Convert PowerPoint to Flash

ISpring (http://www.ispringsolutions.com/)is a cool, free little add-on to PowerPoint that allows you to convert PowerPoint into flash files (.swf) so they can be inserted into web pages, Moodle, and any other platform that uses Flash content. It adds a tab (shown below) to the PowerPoint "Ribbon," or toolbar


It also allows you to easily insert Flash movies into PowerPoint slides, and YouTube videos as well.

An example is shown below. It is the the PowerPoint that will accompany the "Using Connect" Connect session on Sept. 2, from 9 to 10 a.m.. For more information about attending this session, contact me at Jeffrey.Wood@colostate.edu.

Reusing Slides in PowerPoint 07

Slides in PowerPoint presentations get reused often. In older versions of PowerPoint, all you had to do was click Insert, Slides from Files, and then browse to the slideshow from you want to reuse a slide.

Oddly, Microsoft has made this commonly used command a little harder to find in PowerPoint 07, the latest version of PowerPoint. I've gotten several questions about it already. So, here's how. Click the dropdown arrow just under the New Slide button. Then go to the bottom of the dialogue box and you'll see the Reuse Slides command. Click it, browse to the slideshow you want to use, and you're done.

Joanne Littlefield and I will be holding a Connect session on using PowerPoint 07 on September 16th, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. If you're new to PowerPoint 07, or thinking of switching to it, be there. An email reminder will be sent out the week before.

If there are any specific topics you'd like addressed during the session, please email me at jeffrey.wood@colostate.edu.

Online IT Training on Facebook

eXtension now has a presence on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/). Facebook is a social networking site that provides a "feed" from other people's Facebook pages. You essentially subscribe to another person's feed by becoming their "friend." Think "contact" whenever you see the word "friend" on Facebook and the whole thing will make more sense.

You can network with other Extension professionals there, share ideas, provide feedback and much more. Sign-up is easy; all you need to provide is an email address and a password. Other profile details are optional.

If you do a search for "Extension Online IT Training" (use the Search box in the upper right corner) you can join the Extension Online IT Training Group. Their next training is "The Basics of Working With Images" on Wednesday, August 19, from 12-2. Go to
http://slms.delta.ncsu.edu/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1247246047004 at the appointed time to attend the session.

Future IT trainings posted on Facebook include discussions of Twitter and Facebook. The more general eXtension Group on Facebook offers a calender of Connect sessions on working with keywords, the Ask an Expert widget, and much more. Become a Extension Online IT Training member on Facebook to learn more.

Excel 07 Page Layout View

Microsoft Excel 07 - the latest version of Excel - offers a solution to one of the most vexing aspects of Excel: print formatting. In older versions of Excel, to format the printed version of a spreasdsheet, you needed to go to File, then Page Setup, then Print Preview, and then sort of hop back and forth between Page Setup and Print Preview and tweak the layout to get the correct printed page. Getting the rows and columns to break at just the right spot was a cumbersome and time-consuming process.

Excel 07 has a Page Layout view as the center icon at the lower righthand corner of the page (it's circled in the illustration to the right). It changes the view on the document screen (below) to how it will look when printed so that you can tweak it and see your changes enacted immediately. The row and column heading bars are moved to just outside the document, so you can resize rows and columns, hide columns, etc., just by working with the row and column bar options. You can also use the Ribbon commands to change font size and styles, hide or show gridlines, add border styles, all on the document pane, until you get the exact printed document you want. You can even add headers and footer by clicking directly on the page and typing. Page breaks, both horizontal and vertical, automatically readjust as you make changes to the document.