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The PowerPoint Ezine - 44
by Geetesh Bajaj, June
16th, 2004
Get this ezine in your mailbox...
Before we start, here's an invitation to attend PowerPoint
Live for all PowerPoint users:
Conference Host Rick Altman invites you to spend four days
with him and his team [of experts] at PowerPoint Live, October
10-13 in San Diego. Learn more than you ever imagined and have
more fun while doing it than you ever dreamed possible. PowerPoint
Live will accommodate 250 patrons and two dozen exhibitors -
for information on both opportunities, visit http://www.powerpointlive.com...
New Prizes
By being subscribed to this ezine,
you are eligible to win!
Jim Roach of StreamPresentations.com is
giving away three copies of his PowerPoint streaming video solution
- thank you, Jim.
Jim is also providing the entire PowerPoint streaming solution
for just US$24 - that's a 75% discount off the list price of US$99.
The discount coupon code is: indezine and the discount will
be applied LAST during the checkout process after you enter the
coupon code (indezine).
Joanna Biggs of Above & Beyond is giving away
three copies of their cool Ten
Ways to Avoid Death by PowerPoint product. Thank you, Joanna.
Here's a link to the Indezine review
of the product...
Vladimir Zecevic of Ars Media is giving away three
copies of their amazing Photoshop
to PowerPoint add-in. Here's a link to the Indezine
review of the product...
Now, for the winners! Pat
Tsonis and Michael Sain won copies of Steve Rindsberg's PPTools
range of PowerPoint add-ins. Congratulations to both of you!
For those who did not win, you can still download a free copy
of Steve's PPTools
Starter Set.
Back
Microsoft Expression Makes News
 Microsoft made
no noise when they quietly added a new product on their site -
but everybody else made a lot of noise about it. Imagine an illustration
package that uses natural media strokes within a vector program.
This program may compete in the future with stalwarts like Adobe
Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and CorelDRAW. This one can create
Flash animations too.
The product is Microsoft Expression - a product acquired
from Creature House. And here's some links on Expression to get
you started...
Existing
users of Expression can download a Mac or Windows version of
Expression from the Microsoft site...
Annie Ford's
Studio E3 site has among the best online tutorials for Expression.
Annie also conducts online Expression
lessons - and I know they are amazing because I'm learning
from her now.
Northlite
Designs has several Expression resources on their site.
About.com has
a page of Expression links.
Microsoft has an Expression
newsgroup...
And here are some Indezine links:
Microsoft
Expression PNGs for PowerPoint
Microsoft Visio and
Expression
Special Offer
 Advertisement: The
long wait for stunning new 3D transition effects for PowerPoint
is over! Introducing PowerPlugs: Transitions V, hot off the creative
production line. Be one of the first presenters to wow your audiences
with some of the most magical, futuristic and innovative 3D transition
effects anyone has ever seen.
In addition to these cool new 3D effects, PowerPlugs: Transitions
V also includes some powerful new features. For example, many of
the 3D transition effects in volume V allow you to select your
own image or photo to be automatically inserted right into the
transition effect. This is a great way to show off your organization's
name, product, logo, slogan or photo. More
info...
PowerPoint and Video Part III
Before I get started with the third part of this series, I must
tell you how much fun it is to use muvee. muvee, or rather muvee
autoProducer is an amazing program that automatically creates
movie collages from your video clips. Try
downloading their trial version here...
You'll find Part I of this series in the 42nd
issue of this ezine...
You'll find Part II of this series in the last issue
of this ezine...
Convert Codecs and Formats
Converting between codecs is easy. If you do use digital video
applications like Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas Pro, you already
know more than just conversion of codecs and formats.
There are several shareware and freeware applications that allow
you to convert between codecs and video formats - one such tool
is Avery Lee's
VirtualDub. VirtualDub is a free program under GNU General
Public License. Another is Stoik's free Video
Converter.
You'll find step-by-step tutorials to convert codecs using both VirtualDub and Stoik
Video Converter on Indezine.com.
For converting from QuickTime to AVI, look at Indezine's PowerPoint
and QuickTime page.
Insert Video
Normally, you'll insert video clips into PowerPoint using the
Insert menu options. When you choose a video, PowerPoint prompts
you if you want the video to play automatically - unless you have
some reason for the video to play on a mouse click, it is a good
idea to accept this option. You can always change this behavior
or edit it using the Custom Animation taskpane.
- Navigate to the slide where you want the video inserted in
a new or existing presentation.
- Choose Insert | Movies & Sounds | Movie from File… and
choose the required video file.
- PowerPoint prompts you if you want the movie to play automatically
or only when clicked - choose your option. It is a good idea
to choose the automatic option if you are not sure since removing
that behavior is usually a one-click operation - adding that
behavior on the other hand takes several steps.
You can resize your video once it is inserted in a slide. Once
you select the video, you'll see eight handles around it - four
on the corners and the other four between the corners (on the sides).
- Drag it from the corner handle to resize it in the same proportion
on all sides.
- Drag it from the side handle to resize it without proportion.
- Drag it from the corner or sides with both the Ctrl and Shift
keys pressed to resize it from the center.
Link Videos (for unsupported
formats)
For other formats, especially ones like RealVideo and QuickTime
(newer versions); sometimes the only route open is to link the
videos from a hyperlink or Action button.
- To link a video file, select text (or portion of any text),
an Action button or even an inserted picture or AutoShape.
- Right-click and choose Action Settings.
- In the Mouse Click tab, click the downward arrow button in
the Hyperlink to: area and choose the 'Other File' option.
- Navigate and choose the video file that you want to play.
Click OK.
Now clicking on whatever has been provided an Action Setting attribute
will initiate the associated program in slideshow mode. If you
have linked to a RealVideo movie, this might initiate RealPlayer
or the QuickTime player in case you have linked to a MOV video.
In all cases you will have to close the video clip independently
of PowerPoint.
Tip: You can use the linking technique to initiate any associated
program from within PowerPoint, even non-video files.
The next part of the PowerPoint
and Video article will be included in the next ezine issue.
Back
The Michael Doyle Interview
 Michael
Doyle (pictured to the left) is the Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Of Impatica.
He has founded several successful high technology companies including
Computer Innovations which became Canada’s largest personal
computer sales and service organization with revenues of over
one billion dollars annually. Mr. Doyle served as a member of
Canada’s National Advisory Council on the Information Highway
and on the Ministers Council on Educational Technology. He started
his career as a Systems Engineer with IBM Corporation and co-founded
Impatica in 1998. Other founders included his daughter Catherine
and son Eric both of whom are are Computer Engineering graduates
who continue to play key roles in the Company.
In this exclusive interview, Michael
talks about Impatica, online rich media and PowerPoint...
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.
Back
Events & Seminars
PowerPoint Live
October 10 to 13, 2004, San Diego, California, USA
Rick Altman, R Altman Digital Consulting
http://www.pptlive.com/
Back
Credits
During the preparation of this issue of the PowerPoint Ezine,
I received assistance, content or feedback from Adam Schwartz,
Annie Ford, Austin Myers, Betsy Weber, Colin Adams, Jim Roach,
Joanna Biggs, Kathy Jacobs, Michael Doyle, Mickey Stevens, Nicole
Ha, Rick Altman, Steve Rindsberg, Tania Chew and Vladimir Zecevic
(all in alphabetical order). I would like to use this platform
to thank them for their help.
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