Adobe Presenter

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 in Flash presentations by katarinanovak  Tagged , , , , , ,

In my previous posts I’ve already told you my story on how I was choosing best PowerPoint to Flash conversion software. I found it and it is definitely iSpring Pro for me. But in the very beginning of my search I was reading tons of information on web about flash and other converters and of course, came across this news that Adobe planned to release their own software to convert PowerPoint to flash. At the moment I was doing my little survey it hasn’t appeared yet but now it is released and of course I couldn’t fight this temptation to try it and see how it works myself.

It took me some time to download Adobe Presenter (49 Mb) but it was worth it. The first thing what I liked a lot was Adobe Presenter Sample presentation that shows you how to work with the software.  It was very comfortable for me since I didn’t have to search the web site to learn more about features or see tutorials. Easy explanation was already there! Don’t you think it’s cool?! This is how one of the slides looks like:

You know one of the features I liked the most was that I could record my audio and synchronize it with animations. It was not that hard as I thought! The same happened with video. I was amazed and of course, I couldn’t resist trying my own test presentation with that tool. And Adobe Presenter really did a good job.  I even thought to buy it but… Five hundred is a lot for me.  My iSpring works perfectly well and satisfies all of my needs, I closed my PowerPoint and went to the gym.

 

 

 

PowerPoint 2007: love it or hate it?

Posted on July 3rd, 2008 in PowerPoint presentations by katarinanovak  Tagged ,

When you wake up in the morning one of the first things you do – go to the kitchen and make a cup of coffee. You take your favorite cup with that phrase “You are a boss”, put sugar, cream, coffee and hot water and here we go! You feel that smell and taste of your morning. And this is so natural. As for me when I do all this in the morning I don’t think. I just do it. I got used to it. The same situation was with PowerPoint for me, PowerPoint 2003. When I created my slideshows I did it fast and easy.  Then Office 2007 has been released and oops. It’s like you bought a coffee machine. Your morning is different now. And only in a couple of weeks you realize that this coffee machine is actually good and the coffee it makes is great. This is what has happened to me with PowerPoint 2007. I hate it in the beginning but now I truly love it: design, structure and functionality. What about you?

Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional 5.0 vs. iSpring Ultra 3.2

Posted on July 1st, 2008 in Flash presentations by katarinanovak

From the time I came to the conclusion that iSpring Pro is the best ppt to flash converter I received a few comments which made me think on the issues I didn’t take into my consideration before. So today I would like to compare two products. Since we are talking not only about PowerPoint to flash but e-learning as well, it will be iSpring Ultra 3.2 and Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional 5.0.

This time I am not going to create any tables, I want to share my thoughts, impressions and conclusions on these products with you and there is a reason for that. At the beginning I thought that it will not be that hard to compare these two but after installing it on my PC and trying the software out I changed my mind.  Both products are good but very different.  It’s not possible to compare them with quality and price ratio since their functionality varies, even though they have something in common.

Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional 5.0 = iSpring Ultra 3.2 in …

ü  Software’s main purpose

Both products are made to convert PowerPoint files to Flash.

ü  Ability to publish for LMS

Using PPT2Flash Professional or iSpring Ultra you can easily publish your presentation to any LMS conforming to SCORM.

ü  Great customizable player templates they offer

Honestly, I can’t tell you which player templates I like better since both programs provide you with a wonderful choice. Now you can do almost whatever you want with your player and this is a great thing. I was impressed. It’s so easy to change the color of the template, control volume, put in your own (I mean presenter) information like name, e-mail, logo and a short description of yourself, etc. You know, I am not going to put a full list of features these players offer, take a minute and just check it, you won’t regret. Wondershare and iSpring both made a good job and this is worth looking at.

I came to the conclusion that both programs are a good choice for teachers, presenters and people closely related to e-learning.

So what is different?

ü  Price

Let’s be honest with each other and admit that money has its role in our lives:)so the first difference I paid attention to was money issue. Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional 5.0 is $199.95, at the same time iSpring Ultra 3.2 costs $299. A hundred dollars. “Why is it so?” – was the next question that came to my mind (in the current highly competitive market there must be a huge reason for such a difference). The answer you’ll find below.

ü  Software’s purpose

Even though both programs can convert your ppt files to flash and publish it for LMS no problem, their purpose is different.  Wondershare PPT2Flash Professional 5.0 allows you to add audio and even video narration but it doesn’t provide you with ActionScript API like iSpring Ultra 3.2 does. In spite the fact that iSpring Ultra is very easy in use, you can do much more with it if you have some programming knowledge (personally I don’t, so I had to search the net a little and asked their support, quite prompt, their explanation was quite easy). ActionScript API allows you to do a lot of tricks your presentation playback. I’ll give you an example:  let’s say I am in Pittsburg and you are in London and I would like to present you something. Having a web-conference with you, some programming base and iSpring Ultra 3.2 installed on my PC I could create a presentation in PowerPoint, make it flash and then control its playback like I want to. Don’t you think it’s cool? And all of this you get only for $299! iSpring Ultra 3.2 is a product that is good not only for end-users but for developers as well!

ü  Quality of conversion

I see that this could be another point for price difference. iSpring Ultra 3.2 as well as iSpring Pro version has an excellent accuracy of conversion. Wondershare is good but still faces some troubles.  Screenshots below better than words demonstrate what I mean.

 

He is another experience of mine. I will appreciate if you let me know what you think…