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The PowerPoint Ezine - 19
by Geetesh Bajaj
Introduction
We begin this issue of the ezine with a focus on RnR's PPTools
Starter Set. Macromedia Breeze is mentioned next followed
by a listing of Quick News. We then look at Autodesk's new
Express Viewer and Kathy Jacob's PowerPoint Answers site.
A tutorial on using sound across slides in PowerPoint
97 and 2000 is followed by some PowerPoint links that
might be interesting to visit.
PPTools Starter Set
Two years ago, I reviewed the PPTools Starter
Kit - an assortment of free add-ins for PowerPoint from PowerPoint
MVPs Steve Rindsberg and Brian Reilly.
Now, the add-ins have evolved - it's called the
PPTools Starter Set and it's still free. The review had to be updated
to reflect the changes and I have been delaying it for a long time.
I just finished the page - and doing the review was great fun because
Steve and Brian have made small changes everywhere that add new
options and possibilities that will go a long way in improving
your PowerPoint workflow.
Read the review
here...
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Focus on Macromedia Breeze
A few issues ago, this ezine mentioned Macromedia's acquisition
of Presedia. The product is now called Macromedia Breeze - you'll
find more info on the Breeze homepage at Macromedia's site:
Macromedia
Breeze
There should be a full review about the product on Indezine very
soon - meanwhile let's discuss what the product does. Breeze in
it's basic form converts PowerPoint presentations to the Flash
SWF format. Thereafter, it provides an integrated creation, delivery
and sharing system for rich media presentations.
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Quick News
 Visible
Light has announced an update to its OnStage DVD for PowerPoint
SE product - the new version is 1.0.6. More
info...
Hemera is offering Photo-Objects Volume II for US$69.95
- that's US$30 off the regular price. The offer is for a limited
period. More info...
ppted.com has three free Photo Album templates for
PowerPoint. More info...
You'll also find a tutorial on using Photo Album on this
site. Read here...
Latitude has acquired Wanadu, creators of the iCreate range
of products that convert PowerPoint presentations to Flash SWF. More
info...
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Autodesk's new Express Viewer with PowerPoint
First, Autodesk provided the free WHIP! Viewer to view AutoCAD
content - and PowerPoint users discovered a whole new way to interactively
view inserted AutoCAD content in a presentation:
PowerPoint and WHIP!
Autodesk followed this by the VoloView Express Viewer - which
entailed a download of 25 mb! Again, thanks to an ActiveX control
included with the Viewer, PowerPoint users could view AutoCAD content
interactively within a presentation:
PowerPoint and VoloView
Now, Autodesk has come up with another Viewer - and they seemed
to have got it right now. The new Express Viewer weighs around
2 mb and includes an ActiveX control that can be used to insert
AutoCAD content into PowerPoint. However, the Express Viewer only
accepts DWF files - not the industry standard DXF ones. You can
download the Express Viewer from Autodesk's site:
Autodesk
Express Viewer
You'll find instructions to view AutoCAD content in PowerPoint
through the new Express Viewer at Ellen Finkelstein's site. Ellen
has authored many books on PowerPoint, AutoCAD and Flash.
Visit
Ellen's Site
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PowerPoint Answers from Kathy Jacobs
 PowerPoint
Answers is the name of a website created and maintained by Kathy
Jacobs, a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP and one of the most active
respondents on the PowerPoint newsgroup.
The site itself is very deep with lots of content on PowerPoint.
You can learn how to use animated text, create templates, merging
presentations, colour scheming and presentation disasters.
Visit
Kathy's site...
Sometime ago, Kathy wrote an article for Indezine.com on overcoming
the creativity block. Read
it here...
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Sound Across Slides in PowerPoint 97 and 2000
In the last ezine issue, we learnt how to play
sound across slides in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 - this time let's
take a look at doing this in PowerPoint 97 and 2000. In the next
issue, Mickey Stevens will show you how to do that in PowerPoint
on the Macintosh.
- In PowerPoint 2000 (version 97 works similar), navigate to
the first slide of the presentation and choose Insert | Movies
and Sounds | Sound From File… and navigate to the sound
file you want to use. Of course, you can also choose Sound from
Gallery, Play CD Audio Track or Record Sound from the same menu.
- Once you have inserted your sound, PowerPoint 2000 may ask
you if you want your sound to play automatically - choose 'Yes'.
- You'll find a sound icon within your slide - right click the
icon and choose 'Custom Animation' from the resultant popup menu.
Within the Custom Animation dialog box, choose the Multimedia
Settings tab - and select the radio button that says 'Continue
slide show' - also type in a high number within the Stop playing
after number box - 999 is the highest number you can type (see
screenshot)
- In all versions of PowerPoint, you might see a sound icon
on the slide where you inserted the sound - if you don't like
the icon on the slide, just drag it to anywhere off the slide
- your sound shall still play fine.
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PowerPoint Resources
Here are some PowerPoint resources (rather bookmarks) you might
want to take a look at:
Microsoft has a listing of some basic PowerPoint
2002 tips contributed by users.
The Edu-Tech
Center has info for people migrating from Corel Presentations
to PowerPoint.
You'll find many ideas at the Presentation
Program Tips site.
The Chicago
Tribune has an article on PowerPoint's cultural effect on
society.
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Events & Seminars
Winning Presentations Seminar
April 8 and 9, 2003
May 20 and 21, 2003
Boston, USA
Claudyne Wilder, Wilder Presentations
http://www.wilderpresentations.com/
InfoComm 03
May 31 to June 6, 2003
Orlando, Florida, USA
ICIA, Inc.
http://infocomm03.expoexchange.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 Ellen Finkelstein, Kathy
Jacobs, Mickey Stevens and Steve Rindsberg (all in alphabetical
order). I would like to use this platform to thank them for their
help.
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