Carmen Ferrara’s Weblog 2.0

I’ve gotten some questions lately on whether Presio supports PowerPoint animations. So I wanted to address that here. Presio supports PowerPoint animations to an extent. The visual aspect of the animation is not supported. For example, an  “Entrance->Fly In” animation will not “Fly In” so to speak. Instead, Presio detects that an animation has occurred and captures an image of the slide at that point. The image is captured once the animation effect has completed.  This allows the content of the animation (text, shape, image,etc) to be recorded and synchronized properly with the corresponding audio/video.  

To see how it works, and hear my brief explanation I created a quick Presio presentation demonstrating a simple slide with 4 PowerPoint animations. This will give you an idea of how it works, and what the output looks like for slides that contain animations.

http://ipresent.net/support/tutorials/ppt_anims/index.html

Great post over at the “Creating Passionate Users” blog on creating graphics for your blog, book, or presentation. Incorporating graphics into a presentation can really help enforce the message you are trying to convey. However, creating graphics for the non-artistically inclined can be challenging. Kathy offers some great resources, tools, and tips for those of us that are not Photoshop gurus.

At the heart of Presio are narrated slides, which can come from a variety of sources including imported graphics. Moving beyond just PowerPoint bullet points and sprinkling some creative graphics can really add to a web presentation.

I am often on the look out for good, practical tips on creating and delivering PowerPoint presentations. Say what you will about the venerable PPT, but it remains the lingua franca of business and educational communication. I recently came across this excellent post by Guy Kawasaki; “The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint”. Guy has recently started blogging and I’m looking forward to reading his thoughts on start-ups, entrepreneurship and technology. His most recent book, “The Art of the Start” is also very high on my reading list.

Many of the points Guy raises are spot on. I’ve always felt that PowerPoint should be used as an aid in delivering a message, and not serve as the message itself. So, I tend to keep my presentations simple - a few bullets points per slide, not too much text, clear, easy to understand graphics, and no animations or needless distractions. Even though Guy’s post specifically talks about how to create a presentation when pitching a VC, I think his tips could serve as an operating guide for creating a better presentation.

One of the hardest things a new company must overcome is how to best articulate its product/service offering. It sounds easy, but it isn’t. You’ve got to be able to clearly, quickly, and cleanly answer the question “What is it?”. Well, here is my attempt at that. I’ve just published a rich media presentation that was created using an early version of iPresent Producer (our soon to be released, first product). This is an audio with slides presentation where I am the speaker. It is meant to provide an overview of our product and services, describe our value, and offer a sneak peak at the product.

What’s nice about our software is that I can actually use it to describe what we do. As the company progresses, I plan on doing a lot of that - using our own products on a daily basis. Sometimes referred to as “eating your own dog food” - it is something I firmly believe in.

Please take a look at the demo and let me know what you think.
iPresent Demo (7 Minutes 39 Seconds): www.ipresent.net/demo