Calculate
Reviewed: Geetesh Bajaj
Date Created: August 16th 2008
Last Updated: February 25th 2009
Introduction
About Calculate
Using Calculate
Pricing and Support
Conclusion
Introduction
Monitors, and even projectors are no longer always 4:3 -- and you may have thought that the onset of wide screen may have added the 16:9 proportion as far as resolutions are concerned. But there's more than that: there's a slew of monitor and projector resolutions out there -- you never know what you will encounter next.
And that brings us to the next part of this puzzle: PowerPoint. By default, PowerPoint creates presentations in the 4:3 format -- and you can change the size of the slide to almost anything you want. But how do you know which size fits your display? It's a question of math -- add up the resolutions, and arrive at an optimum size for the slide. Or get a copy of our review product, which does the math for you.
About Calculate
Calculate is created by Austin Myers, a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional), who has always been looking at ways to get media files working well with PowerPoint. Austin creates several PowerPoint add-ins such as PFCPro and PFCMedia -- you can learn more about his products, and download trial versions from his site.
My contact person for this review was Austin Myers, thanks Austin.
Using Calculate
First, let's look at the installation -- or rather the lack of it. There's nothing to install -- just download the product and run it. When you double-click the suitably named Calculate.exe, you'll bring up the interface that you can see in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Calculate
Thereafter, you should find the width and height values of your screen resolution, and type them into the relevant width and height boxes.
As soon as you click the Calculate slide size for your monitor button, you'll find three proportionate resolutions in Small, Medium, and Large values -- in both inches and centimeters -- make a note of these values, and size your slides as required.
Austin speaks about Calculate in an Indezine exclusive interview here...
Tip: To size your slides in PowerPoint 2007, access the relevant dialog box from the Page Setup button on the Design tab of the Ribbon.
PowerPoint 2003 users, and those who use older versions can access a similar dialog box from the File | Page Setup option.
Pricing and Support
Calculate is a free product -- so there's no pricing to discuss.
I don't see many support issues for such a simple product -- but Austin does offer support for all his commercial PowerPoint add-ins.
Conclusion
Calculate is a simple concept that has been implemented well. It's quick, and it saves you time -- time that you can spend somewhere else.
