This is a Web site where you can either download for free or purchase some
specific software. You can also find many useful free tips and PowerPoint
tutorials.
The free software you can download is called "the Starter Kit".
You can find it at: http://www.rdpslides.com/ftp/PPTOOLS2.EXE
(approx. 735 Kb). In this free set of tools you basically find some
additional floating toolbars that will help you save time when working in
PowerPoint.
The more advanced tools available on this Web site need to be purchased.
One is called "ShapeStyles PPTool": it will let you create and
name your own styles when using Textboxes and AutoShapes. These styles can
then easily be memorized and re-applied to any shape, saving you time.
Another one is called "PPT2HTML Converter": it lets you have
more control when you save a presentation as a Web page. You can modify
some of the default options that you normally have to accept when using
the PowerPoint built-in HTML converter.
Then you find the "Image Exporter": it can be used to better
control the way you export some slides or an entire presentation into
images. You can now choose the range of the slides to be exported and the
precise size of the image.
The "Palette Toolbar" gives you the possibility to modify and
enhance the PowerPoint Color Schemes by using personalized color palettes.
The "Presentation Optimizer" is a tool that needs some special
attention. We have previously discussed the frustration of creating a
large presentation file which cannot be fit on a floppy disk, nor sent by
e-mail and may run very slowly on an old computer. This tool makes some
changes to your presentation so that the file size is notably reduced. It
converts the graphic file format to a more compressed one. It may ungroup
chart and graph objects, and cleans up your presentation file from all
those unnecessary material that PowerPoint usually adds to your file. To
test a demo version, download it at: http://www.rdpslides.com/ftp/
OPTIMIZER_DEMO.EXE
In addition to the software to improve the use of PowerPoint, this Web
site also provides you with some tips about PowerPoint, presentations and
graphics.
On this page, (http://www.rdpslides.com/slideres.htm)
you can find detailed information about preparing images for 35mm slides.
In my opinion, one of the great features of this site are the number of
articles, tips and tutorials on PowerPoint. The URL is http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/
and the section is called "PowerPoint FAQs". You can easily
search your topic using the search engine provided or you can browse by
topic. I repeat that this section has a notable amount of information and
covers in detail many of the topics you may need to know: from charts to
templates, from animations to add-ins, from programming to links to
how-tos. In case you want to print all the FAQs and then have a look at
them (approx. 153 pages) you can find all of them together in one unique
Web page (http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/
FULLFAQ.htm).
This section is really well done and worth a visit.
You can read this article in the original issue of MasterView.
