Create REAL Slideshows in PowerPoint

Question: Can I create an image slide show in PowerPoint without having to import the pictures one at a time?

There is a little-known option in the Windows version of PowerPoint to easily insert a set of pictures and create a slide show. (As of yet, the Mac version doesn't have this — maybe in the next version due later this year!)

To start this process, create a new slide presentation and go to the Insert menu. Scroll down to Picture, then select New Photo Album. (Yes, I agree, the name doesn't make sense!)

The next step is to find the pictures you want to insert. Click on the button labeled File/Disk. You will see previews of the pictures in the window. To select all of the pictures in the folder, click the first picture, hold down the Shift key, and scroll down and click on the last picture. Then click Insert. (To select just some of the pictures, hold down the Ctrl key and click the ones you want.)

You will return to the Album window. From here you can use the small arrows under the list of images to move slides up and down in the order of the show. Then you can go to the lower left corner and select the Picture Layout. For a normal slide show, select Fit to slide. Then click Create.

An entirely new PowerPoint slide show will be created, with one picture on each slide. You now have only a couple of steps left to be ready to go!

First, if you have any pictures that are vertical, or in portrait mode, there will be big white areas on either side. To make your slides look better, change the background color on the slides to black. The quickest way to do this is to go to the Format menu, and select Slide Design. From there, select Color Schemes and choose the black slide with white text.

Next, there is a title slide automatically created along with the pictures. Edit the title to match your show, or just delete the slide.

Last, go to the Slide Show menu and select Slide Transition. You can select any transition you wish, but it's hard to beat the traditional Fade Smoothly. Below the transitions you can select the speed, and I think it works best on the Slow speed setting.

Below the speed setting you have the option to set your show to run automatically by choosing the Automatically after checkbox and selecting how long you want each slide to appear.

When you're done, select Apply to All Slides and the show is ready to go! Click Slide Show to see how it turned out!

What are SniteCasts? - Ideas for Podcasting

What are the SniteCasts?

Whether you're on the bus, at the gym, or in the park it feels like everyone is plugged into one of those tiny MP3 players with white ear buds. Usually they're grooving to their favorite music, but listeners at the Snite Museum of Art just might be learning about Abstract Impressionism.
Students in Chris Clark's "Applied Multimedia Technology" class, offered through the Computer Applications Program (CAPP), have produced a series of twenty "SniteCasts," three- to five-minute audio programs about paintings and sculpture in the museum. Sudents produce five projects in Clark's course, including a podcast, an audio program designed to be published online on a free subscription basis.

To begin this project, students received the title of an artwork and a printed description. The goal was to learn about audio recording and editing, so students were not expected to do extensive research. They did make a personal commentary, though, and questions were provided.

Prof. Clark required his students to make high quality recordings. Thanks to a production grant from the Center for Creative Computing, he was able to loan out portable digital audio recording equipment. Students were allowed to recruit someone else to do the actual reading out loud, and some chose friends with radio experience. The podcast project also demanded a background music track that could be shared legally. To meet this requirement, most of the students downloaded music from GarageBand.com, a popular source of "podsafe" music. Students recorded voice segments, transferred digital recordings to a computer, and then used software to incorporate the soundtrack.

The SniteCasts are available at this web site and through iTunes. and other services. Listen on a computer or get the series and transfer it to a media player, such as an iPod. Compatible players display a small image of the art work.

GrammarGirl - A resource for writing students

With the help of our Director of our Writing Across the Curriculm program and Assistant Director of our Midwifery program, I found a new resource that I would like to share with our community and other higher education and K-12 institutions.

Grammar Girl is a podcast about, guess what, Grammar!!!

In under five minutes, you'll get a fun and friendly dose of writing advice. Grammar Girl covers everything from punctuation and grammar to style and voice.

To subscribe to Grammar Girl in iTunes, click the following link:

Subscribe to Grammar Girl

iTunes will open and you will receive the current episode and all future Grammar Girl episodes. To listen to previous episodes, click on Podcasts and download the episodes you would like to listen to.

Tech Tips - How do we create roaming favorites and bookmarks?

The IT Guy says:

"This was a constant source of frustration for me. Between work and home I use as many as four different computers at times, and often I couldn't find something I had bookmarked because I didn't know which computer it was on! However, all that changed when my friend Glenn introduced me to a Website called del.icio.us."

To use del.icio.us, you first need to sign up for a free account. During that process, you will set up your user name, password, and install a small button on your browser toolbar. Once you have your account set up, any new bookmarks you set up will be stored in your del.icio.us account online, instead of on the computer that you're using. Once there, you can access them from any Internet-connected computer by going to the address del.icio.us/your user name (with your user name after the slash, of course.)

It gets better. When you create your bookmarks, you also assign them "tags", which are terms that indicate which category or categories you want your bookmarks sorted into. Not only does this allow for better organization of your bookmarks, it also allows you to share your sets of bookmarks with others. Anytime I do a presentation or workshop, I set up a specific tag for that set of resources, and I only have to give participants one url! This is why it is called "social bookmarking."

Del.icio.us isn't the only site for doing this; Furl is a similar service. Whichever service you use, it frees your bookmarks to go wherever you go!

Reference:

The IT Guy @ TechLearning.com. http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604260. Accessed on March 9, 2007

Blackboard Tips - From a Faculty Member

Here is a recent question I received from a faculty member on campus about use of Blackboard and my response:

I want to have my students hand in papers digitally. I have never used the digital drop box before, and want to know if, once papers have appeared in it, I can manipulate them and put them (the papers) into small groups for students to read? Are there any special instructions I need to give students for when they drop things in the digital drop box?

Based on the description you provided me, I would suggest using the Assignment Manager feature of Blackboard instead of the Digital Dropbox.

The Digital Dropbox has one feature and that is to have students and teachers transfer files back and forth to each other….same as attaching a document to an e-mail.

The Assignment Manager does the following:

• Creates an online assignment where you can give the instructions, attach a document, specify point value of the assignment and adds an entry automatically into the gradebook feature of Bb;
  
• Allows students to download assignment (no copying for you), attach their papers and give you comments about their experience;
  
• Allows you to receive the papers, grade them via Microsoft Word/make comments, type in the grade for the paper (goes in the gradebook) and allows you to submit a “marked-up” copy of the paper back to them for edits or finality.

In order for you to “share” documents, you can do one of two things…..set up a Group and assign the students to each group. Groups has a File Exchange feature where students can post their documents for others in their groups to see. Or, if you want everyone in the class to see it, you can create a Discussion Board and they can attach their documents to a post.

To see how to use Assignment Manager and Groups, view the following web sites and download the tutorials:

• Assignment Manager
• Groups