A weird little feature new to the latest version of PowerPoint is that you can save your PowerPoint as a .wmv (Windows Media) video. Who knew?
Most of you know how to link to a YouTube video. You go to the YouTube page and copy the link in the address bar (or, alternately, click Share below the video and copy the link).
Following on the heels of my last post about image stabilization, here is another cool feature of YouTube: you can easily trim the start and end points of any video you upload to YouTube on the fly.
First step: upload the video to YouTube. After it has processed, bring the video up and click Edit. Click Enhancements.
Click Trim.
You'll then get a preview screen, and an area just below it where you can drag the Start and End bars to trim the beginning and end of your video (see below). Play the preview to see your video with the new edits, and fine-tune them until you are happy with the result. Click Done. And that's it. Because the entire video has been uploaded, you can go back and change these edit points, including adding cut portions back into your video, anytime you like.
YouTube has added several new user-friendly editing features to its user interface lately, from automatic transcription to editing. Today's post deals with image stabilization.
You can have YouTube automatically stabilize a shaky video. First step: upload the video to YouTube. After it has processed, bring the video up and click Edit. 
Next, choose Enhancements at the top of the page.
Click Stabilize. That's it! Be aware the stabilization process will take some time; in my test it took about 20 minutes.
Flickr Slideshow, at http://www.flickrslideshow.com/, makes it very easy to create a slideshow from your photoset at Flickr. You give them the URL of your photoset, the width and height of the slideshow, and the site returns the code you need to put the slideshow up at a website or blog (shown below).
The first step is to create a Flickr account. Go to http://www.flickr.com/, register for free, and upload your photos.
Next, go to Flickr Slideshow, at http://www.flickrslideshow.com/. Type in your photoset URL (generally http://www.flickr.com/photos/, followed by a long number specific to your account). Choose the size of your slideshow - the one below is 500 x 400 pixels. Click Create Slideshow, and then copy-and-paste the code the sir returns to you in your blog or webpage.
Microsoft Office 2010 has some new video editing tools available that allow you to add fades, automatically go full screen, and make trims and cuts directly in PowerPoint. This lets you avoid the step of having to first edit your video in an outside editor, such as Movie Maker or Adobe Premiere.
To begin, you insert the video the same as you always have: go to the Insert tab, choose Video, then Video from File.
Select your video. You now will have a "contextual" Video Tools tab appear above the other tabs (see image below), and below it two other tabs, Format and Playback. Choose Playback.
To trim video, choose the Trim Video icon. A dialogue box will appear (see image at left). Drag the left marker to set your Start point, and drag the right marker to choose your End point.
To add fades to the beginning and end of your video, use the Fade In and Fade Out boxes just to the right of the Trim Video icon to set the duration of the fades (see image below).
Finally, to allow your video to automatically play Full Screen, check the Play Full Screen checkbox. 
Below is the schedule for Web Development Connect sessions in the first half of 2012. Notice the emphasis on two areas: Google tools (Analytics, Docs, Forms, etc.) and slightly more advanced Working With Websites techniques (tables, multimedia, calenders). Those just starting to work with the CSU Extension Webpage Template are highly encouraged to attend these Working With Websites sessions.
Also included is a session on Prezi, a browser-based, non-linear alternative to death by PowerPoint!
2012 Connect Sessions:
Jan 18: Google Analytics
Feb 1: Using tables for web design (Working With Websites 6)
Feb 15: Prezi (an excellent alternative to PowerPoint)
March 7: Embedding Google Calenders on a web page (Working With Websites 7)
March 21: Google Docs
April 4: Multimedia on the web (Working With Websites 8)
April 18: Google Forms
Previous Connect sessions can be found at: http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/comptrain/co.shtml.
Previous Connect sessions relating to Working With Websites and the CSU Extension Webpage Template can be found here: http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/comptrain/co.shtml#wor
