Five Apps: Make better PowerPoint presentations - TechRepublic

Five Apps: Make better PowerPoint presentations

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    Five utilities for a better PowerPoint

    This\r\ngallery is also available as a TechRepublic article

    PowerPoint may be one of the most popular business\r\napplications of all time. As is the case with any widely popular application,\r\nan entire cottage industry has been built around providing add-ons and other\r\nutilities for PowerPoint.\r\nThis article discusses five such utilities.

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    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Tabs for PowerPoint 1

    Five Apps

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    1. Tabs for PowerPoint

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    Tabs\r\nfor PowerPoint is an extremely useful utility that gives you tabbed access\r\nto PowerPoint presentations. The reason why this is so helpful is because older\r\nversions of PowerPoint only allow one presentation to be open at a time.\r\nPowerPoint 2013 will allow you to open multiple presentations, but each\r\npresentation opens in a separate window. Tabs for PowerPoint supports\r\nPowerPoint 2003-2013 and allows the use of tabs in a manner similar to Excel.

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    Tabs for PowerPoint sells for $19.00, but a free trial\r\nversion is available for download.

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    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Tabs for PowerPoint 2

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Tabs for PowerPoint 3

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    PowerPoint Slide Show Converter 1

    2. PowerPoint Slide Show Converter

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    PowerPoint\r\nSlide Show Converter is a utility that converts a PowerPoint presentation\r\ninto an automated slide show. The program uses a very simple interface and\r\noperates in either Simple Mode or Special Mode.

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    Simple Mode merely asks for a source file and an output file\r\nname, but also provides a check box that can be used to create an autorun file\r\nfor a CD or DVD. Special Mode lets you set the timing on the slide transition\r\nor wait for a mouse click. You can also specify a transition effect or choose\r\nwhether you want to optimize the presentation for text or images.

    \r\n\r\nPowerPoint Slide Show\r\nConverter sells for $49.00, but a free trial version is available for download.

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    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    PowerPoint Slide Show Converter 2

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    PowerPoint Slide Show Converter 3

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Recovery for PowerPoint 1

    3. Recovery for PowerPoint

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    Recovery\r\nfor PowerPoint is a utility that is designed to repair corrupt PowerPoint\r\npresentations. The utility supports PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, and\r\n2010 and works with the PPT, PPS, and PPTX file formats.

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    Recovery for PowerPoint uses a very simple interface that\r\nwalks you through the recovery process by prompting you for information such as\r\nthe corrupt file and the recovery location. Over all, the utility is intuitive\r\nand easy to use.

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    Recovery for PowerPoint sells for $199.00, but a free trial\r\nversion is available.

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    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Recovery for PowerPoint 2

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Recovery for PowerPoint 3

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Recovery for PowerPoint 4

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Recovery for PowerPoint 5

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Batch PPTX to PPT Converter 1

    4. Batch PPTX to PPT Converter

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    Batch\r\nPPTX to PPT Converter is a utility for performing bulk conversions of PPTX\r\nfiles to the older PPT format. This allows the presentations to be opened using\r\nolder versions of PowerPoint.

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    The utility seems to work well. The interface is intuitive,\r\nand it only takes a few seconds for a conversion to complete. The down side to\r\nthis utility is that it requires PowerPoint in order to work. The utility\r\nforces PowerPoint to open the document and then save it in a legacy format.\r\nThis could just as easily be done manually if only a few documents need to be\r\nconverted. However, the utility may be worthwhile if large numbers of documents\r\nrequire conversion.

    \r\n\r\nBatch PPTX to PPT Converter\r\nsells for $149.90, but a free trial is available for download.

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    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Batch PPTX to PPT Converter 2

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Batch PPTX to PPT Converter 3

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Mix-FX Flash Text Effects 1

    5. Mix-FX Flash Text Effects

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    Mix-FX\r\nFlash Text Effects is a utility for creating flash based text effects.\r\nAlthough this utility can be used for Web development and other non-PowerPoint\r\nuses, the documentation provides instructions for including your text effects\r\nin a PowerPoint document. Unfortunately however, the ability to save text\r\neffects in the manner required to import them into PowerPoint seems to be\r\ndisabled in the trial version.

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    The Mix-FX utility is easy to use and includes a wide\r\nvariety of animated text effects that you can apply to any of your fonts.

    \r\n\r\nMix-FX Flash Text Effects\r\nsells for $27.00, but a limited free trial is available for download.

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    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Mix-FX Flash Text Effects 2

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Mix-FX Flash Text Effects 3

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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    Mix-FX Flash Text Effects 4

    Credit: Images by\r\nBrien Posey for TechRepublic

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Brien Posey

* 1988 - Started teaching myself about computers \ * 1992 - Mainframe programmer for an insurance company \ * 1993 - Network Administrator for a different insurance company \ * 1996 - Author for The Cobb Group \ * 1998 - Network Administrator for Fort Knox \ * 1999 - CIO for chain of hospitals \ * 2000 - Gave up the corporate rat race to work out of my home. I have been a full time technical author ever since. Visit my Web sites at http://www.brienposey.com and http://www.relevanttechnologies.com \