Resource/Misc

Presentation Summit Talk By Troy

For the 2012 Presentation Summit, I was asked to do a session on the upcoming PowerPoint 2013 from a presenter perspective.

The session went great (at least I thought so) and it was a lot of fun to be with a room full of presentation designers – and a handful of Microsoft Dev and Managers from the PowerPoint team.

With more topics than time, the session was setup with a grid of topics and audience members choose which topics to cover. It made for great interaction and fun.

Note: I am already working on a December blog post series that will cover many of the PPT 2013 topics from this talk (co-authoring, presenter view, widescreen evolution, etc.) – and some topics were already featured on the blog in last months PPT 2013 series.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:04:20-07:00October 11th, 2012|Personal, Resource/Misc|

Videos Not Pure White or Pure Black?

You watch a video in Windows Media Player or Quicktime Player or any other player and it looks great. On the same computer, the video is inserted whites and blacks look grey. Don’t blame PPT, but the Graphics Card (GPU).

If running an nVidia card, look at the DYNAMIC RANGE setting, because it is most likely set to limit the color range of videos (no idea why, but I see this on everyone of the TLC show computers I setup).

Dynamic range describes the ratio between the maximum and minimum white and black.
With the nVidia graphics card, you can adjust the settings for the display. By default, many nVidia cards are set to use the settings which are limited to 16-235 (whites won’t be white, blacks won’t be black).

Open the nVidia Control Panel >> on the left in the “Select a Task” column go to ADJUST VIDEO COLOR SETTINGS >> look at the settings in “2. How do you make color adjustments.” Click on the “ADVANCED” tab. If the DYNAMIC RANGE setting is (16-235), go to the next step.

Select the WITH THE NVIDIA SETTINGS radio button. On the ADVANCED tab, change the DYNAMIC RANGE to FULL (0-255). This lets videos use the full color range from pure white to pure black.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:05:25-07:00October 2nd, 2012|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

JewelBeat Review

We integrate multimedia (music, video, etc.) into a lot of projects. TLC Creative Services has also invested in a lot of royalty free music for our resource library. JewelBeat makes a lot financial sense with royalty free tracks at $.99 each.

What does “Royalty Free” mean for music? No performing rights fees, mechanical licenses, cue sheets, ASCAP or BMI expenses to worry about. For a presentation, it means when the music is purchased, you have the license to use it – anywhere.

I like that all tracks can be previewed for the full length. And there is a free demo (sound marked and low quality) to test and confirm it fits with your project. The site says 35,000+ music tracks and it is a wide range of styles. On the technical side, tracks are generally .mp3 format, 44Hz with a 128k bit rate (ie. good).

One of the best online deals is their hundreds of FREE downloads. Even better, make just a single $.99 purchase and you jump to 1,000+ FREE music tracks, SFX and loops.

Jewelbeat.com

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:05:52-07:00September 28th, 2012|Resource/Misc|

Adobe CS6 – Disc or Subscription?

TLC Creative Services is a long time user of Adobe apps – all the way back to Photoshop 2 (not CS2, just “2”). For the last few CS (Creative Suite) versions, we have purchased the Design Premium suite, which includes:
– Photoshop Extended
– Illustrator
– InDesign
– Acrobat
– Flash Professional
– Dreamweaver
– Fireworks
– Bridge
– Media Encoder

With CS6, the staff designers have the Design Premium Suite and we are testing Adobe’s new subscription option of CS 6 this year. The subscription plan is a monthly fee vs. the big upfront cost. Adobe is also adding features to applications that are available only to subscription users. The CS6 Subscription is like getting the CS Master Suite and includes:
– Photoshop Extended
– Illustrator
– InDesign
– Dreamweaver
– Flash Professional
– Adobe Premiere Pro
– After Effects
– Audition
– SpeedGrade
– Muse

It would seem the subscription is the way to go. It costs a lot less at the end of the year vs. the disc install. But a major advantage of disc version is still owning the previous version when you upgrade. The TLC show computers inherit the previous version, so they have a full software suite for all design needs.

Every situation is different, but the disc install is going to remain a part of our use for several years because we have an ongoing use for the “old” Adobe software.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:07:33-07:00September 21st, 2012|Resource/Misc|

Outstanding Presentations Workshop 2012 Start Tomorrow!

Tomorrow starts the best value on the internet for PowerPoint training. PowerPoint MVP Ellen Finkelstein has setup an 8 part PowerPoint Webinar series entitled “Outstanding Presentations Workshop 2012.”

Each week is a different presentation expert and included with the registration is the ability to watch the recorded sessions over the next 2 months. Oh, and registration is $7 – not per session, but $7 for all 8 sessions!

9/18 Real-World Makeovers
– By: Rick Altman, Host of The Presentation Summit

9/25 Create Amazing Custom Graphics
– By: Sandy Johnson, PowerPoint MVP

10/2 Dynamic PowerPoint for Games, Tutorials and More
– By: Glenna, PowerPoint MVP

10/9 – NO SESSION (Hope everyone is at The Presentation Summit!)

10/16 10 Evil Little Secrets about PowerPoint
– By: Ric Bretschneider, PowerPoint MVP

10/23 Create Slides that Look Handmade
– By: Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP

10/30 Create Charts That Don’t Make Their Eyes Bleed
– By: Echo Swinford, PowerPoint MVP

11/6 A Theme Runs Through It (Slide Masters and Themes)
– By: Julie Terberg, PowerPoint MVP

11/13 Make a Lasting Impression by Visualizing Business
– By: Ellen Finkelstein, PowerPoint MVP

To get more information and register, go here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:08:16-07:00September 17th, 2012|Resource/Misc|

Preparing for the Presentation Summit

With The Presentation Summit just a month away, I am now focused on getting my PowerPoint 2013 session ready to present! If you have not been at one of the past Presentation Summits (formerly “PPTLive”) and you use PowerPoint – this is definitely one event to be at. It has the highest concentration of PowerPoint MVPs and a large group from the Microsoft Office and PowerPoint team all in one place just hanging out for several days talking with everyone. Plus, this year is at a great property in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Fire and Ice Resort – which I have been at for a few executive events in the past (nice place!). Details are at the Summit website here.

After this past month of PowerPoint 2013 blog posts, which did not cover a number of my favorite new features, I am excited about this year’s Presentation Summit and my session. I had some fun with a video intro to my session, which was put together before the Public Beta was released:
[youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/H2hieSSw8Hg?rel=0″]

The schedule has great presenters and topics one after another every day. Echo Swinford and I were elected to have sessions on the upcoming PowerPoint 2013. We have some overlapping topics as Echo talks from the designer perspective and I cover what’s new from the presenter perspective. Check out the Seminar Schedule here.

Hope to meet you in Arizona.
– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:08:37-07:00September 7th, 2012|Resource/Misc|

Microsoft Has a New Logo

On August 23, Microsoft revealed their new corporate logo, which was originally released 25 years ago.

The logo, like virtually every design element coming out of Microsoft right now, is pulled from the Metro style guide. The new design is a modification of the current logo, with boxes (ie. Tiles) that are equilateral and in a symmetrical layout with the four colored boxes forming a single larger box. The type is equally streamlined into the Metro styling with font selection and grey color.

Here is Microsoft’s logo unveiling with its tie ins to the other major Microsoft brands:
[youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/OzkZWvAJUr0?rel=0″]

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:09:14-07:00September 5th, 2012|Resource/Misc|

Office 13 App Icons

Every version of Office has its own variation of the application icons. Here is a quick history:

Office 2003 used square “chiclet” icons:

Office 2007 used alpha transparency for unique, non-square, icons and added gradients throughout:

Office 2010 used the solid square of 2003, filled with the icons and gradients of 2007, and added uniform identifying letters for each app (despite the full application suite had 3 “P” icons):

Office 2013 has both a solid square version and a alpha transparency version. The icons are developed direct from the Microsoft Metro style guide, which is simplified icons, but retaining the identifying letters (and yes, still 3 P’s):

When PowerPoint 2013 is launched, one of the immediate reactions is the orange bars and accents in the UI. One of the constants for Office is each application has an identifying color. Looking through the generations of icons, PowerPoint is orange, Word is blue, Excel is green, OneNote is purple, etc. So by the luck of history, the most visual application, PowerPoint, has one of the most offending/conflicting/glaring colors associated with it… I can say, based on the early builds of PowerPoint I looked at, the UI could have been much more distracting.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:16:21-07:00August 6th, 2012|Resource/Misc|

PowerPoint 2013 All This Month!

After many months of testing the new version of Office, a few weeks ago Microsoft released the Public Beta, which clears the NDA commitment and lets me do this series on the upcoming PowerPoint release. So the entire month of August will be posts about the new and exciting things in our presentation future!

Side note: I have been invited to present at this years Presentation Summit specifically about PowerPoint 2013. I am excited about the conference in general – it really is one of the best gatherings of presentation professionals in the country – and this talk will allow me to go into greater detail using PPT13 for live demos of real world presentation design and delivery scenarios. So, if you can be in Phoenix, AZ this October and want to talk about what the future holds for us in PowerPoint design and delivery, I look forward to seeing you at The Presentation Summit.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:17:55-07:00August 1st, 2012|Personal, Resource/Misc|

eBook Showing All PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Bajaj has released a new ebook that quickly shows all of the available keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint 2003-2007-2010. Just find the section that covers your version and it is all there.

“PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts” is available as a PDF download here. Geetesh has set the price at $0 (free) with the option for the buyer to set a price.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:21:00-07:00July 16th, 2012|Resource/Misc|
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