Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
Posts tagged Powerpoint
When Geek is Cool
Apr 27th
Imagine having to go to a Math class the last day right before vacation. . .
Would you be paying attention?
Or would you be thinking of all the fun stuff you’re about to do during break?
And especially if it was MATH class. . .
Well, here’s one case where skipping class might have meant you missed out on something worth the time. Imagine if this teacher spent this much energy for the last day of class, how would his lectures be throughout the semester? I bet they would be worth every minute.
Don’t you wish your math teachers were as cool as this guy in this video clip below?
QUESTION: DID YOU HAVE ANY TEACHERS THAT HAD A SENSE OF HUMOR?
Add to the conversation and add you comment below!
How To Remove The “X’s” That Are Hindering Your Life
Sep 29th
It seems that “NEW & IMPROVED” is shouted from the mountain tops of every product marketing campaign these days.
Microsoft product marketing is no exception. Every couple of years, we are coerced into upgrading to the “latest and greatest” bloatware.
This time around, it has been the old stand-by, Microsoft Office. On the PC, we are moving to Microsoft Office 2007. Whether it’s the pared down Home and Student Office version or the Office 2007 Ultimate Suite with a whopping 10 applications included, everyone is basically upgrading now or later. On the Mac side it’s a fresh “Mac Office 2008“.
These new versions bring with it all kinds of bells and whistles. A by product of this is that there’s a brand new file format in town. Instead of the .doc file format for Word docs, or .ppt for Powerpoint files, etc, now we have the “new and improved version” with an “X” at the end. Thus the new Microsoft Word files now get saved in .docx format. Powerpoint 2007 files are saved as .pptx.
If you have an older version of Microsoft Word, you can still open and edit the newer file formats, although you might loose some of the new functionality. BUT, you have to download and install a free patch to make your older version of Office compatible with the new file formats — there’s one for both Mac and PC.
But of course, Microsoft isn’t all that benevolent. They want everyone to upgrade at some point of course (cha ching cha ching, pay Bill more money for basically the same product!). So NOT ALL older versions of Microsoft Office are allowed to use this patch to allow compatibility.
What’s the alternative to giving in and sending more cashola to Bill Gates & Co if you have an older version of Microsoft Office that cannot take the upgrade patch??
Here’s an interim solution that will do the trick and avoid the upgrade if everything else seems to be working just fine. Afterall, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right. . . Read the rest of this entry »
Powerpoint Tip: Stop Following Orders
Jul 25th
Did you know that Powerpoint turns 20 this year!
The creators Dennis Austin & Robert Gaskins both readily admit that there are tons and tons of BAD Powerpoint presentations and users.
The original intent of Powerpoint was to use it as a SUPPORTIVE tool to your presentation, not to bore the audience to death by dragging them through an entire detailed presentation — even when the content on the next couple of slides are irrelevant or already covered or just plain moot now based on the discussion in the room.
One of my best and most used tips is something that helps keep presentations alive and focused on the information you want to deliver to the audience in real time — the ability to jump to specific slides within a presentation ON DEMAND, AT WILL. Everyone I’ve shared this with found it incredibly useful and you could see a smirk reveal iteself when they started to imagine how useful it would be in a live powerpoint presentation.
It’s so simple, yet you’d think only powerusers and Powerpoint Magicians would have these super powers. Here’s how. . .
I love tech, gadgets and the web. Hope you pick-up a useful tip or two here today that helps you use technology to your advantage! Better yet, why not share your own expertise in a comment on a post today to help the other readers that land here for answers!