PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac is, unequivocally, an improvement over PowerPoint 2004. I finally managed to pick up a copy last month, and I’ve been putting the software through its paces looking for improvements over its predecessor as well as for areas in which the application can still grow. As a disclaimer, I should admit that I usually use Keynote as my slide software, and PowerPoint only comes out when the situation demands it. I’m not as familiar with PowerPoint as I need to be for a detailed review, so view this entry as a simple overview of my impressions as I worked with PowerPoint 2008.

A Whole New Look

The first thing I noticed when launching the new version of PowerPoint is that the application sports a new look. Unlike PowerPoint 2004, it looks like it belongs on the Mac. The previous version sported numerous floating toolbars, had no option to view slides as thumbnails, and had a great deal of nonstandard interface elements. PowerPoint 2008 goes a long way towards fixing many of the interface oddities that have been part of PowerPoint for Mac since Office 2001.




Toolbars in PowerPoint 2004 and PowerPoint 2008


Slide navigation in PPT 2004 and PPT 2008

The interface still has its problems. Some toolbars still float, and the Formatting Palette may behave strangely with Exposé and Spaces, but PowerPoint on the Mac now looks like an application rather than a collection of unconnected toolbars and windows that happen to talk to one another. It’s a big step in the right direction.

Notable Improvements and Additions

As Office 2007 for Windows sports a new Ribbon interface, Office 2008 for Mac gains the Element Gallery, a top-level place to find things like slide themes, transitions, slide masters, charts, and Word Art. Any elements you choose form the gallery are immediately applied to your current slide to let you see exactly how it will look. By default, the Elements Gallery displays in orange, which can be visually distracting, but you can change the appearance to graphite in the application preferences.



The Elements Gallery in orange and graphite.

The Formatting Palette has also seen some improvements, but the tool (while a welcome alternative to multiple toolbars) is growing cluttered. The Object Palette has added more shapes and can now directly access the Clip Art library without opening a separate application, and the Custom Animation Palette makes it easier to manipulate text and image builds while avoiding dialog boxes. I’m also a fan of the updated Reference Tools which let you search Encarta and bilingual dictionaries among the usual sources.

PowerPoint 2008 features new styles for images that seem to be a direct reaction to the way Keynote handles images. The image features leapfrog what Keynote is capable of but some of the flexibility is not readily apparent.


Quickly adding an image effect.

I use Picturesque to prepare images like this for use in Keynote, but PowerPoint 2008 all but negates the need for a third-party image editor to add fanciful styles and effects to your images. The only drawback comes with fine-tuning the images, which requires opening a separate dialog box. Fortunately, the adjustments you make in the dialog box happen to the image live, so it could be worse.

The final great bit about PowerPoint 2008? As you can see in the screenshots of the Slide Navigator, PowerPoint now supports widescreen presentations without having to manually adjust slide proportions. This is a good thing in my book.

Quibbles and Bits

PowerPoint 2008 is not without its problems, but whatever drawbacks there are stay pretty minor.

• Microsoft still loves dialog boxes. The situation is improving, but anytime a dialog box opens, part of your work is obscured.
• Transitions are not as smoothly animated as Keynote’s, and many happen too fast by default.
• Floating toolbars look even more out-of-place now that the main application window has been fixed.
• Changes made to one master slide in a presentation affects all master slides.
• Toolbars and palettes often do not function correctly in Spaces.

Conclusion

While it hasn’t made a convert out of me, PowerPoint 2008 is a strong upgrade to the application. It clearly sets a foundation upon which Microsoft can build a better user experience than previous versions of PowerPoint. If you use PowerPoint regularly, I recommend picking up Office 2008. If you’ve been dealing with PowerPoint 2004 running under Rosetta on an Intel Mac, you will see performance improvements. However, if you’re a Keynote user who only occasionally needs PowerPoint, visit a nearby Apple Store first and try it out first to see if the improvements are compelling to you.

Tags: software

I should have a new post up later today, but I wanted to give you a link to a presentation workshop run by Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds coming up this next Spring.

Here are the details:

• When: March 17-19, 2009
• Where: Santa Clara Techmart 5201 Great America Pkwy # 122 Santa Clara, CA 95054
• Cost: $675

For more info, visit this website: Presentation // Reboot

ICE 2008 is over, and, save the correction I posted yesterday, everything went fairly smoothly. There was some confusion over the room in which I was supposed to present, but the ICE staff was very helpful and friendly in sorting that out!

I needed to have taken a picture of the schedule outside my assigned location. David Pogue was scheduled to give a talk in that same room earlier in the day!

The Talk

Both the delivery and the technology went well yesterday. I was speaking on a raised stage area, so I had to remain conscious of my footing to avoid literally breaking my leg (which a friend of mine had suggested I do idiomatically wishing me luck)! Also, a piano was on the stage with me, so I felt required to play it some before my talk began.

I was tickled by something I said incorrectly during the presentation. Intending to say, "Creating an outline on your slides is fine if you are teaching high school freshmen how to take notes," I accidentally substituted the word "fremen" for "freshmen." In truth, if you find yourself in a room full of high school fremen, I suggest you run before they claim your water for the tribe!

Miscellany

I attended some good presentations – including a couple by David Pogue I might write about later. The exhibitor floor was pretty sparse with Microsoft's booth being the only one that stood out in any way. Apple's booth was virtually nonexistent this year.


points for popcorn!

While in the exhibitors hall, I snagged a copy of Mr. Pogue's Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual, and he autographed it for me! I had a couple more chances to talk to Mr. Pogue throughout the day, and I found him incredibly friendly and approachable. I find it hard to believe that people write disparaging stuff about him on their blogs!


memorabilia! whee!

My friend Mary had a table set up along the back of the hall, documenting a technology success story. She was featuring composer trading cards her children had made using Microsoft Publisher. It was a great idea, and I might end up using it in my classroom later this year! (By the way, Mary's my music teacher hero.)


I'll trade you a Dvořák and a Copeland for a Mozart!

Finally, I will leave you with this odd piece of artwork outside the Indiana Convention Center. I can't find any info about it at the moment, but it looks like two adults dancing atop a pile of money in front of a poor child (not visible in the picture). If you know the story behind the sculpture, let me know!


just rub it in, why don't you?

That's all for this year's trip to ICE. I'll keep you posted if any other interesting opportunities come my way!

Tags: my talks, david pogue

If you were at my session at the ICE conference this Friday, I referenced an article about creativity in response to an audience member's question. As it turns out, I had the title of the article completely wrong! It's a two part article by Garr Reynolds, and you can find both parts by clicking the links below.

Presentation Zen: You are creative (who the %$#@! says you're not?)

Presentation Zen: You are creative (part 2)

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can get back to some regularly scheduled blogging!

Tags: my talks

Just a head's up that I'll be presenting at the Indiana Computer Educators conference again this year. This time around, I'm showcasing the content of this site in a talk titled Simply Presentation. I'll be speaking from 2:00-2:45 in the Wabash Ballroom #2 of the Indiana Convention Center on Friday, January 25.

Here's the description from the ICE booklet:

In a world full of cookie-cutter PowerPoints, bullet-filled slides, and buzzword-laden speeches, you have the potential to find your own voice and shine as a presenter. Come examine an alternate method to preparing traditional presentations that uses simplicity to communicate more deeply. Use the tools you are already comfortable with, and take your talks to the next level. Present Differently. Present Simply.

If you are attending ICE, stop by to see me!

Tags: my talks

Here's a quick tidbit for those interested in online tools. A company called Ulteo has released an online version of OpenOffice. It requires a free registration to use, but what doesn't these days? Here's a shot of OpenOffice Impress in action.



The product is still in beta, but it shows some interesting potential. I have a very busy week ahead of me, so I'll try to put some first impressions together next weekend. Be sure to check back!

Tags: software, online tools

If you browse the archives, you'll notice quite a few corrupted images. I'm working on fixing those, and I'm also in the process of moving where all of those images are stored to prevent that from happening again. It's taking a while. I haven't forgotten about this little corner. In fact I'm working on it like nuts when I have the time! You just can't see the progress right now.

Thanks for your patience!

Apple has posted a short video demonstrating Keynote's compatibility with the Apple Remote that ships with most Macintosh models. The video is kept right here, and you might have to look for the title "Keynote at a Distance" if the video is not in front.



Also, did anyone else see the "Keynote '08" typo when this video was first posted? It might have just been a mistake, or...

Tags: how-to

The most recent QuickTime update has two important changes that affect Keynote users.

1. A bug has been fixed that would prevent interactive QT movies from playing properly on Windows machines.
2. Users can now view files in fullscreen without purchasing a QT Pro license.

KeynoteUser has some more details if you are interested. Either fire up Software Update to snag the update or grab it from Apples' site for Mac or Windows.

Tags: software

The Wall Street Journal commemorates the birth of PowerPoint this week twenty years ago. Believe it or not, PowerPoint was initially developed for the Macintosh as Presenter by Forethought, Inc. – later re-christening the software as PowerPoint. Microsoft would buy PowerPoint later that year, but the Windows version would not come out until 1990. Unlike the other staples of what has become Microsoft Office, PowerPoint has seen very few competitors emerge over the years.

x
powerpoint 1.0 and powerpoint 2007 (both images from wikipedia)

For better of worse, PowerPoint has become synonymous with how we present information today. Even working primarily with Apple Keynote when on a Mac and OpenOffice Impress when on a PC, I still slip into the habit of referring to my slides as my "PowerPoint." It has become a massive time-saver for adding visual aids to a presentation as well as presenting those aids in a medium more easily shared with many. Unfortunately, as the WSJ article points out, PowerPoint has seen its fair share of abuse.

As any tool, we have to accept the fact that PowerPoint is not meant to supplant the presenter – no more than a hydraulic lift can replace an engineer. Too many PowerPoint decks are created as standalone documents that actually fail in the realm of "visual aid." Instead they present overwhelming blocks of data that end of distracting from the presentation due to the effort the audience has to commit in digesting everything.

Even if a tool is misused, it can still be a good tool. As Garr Reynolds points out in his post on PowerPoint's birthday:

We all agree that the majority of presentations given with PowerPoint “suck rotten eggs” ... [But] PowerPoint is not the cause of bad business presentations, but laziness and poor writing skills may be.

He points out that we should not blame Microsoft if our presentations are ineffective. Rather, we should reevaluate the way we prepare for the presentation. However, I have to agree with one commenter on the entry. Guillaume Gete writes:

However, I don't completely agree when you say : "Don't blame Microsoft". I believe strongly that Microsoft DOES have responsibility, not because it produces the tools that everybody uses, but also because it includes its own templates with it. These are presented (no pun intended) to anyone who opens the "Project library" which bangs at your face each time you open an Office app, and are full of advice one should *not* follow.

He has some good points, and I think Microsoft should rethink some of the templates and tips included with PowerPoint, but those are subjective opinions. My personal opinion is that the best presentations are made using the blank templates – avoiding anything but your personal vision to shine through.

PowerPoint continues to evolve, and with alternatives from Apple and OpenOffice (which is free) showing up, Microsoft has continued to refine and improve their presentation app. I'm still a Keynote junkie, but PowerPoint really launched, validated, and defines this genre of applications.

For more, check out Robert Gaskins Home Page. He was one of the creators of PowerPoint.

Tags: software, garr reynolds

So ICE 2007 was this week, and my presentation finished almost two hours ago as I type this. This is my second year in a row being accepted as a speaker at ICE, and I love the experience. Hopefully, next year will make three! This year's talk was very different from last year's. Whereas my ICE 2006 material was very concrete and software-centered, this talk on video games and how they positively reinforce the gamer was much more abstract. It really wasn't a presentation about using technology in the classroom as much as it was a look at how we can apply the principles of motivation and positive reinforcement in our classrooms. I just happened to use technology as the core of how these ideas were presented.

The Good

Presentation Zen: Once more, I have to give a shout-out to this site for being such a great resource. Interestingly, before the talk began, I had the opportunity to converse with a couple of audience members about the approach this site advocates.

Keynote: For the few slides I used, Keynote worked flawlessly, and I'm glad I didn't have to worry about the software-end of the presentaiton. In relation to Keynote, using the Apple Remote was nice for controlling the slides. I seldom had to actually touch my computer during the presentation. The only issue here was that I kept missing the line-of-sight needed for the remote to work correctly, but practice will correct that. (Come on, Apple, make a Bluetooth version of this remote!)

My audience: My audience was very fun and conversational for the most part (except that one guy who sat with his arms crossed the whole time). They responded well when asked for feedback, and they just genuinely seemed like a neat group. The crowd was smaller this year according to my count of leftover handouts, but they made up for it in personality. There were a couple of ladies off to my left who were especially participatory and enthusiastic. (Here's a big shout-out to coworker Ange who came to see my talk!)

The ICE crew: These guys were extremely helpful and accommodating. I couldn't have asked for better support than they gave!

The presentation itself: Things were fairly glitch-free again (save one projector issue). The video games demoed well on the projector, and now I want that big of a screen for home gaming! Overall, I felt I rolled with the flow well. I only had to consult my notes once, and I really think the majority of my audience related to the points I was driving at. Somehow, a participant comment about how "dumb" a game seemed was even spun into a good point. Pacing flowed pretty well, and the talk concluded exactly on time. (Actually, at the time, I thought we had gotten done early, but I quickly realized my error.)

The Bad

The projector: Right off, we discovered the projector had a bad cord. Fortunately, a couple of support individuals there fixed that quickly. Still, the bulb was not as strong as I'd have liked, and we had to dim the lights. I don't like dimming if it can be avoided. Also, the projected image was too dark, and this made it difficult to effectively demo one of the games I brought. I had thought about borrowing a friend's projector, and, in retrospect, I probably should have. Fortunately, even if the projector had not worked, I felt pretty comfortable presenting naked.

Carrying stuff: I completely wore my arms out lugging equipment around. The speakers alone were quite heavy and awkward. Fortunately again, the ICE crew came through and carted my stuff back to the entrance for me. Regardless, I need to get two things before I do a talk like this again. First, buy a smaller set of good-quality speakers. Second, I need to find or replace the strap to my laptop bag.

Fatigue: I was nowhere near 100% when I gave the talk, and this resulted in a few moments of rambling and repeating myself. I knew how crazy this week was going to be, and I needed to have afforded myself more time upfront so I could have been better rested by today.

Learning Experiences

• I promised more dialog and really didn't deliver on that. Either I need to track my time better or avoid making promises I don't know I can keep.
  
  
• Again, I don't feel I practiced enough, but I'm getting closer.
  
  
• I'm still addicted to reflections on my slides. I think its a condition.
  
  
• I need to remain aware of my position in relation to the computer, so the slides advance when I press the remote.

Conclusion

I hope my audience was enriched by this experience as much as I was. Overall things went very well, and most of those elements that could have been problems were resolved. I'm glad to have been a part of this, and I'm excited about giving this talk again for my colleagues next month. You can check out the slides and handout on the My Presentations section of this site if you would like to.

Tags: my talks

My proposal for ICE 2007 has been accepted! My session is called "Video Games, Positive Reinforcement, and Your Brain." I'll be posting a temporary page here on my site about the session in coming weeks. ICE 2006 was a great experience, and (if you can't tell) I'm pretty excited about this opportunity!

Wish me luck!

Tags: my talks

So ICE 2006 has come and gone. I have to admit that being a presenter this year created for a very different experience than when I would just go as a normal attendee. Overall, the experience was a positive one, and I look forward to participating in similar opportunities in the future.

The Good

Presentation Zen: This site has been a major influence on my presentation style and slide organization. I have to give props to this site for being such a great resource.

iLife and Keynote: These applications have a great following in education and for good reason: they are simple to use and produce great results. The very fact that the word "iLife" was in my session title probably helped bring in a good group.

My Audience: They were attentive, and they asked great questions. A couple of questions encouraged some on-the-spot experimentation, and I ended up learning some new things about iLife and iWork as a result. (For example, did you know you could drop PDF documents into a Keynote slide to have them appear as graphics? Way cool!)

My Coworkers: Though none attended my session, other staff members and the administration at my school were very supportive and encouraging.

The Presentation Itself: There were no unexpected glitches during the session (save a CD that wouldn't import into iTunes because it was badly scratched). Keynote ran beautifully, and the demonstration was free of unexpected errors.

The Bad

The Apple Store Keystone: Yes, they came through in the end, but they were rude and aloof toward my wife. Apple, if you want new customers, your retail staff has to provide a better shopping experience for average people, not a similar experience to other computer stores.

Laptop Woes: I was ironing out technology kinks up to the day before the presentation. Way too stressful.

Learning Experiences

• Out of 39 slides, I had only 4 with any bullets. That was still too many. By the fourth iApp bullet list, things were getting way redundant.
  
  
• I needed to gab less and demo more. The demo felt like a slight afterthought. I also needed to have practiced the demonstration portion more.
  
  
• I am currently addicted to reflections. I'm sure I'l get over it eventually.
  
  
• An interactive QuickTime movie did not work well in sharing this project on the web. There was no progress indicator, and Firefox didn't seem to like it at all.

Conclusion

Again, things went well overall, and I'm looking forward to presenting again in the future. I have a lot to learn in improving my presentation skills, but this experience made for a good step in the right direction. Hopefully, more experiences will crop up in the near future.

Tags: my talks