Adobe CS 6 is Coming – and FREE Upgrade Offer
Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat are all common applications we use for presentation projects. Adobe has (finally) announced the time frame for CS6 to be released AND is offering the largest free upgrade they have ever done!
Release date for Adobe CS 6:
By May 31, 2012Free Upgrade:
Purchase Adobe CS 5.5 through May 6, 2012 and receive a one-time upgrade to Adobe CS 6 free.Details for the upgrade offer from the Adobe site are here.
– Troy @ TLC
Why Are The Shadows Not Animating?
Have you run into the issue of during the slide show an animated bullet list of text has the text shadow visible and then the full text animates on top of the shadow? It is a scenario that started with PPT 2007. The good news is, it is not a bug in the program and it is easy to “fix.”
Scenario:
You have shadow effects on your text and a great on-click animation.
But when you view as a slide show, the shadow of the text is not animating!
To Fix:
1. Select the text box.
2. Go to FORMAT >> SHAPE EFFECTS >> SHADOW and change the selection to NO SHADOW.
3. With the text box still selected, go to FORMAT >> TEXT EFFECTS >> SHADOW and choose the shadow style needed.
4. Now when you run as a slide show everything appears when animated!
Why:
PowerPoint has always had two types of shadows: Shape and Text shadows. In PPT 2003, there was really no visual difference between them (at the code level, the two shadow types were different). Starting with PPT 2007, the difference between the two shadows types made a difference in how things are displayed. The non-animating text shadow is the most common way this shows up.
– Troy @ TLC
VERY Creative and Impressive iPad Presentation
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qSA3Cvo4ff0
Thanks Tony R. for the link to this great presentation.
– Troy @ TLC
FREE – Adobe Lightroom 4 Live Online Course
I just found out about this (thanks Paul!) and thought others might be interested.
CreativeLIVE is offering an online workshop taught by Laura Shoe, a photographer and instructor from Seattle. Lightroom is Adobe’s incredible digital photography toolbox. The course description says it covers the fundamentals of Lightroom: how to import, organize and edit your photos and videos, create, copy and share and an overview what’s new Lightroom 4.
Get the full details here.
– Troy @ TLC
CloudOn Puts Full PPT on iPad
I have been experimenting with “CloudOn” for the iPad which launched just a month ago. The company description “Use the CloudOn workspace on the iPad to access your files and manage them.” “Edit, review and present docs in Microsoft Office” is a good summary of the offering.
Here are a few screen captures of designing slides on my ipad:
– This is the real PPT 2010, so the same ribbon interface and options (some features are disabled).
– The smaller iPad screen size was a factor in editing slides.
– I really like the keyboard CloudOn uses with all of the Function, CTR, ALT and other keys.
Basically, you are accessing a remote version of Microsoft Office 2010, just like you can connect to your computer through your iPad using LogMeIn or other remote access apps. Of course, the service means you must be online to work in PPT, so WiFi is good or your monthly bandwidth may get a lot more use. It is the real PPT 2010 interface, which is not touch sized (I tap on the wrong icon a lot) and has no gesture control.
For me, it is a fun novelty that does prove more valuable for presenting than designing slides.
– Troy @ TLC
IPAD Speaker Timer
For many live meetings, a speaker timer, a countdown clock presenters on stage see to know how much longer they have in their allotted time, is very valuable. There are speaker timer units that use proprietary control unit and display, software to run on a computer and display on a monitor (my favorite is “SpeakerTimer Pro” by the company that developed the Playback Pro system – it has the “Timewarp” feature to smoothly adjust the timer to be what you need, not what a real clock would say) and I also have a countdown slide deck (120 slides set to auto advance every 60 seconds).
But having a full computer inline for such a simple task is overkill. Here is a recent show where I loaded up my countdown presentation into Keynote on the iPad, connected the iPad to the monitor and saved a lot of desk space (and lightened my tech case by not needing to pack a computer for the task).
– Troy @ TLC
The new TLC Creative Services office – Behind the Scenes
At the end of 2011, we purchased our new office space, had a great contractor handle moving virtually every wall and door (consolidated a few of the workspaces and hallway into a large workspace for most designers to be in), followed by an IT contractor handling the network wiring (his only question was “Why do you need 43 data ports?”) and some creative planning with the IKEA office furniture app. We have settled in (even have art on the walls!) and are keeping busy doing what we enjoy.
Visitors are welcome (but I do tend to be working in a ballroom somewhere more than at the office).
– Troy @ TLC