MS Power Point - DIE

[SlickChicFallen]

argh... I had our PPP all ready to go, looked wonderful, we'd practiced a dozen times. Then we get there, set up, and PP crashes 3 TIMES!!!! So we ended up having to give our presentation totally by memory and stuff. We covered all the bases and whatnot, but man, now I REALLY DISLIKE Power Point.

Anyone else have presentation/interview horror stories?

[Joe Matt]

That's why I use Keynote on OSX.

So far, not a single problem. Great fun. We didn't get a chance to create a keynote for our Chairmans award, but we will next year.

[Ryan M.]

Microslop...

I used to have a quote on my signature that said "I'm not anti-Microsoft, I'm just pro-quality." You have to credit to Microsoft, however. They do have to have an operating system that runs on a huge variety of hardware all over the world.

[Kevin Karan]

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/12/1....shtml?tid=109

[Aaron Knight]

Originally Posted by Kevin Karan

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/12/1....shtml?tid=109

Yes, PowerPoint really does - at least, from what I can tell, watching my professors read straight off them line for line..........

[Biff]

It's late now but there are places on line, that will trun your power point presentation into 35mm slides, not cheap, but handy as a backup. If you can get it done early like a week before the cost goes down.

[westfalia]

our team used keynote both this year and the last for our presentation. It's such an awesome program and it's much better than powerpoint- it's so smooth and easy to use! Just out of curiosity, what have other teams who do powerpoint presentations do to show their presentation? A laptop, or a desktop pc? We're debating whether or not to step it up and bring in our iMac that we use for our pit display at nationals.

[OneAngryDaisy]

Originally Posted by SlickChicFallen

Anyone else have presentation/interview horror stories?

Yep, two years ago the format was completely different (10 minute video)... I myself, a few other kids, and our TV lab teacher busted our butts throughout 6 weeks making this video.. We make this pretty box and send the DVD in. So when our presenters go to present the judges listen for five minutes or so, then one stops our presenter in mid sentence and says something like this

"Oh wait, you guys aren't 222... your'e..... 341?... Turns out we couldn't see your video, our computer wouldn't run it. You have a hour to get a computer that we can watch it on"

So we run around like headless chickens looking for a computer (non-mac). After nearly a hour we realize our pitmates 357 have a compaq, and we rush to the judges. They can't hear anything in the loud situation, so we go downstairs to the locker room (at Drexel's gym) and from what i've heard there was a bodybuilder in there listening to some loud music. So we ask him politely to turn it down for 10 minutes, and he refuses. The judges watch our video in a smelly, loud weight room. Fortunately, it went much better the next 2 years, as WE brought our own computer. Lessons learned

[Jessica Boucher]

Guys...ppt isnt that bad once you know how to tame it...if you have any questions, send them my way, it's required at Babson to have MS office proficiency.

[Pierson]

<rant>
OK... How do you make the computer not crash on you when you are presenting the CA PPT?

Background: It was on my computer that our CA PPT crashed and I have done easily 70-80 PowerPoint Presentations in the last 4 years. This is the first time PPT has crashed on my laptop. What do I do differently.

Why Oh Why? Why does PowerPoint crash on one of the most important Presentations that the computer has ever done?

Oh well... It's done now... and there is not much I/we can do about it
</rant>

[Andy A.]

Peciv-

Within Power point, there is an option that will turn all slides into .jpgs, sequentally numbered. Simply save them into a folder, and should power point fail, you can open the first slide in microsofts picture viewer (or whatever you like) and view it as a slide. When you want to advance to the next slide, it should pop right over to the next one in your presentation. Basicly, exactly what powerpoint does when you view a show.

You loose things like sound, video and hyperlinks, but those rarely show up anyways. If you have slides set to automagicly advance, you need someone ready to hit that space button, but a small price to pay.

It's a good back up, at the least. It also becomes much easier to review a slide with out waiting for Power Point to open up. Also almost mandatory if you want to put the presentation on a website, or email just one part of a large show.

-Andy A.

[Austin]

In our CADlab, where we do all of our animation, there is a sign posted that says "Just remember, it's a Microsoft product."

[Pierson]

Andy A.

Thank you. Great Advice!

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Aaron Knight

Yes, PowerPoint really does - at least, from what I can tell, watching my professors read straight off them line for line..........

That's a problem with the professor. I've done a few important presentations in PPT and never read the bulleted points. If you really know the material, then you should design your slide to remind you of it.
Each item on the slide is a main topic and you elaborate on them.

Anyway, I had a Calc professor at Drexel that taught from PPT slides, animation, sounds, and everything. He is/was the worst teacher I have ever had. He spent more time putting together the PPT than knowing and explaining the material.

[Kyle Fenton]

I have had difficulties with MS Powerpoint in the past,with the PC version, in the following areas.

* I can't embeded .swf files (Even .mov are a pain sometimes)
* Can't directly embed a QTVR
* I can't change the opague for any of the images
* It sometimes crashes when I link it to an external file

However the mac version can let me do these things