All subscribers of this mailing list can download two free PowerPoint
backgrounds that are going to be part of new unreleased PowerPoint
template collections at ppted.com -
all you need to do is go and download them!
Tony Dunckel talks about SnagIt, PowerPoint and
Microsoft
Tony
Dunckel, Product Marketing Manager of TechSmith SnagIt speaks about
using SnagIt to capture content for PowerPoint presentations. Here
are some excerpts:
Geetesh: Can you explain how SnagIt helps people incorporate
the two worlds of screenshots and presentations?
Tony: When you look at the different types of learners,
visual comprehension is an essential component of almost all of
them. The fact is people remember what they see longer than what
they hear, and putting those words and pictures together makes
for a lasting impression. To that point, using SnagIt to add screenshots,
images, logos, and many other media types to PowerPoint presentations
helps create that perfect balance between visual and non-visual
communication.
SnagIt provides a multitude of ways in which people can capture
different shapes and formats of media on their computers, from
images of windows, menus, scrolling windows, icons and objects
to text, video, Web sites, and even printed output. The flexibility
these various options offer enables users to capture whatever content
complements the presentation's message.
SnagIt has also enhanced the integration of screenshots into presentations
by including an add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint. This add-in, which
resides directly on a user's PowerPoint toolbar, provides the most
important capture options to users and allows them to capture images
and automatically embed them into PowerPoint with just a single
mouse click. SnagIt will even allow users to specify if the image
capture should be inserted as a graphic within an existing slide
or to start a new slide, with all the common slide types available.
And for those that have had difficulty turning a screen capture
image into a complete slide, SnagIt offers a handy feature that
will take an image and stretch it to fit the entire slide. The
goal of adding these conveniences has been to create better integration
between the screen capture process and presentation authoring.
Geetesh: Do you use SnagIt - how do you use it.
Tony: Honestly, I use SnagIt almost hourly. That's the
great thing about a useful utility product - you can always find
ways to use it to make things easier. In the office, the ways I
use SnagIt are really endless and although my profession calls
for the use of numerous screen captures, I've found just as many
ways to use the product in my personal life. To show you how integral
it is, I've broken down how I use SnagIt into a bit of a timeline:
Morning
Reading e-mail, I capture important articles I find in newsletters
and ezines and share them with the staff.
While monitoring our Web content, I capture areas that may
contain typos or need slight changes and mock them up in SnagIt's
image editor. Then I send to the Web staff as an attachment in
an e-mail.
I capture graphics, logos, and even special charts from Microsoft
Visio or Project to implement them into PowerPoint presentations
I am creating.
While creating sales reports, I will capture data that cannot
be copied from our reporting system and embed that content directly
into Microsoft Excel for easier manipulation.
Afternoon
I capture images of SnagIt itself and use its editor to demonstrate
new design ideas.
I capture screenshots of important content from webinars I
participate in - especially since that information is gone once
the presenter changes slides.
If I find bugs while testing software, I use SnagIt to capture
the error messages and send them on to our Quality Assurance
department.
When doing competitive research, I will capture images of competitor's
banners, promotions, and even pricing to enable me to keep an
electronic library of my competition's marketing activities.
Evening
I use SnagIt to capture receipts of online purchases.
I snap pictures of items I may be bidding on in online auctions.
While on mapping sites, I capture an image of the directions.
I use it to edit and organize photos from my digital camera.
I can create visual shopping lists of items I need or want.
This is certainly just a sampling of the ways I routinely use
SnagIt, but it provides a flavor of the diverse ways in which SnagIt
helps me do tasks that would be otherwise impossible - and makes
communication with colleagues and within presentations clearer
than ever.
Trigger animations work with PowerPoint 2002 and above. In this
exercise, we'll look at a basic trigger animation. You can download the
sample presentation here... (around 75 kb)
You'll need two images to illustrate the trigger animations -
I've used images downloaded from Microsoft
Office Online's Clipart section.
Create a new presentation (Ctrl + N) and insert a blank slide.
Insert two images of the same size within this slide - choose
Insert | Picture | From File. Keep both of them in different
areas of the slide.
Right-click one of them and choose Custom Animation from the
resultant menu. This will activate the Custom Animation task
pane.
Click the 'Add Effect' button and then choose an Entrance animation.
I've chosen the Appear animation since that provides the most
optimum clickover effect.
By default, PowerPoint chooses "On Click' for the Start
options. That's what we want so don't alter that.
Below that option, you'll find the name of your image in a
listing of animations. Besides the name, you'll find an arrow
that reveals a drop-down menu on being clicked. Choose the Timing
option in that menu.
This will open the Timing tab of the animation dialog box.
Click the 'Triggers' button so that more options are visible.
Choose the second option that reads 'Start effect on click of:'
and choose the name of the second image we inserted within the
slide. Click OK.
Place both the images one on top of the other (that's why we
chose images of the same size) and play the presentation. Clicking
on the visible image should show us the other image. If that
doesn't work, right click the image that's visible and choose
Order | Send To Back (or Send Backward multiple times depending
on how many objects you have onscreen).
Winning Presentations Seminar
January 15 and 16; February 19 and 20, 2004, Boston, USA
Claudyne Wilder, Wilder Presentations http://www.wilderpresentations.com/
During the preparation of this issue of the PowerPoint Ezine,
I received assistance, content or feedback from Claudyne Wilder
and Tony Dunckel (all in alphabetical
order). I would like to use this platform to thank them for their
help.
Tony
Dunckel, Product Marketing Manager of TechSmith SnagIt speaks about
using SnagIt to capture content for PowerPoint presentations. Here
are some excerpts:
