Working Smart

Pick the Right Tool for the Job

Don’t get me wrong. I love Apple’s Keynote program. In fact, this was the very program that got me to consider switching from my PC in the first place. But now, after using Keynote for almost 18 months, I have to admit that sometimes PowerPoint is the better choice.

In general, I think that Keynote is the better when you want to motivate or to inspire. On the other hand, PowerPoint may be the better choice if you need to inform or educate—not always, but sometimes.

For example, I have been working on a presentation for our Board regarding our new employee bonus program. Initially, I started the project in Keynote. I knew the presentation would require numerous tables with lots of financial data. I started to create the tables in Keynote (which has a pretty nifty formula function), but it quickly became too cumbersome. So, I switched to PowerPoint where I could embed my Excel tables directly. This made updating the tables a snap.

In the process, I was also reminded of a couple of functions I actually liked better in PowerPoint. For starters, the drawing tools are much better and more robust in PowerPoint. They made creating my diagrams a breeze. (PowerPoint 2007 kicks this up several notches. The new SmartArt function is amazing.) When I finished, I created a PDF of the presentation to email to my Board. I was shocked by how small the file was—about half a meg. In my experience, Keynotes files are almost always huge.

Finally, I could easily share my PowerPoint deck with my staff, so they could double-check my calculations and modify the actual slides. Since I am one of the few people in my company who uses Keynote, this is not something I have been able to do easily.

I am not ready to go back to PowerPoint exclusively. I still love Keynote and am preparing two new presentations using it. My only point is that you have to pick the right tool for the job. And, though it sounds like heresy, sometimes even Microsoft gets it right.

Technorati Tags: apple, keynote, powerpoint

Capturing Movie Clips on the Fly

I love multi-media presentations. Steve Jobs is one of the best at this. (Click here to watch his iPod Nano presentation.) I especially like using movie clips to illustrate points. They are visually interesting and emotionally compelling. They often make a point that in a way that merely telling a story cannot.

As a result, I have been looking for a program to rip film clips from DVDs, so that I could use them in my speeches. (Yes, my attorney says this falls under “fair use.”) Previously, I was using Mac the Ripper to decode the DVD file then Cinematize to actually select the clip and save it as a QuickTime movie. It was a very involved, tedious, and time-consuming process. As a result, I didn’t make much use of movie clips. Bummer.

Over the weekend, I stumbled across Snapz Pro. It is way cool! Unfortunately, the Web site doesn’t do it justice. It looks like a simple screen capture utility. However, there is far more beneath the hood. Fortunately, it is available as shareware, so you can try it before you buy it.

Technorati Tags: apple, keynote, mac, movie clips, powerpoint, presentations, QuickTime, snapz

In addition to capturing static screens and windows on your computer, you can also record movies. These can be, for example, a movie of your screen activity with narration to create, say, a software tutorial. There are some examples of these on the site, illustrating the features of the program.

However, Snapz Pro really shines in recording DVD or Internet movies. It is so simple. You invoke the program with a hotkey, start your movie, and then play the DVD clip you want to capture. It records it, then saves it as a QuickTime movie. You can even select the compression format you want. The quality is amazing—at least to my amateur eye. I can’t tell it from the original.

Once I have the movie clip, I then insert it into a Keynote slide, so that it automatically plays when I display the slide. If you are using a Mac this is worth checking out. (If you are still on Windows—you are considering switching aren’t you?—check out Comtasia Studio.)