The PowerPoint Ezine - 48
by Geetesh Bajaj,
November 9th, 2004
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Free Add-in, Presentation
and Templates!
Thermometer: Free PowerPoint Add-in
I just released Thermometer, a free PowerPoint add-in that creates
a thermometer style bar in the bottom area of the slide that shows
how much of a presentation has progressed and how much more is
remaining. It's a very simple add-in and using it is so easy: one
click on an icon and you can add or update your thermometer; another
click and the thermometer is gone! Learn
more and download it free here...
PowerPoint Presentation Bank
This is a new Indezine section that features sample presentations
that you can freely download and use - I currently have six presentations
available for download. Click
here to go there...
Indezine Templates
There are 32 PowerPoint templates available for free download
now - start
collecting them now...
  
PowerPoint Live Report
The second PowerPoint Live event was a great success. With something
happening all the time, the four days just flew away before I realized
it was all over!
Rick Altman, amazing host of the event has since already
announced that the next PowerPoint Live will be held again in San
Diego from September 25th to 28th, 2005.
Do find out more about this year's event and next year's plans
on the PowerPoint
Live site...
New PowerPoint Products
TechSmith's
new Camtasia 2.1 adds a PowerPoint add-in that allows you
to capture an entire presentation to a movie. Such captured movies
can be edited or straightaway saved to several formats including
Windows Media, QuickTime, Flash and Real. A free 30 day trial
is available.
SmartDraw
7 adds several new features to this flagship product from
SmartDraw.com. PowerPoint users will benefit from the new Org
Chart features that includes the ability to create them on the
fly from data sources. A free 30 day trial is available.
Articulate
launched the new Articulate Knowledge Portal, a server based
solution that provides everything organizations need to organize,
manage and deliver Flash presentations and support materials,
track who is viewing them and see how well they learn.
Visual
Exemplars released the second version of the Perspector add-in
for PowerPoint. With Perspector, it is possible for presenters
to illustrate complex relationships between ideas in a simple
way through the use of 3D and animated images. A demo version is
available.
pptXTREME
has a new PowerPoint add-in called Photoshop Import that
imports Photoshop compositions in PowerPoint with layers intact
- more info and a trial version can be downloaded from the pptXTREME
site.
Fills & Lines
PowerPoint’s ability to present richly colored and textured
elements is based on its unique fill and line technology – something
that’s shared across all Microsoft Office applications. Rather
than explain the same fills and lines for all individual elements
like backgrounds, AutoShapes, info-graphics, pictures, WordArt
and PowerPoint drawings, I thought it would be best to use an entire
article for this important concept. Once you have mastered the
art of enhancing these fills and lines, you’ll feel right
at home using it across the entire Office suite.
Look at these samples to find out how versatile the fills can
be.
Some
of the fills featured above are textures from the Ppted Texture
Collection...
Although fills and lines can be used for almost all PowerPoint
elements in the same way, there are subtle differences. For example
you cannot have a background with a transparent fill and pictures
can only be formatted for lines rather than fills.
We are using an AutoShape as an example throughout this article – the
same concepts hold true for fills and lines of almost every PowerPoint
element.
PowerPoint’s Fills
PowerPoint provides five types of fills:
- Solids
- Gradients
- Textures
- Patterns
- Pictures
By default, any AutoShape you draw within a slide has a solid
fill. There are two ways to change the fill – either through
the icons on the Drawing toolbar or through the Format AutoShape
dialog box. In this example, we’ll use the Drawing toolbar
since it’s a quicker way to access the same dialog boxes.
If your Drawing toolbar is not visible, right click any toolbar
and select "Drawing" from the resultant context menu.
Here’s how it works:
- Insert a new slide (Ctrl-M) in a new (Ctrl-N) or existing presentation.
- On the Draw toolbar, click and drag the AutoShapes button
to create a new AutoShapes toolbar within PowerPoint.
- Click the Basic Shapes icon (third from left) and choose a
simple shape – I’ve chosen and drawn a rectangle.
- By default, PowerPoint creates the shape with a solid color
and a thin line.
Tip: The floating AutoShapes toolbar is spawned by dragging
the AutoShapes icon off the Draw toolbar - similar toolbars can
be spawned for the Fill and Line colors as well.
We'll explore the next part of this series in the next issue
of this newsletter.
End Note
David M. Antonacci sent me information on his resource
- it is a Producer based online presentation that explains more
about Effective Teaching with PowerPoint in an easy to understand
manner. Download
and view the presentation here...
I've been reading some interesting stuff these days on how PowerPoint
is being used:
"Today, there are people who do their word processing in
PowerPoint. They learn PowerPoint, and that's where they want to
stay." That's one of the interesting remarks from Ray Ozzie,
founder and CEO of Groove Networks Inc., as he continues his conversation
with Computerworld, focusing on how collaboration software meets
the needs of various types of customers. More
on the Computerworld site...
Increasingly, professors are placing their PowerPoint slides on
the Web before or after class -- a feature that students find convenient
and helpful. But while students often ask for this service, it
can also make them less likely to attend classes. Jeffrey
R Young discusses more on Chronicle.com...
Anyone who has endured a lengthy business presentation understands "Death
by PowerPoint." And while it's bad enough being a victim of
a boring presentation that has inspired this phrase, it's even
worse being responsible for one. Scott
Williams discusses more on the Hispanic Business site...
More PowerPoint related info on the PowerPoint
Blog and PowerPoint
Notes. And free
PowerPoint templates for all of you....
Until next time - have a nice day. And
keep the feedback coming...
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Credits
During the preparation of this issue of the PowerPoint Ezine,
I received assistance, content or feedback from Catherine Cormier,
David M Antonacci and Jason Hardy (all in alphabetical order).
I would like to use this platform to thank them for their help.
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