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The PowerPoint Ezine - 46
by Geetesh Bajaj, July
31st, 2004
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Giveaways for Everyone
By being subscribed to this ezine,
you are eligible to win!
Everyone can
download free PowerPoint templates now at Indezine!
I also announced my new Digital
Dots collection at Ppted. I'm giving away two free
copies of the collection - you might be the lucky one and receive
the giveaway in your mailbox!
Now about prizes given away - congratulations
to the winners!
Jim Carelas and Sharon Reid won copies of PowerPoint
streaming video solutions from StreamPresentations.com -
thank you, Jim Roach.
Sharon Freeding and Pauline Shaw won copies of Above & Beyond's Ten
Ways to Avoid Death by PowerPoint product - thank you, Joanna
Biggs.
Jayesh Unadkat and Chris Fogle won copies of Ars
Media's Photoshop
to PowerPoint add-in - thank you, Vladimir Zecevic.
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PowerPoint Notes & Blog through RSS, Atom
PowerPoint Notes was launched
this month as a repository of tips, ideas, techniques or just thoughts
on using PowerPoint. New content is made available on an almost
daily basis - and the best part is that the entire PowerPoint Notes
section is available through a web-feed through RSS and Atom.
Learn more about the web
feeds here...
Incidentally, the entire PowerPoint
Blog is also available through web feeds now.
PowerPoint and Video Part V
Read the full PowerPoint and Video article
here...
Full Screen Videos
PowerPoint 2003 allows playing of full screen videos in a presentation:
- Right click the video object and choose Edit Movie Object.
- Check the option that reads 'Zoom to full screen'.
You'll also find options to loop the movie or rewind it after
playing within this dialog box.
The DVD Factor
Playback of DVD content is an often requested feature for PowerPoint
that is not natively possible. A third party product from Visible
Light called Onstage DVD for PowerPoint allows you insert and play
DVD content within PowerPoint:
http://www.visiblelight.com/onstage/products/powerpoint/
Between the Mac and Windows
Not surprisingly, PowerPoint on the Mac has no problems playing
any type of QuickTime movie since that format is native to the
Mac OS. However, this can create problems if the presentation is
ported from the Mac to the Windows version of PowerPoint - and
this is something that happens all the time.
Luckily, PowerPoint 2004 for the Mac ships with a Compatibility
Wizard that undertakes what one would term pre-flighting in the
print world. Unfortunately, no such equivalent wizard is available
in PowerPoint for Windows.
Video Editing with Windows Movie Maker
You might want to explore Windows Movie Maker, a video editing
application that is part of Windows to do basic video edits like
adding credits to video or inserting transitions between different
video clips.
Windows Movie Maker can only export to the WMV format which PowerPoint
has no problem accepting.
Copyright Implications
There's one factor that can never be stressed enough and that's
about copyright. Never assume that you can use a video clip in
a presentation if it is not yours or licensed to you. To use a
video clip that is or contains copyrighted work, you need to receive
explicit permission from the owner of that content in writing.
Running Smooth Videos
What do you do if your video clips don't run too well within PowerPoint?
Videos do require more system resources than most other media and
some steps can go a long way in helping you run smoother videos.
Here's some help - do remember that you don't have to follow every
idea listed here. Some ideas are from my friend, TAJ Simmons.
- Don't run any programs in the background that can be avoided
- these include instant messengers, camera or webcam software,
your PDA connectivity application, etc. Also, it's a good idea
to disable your screen saver.
- Close all open programs except PowerPoint.
- Defrag your hard disk often so that it can function optimally.
- Upgrade your video RAM - also upgrade your system RAM if possible.
- Make the next 'event' in PowerPoint something very simple -
you don't want PowerPoint trying to assemble a "zoom" bitmap
while it's trying to play the video.
- Right-click the movie within the slide, choose the 'Edit Movie
Object' option and check the option "Hide while not playing" in
the Movie Options dialog box.
- If you are creating your own video files, try making them "fade
from black" in the actual video file since it helps to hide
the fact that PowerPoint often stutters before playing the video
file.
This concludes the PowerPoint and Video series.
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News & Content
Read the
PowerPoint Blog here... The PowerPoint Blog now includes
the Atom syndication service so that you can use a Atom compatible
newsreader to read all postings.
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Events & Seminars
PowerPoint Live
October 10 to 13, 2004, San Diego, California, 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, content or feedback from Jim Roach, Joanna
Biggs and Vladimir Zecevic (all in alphabetical order). I would
like to use this platform to thank them for their help.
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