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The PowerPoint Ezine - 15
by Geetesh Bajaj
Introduction
We begin this issue with a look at improvements
in version 2 of Vox
Proxy followed by a short review of SWF Desktop from ScreenTime. Quick
News is followed by info about the launch of Photo-Objects
Vol III from Hemera. We then look at an amazing SuperSaver offer
from Ppted - then, we look at new releases of PowerPoint
add-ins from CrystalGraphics. We follow this by a discussion
on Font Embedding in PowerPoint and finish with a listing
of forthcoming events and seminars.
Vox Proxy 2 Released
 Right
Seat Software has updated its Vox Proxy program to
version 2. Vox Proxy functions as an add-in to PowerPoint for
Windows - imparting talking animated characters to the presentation
program using Microsoft's Agent technology. You'll find a review
of version 1 of Vox Proxy elsewhere onsite at Indezine.
Here's what Tom Atkins of Right Seat Software has to say
about the new version of Vox Proxy:
There are quite a few new media features, like:
- Timers – slide timer, show timer, timers on media files,
custom timers. Useful for synchronizing narration of a movie
or flash file.
- Volume control for audio played with my PlayMedia command
(with variable fade) lets you adjust volume at any time on
any slide. Useful for turning down volume while characters
(or you) are speaking.
- Play Flash movies
- Display Word document
- Display Excel worksheet; read and write data from worksheets;
react to changes user makes in a visible worksheet, so it can
be interactive with the user.
- Read and write data from an “ini-style” text file
- Display text data “on the fly” into a text shape
in a visible slide during the slide show. Can be used in combination
with reading data from worksheets or text files. This is another
way to be interactive with the user.
Thank you, Tom.
At the same time, Right Seat has announced the availability of AT&T's
Natural Voices™ for Vox Proxy.
For more info, please visit the Vox
Proxy site...
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ScreenTime launches SWF Desktop
 ScreenTime
Media is now shipping SWF Desktop, a product that
allows you to use dynamic SWF files as wallpaper for your Windows
desktop. Such SWF wallpapers impart dynamic abilities, interactivity
and animation to conventional static backdrops.
The folks at ScreenTime sent me a copy of SWF Desktop - and my
intitial enthusiasm with the product has revealed nuances that
promise so much more. In all, I feel it is a great product in a
new arena.
A simple wizard driven interface allows you to use Flash MX (or
any other application) SWFs as live wallpapers that can access
dynamic information online. Such SWFs are packaged into self-executing
installer files you can distribute to others royalty free. More
info...
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Quick News
Are You A PowerPoint Whiz is the name of a PowerPoint quiz
available now on the Microsoft site. Assess
your levels here...
Apple has released an update for Keynote, its new
presentation program for the Macintosh. Keynote Update 1.0.1 is
a world wide release with support for Japanese, French, German,
Dutch, Italian, and Spanish. Download
here...
Hemera has launched its GraphicDesk application
for the Mac OS X operating system. Currently, Hemera is
providing 100 free images to anyone who downloads GraphicsDesk
for the Mac. More
info...
 Ulead has
announced the availability of Video Studio version 7. New
features include expanded compatibility, InstaView realtime previews,
3D graphics (Ulead Cool 3D 3 SE included with Video Studio 7),
free video tutorial, dual layer DVD menus, multiple videos per
DVD, etc. More
info...
Jasc has announced a public beta of the new Paint Shop
Pro 8 - the beta is available for free download and is largely
error-free. The beta allows free unlimited use of 30 days. For
those who buy the current Paint Shop Pro 7 Anniversary version,
Jasc promises a free version 8 upgrade. More
info...
Jasc has also announced a new product - the Paint Shop
Photo Album. This applications can access your digital pictures
right from your digicam and provides tools to enhance, organize
and share them. More
info...
 cbox from Winnov is
an appliance that captures everything that occurs in a conference
room and creates on-the-fly rich media information (audio, video,
Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, pictures, graphics, text). More
info...
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Hemera Launches Photo-Objects Volume III
 Hemera announced
the launch of a new image collection for Windows: Hemera Photo-Objects
50,000 Volume III on CD is the company's third collection of
award-winning Photo-Objects images, bringing Hemera's total Photo-Objects
image collection to over 150,000 images in three volumes. A Macintosh-OS
version is due out in April.
Volume III for Windows allows users to create their own personal
collections, view and subscribe to additional online image collections,
and use all their Hemera image collections from within a single
browser.
"We're very pleased to be offering another 50,000 Photo-Objects
images to creative professionals and graphics enthusiasts," said
Marc-Antoine Benglia, President and Chief Product Architect of
Hemera Technologies Inc. "The customer demand has been strong
for these premium collections since the launch of Volume l in April
2000. Volume lll is an excellent addition to the product family
with all-new content, and our continued commitment to delivering
great value."
More
info here....
You can buy
the product here....
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Ppted SuperSaver Offer
 Ppted has
announced a new SuperSaver offer on their range of PowerPoint
backgrounds and templates, where you can make savings of 25%. Five
collections (a total of 25 attractive designs) are available for
US$75 instead of US$100 (if you were to buy the same collections
separately).
Buy
The SuperSaver
Collections included in this SuperSaver are:
Urban Textures
Spots Of Success
Kaleidoscope
Simply Azure
Bio Meadows
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New Releases from CrystalGraphics
CrystalGraphics have released two new products/offers:
PowerPlugs Transitions Vol IV has dozens of new transition
effects including shattering glass, camera shutter and page turning. More
info...
 CrystalGraphics
has also updated its Ultimate Combo suite to Ultimate Combo
10 Plus. For US$499 (offer valid upto March 31st, 2003), you
get:
- RemotePoint Navigator BONUS
- Transitions I, II, III & IV
- SuperShapes I & II
- PhotoActive FX I & II
- Templates I - VI
- 3D Titles I & II
- Headings I & II
- Charts
- Stationery 1-4
- Quotations
- Slides that Win!
More
info...
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Font Embedding in PowerPoint
PowerPoint allows you to embed a copy of a font used in
a presentation within its format. But that's not the end of the
story - things are not quite that simple. Let's find out how to
embed fonts before discussing its aspects.
This can be achieved by File -> Save As and then checking the
'Embed True Type Fonts' option. If a font cannot be embedded, PowerPoint
will inform you accordingly.
Not all TrueType fonts can be embedded - and Type 1 or PostScript
fonts cannot be embedded at all.
To find out if a particular font is embeddable, you can get a
free extension from the Microsoft Typography site. It's called
the Font Properties Extension (http://www.microsoft.com/....../property.htm)
and once it has been installed, you can right click any font in
your Windows Font folder (normally C:\Windows\Fonts, but your path
may differ) and select 'Properties'. The resultant properties box
is full of tabs which provide all kinds of information about the
font in question. This includes its embedding rights.
Microsoft also provides a Font Properties Editor (http://www.microsoft.com/....../fpedit.htm)
at its site - although this allows you to make a font's embedding
rights more restrictive, it doesn't allow you to allot embedding
rights to an already restricted font.
If you create your own fonts using Macromedia Fontographer, you
will find a technical note at the Macromedia site (http://www.macromedia.com/....../fpedit.htm)
which speaks about editing font properties.
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Events & Seminars
Winning Presentations Seminar
March 10 and 11, 2003
May 20 and 21, 2003
Merrill Lynch Meeting Room, Wellesley Office Park, Wellesley, Boston, USA
Claudyne Wilder, Wilder Presentations
http://www.wilderpresentations.com/
PowerPoint Live
October 12 to 15, 2003
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Rick Altman, R Altman Digital Consulting
http://www.pptlive.com/
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Credits
During the preparation of this issue of the PowerPoint Ezine,
I received assistance and feedback from Brian Hutchins, Kim Dixon,
Mickey Stevens, Sophie LeGuen, Taj Simmons and Tom Atkins (all
in alphabetical order). I would like to use this platform to thank
them for their help.
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