Okay, for most this will not apply. But I am in meetings at convention centers and resorts every week. It is always a bad day when someone miscalculated and to many people are squished into to small of meeting room. Here is an interesting online calculator that estimates how big a room should be reserved based on the seating type, and type of table used, and number of people attending. Check it out here.
-Troy @ TLC
I travel to a different show virtually every week, so I am constantly on airplanes (this week L.A., next week New York for the NY Auto Show). Of course with a cross country flight I want to make sure I have a good seat, preferably with a power port.
You may have noticed that some seats seem better than others – I have. After booking my flight, my first stop is SeatGuru.com. With your airline and flight info, look up the seating chart for that airplane, make sure you do not have a ‘yellow’ seat, check if it has a powerport and make sure you have the best seat in your category!
– Troy @ TLC
As a final thought on this three-part series, here is my top 10 list of the “other” programs that are a part of my arsenal of tools for developing PowerPoint presentations that are converted to something other than a presentation:
– SnagIt: almost to many uses to list! There are plenty of screen capture applications out there, this one is my preferred because it does so many things, so easily.
– OfficeFX, Professional: Moves presentations to the next level of visual dynamics and also has frame accurate video rendering.
– PFCMedia: If you use video in your “traditional” presentation, the ‘Plays For Certain’ application is what you need to make it work! (and we are all looking forward to a Professional edition of this application)
– Camtasia Studio: Used for everything from online video tutorials found on the TLC Creative website, to converting PowerPoint lectures to webcasts.
– Articulate Presenter, Professional: a solid contender for converting presentations to a distributable format.
– Flash: Big learning curve, but it creates things from custom elements in a presentation to specialized user interfaces for many of the conversion projects.
– DVDIt! 6.0+: My choice for professional DVD authoring.
– Vegas Video: My choice for professional video editing, which has become a large part of PowerPoint conversion projects.
– DreamWeaver: Webcasts, login portals, download pages, etc. are all a part of distribution projects and Dreamweaver is my web development application of choice.
– Magix Audio Cleaning Lab 10: probably the lowest cost software in the list and the newest addition to our arsenal of software. Professional narration and clean up of live video audio is a big part of many projects.
Note: if you are looking for some more great tips & tricks, stay tuned I have been putting the finishing touches on a number of new tutorials and video samples that will be posted over the next few weeks!
-Troy @ TLC
For your presentation you want to show how the world views a country, city or anything. Makes sense that the WORLD Wide Web could provide a world consensus on how something is viewed – right… While I am not going to recommend this for your next presentation, it does prove interesting (and I am sure a bit skewed).
Here is the resulting ‘Prejudice Map‘ that is subtitled “According to Google, people in the world are known for…” that Google Blogoscoped created.
Here is an example google search that was used to create the ‘German’ stereotype.
Troy @ TLC
With Today’s realease of Camtasia 3.1 a number of great tools and output options have been added. One of the very cool features is an intuitive and powerful captioning feature. PowerPoint MVP Glenna Shaw has created a set of examples that show the results. The movie file is from one of my clients (SWOT Expert). I supplied the movie and text file of the narration. Glenna created English Captions and with the help of PowerPoint MVPs Ute Simon and Enric Manas translation, she created German and Spanish subtitles.
The process is so streamlined in Camtasia that Glenna told me all three versions were created in less than 1.5 hours!
Check out the samples here:
English Captions
Spanish Subtitles
German Subtitles
Troy @ TLC
Ever try to delete a file (any type of file) and instead get a message like this:
I had one that just would not go away. Very frustrating. After a bit of searching the web it was easy to see I was not the only one with troublesome files. I solved the problem (eg. deleted the file) with a free little application called unlocker.
Troy @ TLC
I just finished adding a new project overview to the TLC Creative website. It includes a movie of a walk-in looping presentation I developed for an event, which highlighted the event sponsors. Online is a write-up and movie that shows how it was transformed from good to WOW!
Basically, after developing a custom PowerPoint presentation, I used OfficeFX‘s ability to render realtime 3D moving backgrounds and transitions to add that extra something special! To see the write-up and movie click here.
Troy @ TLC
Just received word that Camtasia Studio 3.1 will be released on January 18! I have been beta testing this new version for the past month and it has some fantastic options and results (many can be seen on the movie samples found throughout the TLC Creative website).
Here are a few of the options that I think make this a standout upgrade:
1. Ability to output Flash 8/.flv movie format
2. Ability to create left column containing video of speaker with interactive table of contents and PowerPoint presentation unhindered on right side
3. Incredible captioning tools
Click here to see a side-by-side presentation (speaker is Dave Ulrich, used with permission)
Troy @ TLC
— And TechSmith sent out wonderful Christmas cards with a fantastic poster of “2006 Reasons To Be Thankful.” Amazingly I made the list (lower right brown section)! Get it here.
Looking for a great royalty free photos for your presentation? I do, practically on a daily basis. I do have a large library of royalty free images and subscriptions to several online services. But I still cannot find the perfect image for some projects. This just happened and in searching I found a super new resource that only has a great selection and quality, but is an incredible value!
Check out iStockPhoto. Images cost 1-3 credits, with a credit basically equal to $1.00 each.
Troy @ TLC
Here is the design proof of the ad that used three iStock Photo images in its collage:
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