Add-ins
Impatica
Reviewed by Geetesh
Bajaj, August 4th 2001
See Also: The
Michael Doyle Interview
Introduction
A Need For Impatica
Possibilities & Procedure
Download & Installation
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Introduction
PowerPoint is everywhere - on the web and CD-ROM, even on the
Pocket PC and streaming media. A slew of new generation add-ins
take PowerPoint even further - specialized distribution strategies
are no longer the exclusive domain of programmers of exotic languages.
One such solution is Impatica. And Impatica sets its own lingua
as well - you Impaticize a PowerPoint presentation. Needless to
add, Impatica stems from an English term called "impact".
So, what is impact, Impatica and Impaticize - let's go on a journey
to Impatinirvana! I hope I did not get you scared. And it
was indeed needless - the world of Impatica is as genteel as the
water in the springs.
Back
A Need for Impatica
Let's imagine a scenario - you want to make your presentation
available online. Your requirements may not be that generic - sometimes,
you may need to email a presentation too or send it to a mobile
phone or PDA. Impatica fits the slot impeccably.
Impatica is a PowerPoint add-in product from the company of the
same name. It's core technologies are centered around applets created
using Sun's Java - the very same technology available in almost
all of the present day browsers. No wonder, Impatica uses the term
'plug-in free streaming rich media' in its hard sell to PowerPoint
veterans. That statement in itself is debatable since Microsoft
no longer includes the Java Virtual Machine since Windows XP and
Internet Explorer 6. Anyway, you can still opt to download the
Java Virtual Machine as an additional component through Windows
Update.
In many cases, pictures say it better than words - so, I'll request
you to view an Impaticized presentation before anything else.
Here it is, click the link below to open it in a new window. Just
click anywhere on the resultant window to go to the next slide
- and close the window after you've viewed the entire presentation
to get back here.
Sample
Presentation
If the presentation fails to run, you probably don't have Java
installed on your system.
Back
Possibilities & Procedure
I'm sure you would have noticed the lack of a mechanism to go
to a previous slide in the presentation you just viewed. Actually,
this sample was something too basic for Impatica - I let this be
simple, so that you can have a clearer vision of Impatica's
output (Later, during this review we will go the whole way creating
a full-featured Impatica presentation - meanwhile, you could view
many interesting Impatica demos at the Impatica site - http://www.impatica.com).
Since this review was written, Impatica has provided an update
for all existing customers which includes navigation elements
within a presentation. New customers get the updated version
anyway.
Impatica can do much, much more. What about the procedure? Well,
Impatica lets you save all your energies for working within PowerPoint
itself - after your presentation is created, just drag and drop
it over the Impatica icon on your desktop to instantly Impaticize
your presentation! That's exactly how I created the sample presentation
you viewed.
However, your presentation may require a little housekeeping before
being Impaticized. All elements should preferably be styled using
the slide and title masters - a pure textbook approach to creating
presentations.
PowerPoint is quite a complex program - yet Impatica seems to
have replicated many of its nuances - which I believe is a great
achievement in itself. If you need to Impaticize an existing presentation
- the best route would be to Impaticize it straightaway without
editing - thereafter preview your presentation - this will provide
you with a better understanding of the workarounds and glitches
you need to be aware of.
Back
Download & Installation
To try out any of the interactive examples on this page - or just
to test the waters yourself, you'll need a copy of Impatica. You
can purchase the product online from the Impatica web site - you'll
find more details in the 'Pricing' section towards the end of this
article - or
you could request an evaluation copy of Impatica here...
Once you download the product, a one-click procedure will get
you on the installation route. This is the time to enter your unique
code supplied during purchase or when you requested the download
- alternatively the program will function in evaluation mode.
A manual for Impatica in Adobe's PDF format is also available
from the site for download. It's a nice, detailed manual - wish
more manuals were created this way.
Back
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