. In this interview Cliff discusses his book, storyboarding inside PowerPoint and shares some ideas.
Read the interview here...
Categories: interviews, powerpoint
Microsoft has released the 11.2.4 update for Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac that fixes vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code. This update also fixes issues in Microsoft PowerPoint 2004 and Entourage 2004, and it includes all of the improvements released in all previous Office 2004 updates.
Download the update from the Microsoft site...
Categories: office_mac, powerpoint
Today's free template is Knot Focus - download here...
DataPoint is an interfacing product that links PowerPoint to database sources opening up many new possibilities for developing dynamic, data-driven presentations.
There's no one better than Kurt Dupont who heads PresentatonPoint, creators of DataPoint to tell us more about the features and possibilities of the product.
Geetesh: Tell us more about the new DataPoint enhancements and how can users benefit from them.
Kurt: DataPoint is our Microsoft PowerPoint add-in that links your presentation to dynamic and external data sources like databases and Microsoft Excel worksheets. It can be used as an information board or to keep your sales presentations really up-to-date.
Our customers are happy with its functionality but sometimes they come up with a suggestion for new functionality that we didn't think of. Based on this user feedback we assemble a wish list. Now we made time to implement the 2 most wanted functionalities; multiple data scrolling on 1 slide and slide master linking.
Data scrolling already existed in previous versions. You add 1 slide to your presentation, add a text shape, connect it to a database and activate data scrolling. As a result DataPoint will display each database value for a given time until all data (returned from the data connection) is displayed. It actually creates different virtual pages for all data. This feature can be used e.g. in a school where you display class room information. You can put 5 classes on 1 slide but when you have 10 records of information in your database, DataPoint will display the first 5 records and afterwards the following 5 records, with 1 physical slide only.
Now the data scrolling enhancement becomes active when you have a second data scrolling connection in use on the same slide. E.g. you want to add announcements to your slide. So first you specify that the class room information is the master connection while the announcement connection is a slave connection. DataPoint will now continue to alternate all text shapes but now it will be able to detect when to jump to the next slide (when the last record of the master connection was shown on the screen).
A second most requested feature was slide master linking. Users wanted to place a dynamically linked text shape or just a simple live clock on the slide master so that it would appear on every slide in the presentation. This feature saves time as before the user had to create this text shape on every slide.
Geetesh: How do your other products integrate with DataPoint.
Kurt: First of all we have our MessagePoint; a screen saver solution that runs a PowerPoint presentation when the computer is idle. In combination with DataPoint you can have live production figures of a factory on the director's desktop.
Secondly we have OutlookPoint which is an add-on for Microsoft Outlook. It copies all selected folders and items to a database such as email messages and appointments from your calendar. DataPoint will visualize this information in your PowerPoint presentation. With this scenario you actually use OutlookPoint as a data entry application or content management system to feed your PowerPoint presentations. You can use a public calendar to enter appointments or announcements. When it nears the start time of the appointment, DataPoint will display the subject of that appointment on your monitor. Companies are using the mechanism to e.g. welcome people at the reception desk.
Finally we have NewsPoint. It retrieves RSS news feeds from the internet and inserts this information in a database. DataPoint technology is then used to add live business or sports news to your information system, next to the other data. The big advantage here is that with live news you get more attention from your audience where before only 'boring' company information was shown.
In the near future we will release TickerPoint; a database-driven scrolling text and image banner for Microsoft PowerPoint. It already includes the DataPoint kernel.
Thank you, Kurt.
Check out DataPoint and other PresentationPoint products on their site -- there are trial versions available for all products.
Categories: add-in, powerpoint, interviews, presentationpoint
Woodrow Windischman explains how you could use the new slide library feature in PowerPoint 2007.
...PowerPoint presentations are the lifeblood of many a corporate meeting; however, getting a consistent message across has been difficult due to the fact that a PowerPoint deck is one big file. Sometimes, it is one really big file. If you have certain key business information and you want to ensure everyone presenting "gets it right", your choices have generally been limited to providing a "standards" deck, containing all of your company's boilerplate, and making everyone pull out the slides they need; or going through the tedious process of saving each slide or small block of slides individually, then having your users merge each file them into their working presentation...
Read the solution here...
Categories: microsoft_office, powerpoint, powerpoint_2007
I asked Shawn about the term "PowerPoint Movie" and he explains that a "PowerPoint Movie is an animated show or cartoon similar to those done using Adobe Flash. It is animated using a series of custom animations such as motion paths and emphasis effects".
And now you have PowerPoint cartoon movies! These cartoon movies are PowerPoint presentations that have been illustrated and animated within PowerPoint itself. Such a high level of animation or illustration would not have been possible without the synergy of both skills -- and as I saw this "movie" that I downloaded from Shawn Toh's PowerPoint Heaven site, I'm left wondering if the bar of PowerPoint skills has been elevated yet again?
Check out the series here...
Categories: animation, powerpoint
By way of an entry on Bob Sutor's blog, I found CNET editor Rafe Needleman talking about the various entries in the marketplace that could eventually serve as Web-based replacements for PowerPoint. Microsoft is already getting some pressure on the word processing and spreadsheet fronts. Should Web-based PowerPoint replacement get any traction, the implications for Office could be serious.
Categories: microsoft_office, powerpoint
Today's free template is Tannery - download here...
Serious Magic creates award winning video and presentation tools. Their newest offering Ovation makes it easy to bring professional effects to your existing PowerPoint presentations with a few clicks.
In this conversation, Michelle Gallina, the Director of Marketing at Serious Magic joins us to discuss Ovation.
Geetesh: What does Ovation offer to PowerPoint users who have tons of existing presentations?
Michelle: Ovation is a software companion to PowerPoint that quickly transforms plain PowerPoint slides into a great-looking presentation. The result is a presentation that looks as if you hired a graphic design team to create it. It's really quite powerful when you have a lot of presentations that need a face lift. Ovation also offers tools that help presenters stay on point and on time.
Geetesh: Are their original presentations altered in any way?
Michelle: Ovation doesn't alter a PowerPoint presentation at all; it works alongside PowerPoint and performs as a player for presentations.
Geetesh: What are the requirements for Ovation in terms of hardware?
Michelle: Because the product adds a lot of movement to PowerPoint slides, it works best on newer laptops (less than 2 years old) with a good graphics processor (GPU). But I've seen Ovation produce great results on older computers too.
On our website, we run a system check to tell the user how Ovation will run on an individual computer.
Geetesh: What is the learning curve with Ovation?
Michelle: What's great about Ovation is that you don't have to spend a lot of time learning a new piece of software. You create and edit your presentation in PowerPoint, like your normally do. Then just drop your PowerPoint file into Ovation. There are some slide customizations that Ovation offers and they're easily accessible through Ovation's tab-based interface. It's really quite simple, but if users like more help, we offer a free video tutorial that is easily accessible within the program.
You can download a trial version of Ovation from the Serious Magic site...
Categories: interviews, powerpoint, add-in, ovation
Today's free template is Sapphire Silk - download here...
Today's free template is Twice Target - download here...
Today's free template is November Winds - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
Today's free template is Snow Candy - download here...
Google isn't yet talking about its PowerPoint killer, but a few startups, like Zoho, Structured Data, and ThinkFree, are testing products that show us what a presentation service will look like online.....A challenge with all these products is that while they will be great for users who can be online to make presentations, things change if you find yourself offline, with nothing but a laptop and a projector between you and your audience.
Rafe Needleman tells more on the CNET News site...
Categories: powerpoint
Today's free template is Solar Pores - download here...
Michael Doyle is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Of Impatica. In this interview, Michael discusses Impatica in education and business, and Impatica's new hardware device -- the Showmate that allows you to project PowerPoint presentations directly from your BlackBerry PDA.
Read the interview here...
Categories: interviews, powerpoint, personalities
If you have read Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points book, you'll want to look at the PowerPoint add-in he developed with NetCentrics Corporation. This add-in uses many of the principles in the book -- only you get doing the same processes faster and easier.
Lisa Allen is the Product Manager for the Sociable Media PowerPoint Add-In, Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In and other products developed by NetCentrics Corporation.
Here's a small interview with Lisa:
Geetesh: Tell us more about the Sociable Media PowerPoint Add-In -- and how the concept evolved.
Lisa: The Sociable Media PowerPoint Add-In is an add-in to PowerPoint built in collaboration with Cliff Atkinson, author of "Beyond Bullet Points" and in line with his methodology. Cliff contacted us late 2004 after reviewing our other products implementing a methodology into technology and after many discussions and design meetings, we planned for a February 2005 release in line with the book publishing.
Essentially this add-in automates the concepts defined in Cliff's approach to building PowerPoint presentations. Learn more about Cliff's Methodology and book at Sociable Media.
Using the Sociable Media PowerPoint Add-In provides the user with a powerful tool to ensure PowerPoint presentations are more interesting and tell a story which entertains and informs. Additionally, through the corporate branding toolbar, enterprises or workgroups can standardize their presentations and ensure all presentations conform to corporate identity, colors and other branding formats.
Geetesh: What can users of this add-in expect as far as improving their presentations is concerned.
Lisa: PowerPoint has become the language of business -- it is how we communicate our ideas, our goals and our business objectives. Yet, often presentations are too dry, stiff and confuse the audience. Beyond Bullet Points presents a compelling case that we should create a story to communicate our ideas. Think about the last time you sat for a presentation that was full of bullet points that you
Well the idea behind this methodology and thereby this product is that you should create points and graphical representation to engage your audience, keep their attention and most importantly, encourage your audience to take your valuable information home with them. In other words, remember what was said.
Two valuable features of the Sociable Media PowerPoint Add-In are the toolbars and the story editor, both assist in this goal. The toolbars provide new buttons and highly used PowerPoint buttons all in one location for easy access. And the story editor interfaces helps you distill your ideas and then structure them following a persuasive story model. When you are finished writing the story, you simply click a button to generate a PowerPoint storyboard that you can begin illustrating.
If you are interested in learning more about the product or even try it for free for 30 days, visit the Netcentrics site...
Categories: interviews, powerpoint, add-in
Today's free template is Feather Star - download here...
Doug Little is from Wacom, a company that is the leader in pen enabled computing solutions. I have used Wacom products for years, and have been extremely pleased with their performance and capabilities.
In this small interview, Doug tells us more about Wacom products for business applications and the use of pens and tablets within PowerPoint.
Geetesh: Tell us more about Wacom, the company and Wacom products targeted towards business users.
Doug: Since 1983, Wacom has been the word's leading manufacturer of pen tablets and interactive pen displays. Founded in Japan, Wacom gets its name from the Japanese word for harmony (Wa) and English word, computer (com).
Bringing harmony to life through technology has been Wacom's mission from the very start and we continue to build products that make working with a computer more comfortable, efficient, easy and productive. Wacom is a multi-national company with offices in Japan, USA, Germany, United Kingdom, China, Korea and Australia.
Today, business customers worldwide use Wacom's patented cordless, battery-free, pressure-sensitive pen technology for digital content creation and editing. Wacom has several product lines, all critical to its overall business strategy.
The Graphire4 series is Wacom's consumer based pen tablet, geared to the novice user, one looking for an alternative input device or those that want to have fun editing digital photos. The Graphire4 comes in two sizes - 4x5 and 6x8 (active areas). The pen features 512 levels of pressure sensitivity.
In addition, the Graphire Bluetooth (6x8) is Wacom's first wirless pen tablet making it an ideal solution for the mobile professional.
The popular Intuos3 is Wacom's professional line of pen tablets for the serious photographer, designer, artist, animator or engineer. The Intuos3 comes in a variety of sizes including a 6x11, 12x12 and 12x19 for those working with widescreen displays or dual monitors.
Its innovative design using "on board" Express Keys and Touch Strips allows users to concentrate on the pen and not the keyboard. The pen has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt recognition.
The Cintiq 21UX is a flagship product, offering Wacom's patented EMR technolgy built-in behind a color accurate 21.3" LCD. This technology provides unmatched control, comfort, freedom and productivity by allowing professionals to work directly on screen. The Cintiq is one those rare and unique products that has had a major influence on digital content creators and has literally changed the digital imaging landscape.
In addition, Wacom's Components Group supplies its patented pen technology, dubbed Penabled(r), to the OEM space. Approximately 95% of Tablet PC's use Wacom Penabled technology. In the future, Wacom's technology will play a leading role in the development of such mobile devices as smart phones and PDAs.
Geetesh: How can PowerPoint users benefit from use of Wacom tablets.
Doug: PowerPoint users can benefit from pen tablet use in many ways.
Navigating on a computer with a pen and tablet is much faster and a lot more comfortable than using a mouse. Our hand, wrist and arm are in a more comfortable position and the "absolute positioning" that a pen tablet offers allows one to move around the computer much faster and more accurately. The pen can relieve repetitive motion and certainly reduce fatigue.
Annotating, marking up and drawing on PowerPoint presentations are simple with a pen tablet. For example, the Graphire Bluetooth wireless pen tablet is ideal for conducting PowerPoint presentations. One can wander the room while navigating the presentation and marking it up if need be. Additionally, the pen tablet can be passed to other members of the meeting should they feel the need to comment.
Since we often work in other applications with PowerPoint, such as Photoshop, having pen capabilities at your fingertips are indispensable.
Categories: wacom, tablet_pc, powerpoint, interviews
Vyew is a new, free browser-based conferencing and collaboration tool that's turning heads and raising eyebrows these days. That's because Vyew is so simple to use--Vyew provide users with a site, where they can log in and interact with others in a real-time whiteboard. You don't really need to download anything--no registration is required for basic stuff, but registration is free, and is highly recommended.
Figure 1 shows the Vyew interface--not the whiteboard but the menu.
Figure 1: The Vyew Interface
For PowerPoint users--with Vyew, you can upload your PowerPoint presentation onto Vyew and present in real time to up to 20 attendees. Also, each account is allocated 25MB, so you can always be ready with your meeting materials. Since typically your PowerPoint slides only cover part of the whiteboard, you can use the rest of the whiteboard for Vyew's drawing tools (see Figure 2)--you can even use them to annotate right over the PowerPoint slides.
Figure 2: The Drawing tools
Vyew also bundles a text chat module and a phone conference option. And there's coordinated Google search, integration with photo library sites like Yahoo! Photos, Flickr, and Kodak Gallery, and many more niceties.
I did a small interview with Fred Han of Vyew.com:
Geetesh: Tell us more about yourself and Vyew.
Fred: I am the marketing and business development manager for Vyew.com. I started at the end of January and during that time, we have cracked the top 100,000 web sites (going from approx 620,000 to 70,000) and have experienced a number of milestones.
Here is a brief summary of Vyew: Vyew.com is a free browser-based conferencing and collaboration tool. Basically, we provide users with a site, where they can log in and visually communicate their ideas through a real-time, full-featured whiteboard. No client downloads are required for either the meeting creator or attendee.
Geetesh: What motivated you to create something like Vyew? And what direction do you plan to take it.
Fred: To quote our founder, Vyew came from an idea to enhance the interactive learning experience in our SimuActive Simulation tools. These tools, which are utilized by major corporations, such as Microsoft and McAfee simulate a network environment so users can use a product in its natural environment without any setup. We began building real-time collaboration platform to support this idea -- that students and instructors can train in a simulated environment in real-time. Eventually we realized that platform itself was viable outside of the e-learning space.
We plan toward fulfilling our vision and ambition of making Vyew the most broadly adopted visual communication and collaboration platform.
Thank you so much, Fred.
Do check out Vyew at Vyew.com...
Categories: conferencing, whiteboard, training, powerpoint, interviews
Today's free template is Disorder - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
Today's free template is Midnight Visions - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
Echo Swinford is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional). When she's not working on new media, she is answering almost all the questions on the PowerPoint newsgroup. In this interview, Echo discusses her book, the PowerPoint newsgroup, and provides some PowerPoint tips.
Read the interview here...
Categories: interviews, powerpoint, personalities
Today's free template is Glass Panes - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
Today's free template is Wallswirl - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
PowerPoint is a blessing and a curse for business professionals. Most of us use it to convey information, but many of us are bored to tears when we watch the finished product. The problem is not in the software itself, which can be an incredibly valuable tool to enhance the transfer of knowledge. It's how we use it. As a communications coach, I face mind-numbing presentations that I know can be made much more engaging, effective, persuasive, and exciting with some simple fixes. Let me give you an example. I was asked by Goldman Sachs investment bankers to prepare a CEO for his company's IPO road show....
Carmine Gallo explains more on the BusinessWeek site...
Related Posts:
Categories: techniques, powerpoint
In a surprising move, Microsoft has decided to not include PDF export options in the upcoming Office 2007 product. This was the result of talks between Microsoft and Adobe breaking down, and the looming threat of an antitrust suit on Microsoft by Adobe on this issue. Even more surprising is that Office competitors like OpenOffice and Corel WordPerfect Office have provided this option for years now--and Apple allows any program on OS X to print to a PDF! So why the double standards from Adobe?
Here's what others are saying:
Microsoft Drops PDF From Office
Microsoft has decided to delete from the next version of Office an option to save documents in PDF after Adobe Systems threatened to take legal action.
"We offered to them that we would do this, and now we've unilaterally made the decision to do it," Microsoft spokesperson Jack Evans said on Friday. The company also will remove a feature to save documents as XML Paper Specification (XPS) files in Office; XPS is Microsoft's rival file format to the PDF file format.
More on the PC World site...
Talks with Adobe to use PDF break down: Microsoft
Microsoft's negotiations to use Adobe technology in its new Office business software broke down earlier this week and Adobe threatened legal action, Microsoft's top antitrust lawyer said on Friday. The previously undisclosed talks between the two sides centered around Microsoft's plan to allow users to save work under Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF, within the company's Office 2007 suite of applications and its new Windows Vista operating system.
Adobe objected to Microsoft building the "save as PDF" option into Office and Windows, arguing that the ability to save a document in a fixed document format, such as PDF, is a separate product and should not be free, Microsoft said.
More on the Reuters site...
Adobe yet to explain why no PDF in Microsoft Office
Microsoft's decision not to include the ability to save files to Adobe's PDF format in its upcoming Office 2007 product, after arguments with Adobe, is bad news for users. Adobe really needs to explain to the world why it has forced Microsoft to do this. At present, both Microsoft's open source office suite rival, Open Office.org 2.0, as well as Apple's Mac OSX operating system, provide the facility to save documents as PDF (Portable Document Format) files. The PDF has become a widely used defacto standard for publishing non editable paginated documents. An argument could be made that excluding the same facility from Office 2007 that is provided freely elsewhere is unfair discrimination.
More on the iTWire site...
Categories: microsoft_office, pdf
Today's free template is Illusion - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
Steve Hards is Director of Sales and Operations for Perspector, the well-known 3D add-in for PowerPoint that's been released in a new version. Version 3 adds to the many features and possibilities available in the earlier versions including 3D charting from PowerPoint and Excel data, support for international characters, and multiple light sources.
I asked Steve about the new features and the Perspector community:
Geetesh: What do you think is the most significant new feature in this release?
Steve: The star feature of the new Professional Edition is its charting facility, but it would be an oversight not to mention that many valuable enhancements have been made to both the Professional and Standard editions. The most significant of these is the ability to use international character sets for users not producing presentations in English.
Back to the charting, it is very quick and easy to set up a chart from a PowerPoint table or Excel spreadsheet. After selecting the data you simply select a chart type from a series of thumbnail images in the Perspector Panel and the 3D chart appears on your slide! If you want to change part of the chart to highlight it - perhaps changing a colour or adding a picture fill - you can do it directly. Alternatively, you can control the chart elements from a Chart Properties box. Together they give you easy, straightforward and total control of the whole chart.
Geetesh: Tell us more about the Perspector community. 
Steve: The Perspector community is building nicely. On the one hand there are a number of particular people who have been incredibly helpful with questions and comments. We do enjoy the challenge of trying to help them and they have been the inspiration for a number of the developments. On the other hand there are people who just write to tell us that by using Perspector they are creating great presentations and, in some cases, building themselves a good reputation within their company as a result.
But in terms of a two-way process, we are also seeking ways of giving more back to users. Making it easier, for example, for them to find answers to questions on the website, pointing the way to other helpful PowerPoint resources and, through a carefully constructed series of tip emails, to help them explore why they might want to use particular effects. That's always the hard bit, isn't it--you see a great effect, and then wonder about how you can use it in a communicative context. Well, we are trying to help with that too.
You can download a trial version of Perspector, and find more about the product at the Perspector site...
Categories: add-in, interviews, perspector, powerpoint
A fortnight ago, I showed you how you could use the Stamps feature in TechSmith SnagIt--and now you'll learn how you can create your own SnagIt stamps!
In this tutorial, I'll show how you can create these stamps within Adobe Photoshop. If you are using a different image editor, the concepts will still remain the same.
Read the tutorial and download the free stamps here...
Categories: snagit, techsmith
Serious Magic's Ovation, a software companion to Microsoft PowerPoint, was honored by PC World with a 2006 World Class Award, marking Ovation as one of The 100 Best Products of the Year. Launched earlier this year, Ovation lets users transform typical PowerPoint slides into a visually-exciting presentation while providing helpful presentation tools to help users stay on-point and on-time.
Celebrating its 24th year, the respected World Class Awards honor products that meld practical features with innovation and reflect the rapidly changing technology marketplace. To select the winners, PC World's editors examined hundreds of products and awarded winners for their exemplary design and usability, features, performance, innovation, and price.
Read more on the Business Wire site...
Categories: add-in, powerpoint, ovation
Today's free template is Vermilion Drape - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
Troy Stein is Product Manager for Camtasia Studio, the amazing screen recording program from Okemos based TechSmith Corporation.
I interviewed Troy more than a year ago and already Camtasia Studio seems like a program that has been reborn to cope up with the changes in new and emerging media technologies.
Camtasia Studio's new version 3.1 upgrade does so much more than screen recording that it almost seems like a veritable Swiss Army knife of media editing tools. I use Camtasia Studio all the time in its traditional avatar as a video capture tool to show processes and create training. Even more often, I use it to join two video clips together or convert a video to Flash. I could use Adobe Premiere or Flash to do that, but it's so much simpler with Camtasia Studio.
So how does TechSmith make it so easy? And what about the new features? There's no one better than Troy to provide answers to those questions:
Geetesh: What's the best, new feature in Camtasia Studio 3.1 according to you?
Troy: Well, there are really two new features for PowerPoint users. The first one is side-by-side video presentations. You can record your PowerPoint presentations and put them online with camera video, PowerPoint recordings and a table of contents (ala Producer for PowerPoint) except this all plays back in Flash format. This leads to the second new feature, which is Flash Video output (FLV). Whether you're doing side-by-side video presentations or you need to deliver an animated presentation worthy of Pixar, the new FLV output helps you deliver richer content to just about anyone.
Geetesh: Camtasia Studio seems to be forever evolving and building capabilities as digital media horizons expand all the time--how do you decide about this expandability? What are the new digital media horizons that you are looking at.
Troy: I think you are right on target. Videos are all over the web and more and more people are making them. Video know-how is increasing across the board and not suprisingly, we are getting more requests for expanded video editing capabilities. Just the other day, a customer e-mailed me requesting specific hotkeys for editing his video-- the same hotkeys he used with his favorite video editor.
Over time, Camtasia Studio will certainly expand our editing capabilities. The real trick, though, will be adding advanced features while maintaining the ease-of-use for first-time users. But, the way I see it, is that if Porsche can make a car that has both automatic and manual transmission, then I *know* our team can make a Camtasia Studio both easy to use and rich and expansive for the advanced users.
Categories: camtasia, interviews, techsmith, powerpoint
This book extract is from Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances by Echo Swinford is an Indezine exclusive with permission from O'Reilly Media, Inc. The excerpts chosen to be published on Indezine discuss Excel related issues in PowerPoint.
Read the excerpts here...
Categories: books, powerpoint
Today's free template is Fruit Expanse - download here...
Categories: templates, powerpoint
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