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The PowerPoint Ezine - 11
by Geetesh Bajaj
In this ezine issue, we first take a look at resources to download
free images for both commercial and non-commercial usage. After
a few snippets of 'Quick News', we discuss Indezine's new affiliations.
There is a retrospective feature with a look at PowerPoint version
2 followed by announcement of new products and offers from CrystalGraphics
and Hemera Technologies. We then proceed to discuss options on
using PowerPoint presentations on handhelds followed by a quick
poll on favourite presentation background colours. We finish by
focussing on Steve Rindsberg's new Prep4PDF PowerPoint add-in that
helps create better PDFs from PowerPoint.
Free Images & Textures: A Listing
If you need a free image for commercial usage, you may often find
yourself facing a road block! The reasons behind these state of
affairs is quite obvious - no professional likes to give away something.
Digital photography has changed a few equations - many amateurs
now have photo collections spanning thousands of quality images.
Many of them have no objections if you use their content commercially,
although it is best to read the fine print before taking any decision.
On Indezine, you'll find a new listing of sites that offer quality
images for free. Look here:
http://www.indezine.com/products/clipmedia/freeimages.html
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Quick News
PresentationPro has
updated their EmailPRESENTER product. Available as a free
update to existing customers, new features include more email formats,
customization and functionality options, etc.
Wildform, Inc. has announced Linx, an easy-to-use
Flash editor that lets you import, edit, manipulate and combine
virtually any type of Flash (SWF) file. You can also directly import
image and audio files. Linx features a WYSIWYG interface so you
can drag and drop files onto a timeline and create amazing Flash
files without knowing Flash. More
info...
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New Affiliations
Indezine has new affiliations in place with several vendors of
software applications and template designs. This is expected to
help raise resources for maintenance and improvement of this site.
Fair enough to mention that if you buy any of these products available
through affiliate links here, I receive a certain affiliate fee
straight from the vendor. It does not cost you anything more -
and it does help increase the number of pages containing tutorials,
techniques and information on this site. The present affiliations
are in place with:
CrystalGraphics -
PowerPoint add-ins and templates
Design
Science - MathType equation editing software
PowerFinish -
PowerPoint templates and backgrounds
Website
Estates - PowerPoint templates and backgrounds
Wildform -
Flix, SwFx and Linx (Flash SWF) software
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Looking Back: PowerPoint 2
In May 1990, Microsoft released PowerPoint 2.0 for the Macintosh
- followed by the Windows version in June 1990. PowerPoint 2 came
with a separate Bitstream product called Fontware to allow font
usage within the program. A full installation of Fontware with
all available fonts consumed 35 mb - in comparison, PowerPoint
2 required only 7 mb!
Microsoft sent me a copy of PowerPoint 2 for research on this
article - unfortunately, it refused to install on Windows 98, 2000
or XP. The best I could manage was Windows 3.1 - fortunately, it
did not insist on Windows 2!
Luckily, I just copied the whole PowerPoint 2 folder to a Windows
2000 system - and the program worked great - right down to using
true type fonts! Imagine - I could actually use the product today.
The program folder for PowerPoint 2 contained another program
called GraphicsLink from Genigraphics.
Another feature in PowerPoint 2 was that everything - including
sample files, help files, tutorials - even clipart was distributed
as a PowerPoint presentation. For instance, the help file contained
a convenient chart which showed you equivalent keyboard characters
for the Zapf Dingbats font.
Finally, PowerPoint 2 had the styles concept - you could save
a text style - using a font name, size, style, colour, etc.
PowerPoint 2 also included a great sample presentation which Christopher
Columbus supposedly showed to Queen Isabella of Spain before his
famous ship journey!
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PowerPlugs: SuperSaver Combo 2
 CrystalGraphics
has introduced its new SuperSaver Combo 2 - this includes the following
products:
- PowerPlugs: Transitions, Volumes I, II and III
- PowerPlugs: 3D Titles, Volumes I and II
- PowerPlugs: Templates, Volumes I and II
- PowerPlugs: Charts
The entire combo collection spans 8 CDs and is now available
for $349. That's over 25% off the price of buying all 8 products
separately. More
info...
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Hemera Image Collections For Business Professionals
Hemera has announced two new image collections for business users,
available through GraphicsDesk,
an application available for free download at www.graphicsdesk.com. GraphicsDesk lets
users browse and subscribe to thousands of online royalty-free
images with total convenience and portability.
"Hemera is now providing images specific to such industries
as real estate, finance and insurance, allowing business users
to incorporate relevant images that add visual impact to their
documents and Web sites." says Marc-Antoine Benglia, Chief
Product Architect & President of Hemera.
The Business Essentials Collection provides unlimited access to
over 75,000 images that are ideal for every type of business communication,
and can be purchased at $19.95 USD for a one-week subscription,
or $99.95 USD for a one-year subscription.
The Business Select Collection includes unlimited access to over
5,000 handpicked images specific to the Real Estate, Finance and
Insurance industries, and can be purchased at $99.95 USD for a
one-year subscription.
More info...
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PowerPoint And Handhelds
Quite often, you might want to transfer your PowerPoint presentations
to your handheld - which might be based on the Palm, Windows CE
or Pocket PC platform.
On the Palm platform, you might want to take a look at Dataviz's Documents
To Go program. This includes the Slideshow To Go component
that allows you to synchronize, edit and rehearse your PowerPoint
files and make last minute changes to your presentation.
If you have an older handheld that runs Windows CE, a copy of
Pocket PowerPoint should be pre-installed on the machine.
On the PocketPC, you'll be spoilt for choices between the following:
- Pocket
Slideshow
- Pocket
Slides
- iPresentation
Suite
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Poll: Favourite Presentation Background Colour
For the last few months, Indezine and Ppted
have been jointly running a quick poll to ascertain favourite
colour choices of your
presentation background colour. You might want to take
a look at the live results or poll here...
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Focus on Prep4PDF
It's fairly simple to make PDFs from PowerPoint if you have Adobe
Acrobat, Jaws Systems PDF Creator or any of the other available
PDF-making tools. The only problem is that you end up with a 'static'
PDF that doesn't include any of the action buttons, hyperlinks
and other goodies that bring the PowerPoint version of the presentation
to life. Recent versions of Acrobat include a PDFMaker add-in that
translates slide transitions and hyperlinks in text into the PDF,
but even that leaves action buttons and other types of links behind.
You have to re-create them manually in Acrobat after you've made
the PDF.
Enter Prep4PDF, which doesn't actually make the PDF itself --
for that you still need Acrobat, PDF Creator (or any other product
that supports an obscure PDF feature called 'PDFMark'). However,
when you print to PDF via Prep4PDF, it automatically converts your
slide transitions, hyperlinks, action settings into PDF, and gives
you extended control over cropping, document information and a
host of other features.
Prep4PDF is from Steve Rindsberg, a PowerPoint MVP who has created
several add-ins. He has put up a quick comparison of PDF vs PowerPoint
as a distribution medium here:
PowerPoint vs. Acrobat
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Credits
During the preparation of this issue of the PowerPoint Ezine,
I received assistance and feedback from Colby Devitt, Erica Comeau,
Gary White and Steve Rindsberg (all in alphabetical order). I would
like to use this platform to thank them for their help.
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