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Communicating Using Technology
Vol. 4 Issue 10 May 17, 2005
Published and Copyright by Dave Paradi
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In this issue: Announcements 1. PPT - Hyperlinking 2. Forcing a PC to shut down 3. Useful Resource - FinePrint -------------------------------------------- Privacy Policy: I will never sell or distribute your e-mail or information to anyone. -------------------------------------------- If you like the tips, pass it on! If you have received this as a forward from a friend, sign up for your own copy at: http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/newsletter.htm --------------------------------------------
Public Seminars in June The early bird deadline for the public Compelling PowerPoint seminars in June in Chicago and Washington DC is the end of next week. I have had inquiries in the last few days about group registrations for each location, so I expect the spots to continue filling up quickly. Get the details at http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/resources.htm and sign up soon to avoid disappointment. Forward notice of this seminar to others who could benefit from creating and delivering better PowerPoint presentations. If you can't make the place or dates, you can order the live seminar recording through the same link.
Save Money - Book me where I am travelling I am travelling quite a bit in the next few months and this is a great opportunity for you to save the travel costs for an in- house workshop or one on one consulting appointment. Here is where I will be and the dates: May 30-31 in Ottawa, ON; June 24 in Washington DC; July 7 in Atlanta, GA; August 2-3 in Victoria, BC; August 5 in Vancouver, BC; August 19-23 in the San Francisco/ San Jose, CA area. If you want to save some money and book some time with me on one of these dates, just e-mail me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.
1. PPT - Hyperlinking Sometimes in a PowerPoint presentation you will want to run a file from another application. This may be a video or a file from an application like Excel or Word. PowerPoint does allow you to create hyperlinks from text or other objects, but to activate them, you usually need to move your mouse to the link and click on it to start the link. This mouse moving across the screen is distracting for the audience. I use hyperlinks in my Compelling PowerPoint seminar to show a few of the Video Tutorials I created that illustrate a particular point I am making. I want it to appear seamless when I present, so I searched for a way to launch the link without using the mouse. Here's what works for me. Since the video tutorials are Flash files played from an HTML page, what I really need to do is launch the HTML page and then the coding on that page will do the rest. So I have created an Action button (by clicking on Slide Show->Action Buttons and selecting a button). This action button is set to hyperlink to the HTML file. Then, when I want to launch it during the presentation I press the Tab key to select the action button and press the Enter key to activate the action button. The audience never sees the button selected because the Tab key puts a very faint box around the action button to indicate it is selected. It is a seamless way to launch the video that really adds to the presentation. When the video is done, I close the browser by pressing Alt+F4 (which is a key combination that closes many programs without having to use the mouse to click on the menus). Consider how you may use this technique to seamlessly add files from other applications to your presentation.
-------------------------------------------- Learn to use PowerPoint in under 2 hrs Why wade through a big book - get a 13 step process that teaches you the 20% you REALLY need to know. "The step-by-step guide for these functions is far easier to follow than the PowerPoint for Dummies book I had!" -Randy Maples "Dave, many people go over the top with claims as to how great their product is - you know the sort - but I can definitely say that your e-book on Powerpoint is a no-frills, punchy and very helpful tool." - Tom Webb Go to this link: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=45805 --------------------------------------------
2. Forcing a PC to shut down It is inevitable that at some point in time your PC will just hang - stop working in the middle of what you are doing, no error message, it just freezes. If you have had this happen to you it is frustrating because you may lose the work you were doing. The bigger concern is what to do if it happens. The first thing to try is to press the Ctrl, Alt and Del key at the same time (the easiest way to do this is to hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and then press the Del key). This may allow you to shut down the problem program and restart the PC. If this does not work, then you will have to turn the power off. The way to do this on current PC's is to hold the power button in for 5-10 seconds until the computer forces the power off and shuts down. Wait 30 seconds before you turn it back on. When the PC restarts, it will likely want to check the disks to see if any damage was done - let it do this and repair any problems it finds - rarely will it find anything. While an episode of freezing may cost you a few minutes of work, it can be dealt with properly. If you have these occurrences more than once a month or so, there is probably something more seriously wrong with your computer. Back up all data and take it to the repair shop to find out what is wrong.
------------------------------------------------------- Make Your Next PowerPoint Presentation Compelling Do you have an important presentation coming up? Would you like to make it so compelling that people sit on the edge of their seats listening to you? If you do, let me help you with my ten step PowerPoint presentation consulting approach. This is way more than just slide design, this is professional input on the structure, design and delivery of your PowerPoint presentation. One of my consulting clients wrote "I can confidently say my sales have already increased as a result of this astounding presentation." If you are interested, go to this link: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=85889 -------------------------------------------------------
3. Useful Resource - FinePrint One of the features of Word 2002 and above that I use often is the ability to print multiple pages on one sheet of paper. I wish more applications had this feature, but many do not. There is a utility that many have recommended that adds this capability to all programs. It is called FinePrint and it acts as a printer driver that you print to. It then does the work of formatting the multiple pages onto a single sheet. It is free to try and the banner is removed once you buy it. Check it out at http://www.fineprint.com.
-------------------------------------------- Tools I use to sell my products: KickStartCart shopping cart system: http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/default.asp?pr=31&id=42487 Credit Card Processor PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/row/mrb/pal=8ADSGLU62YXWW Credit Card Processor 2checkout.com: http://www.2checkout.com/cgi-bin/aff.2c?affid=90267 -------------------------------------------- Would you like me to speak to your professional association or chapter event? I am always looking for opportunities to share my information with others and would love to explore speaking to your group. Just e-mail me at: Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com for more info. -------------------------------------------- Check out the books, e-books and other learning tools at: http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/resources.htm ******************************************** This newsletter is: CUT May 17/05 [PPT Hyperlinking, Force PC Shutdown] If you want to read back issues of this newsletter, click on the following link to go to the Archives: http://tinyurl.com/nhgl ********************************************