Just a quick post. Today, and only today, the website GiveAwayoftheDay.com has the PowerPoint optimizing application PPTMinimizer. You can download and install for FREE.
To download click here.
Note: must be downloaded AND installed today to validate complimentary serial code.
– Troy @ TLC
Okay, this is some pretty cool stuff! Microsoft Labs (kind of an R-&-D group that releases software that MS makes no guarantees about or support for) has made a PPT 2007 add-in that changes the way you think about slide navigation.
Imagine one slide having a dozen very very small thumbnail images of other slides and then those slides having even smaller thumbnail images of more slides. View the first slide, click on a thumbnail and zoom into it. Go through the slides in order or zoom back out to go to a different topic/section!
This one is easier to see explained, so click here for movie overview. I will be experimenting with PPTPlex this week and should have a few samples posted.
– Troy @ TLC
In searching for images for a current project I stumbled on indisain, a royalty free site that offers all images free of charge.
You do need to register in order to login and download images (without a watermark). I found the variety good, but the image size varied from usable (1280px wide) to unusable (100px wide). Images are categorized, but limited search capabilities with categories. And some categories had more images than others, such as the landscapes category with 72 pages of images.
If you need another image resource, you can check out indisain here.
– Troy @ TLC
If you are an Outlook user like me for email (my 12 year old daughter has no use for email that is not web-based on accessible from any connection or phone). I think this is a must have tool, and I am in good company as Mr. Bill Gates recently extolled its usefullness!
Xobni is “inbox” spelled backwards. It runs along side Outlook, without touching any of its files (very important to me) and is viewed in a new column. It adds information about who is emailing you, how to contact them, who you have mutually emailed, threaded conversations and more.
By far my favorite feature is the ‘Files Exchanged’ area that shows all of the attachments that person has sent me – which means no more hunting through old emails for that logo!
It is FREE and works! Look at it here.
– Troy @ TLC
It is not often that I have 2 posts in a day – but this offer is time sensitive as it expires today! The website “Giveaway of the Day” has an offer to download and install a full function version of iSpring Pro for free – regularly $199.
iSpring is a PPT-to-Flash conversion add-in. It adds a tool bar to PPT and from my initial tests does a good job of capturing animations and visual effects (note: I have not fully tested the iSpring software, but it has been on my radar for awhile. I actually downloaded demo version of software last month, but did not have time to run through my standard series of test files to really evaluate it).
So if you are interested, you can have it for free. NOTE: it must be downloaded AND installed before the Giveaway of the Day deal ends today (approx. 15hrs from this post). Click here to go to download page.
– Troy @ TLC
In PowerPoint, Photoshop, Word and many other applications you can turn on a ruler to confirm size, alignment, etc. Enter the very cool JRuler application!
Here we can see the PPTBlog banner is 740px wide.
– JRuler is a free download (download here).
– It does not need to be installed (just launch the .exe any time)
– It can be stretched to any length (maximum is your screen resolution)
– It floats on top of all applications and windows
– Hint: right-click on it for a number of additional tools and options. Open the JRuler.htm file included in the download for full details
– Troy @ TLC
I am very excited because I finally finished all of the demo’s for the AudioSolutionz webinar that I am doing in just a few days (hey, I have been traveling almost non-stop for the past 3 months – and it has (almost) all been PowerPoint related shows).
The thing that I really became aware of was the best way to add power to PowerPoint is to know what add-ins are available and to know what they do see them demonstrated. That is the really great part about a live a webinar is that it allows me to do more than make a recommendation, I can demonstrate each add-in with real-world presentation examples.
Click here to get details on the AudioSolutionz webinar. Hope to see many of you there!
– Troy @ TLC
One of my favorite applications, SnagIt, has just this week released the completely redesigned version 9.
There is a new Microsoft like ribbon navigation (works great) and some new image management tools. Get all the details, pricing and download options here. Download.com also has a good review of it here.
– Troy @ TLC
One of the best deals available is the map collection from an educational supplier. eSchoolMaps has a huge collection of U.S. and global maps that are supplied in several formats.
The .emf version is not only compatible with PowerPoint, but already on slides which can be inserted into any presentation! And all can be modified with custom fills, resizing, etc. But best of all, the entire collection is just $40! Look at it here.
Here is a US map I modified for a recent project:
– Troy @ TLC
Not up to speed on the new Ribbon interface… Have 10 minutes to kill… Check out this nifty interactive Flash demo on why the Ribbon was designed and interactive tutorials for each of the Office apps.
Click here to open. If you want to skip ahead, PowerPoint is Chapter 6.
– Troy @ TLC