|
Sun, Shine and Storm usually work as a team—together they comprise the
presentation department of Comitu Creations. Sun has a peculiar problem today,
he has just been asked to create a web presentation from the annual meet PowerPoint
presentation. Thankfully, Shine just visited the PowerPoint homepage on Microsoft's
site and found information on Producer, Microsoft's free add-in for PowerPoint
that creates synchronized multimedia presentations. Storm has a question—what
is a PowerPoint add-in?
Very few of the millions of PowerPoint users worldwide are aware of the concept
of PowerPoint add-ins. In their most basic form, these are small programs that
can be run only from within PowerPoint. They are usually integrated with their
host program; and more often than not, they add new menus or icons to the PowerPoint
interface.
Shine explains further that PowerPoint add-ins usually fall in three categories:
- Editing Add-ins
- Delivery Add-ins
- Template and Miscellaneous Add-ins
Editing Add-ins
Editing add-ins usually add new editing possibilities to a presentation. Sometimes
these are just complicated macro routines made simple by a click of an icon;
at other times, they provide solutions to PowerPoint problem areas.
- Vox Proxy (http://www.voxproxy.com/)
is an add-in that adds Microsoft Agent style animated characters to PowerPoint.
These characters speak to the audience from within a running PowerPoint presentation.
- Another example is the free PPTools Starter Kit add-in (http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/FAQ00046.htm)
from Steve
Rindsberg and Brian Reilly that provides an arsenal of new routines to
PowerPoint.
- CrystalGraphics (http://www.powerplugs.com)
provide add-ins that can do everything from adding new transitions and animated
shapes to PowerPoint. In fact, they have an excellent add-in that provides
a single click access to over 30,000 famous quotations from within PowerPoint!
Delivery Add-ins
Delivery add-ins are related to the distribution aspect of PowerPoint presentations.
They usually alter the presentation itself to accommodate a new distribution
format like Flash, Java, RealMedia or WindowsMedia. Other delivery add-ins create
autorun CDs from PowerPoint presentations.
Template and Miscellaneous Add-ins
Any add-in that does not fall into the category of an editing or delivery add-in
is usually classified into this category.
- Accent Graphics (http://www.presentation-librarian.com)
makes the popular Presentation Librarian and PowerSearch add-ins
that provide PowerPoint with extensive cataloguing and search capabilities.
- Slide Converter from Aladat (http://www.aladat.com)
allows you to create a new presentation using images of your slides.
- CrystalGraphics PowerPlugs Headings (http://www.powerplugs.com)
are a collection of hundreds of alpha channel imparted visuals that add sophisticated
headings to PowerPoint slides.
- Hemera includes a PowerPoint add-in that allows a single click access to
its Graphicsdesk (http://www.graphicsdesk.com)
clipart subscription service.
- If you have the full version of Adobe Acrobat (http://www.adobe.com/),
you'll find that the installation of the program automatically initializes
an add-in that simplifies creation of Acrobat PDFs from within PowerPoint.
Add-in Compatibility
With nearly three versions of PowerPoint being used today on the Windows platform,
it would be prudent to find out if an add-in actually is compatible with your
PowerPoint version before actually buying the product. Thankfully, many add-ins
have trial or demo versions you can test before deciding. In addition, I have
a page on my site that details add-in compatibility for the last three PowerPoint
versions. Be aware though, that the page weighs around 100 kb and may take a
while to load for those on dial-up access. You can find this info at this link:
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/addin/compatible.html
Sun, Shine and Storm are ready to go ahead with so much information on add-ins
at their fingertips. What about you?
|
