July 28, 2009

Building Your Slides Online

Building Your Slides Online

By Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, March 22, 2009

Over the last couple of years, I've been giving quite a few presentations. While some of those presentations have been solo efforts, I've done most of them with my business partner. And that's when a few wrinkles have crept into our grand plans.

"..these applications enable you to collaborate on your presentation slides without having to worry about whether or not you're stomping on someone else's edits"How? Well, an important (or at least useful) component of a presentation is a slide deck. Before plugging in a digital projector, you need to create your slides. It's easy enough to pass a PowerPoint, Keynote, or OpenOffice.org Impress file around. But it's just as easy to lose track of which file is the latest version. Or just lose the file.

Fortunately, some Web entrepreneurs have made strides in eliminating this problem by developing Web-based tools for creating slides. The four that this TechTip highlights have a number of things in common:

  • They're free
  • They're easy to use
  • You can run your slide show from within the application
  • They support sharing and collaborative editing
  • They pack enough features to make attractive and functional slides

280Slides

On the surface, 280Slides looks like a stripped-down version of Apple's popular Keynote presentation software. Although 280Slides has a limited number of features in comparison to Keynote (or any other desktop presentation program), you'll be surprised at how quickly and easily you'll be able to create a solid slide deck with it.

Of all the applications that this TechTip discusses, 280Slides has the best import and export capabilities — it can pull in PowerPoint (97 through to 2004, and PowerPoint 2007) files and OpenOffice.org Impress files. It can output those formats as well as a PDF file. The import can be a bit rough. Text can be larger than in your source file, and the positioning of elements like images might be a bit off.

 

280Slides comes with a limited number of themes and slide layouts (nine and three, respectively). It also has basic text formatting functions — including bullets and numbers — along with the ability to insert images, movies, and basic shapes into slides.

On top of that, you can add presenter notes (also called speaker's notes). These are notes that are attached to a slide deck that a speaker uses as a reference. In case you're wondering, the audience can't see the notes.

On the other hand, the application can be a bit slow. That said, this situation has improved a bit over the last month or two. While you don't need an account to work with 280Slides, you'll need to register (for free) to save your files online.

Empressr

Empressr bills itself as a free online storytelling tool that allows you to create, manage, and share rich media presentations online. That's a mouthful, but it's pretty close to the truth. And Empressr is a lot easier to use than it sounds.

Slides are called empressrs, and you can start one from scratch, import a PowerPoint file, or upload multiple images to create an empressr.

The slide editor is simple, but packs a number of interesting features. Like what? The ability to create a library of background images and add those images to your slides, for one. You can attach audio files to act as a voice over or soundtrack. And you can specify transitions for slides. Some of the slides that Empressr users have made public use the latter feature to sometimes annoying effect.

In addition to that, Empressr allows you to add shapes, tables, and charts to your slides. The latter two options are missing from most online presentation tools.

There doesn't seem to be a way to export your slides. You can publish your slides on the Empressr site in Flash format. Empressr also generates code that you can use to embed the presentation in a Web site or a blog.

Preezo

Of the presentation applications that are featured in this TechTip, Preezo is probably the most bare bones of the bunch. That doesn't mean it's not usable, though. Preezo seems to be based on the 80/20 rule — 80% of users take advantage of only 20% of an application's features.

As with any other Web or desktop presentation application, you can start a presentation from scratch or import a PowerPoint file. While writing this TechTip, I wasn't able to get the import to work. The export function, which generates a PowerPoint file, did work though.

As I mentioned a moment ago, Preezo's features are a tad basic. You have the choice of half a dozen slide layouts, along with some basic text formatting functions. On top of that, you can add any of a handful of transitions to your slides. Nothing spectacular, but enough to build a solid slide deck.

Remember how Empressr enables you to create a library of images? Preezo does the same, but takes the feature one step further. You can actually create a library of slides which you can reuse. How is this useful? In the slide decks that I create, I have two stock slides at the end — one which asks if the audience has any questions, and a marketing slide. Instead of continually retyping or copying these slides, I can use the slide library to instantly insert them into a new deck.

And, like Empressr, Preezo enables you to publish your slides on the Preezo site and it generates HTML code that you can use to embed the presentation in a Web site or a blog.

Google Docs

Anyone who knows something about Web applications knows that Google Docs contains a good word processor and spreadsheet. But one component of Google Docs that some people miss is the presentation editor.

Like the other application discussed in this TechTip, Google Docs enables you to start a new slide deck from scratch or upload a PowerPoint file. That file can be a maximum of 10 MB in size. You can also clone an existing presentation, which is useful if you need to create a variation on a theme.

On top of that, there are about 87 slide templates (as of this writing) that you can use to build a slide deck. Most of the templates leave me a bit cold, but there's no reason why you can't modify one to suit your needs.

The options for Google Docs are simple and familiar: text formatting; adding images, video, and a handful of shapes; basic control over text (changing the size, font, and justification); and the ability to arrange objects on the slide. On top of that, you can add speaker's notes to each slide.

As you might have guessed, Google Docs supports Google Gears — you can learn more about Gears here. With Gears, canada viagra online you get the best of both worlds: you can work and collaborate on the Web, but use Google Docs offline as well.

Your download options are limited to PDF, PowerPoint, or text. You can also publish the slides for viewing online.

Sharing the finished product

As I mentioned in the introduction, you can share slide decks from within each of the applications that are discussed in this TechTip. However, you'll probably wind up exporting your slide deck (when possible) to your hard drive to do some final edits and tweaks. Once you've done that, you can share the slides with the wider Web using SlideShare and Scribd.

SlideShare is an online community for sharing presentations. You get your own little corner of SlideShare, called a Slidespace, where you can add and display your slide decks. You can also make your slides private so only select people can see them.

You can upload presentations made with Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org Impress, or Keynote; you can also upload PDF files. SlideShare then puts a Flash wrapper around the file to make it viewable on any desktop computer or laptop computer. Well, at least one with a Flash player installed. You can also use some HTML code to add your slide decks on SlideShare to a Web site or blog.

Scribd, on the other hand, has been described as YouTube for documents. The goal of the site is to let people upload original documents, and allow others to comment on them. Scribd allows you to upload a number of different kinds of files — from Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org files, to PDF, Postscript, and text documents. Scribd wraps your documents in iPaper, a Flash-based format for viewing documents on the Web.

As with Slideshare, you can make your slide decks (or any other document) public on the Scribd site. Or Scribd can generate HTML code for you to embed the document on a Web page or in a blog.

Final thoughts

This TechTip only covered a few of the available online slide tools. You can find more here and here. The great thing about these applications is that they enable you to collaborate on your presentation slides without having to worry about whether or not you're stomping on someone else's edits, or if you have the right software installed on your computer.

These tools may not have all the features of your favorite desktop presentation tool, but they can get you going quickly and easily.

Filed under MS PowerPoint, photography by al

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Video Format Guide

Video Format Guide

By Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, March 15, 2009

"But like anything in the realm of computer technology, the video we watch is wrapped up in a morass of jargon and of weird extensions."Video may have killed the radio star, but it's become more than just something that we watch on our televisions. Video is definitely an essential part of the desktop and Web experiences of most computer users. And more than just a few mobile phone users, to boot.

But like anything in the realm of computer technology, the video we watch is wrapped up in a morass of jargon and of weird extensions. If you don't know your .avi from your .mov or .flv, then read on.

Formats vs. container formats

When it comes to other kinds of files, we all have a pretty good idea of what a file format is. We know that a Word file is a binary that contains all of the text that we've typed into the word processor, the style information, and graphics too. But the situation is different with video.

When people talk about video formats, they're referring to something called a container format. The container format is a detailed description of what's inside a video file. It describes the structure of the file, as well as the kind of data that the file contains.

The container format also holds information about something called a codec. The codec is information about how the file was encoded, specifically what software (called a codec, not surprisingly) was used to digitally encode the file. This is important, especially for a couple of the formats that are described in this TechTip. Why? Not every media player supports the same codecs. In many cases, you'll need to install a specific codec in order to play a file using your favorite media player.

MPEG

MPEG is short for Motion Picture Experts Group. It's a standard for both a variety of video and audio formats, and for compressing those formats. In fact, the array of formats that use MPEG compression can be confusing.

There are different versions of the MPEG format (often called levels) which help contribute to this confusion. The three MPEG levels that you're likely to encounter are MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4.

What's the difference between all of them? MPEG-1 is the oldest of these. It was first used in video CDs (the precursor to the DVD), where space was at a premium. MPEG-2 tackled (and still does) the transmission of digital and high definition over digital networks, satellite TV, and (later) the Internet. In fact, MPEG-2 is so efficient that it pretty much killed off MPEG-3 — it handles high definition video just as well as its descendant. MPEG-4 does pretty much everything MPEG-2 does, but with better quality and compression. MPEG-4 adds another twist to the mix: it supports Digital Rights Management (DRM), which enables content producers to prevent copying of their content.

Note: An upcoming TechTip will look at DRM and its implications.

If you run into any video files with the extension .mpg or .mp4 you have an MPEG file on your hands. It's a popular format because it provides a good tradeoff between file size and quality. Just about every media player supports MPEG, although some players support the format better than others. I've found that it's a rare MPEG file that won't play on the various media players that I use in Linux or on Windows.

AVI

If there's a format that doesn't get a whole lot of respect it's AVI (short for Audio Video Interleave). Originally developed for Microsoft Windows, AVI has become ubiquitous across several operating system and on the Web. While it isn't as popular as it once was, it's not rare for you to run into AVI files

AVI files, which have the extension .avi, are often disparaged from a couple of reasons. First, they use little or no compression. That means the file sizes are larger than just about any other format out there. And AVI files often use a variety of codecs to encode them. This causes trouble, because you might not have the proper codec installed for your media player and the file won't play. This is especially true on operating systems other than Windows. It's not uncommon for an AVI to not play on Windows without the proper codec. Windows Media Player can sometimes automatically download that codec, but usually you'll have to search for it yourself.

Since it's an established format with a long history, you'll find that most media players for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux can handle a number of AVI files. The one player that I've found which works best is VLC.

WMV and ASF

Windows LogoWindows Media Video (WMF) and Advanced System Format File (ASF) were created in part to deal with the shortcomings of AVI.

WMV is a compressed file format (at least, with better compression than AVI) with the extension .wmv. It was developed primarily for streaming video across the Web. Microsoft claims that WMV has better file quality than MPEG. That may or may not be true, but WMV files are generally larger than MPEG files. Often by a factor of two.

ASF, on the other hand, is a container format for WMV. It encapsulates not only the video and audio data for a WMV file but also Windows Media DRM data. All of this is wrapped in a file with the extension .asf.

The biggest criticisms of WMV and ASF are that they're specific to Windows, and that ASF supports very restrictive DRM. As for the first complaint, it is possible to play WMV files on other operating systems. On Mac OS, for example, you can get a player called Flip4Mac WMV which enables you to edit WMV files and convert them to QuickTime. This allows you to play WMV files on not only your Mac but also on your iPod. On Linux, the VLC and xine players can handle WMV files that don't have DRM applied to them. Well, at least most of the time.

And that's the main point of contention with the second complaint. DRM-protected WMV and ASF files generally won't play on other operating systems, or with anything other than Windows Media Player on Windows. An interesting aside is that Microsoft's Zune player doesn't support Microsoft's DRM scheme so you can't play WMVs with DRM applied to them. Ironic, isn't it?

Flash Video

Flash LogoOnce upon a time, Flash was used almost exclusively to create demos, tutorials, and annoying splash pages for Web sites. Now, thanks to the popularity of video sharing sites like YouTube, Flash has become an almost ubiquitous video format.

Most Flash video files have the extension .flv or .swf, although you might see the files with the extension .f4p (protected Flash video). Flash is usually used for streaming video across the Internet, and is able to do this quite efficiently because files can be compressed to make them smaller.

Flash PlayerThe compression can be a bit of a problem, though. The main codec used to encode Flash files is based on bitmap images — each element and frame in the video is a set of pixels. When pixels are compressed, they become fuzzy and lose varying amounts of color depth. You've probably seen badly compressed Flash videos on YouTube. They're blurry and look washed out.

Flash is more or less a cross-platform format. Adobe Systems, which owns and develops the software that enables people to create and view Flash video, has Flash players for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. On top of that, a number of media players (such as RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, VLC, xine, Gnash, and QuickTime Player) support Flash. Some of these players only support older versions of the Flash format, though.

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QuickTime

Quicktime logoWhereas Windows has AVI (and now WMV and ASF), Mac OS has QuickTime. You can tell that you have a QuickTime file if you see the extension .mov or .qt.

QuickTime is a compressed format, using a compression scheme developed (and closely guarded) by Apple. This compression scheme is very efficient, and can noticeably shrink the size of a file but without losing much of the quality. In fact, QuickTime files arguably offer some of the best quality video available.

Quicktime WindoOne interesting characteristic of the QuickTime format is that it contains multiple tracks. Each track contains different types of data. For example, one track will contain audio, the second video, and the third subtitles. This separation of content makes a QuickTime file easy to edit.

QuickTime files are usually best played using Apple's own QuickTime Player, which is only available for Mac OS and Windows. You can also download add-ons for Windows Media Player to enable it to play back QuickTime files. On Linux, the MPlayer and xine media players can handle QuickTime although you might need to install additional codecs.

3GPP Multimedia

People don't just watch videos on their televisions and computers anymore. More and more, they're watching them on their smartphones as well. Whether it's an iPhone, a BlackBerry, or one of the many phones from companies like Nokia you can get and watch high-quality video on a device that literally fits in the palm of your hand.

One format that makes it possible is 3GPP multimedia. 3GPP (which has the extension .3gp) is one of those container formats that I mentioned at the beginning of this TechTip. It was created to move audio and video to mobile phones — either from phone to phone via email or MMS, or over the Internet.

Most modern smartphones, especially ones with built-in video capture and playback, will play and record 3GPP files. Like other formats, the quality of 3GPP files varies depending on the resolution of the camera used to capture the video and the compression options that were used when saving the file. Obviously, the higher the compression rate, the lower the quality of the video. I've received video taken with a smartphone that was fuzzy, and video that's been as clear as the best MPEG files I've seen.

While just about any smartphone will play 3GPP files, on the desktop only a handful of media players can handle these files. The best-known ones include VLC, RealPlayer, MPlayer, and Apple QuickTime Player.

Conclusion

This TechTip only describes the video formats that you will routinely run into. There are literally dozens more out there. You can find some basic information about various formats here, or by visiting Wikipedia.

Filed under video by al

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Grinding the (Google) Gears

Tech tips 2009\

Grinding the (Google) Gears

By Scott Nesbitt – Sunday, March 8, 2009

Cloud computing. It's a phrase that's been on the lips of many computer users over the last year or so. Imagine being able to work or to access your files from anywhere there's an Internet connection. And you don't have to be at your own desktop computer or laptop computer, either.

The main problem with cloud computing, though, is that you're not always online. You might be on an airplane or train without an Internet connection. You might be in a spot where a connection is spotty at best. So, what do you do?
Turn to Google Gears, that's what.

Gears: a brief introduction

"Imagine being able to work or to access your files from anywhere there's an Internet connection."Google Gears is an Open Source Web browser extension (from the folks at Google, obviously) that literally brings a Web application offline. Using Gears, you not only turn the Web application into a desktop shortcut, but you can also use that application when you aren't connected to the Web. Gears stores all of your data offline and synchronizes it when you reconnect. It more or less creates a copy of the Web application on your hard drive, and allows you to seamlessly work in that application. Once you reconnect to the Web, Gears will synchronize the data on your hard drive with the live Web application.

For the techie canada pharmacy viagra (or the techie wannabe), developers of Web applications integrate Gears with their applications using a set of APIs (application programming interface), which are a way to enable two bits of unrelated software to talk to each other). The APIs enable Gears to (among other things) save a copy of the Web application on your computer and to store your data locally using a small, fast database. You can read more about the Gears APIs here and here.

Note that Gears doesn't work with all Web applications. Some of the Web applications that do support Gears include:

As for others … well, it can be hit and miss to say the least.

Gears is available for several operating systems, including Windows, Windows Mobile, MacOS, Linux, and Google's Android mobile platform.

Getting Going with Gears

As I mentioned earlier, Gears is an add-on for a variety of Web browsers. These include Mozilla Firefox (version 1.5 or higher), Safari, and Internet Explorer (version 6.0 or newer). You can find a full list here.

It shouldn't be a surprise to learn that Google Chrome has Gears support baked in. To use this feature from within Chrome, navigate to a Gears-enabled Web application. Then, click on the Control the current page icon and the select Create application shortcuts. On the dialog box that appears, select where you want to put the shortcuts and then click OK.

The rest of this TechTip looks at using Google Gears with Mozilla Firefox. First off, go to the Google Gears Web site and install the Firefox extension. All you need to do is click the installation link, and then follow the instructions. From there, restart Firefox to complete the installation. Nowyou're ready to go.

Note: The installation process will differ for other browsers. Please leave a comment to discuss how you installed Gears in Internet Explorer or Safari.

Using Gears

Next, navigate to a Gears-enabled Web application and log in. You'll notice a link somewhere in the top-right corner of the application – it might read Offline or Go Offline. Some applications (like the online to-do list Remember the Milk or Google Docs) display a message when you log in.

The first time you sync your data using Gears, a message will appear. This message will prompt to click the option to allow Gears to save data to your hard drive. This option will vary from application to application – it could be, for example, OK or Allow. This only happens the first time you do this.

Once you give Gears and the application permission to save data to your desktop computer or laptop computer, the synchronization process starts. Depending on how much data you have saved in the online application, the process can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. For example, when I synchronized my Google Docs using Gears, the process took about four minutes. Yes, I have that many documents in Google Docs!

Now, if you go offline you'll be able to work with your files or other data in the same way you would as if you were connected to the Internet. When you reconnect to the Web application, click the link in the application to return that application to its online state. Again, this option may vary from application to application – for example, Go online. Gears will synchronize any changes that you made offline with the version of your data in the cloud.

Drawbacks

The biggest of these is that not every Web application out there works with Gears. Really, only a handful do at the moment. That's changing slowly, but not quickly enough for some.

If you're a Linux user (like me) and you're running a 64-bit version of the operating system, then you won't find an official version of Google Gears; there is an unofficial one, which is an extension for Mozilla Firefox, which you can find here. Whether or not Google will support 64-bit Linux in the near future isn't clear.

On the other hand, if you're using two computers – for example, two desktop computers at different locations, or a desktop computer and a laptop – then you'll run into a problem. When you use Google Gears with multiple computers, each computer syncs data independently of the other. So, you'll be forced to sync the data on each computer with the data from the Web-based application that you're using. You risk stomping on changes that were made on the other computer if you don't.

Final thoughts

Google Gears is an interesting and useful solution for bringing the cloud offline. It's easy to use and set up, and working with Gears-enabled Web sites offline is a seamless experience. When Google Gears is more widely supported, it could mean that cloud computing might just take off.

Filed under Google by al

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July 15, 2009

PayPal contact & phone numbers

Paypal is a online banking service which allows you to receive, send, withdraw money from over 190 countries. In case something goes wrong with your account, paypal logo How to contact instant Paypal Customer Support ServicePaypal doesn’t have a instant online support care to answer your queries which is a setback for lots of people who have their account limited due to a violation in terms of transaction of money. So it is recommended to contact Paypal customer care support immediately for confirming your account problem.

Usually if the problem with your paypal account is not complicated then you can expect them to reply to you with ae e-mail within 24–48 hours. You can contact Paypal support using this link or directly get in touch canada online pharmacy viagra with their support service at support@paypal.com

Paypal customer service seems to be mostlylazy fellows who don’t reply to your e-mails and send a automated e-mail reply. If your paypal account is limited or you need your account to be restored then to get these tasks accomplished, make a phone call to the paypal support phone number. Contact Paypal customer service by making a phone call to their USA number but you need to have a lot of time in your hands as they tend to ignore/waste your time by telling you to “hold on” for sometime.

 

After a lot of search for this,I found the paypal phone number +1-888-221-1161 which you can use this through SKYPE so that you can call for free without wasting money on US calls. This is the best way to explain the representative and fax or scan the things they ask you for instant uplift from the account limitation!

Just found another Paypal Customer Support telephone number +1-402-935-2050. Hope this helps all the Paypal users who were finding it difficult for direct contact

Filed under eBay by al

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April 22, 2009

Using AutoText in Outlook 2003 as a Sales Tool

Do you find yourself typing in the same familiar email to your prospects and clients again and again? Whether it’s boiler-plates, generic thank you messages or directions to your business, there is a tool in Microsoft Outlook 2000/2003 – AutoText – that can help you automatically insert text into an email with minimal effort.

Whether you need to automate a paragraph or a three page email, I will show you how you can use AutoText to help save time so you can spend more time selling.

There are four easy steps to create an “AutoText” Entry

1. Type your email into the email body area.

2. Highlight the text you want for your AutoText Entry.

3. Once the text is highlighted… click – Insert > AutoText > New… Or you can simple hit Alt+F3 (Function Key – Not F then 3)

4. Name the AutoText and click OK

Using your AutoText Entries:

1. In a new email start typing the name you gave the AutoText name

2. When the yellow box appears as you type (above), simply hit the “Enter” key. Your AutoText will then automatically be placed into the email body text.

Option Two: If you can’t remember what you named one of your AutoText entries, you can use the Insert AutoText Option.

1. Click – Insert > AutoText

2. Find the name of your AutoText
1) Click the name can you buy viagra without a prescription of the AutoText
2) Click “Insert”
3) Click OK

Filed under MS Outlook by al

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