Introduction
Articulate Presenter ’09 is the new version of Articulate Presenter,
a product that plugs into Microsoft PowerPoint, and allows you to create
interactive rich-media content -- in addition, Presenter allows you to insert
quizzes created in Articulate Quizmaker '09, interactions created in Articulate
Engage '09, FLV Flash videos converted in Articulate Video Encoder '09, Flash
animations, narrations, and web objects to the presentation. The output is
customizable, and reduces the file size compared to the original PowerPoint
source so that the content can also be sent by e-mail, or distributed online.
We have reviewed Presenter
in the past. This new version adds annotation features, improved implementation
for narrations, branching, single-slide or slide range previews, and more.
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About Articulate Presenter ’09
Articulate Presenter ’09 is from Articulate, a New
York based company that also creates the Quizmaker and Engage products. You
can learn more about Articulate and download a free trial version of Articulate
Presenter ’09 from
their site.
My contact at Articulate for this review was Gabe Anderson -- thank
you, Gabe.
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Download and Installation
You can download the installer for the full or trial version. Run the
setup routine and follow the instructions. Once installed, you can access
Articulate Presenter '09 from a new Ribbon tab within PowerPoint 2007,
as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Articulate Ribbon tab within PowerPoint
For users of previous versions of PowerPoint, you'll find a new Articulate
menu that provides the same options.
For the first time when the application is launched, you will be asked
to activate the product, or use it in trial mode (“Activate Later”).
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Using Articulate Presenter ’09
Follow these steps to get started with Articulate Presenter ’09:
- Open any presentation in PowerPoint, and then choose the following
options from the Articulate tab of the Ribbon.

Figure 2: Articulate tab within PowerPoint
The Articulate tab of the Ribbon comprises four groups: Narration,
Insert, Tools, and Publish -- each of these are explained below:
- Narration -- this group has five options:
- Record Narration allows to record your narration.
- Add Annotations allows you to add annotation
to the slides.
- Sync Animation -- using this option, you can
synchronize the narration with animation.
- Import Audio allows you to import any existing
audio file into the presentation.
- Audio Editor (see Figure 3)--
this option allows you to edit existing audio files. You can crop
unwanted areas, and synchronize your slides and animations with
audio cues, etc.

Figure 3: Audio Editor
- Insert -- this group provides six options:
- Quizmaker Quiz allows to add new or already
created Quizmaker quizzes. Read more about Quizmaker here.
- Engage Interaction allows you to add new or
already created Engage interactions. Read more about Engage here.
- Attachment (See Figure 4) are
resources you want to make available to users during playback of
your presentation. These attachments will be accessible to viewers
when they click the Attachment button in the final output.

Figure 4: Attachment
- Learning Games (see Figure 5)
creates interactive and fun Flash-based learning games.

Figure 5: Learning Game Wizard
- Flash Movie imports Flash SWF and FLV movies
to the slide, presenter panel, or in a new window.
- Web Object (See Figure 6 ) links a live web
page to the presentation

Figure 6: Insert Web Object
- Tools -- this group has four options
- Slide Properties (see Figure 7)
-- here you can set properties for individual slides -- including
set levels and branching. You can also set the slides to advance
automatically, or by input from the user. In addition, you can
lock individual slides.

Figure 7: Slide Properties
- Player Templates (see Figure 8)
-- set colors, player templates, layout, text labels, even navigation
options, etc.

Figure 8: Player Templates
- Presentation Options (see Figure 9) -- set various other options for the presentation.
Figure 9: Presentation Options
- Help and Support -- choose these options to
get help online, check for updates and help document.
- Publish -- this group has two options
- Preview -- option allows you to preview the
entire presentation, a slide range, or single slides before publishing.
- Publish -- opens the Publish dialog box, as
shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Publish
The publish window enables you to choose different options for
various output formats.
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Publishing from within Articulate Presenter
You can also access Engage ’09 application from within the Articulate
menu in PowerPoint. This only works if you also have Articulate Presenter
installed.
- Open any presentation in PowerPoint, choose the Articulate tab
of the Ribbon and then choose Engage Interaction, as shown in Figure 11 below.

Figure 11: Articulate Presenter Ribbon Tab in PowerPoint.
- This opens the Engage ’09 interaction dialog box, choose Create
New as shown in Figure 12 -- this adds an interactive
slide within PowerPoint.

Figure 12: Engage Interactions
- If you click the Create New button, you'll find that this opens the
same Articulate Engage interface as explained in the preceding section
on this page. However, in this case when you are done, click the Save and Return to Presenter button to add the interactivity on
the PowerPoint slide itself (see Figure 13).

Figure 13: Articulate Engage Interactivity slide in PowerPoint
The inserted interactivity on the PowerPoint slide can be edited anytime by clicking the Edit in Engage option (refer
to Figure 13 above).
Note: Such inserted interactivity cannot be viewed
within PowerPoint -- for that you have to publish it using the output
options in Articulate Presenter.
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Pricing and Support
Articulate Presenter ’09 is priced at $699 -- and it's also part
of the Articulate Rapid E-Learning Studio ’09 Standard and Pro suites
of e-learning products.
Support options include e-mail support, an online knowledge base, community
forums, and extensive documentation. Articulate also provides custom on-site
and web-based training for a fee.
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Conclusion
Articulate Presenter ’09 is one of those products that improves
all the time -- this new version is a compelling upgrade for existing
users -- and for new users, this sets the standards as far as creating
rich media output from PowerPoint is concerned.
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