Insert Live Websites Into Your Next PowerPoint Presentation
Jan 28, 2009 Internet, Software
When sharing PowerPoint presentations, I always take a screen shot of a website if I need to show my audience what it looks like. This is never ideal – the full length of web pages rarely fit inside a screen shot. Fortunately, there’s a tool called LiveWeb, a free PowerPoint Add-in for both Mac and PC that lets you put real-time websites into your PowerPoint presentations.
In short, the add-in turns PowerPoint slides into a scrollable web page. Simply download the appropriate version, double click ‘LiveWeb.ppa’ after extracting the ZIP file (do not select ‘Open’ when you are prompted by your browser – you MUST download the file), and you should have a new menu item called ‘Web Pages’ under ‘Insert’. If it doesn’t work immediately, you will need to enable ‘Macros’ and change the security level to ‘Medium’. These options can be fun under ‘Tools’ on a PC. On a Mac, you will be prompted to ‘Enable Macros’ when double clicking ‘LiveWeb.ppa’ if they are not enabled already.
When selecting this menu option, it will take you through a series of alerts – asking you the URL of the website, if you would like to refresh each time you reload the slide, how big the website should be relative to slide size (I usually select 100%), and where to place the website on the slide.
As a note of caution, be sure to log-in to websites that require authentication (such as Facebook) through your presentation before it actually starts. You have to do this in View Show mode. If you stop the slide show, it will possibly log you out.
There’s a handy FAQ about PowerPoint Add-Ins here.
This is is an oldie but goodie – and I hope it’s new to some of you!
Tags: liveweb, powerpoint, Software, techniques
Three Firefox Add-Ons I Use At Work
Jan 23, 2009 Software
I just upgraded my browser in my office to Firefox 3. Honestly, I thought I had done this sooner, but while searching for add-ons I realized I was still using an older version. As a result of upgrading my browser, I had to update some of the add-ons I was using. I thought I would share three of them that Iuse on a daily basis while in the office.
- Meebo – Most of our department uses MSN for messanging. While I normally use GTalk and AIM, I was the odd man out. To be able to keep up with them all, I signed up for an account at at MSN and then Meebo, which lets you manage all of your different messaging services from one screen. The Firefox add-on places your buddy list at the left side of your browser. While it takes up some of my ‘browsing real estate’, I have a 20″ monitor – so there’s still plenty of room. The list can also be hidden at any time.
- Fire.fm – I can’t work without music. It’s way to quiet to concentrate. Yes, you read that correctly. Much like it does when I’m working out, music gives me inspiration to get things done. Fire.fm taps into the “Pandora” side of Last.fm, letting you play a station of similar artsits to the one you initially type in. It places a small player above the bookmarks bar.
- Firebug – This one is for the web developers out there. This add-on lets you inspect web pages. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. Incredibly useful for fixing problems in your code, or learning how someone else coded their website.
I have not yet been able to use PingFire, which ties into Ping.fm to let you update all of your social networking statuses at once. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I’d love to figure it out.
What are you guys using?
Tags: browser- add-ons, firefox, work
How to Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts On Your Desktop
Dec 31, 2008 Social Media, Software, Twitter
I recently wrote a post on How To Manage Multiple Twitter Accounts On The Web, but failed to recognize a viable way to do this from your desktop, which some people prefer.
Let me introduce you to a nice little application called Twhirl. This Mac and PC friendly program allows you to create a list of your Twitter accounts and login one-by-one. Each account is shown in it’s own application window, and gives you the same functionality as the Twitter website, plus more.
Pros
- View direct messages, replies, favorites, and archive of your own tweets
- View friends and followers
- Follow other Twitter users
- Add tweets to favorites
- Use Twitter’s lookup feature (for usernames) as well as Twitter Search (for content in all tweets)
- Tweetscan Search
- Desktop notifications for new tweets
- Upload to TwitPic
- Shorten URLs (using one of three different short URL providers)
Cons
- Can’t view multiple accounts in one window
- Lack of automatic brand mention tracking
While Twhirl is loaded with features, I’m hesitant to commit because of the inability to handle multiple accounts from one window. However, this is likely a great solution for many of you who don’t want to have a browser open at all times to manage your Twitter accounts.
