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Tech: Using powerpoint 2007

Mo the caller 23 Nov 18 - 08:12 AM
DaveRo 23 Nov 18 - 11:37 AM
Joe Offer 23 Nov 18 - 12:34 PM
Stilly River Sage 23 Nov 18 - 01:21 PM
DaveRo 23 Nov 18 - 01:38 PM
Joe Offer 23 Nov 18 - 01:44 PM
Jack Campin 23 Nov 18 - 03:17 PM
Stilly River Sage 23 Nov 18 - 03:35 PM
GUEST,Jerry 23 Nov 18 - 03:37 PM
Mo the caller 23 Nov 18 - 06:15 PM
Tattie Bogle 23 Nov 18 - 06:56 PM
FreddyHeadey 23 Nov 18 - 09:00 PM
Jack Campin 24 Nov 18 - 01:15 AM
Mr Red 24 Nov 18 - 02:21 AM
Jack Campin 24 Nov 18 - 04:06 AM
Will Fly 24 Nov 18 - 04:13 AM
JHW 24 Nov 18 - 06:20 AM
Jon Freeman 24 Nov 18 - 12:58 PM
Jack Campin 24 Nov 18 - 01:12 PM
EBarnacle 24 Nov 18 - 11:57 PM
Mr Red 25 Nov 18 - 04:22 AM
DaveRo 25 Nov 18 - 05:56 AM
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Subject: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Mo the caller
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 08:12 AM

I have this old version of powerpoint on my computer, but have never used it (or any version). No idea what it can do.
I am giving a talk and it might be useful to have an electronic blackboard. Can I
1) type words, e.g. a timeline

2) copy from web pages e.g. google maps, a map the records office has online

3) send this to someone else to display using the U3A laptop (I only have a PC

Any other tips?


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: DaveRo
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 11:37 AM

The answer to (3) is - maybe. It depends on the laptop's software. You could try it

But I wouldn't bother, especially as you've never used Powerpoint. My wife does U3A talks with presentations in LibreOffice Impress, which is free. They should have that on the U3A computer. And if not they should install it! And anyone in the group can install it too.

You can insert diagrams and images into slides, in both Powerpoint and Impress. I would avoid anything complex.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 12:34 PM

I've had good luck with Google Slides, which is now at docs.google.com.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 01:21 PM

Trying to learn the program on the day you want to use it is a recipe for disaster. There is a learning curve that I think might be pretty brutal. Unless you can find something like an old YouTube video giving instructions on the basics of the older program and work along with it.

There's a program online called https://prezi.com/ that also has a learning curve but there is a free version. It also takes some learning but they have training software of their own.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: DaveRo
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 01:38 PM

One possible problem with online tools is that internet access is required in the church hall, or wherever, that the presentation is to be used.

I see that google docs can be used offline - if you use Google Chrome. Or you might be able to export a powerpoint version.

First rule of powerpoint: don't rely on it.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 01:44 PM

That's why I like the Google programs - no learning curve. They work just like early Office programs. If you used Office 2003 sometime in the past, you can use all the Google stuff. The Google programs don't have all the features of the current version of Office, but they have enough for the vast majority of us.
When I worked on the Rise Again Songbook, we did everything but the final layout on Google Docs and Google Sheets.
-Joe-


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 03:17 PM

I prefer to use HTML with all the files in the local file system - no http or https URLs, no Internet required. That way you can include any media type, in particular video, which almost never works in PowerPoint. (Apple's Keynote is much better, but no PC can do anything with it).


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 03:35 PM

Prezi lets you download the slides if you need to. I'll have to take a look at the Google programs.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 03:37 PM

All this depends on what use you have in mind; if you just want to screen various words and phrases, what used to be called Death by a Thousand Bullets, as a prompt for yourself and to better engage the audience, then producing some slides on PowerPoint is quite easy, and you can save them onto a memory stick for playing on another PC. However, most of the work in organising and animating the slides has to be done in advance, of course, and ideally you need to have a PC link to a data protector and screen obviously at the venue. You can still import photos and graphs and the like, but as they say above, videos and sound recordings may be more difficult.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Mo the caller
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 06:15 PM

The thing that might be most useful would be maps - can I copy a google map direct or would I have to print then scan it in somehow.
I think there would be someone who knew how to set things up and work it. But I doubt if there is internet access.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 06:56 PM

You may well find that your version of PowerPoint is "no longer supported". I am no tech geek, but I do have a Mac, and set up an album of photos in the Mac Photos application, and then set it to run as "Slideshow" - which you can pause and re-start when you want.
I'd be wary of doing anything that you hadn't well rehearsed on the same set of equipment that you plan to use on the occasion, having recently hear that a friend's well-prepared audio-visual talk fell foul of technology not working on the day!


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 23 Nov 18 - 09:00 PM

I've only done a bit of this sort of thing.
Learning how to do something right I find is pretty hard.
Learning what to do when something goes wrong though? ... twenty times harder.
With a live audience? Never been there.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 01:15 AM

Google sometimes makes maps and other images so hard to download that all you can do is take a screenshot, which is easy enough on a Mac but never gives you the best possible resolution. And maps may sometimes have much higher resolution than you want for a presentation. It takes time to adjust image sizes to something appropriate.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 02:21 AM

I am helping Howard Beard, a local historian with a subset of his collection of 15000 local old photographs. We use PowerPoint 2007, & even a few macros.

For websites I would advise screen dumps as JPG and incorporate them. Use Alt PrtSc on the webpage, open Paint or Photoshop (etc) and paste, and save. Then insert into a PP page.

Text overlays are relatively simple. They can be moved around.

Save PP as a presentation.

I would advise sticking to one application, PP if you have it. Libre Office I would trust but don't try to learn both systems.

The PP presentation can be advanced with a forward or backward keypress, but forward can be done with the space bar - play with it.

You can (I do) do a lot of fancy timings and soundtrack/talk tied to each slide, but in our case we convert to a movie for archiving with museums and "Gloucestershire Archives". For that I use the public library which is licenced for the latest iteration of Office, and PP therein can do the conversion, 2007 can't, though there are website. that will convert for you.

Best of luck, if stuck PM me from here or from mister.red , I may be able to answer questions that can be described textually.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 04:06 AM

When I'm doing presentations, I want to have the whole thing on a memory stick so I can put it into whatever computer is locallly available. With Powerpoint, that almost never works. There are so many incompatibilities between different versions of PP and Windows that you have no alternative to bringing your own PC.

Whereas browsers are much more mutually compatible. It's pretty easy to assemble a local website (all files on that memory stick) which will work on any OS and any browser, including any media type you want. You won't get fancy fades but they're a cliche anyway.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 04:13 AM

An alternative with Powerpoint is to save it as a PDF file. Most operating system will recognise a PDF and you can go from page to page and back quite easily. You may lose a little screen width, but that's not terrible.

Tip: As others have said - DO NOT LEARN ON THE DAY! I'm giving a presentation on Monday next to launch our annual village Garden & Arts Festival, with a PP presentation. All compiled, examined, edited, tested days ago. The presentation is at 7.30pm - I'll be testing the equipment that afternoon...


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: JHW
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 06:20 AM

Well everyone suggests something else but I never had any bother with Powerpoint, each time I've forgotten how to use but soon got away with it. Not putting down all the other suggestions but Ppt is on the machine itself so doesn't need any internet or support. The finished file can be put on a usb stick but of course the computer at the show venue must have the Ppt programme, or take your own laptop.
Makers of things to sell are forever producing new versions when the original had more than enough features for most of us.
But you've probably done the show by now.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 12:58 PM

"Any other tips?"

My own perspective is keep it simple and don't (not that if new to this type of software, you might be trying) get carried away with effects like fancy transitions. This type of software can do a lot but some will only confuse (or infuriate) your audience.

Personally, I'd think a map could be interesting if you have some talk (and I'd only see the use of the software as an aid to what you have to say) to go with it but I'm not sure about lifting one from Google, perhaps both on the practical "how to" and on potential use of copyrighted material.

But what do I know, I'd run a mile from trying to give a presentation...


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 01:12 PM

You certainly don't want to depend on the Internet being available, which is why I suggested using only links to files that are on the memory stick itself. This does mean learning HTML, but you only need a very small subset of its features to get more communicative effectiveness than PowerPoint.

Browsers are reliable, stable, predictable in what they need from an OS or other support software, and multiplatform. PDF is pretty good as well, but not as portable as file-based browser technology if you want to include sound files and videos.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: EBarnacle
Date: 24 Nov 18 - 11:57 PM

On our laptops, we have several versions of PP. They all seem to work pretty well.
I recommend buying a wireless clicker if you don't have one already. That way, there is no need to stand next to the computer or walk to it each time you want to move the presentation along.
We don't have the current version as we see no reason to buy a subscription for bells and whistles.
Another nice thing about PP is that older versions will work on nearly any newer model.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Nov 18 - 04:22 AM

For my Stroud Voices collection I prefer the HTML/webpage format, because I give the collection (including JavaScript) to museums & "Gloucestershire Archives" as a package on DVD-data disks. The advantage is that the set is identical to my web pages.

Doing the presentation as a collection of HTML pages is not a bad idea. If you already do web pages it is a doddle. That way linking to actual websites is also available & straightforward. And it avoids any Apple shenanigans, they always do minutia differently with Office products. I have found, as rare as it is, even Micro$oft is not always compatible with Micro$oft! And you only find out at the last minute, or when giving the package to others.

One HTML page per slide with a list of links on the main page and two links on each page called "forward" and "back". And surely Mo the Caller has a website? If not, and you are going to learn a methodology - webpage construction is arguably simpler and of more general use.


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Subject: RE: Tech: Using powerpoint 2007
From: DaveRo
Date: 25 Nov 18 - 05:56 AM

The novel feature of this question is that Mo has never used Powerpoint or, perhaps, any other presentation/ slideshow software. So if he has to learn some new software, in 2018, what would be most useful in the future? Powerpoint 2007?

Powerpoint is easy to use, and will do the job, but the fact that it's already on his computer doesn't seen to me to be a good reason to use it.

The best reason to use Powerpoint is that lots of people know it, so he can get help and folk can contribute. Others have said that using an old version should not be a problem. The disadvantage is that it's proprietary software, expensive (if he ever needs to update it) and only does one thing - build presentations.

I agree with what Jack said about html in a browser being the most flexible and portable way to show a presentation. It lacks some of the fancy features of Powerpoint, such as transitions between slides* but it has one big advantage: you can use it to build websites too. And posters. And ...

I'm not aware of any easy free software specifically aimed at building presentations in html - as opposed to websites. Anybody? I know that any html editor would do, but for a beginner and aimed at multimedia slides?

But the key question for Mo might be: what sort of software would you rather become familiar with?

*You can do transitions and stuff in html but it's complicated and unnecessary.


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