16 Feb 09 PowerPoint converter-Camtasia and Wondershare

PowerPoint is among the most prevalent forms of persuasive technology used by business people, educators, students and trainers.  Suppose you need to burn PowerPoint to DVD, I know it is not very popular, the most common reasons for converting PowerPoint to DVD are usability, portability and storage. Since DVD has become the preferred video format for most consumer applications and computer peripherals, creating a PowerPoint DVD makes good sense for storing and sharing. The DVD can be played on PCs which support DVD and TV with a DVD player connected.

Nowadays there are two types of tools meet the standard for converting PowerPoint to DVD. One is the screen recording tool and the other is the PowerPoint converter. The typical examples for these two types are TechSmith Camtasia and Wondershare PPT2DVD, after the testing, you may find the difference between these two tools.

TechSmith Camtasia 
 
TechSmith Camtasia allows customers to create professional and engaging presentations, demonstrations and marketing videos in HD-quality video to reach audiences online, on portable media devices, or on popular online video sharing sites. Furthermore, Camtasia provides a PowerPoint add-in which can quickly and easily record PowerPoint presentations and produce DVD right from within PowerPoint.

Pros of using Camtasia to convert PowerPoint to DVD:

1.Staring slide show in PowerPoint, you may advance the presentation as you wish. The output will look the same as rehearse.
2.You may add narrations into your slide show while playing in PowerPoint.
3.You may edit the recorded video with Camtasia. Many great and practical features are provided.
4.You can save the video file to almost all of the common multimedia formats like SWF, MP4, AVI, WMV, MOV, RM, EXE and GIF.
5.A 30 days free try may meet your short term demand.

Cons of using Camtasia to convert PowerPoint to DVD:  You need a powerful computer (higher than mainstream configuration) to run Camtasia smoothly because it consumes a lot system resources when recording PowerPoint. The recommended RAM is 2GB and the processor is 3GHz. The recording process may be freeze sometime if your PC is a dog. When burning the PowerPoint video to DVD, a third part DVD burning software is needed.

Wondershare PPT2DVD

“If you’re interested in sharing your PowerPoint presentations as DVDs to be played on a DVD player, this program gives you a simple, no-fuss way to do it. Wondershare PPT2DVD burns a completed presentation to a DVD, and includes all aspects of it, including transitions, music, videos, and so on.” From PC world, Preston Gralla

As the first program that provides the PowerPoint to DVD solution, PPT2DVD has its own features such as:

1.The converting process is very simple and no-fuss just as Preston said, import the PowerPoint presentations into the program (you can import 12 files at a time), choose the right output format and some advanced settings if you need, then the program can convert your PowerPoint presentation to DVD without your attendance.
2.The DVD menu makes the output more easily to navigate. You can jump to the right presentation with a DVD remote control.
3.The playing mode, playing DVD automatically or manually gives you more choices when presenting your PowerPoint to your audience on TV.
4.It retains all sounds, animations, video clips and even the hyperlinks (between slides) in the output files.
5.Compared to Camtasia, an average configured is power enough for Wondershare PPT2DVD.

Compare to the first conversion method, in the converting process, you cannot figure out how will the output looks like. Just like a black box, you don’t know what happened in it. Sometimes it may lead the unpredictable failure. And, PPT2DVD can just record the elements in the PowerPoint, it is not possible for you to add your voice to your presentation, hope this function will be added in the future version.

Still, there are many other PowerPoint to DVD/video tools on the Internet like Acoolsoft PPT2DVD, E.M. Free PowerPoint Video Converter, authorSTREAM and so on. Users who are looking for the PowerPoint to DVD/video converter can have an evaluation about them.

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17 Apr 08 Top 10 PowerPoint presentation tips to gain applauses from your audience

 
Chances are either you have had to create a PowerPoint presentation yourself or you have had to observe one at one time or another. PowerPoint presentations have become one of the primary ways online meetings are conducted today. It is easy to put some slides together and then read them back to the audience verbatim. This approach however will make for a very monotonous meeting.
 
Days ago I have written an article “The principle of creating attractive PowerPoint”. I give some PowerPoint presentation tips such as not putting more text in the slide, telling the story by the person rather than the PowerPoint presentation itself. Here I got 10 PowerPoint presentation tips from Lynn Marotta, the successful freelance writer and contributor to Web-Conferencing-Zone.com.
 
There are better PowerPoint presentation tips you can use to get your message across more effectively. The following is a list of our top ten PowerPoint presentation tips and techniques to help make all of your future meetings, whether offline or online, a big success.
 
1.      Readability is important — Make sure the font is large enough for everyone to see. Another tip to remember is    too many words can make following along a burden for the audience. People will soon lose interest.
 
2.      Stick to key points — Only put the key points of the presentation on your PowerPoint slides. By following this advice, you can avoid the monotony of having your presentation follow verbatim what appears on each slide.
 
3.      Use clear titles on each slide — Each PowerPoint slide needs to have a clear title summarizing its purpose. Using larger, bolder font can help ensure the title stands out from the rest of the slide.
 
4.      Use simple backgrounds — Pay attention to the color selections you choose. Another tip is to make sure the background does not detract from the words or diagrams that appear. If you choose colors that are too dark, or patterns that are too bold, chances are the slides will be difficult to read.
 
5.      Use graphs and diagrams — Using visual images such as graphs and diagrams can really help to make a point. Images also help to break the presentation up a little bit and provide some visual interest.
 
6.      Stay organized — The PowerPoint presentation itself needs to stay organized and on topic. Make sure the slides are in the right chronological order and information flows easily and naturally.
 
7.      Limit the number of slides — Do not overdo the number of slides in your presentation. Keep the information presented on the PowerPoint slides themselves as short and concise as possible. You can always embellish verbally.
 
8.      Speak clearly — When presenting, speak clearly and try to be as enthusiastic and interesting as possible. People often think of PowerPoint presentations as dry and boring, but with a little creativity, you can be captivating.
 
9.      Allow time for questions — This is always a good practice to follow when conducting any meeting. PowerPoint presentations are no exception. Make sure you factor in a question and answer time into your allotted time slot.
 

10.   Allow for future follow-up — Depending on the nature of the PowerPoint presentation, it may be appropriate to provide your contact information (i.e., phone number, email, and/or website URL) so that meeting participants can follow-up with you should they have any further questions or wish to enlist your services. 

The eleventh tip I think is, you can use some creative tool like PPT2DVD which can help you burn PowerPoint to DVD, and then you can watch your PowerPoint on TV. For some TV conferences and video conferences it could be very convenient. 
With a little time and effort, you can really make your next PowerPoint presentation effective and memorable by following these simple PowerPoint presentation tips and techniques.
 

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