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reviewed by Geetesh Bajaj, May 24th 2003
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The Account and the Add-in
The Wizard
A Test Presentation
Publish to Breeze
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The Account and the Add-in
Macromedia set up a Breeze Training account for me - logging
into the account provides a link to download the Breeze add-in
for PowerPoint. Installing the add-in is a simple affair
- and on my test system with PowerPoint 97, 2000 and 2002
installed, Breeze showed up in all the versions as a new
menu option (see screenshot).
The first option on the menu is the wizard, which leads
you step-by-step through the whole process in a foolproof
way. Other options on the menu offer more advanced features.
We'll use the wizard first...
Back
The Wizard
Before you even start the wizard, you'll have to decide
if you want to use Breeze to record your narration - alternatively
you can use existing pre-recorded narrations or record them
in a professional studio before importing them in Breeze.
If you need to add pre-recorded narrations, you might be
better off without the wizard.
I created a simple presentation in PowerPoint with conventional
title and text on each slide. Thereafter, I chose the 'Run
Wizard' option within the Breeze menu in PowerPoint.
The wizard first helps you set your microphone level - after
which you are led slide by slide and prompted to record a
narration for each slide. Finally, you can publish your presentation
along with the narrations to the Breeze Central site.
Back
A Test Presentation
You can customize Breeze to a large extent. For my test
presentation, I recorded the sound into a sound editing application
- thereafter, I edited the sounds with some amplification
and noise reduction filters. Finally, I saved all the sounds
as WAV files, ready to be imported into Breeze. You'll find
links to several free and commercial sound editors elsewhere
on this site:
Sound Stuff
Within PowerPoint, I chose the Breeze | Import Audio option.
This opens a dialg box where I can select a separate sound
file for each slide.
It's a good idea to test run the presentation now using
the View Show option within the Breeze menu in PowerPoint.
Once you are satisfied with the output, you can choose the
Publish option.
Back
Publish to Breeze
Publishing a PowerPoint presentation to the Breeze Central
server is easy. The Publish Presentation window first authenticates
your login - then you can choose various options including
password protection, access permissions, retaining outlines,
adding a speaker photograph, etc.
You finally click the Finish button that uploads your presentation
to the Breeze servers. Within a few minutes, you receive
an email along with a URL to view the rich media presentation.
You can always log-in again and edit permissions for any
presentation hosted online.
See a sample Breeze presentation I created - it talks about new
PowerPoint 2003 features...
Back
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