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Welcome to all the new subscribers! (Information on how
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Communicating Using Technology
Vol. 2 Issue 22 October 28, 2003
Published and Copyright by Dave Paradi
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In this issue:
1. Better looking graphics
2. New PowerPoint Viewer
3. Useful Resource - Inside Outlook Express
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1. Better looking graphics
One of the common complaints about graphics used in
presentations or on web sites is the poor quality. Even if
you scan in an image at high resolution, it seems that most
graphics end up looking awful. It is usually because the
size or resolution has not been properly adjusted. I
recently helped someone with a photo they put on a web site
that took up most of the page and took forever to load
because it was 2MB. The size of the graphic is the easier of
the two areas to understand because we can just look at the
image and see what size it is. If you take a large picture
and simply use the sizing handles to make it smaller, the
image appears the correct size, but the problem is that the
graphic file is still the same size, making the presentation
file huge. The second issue is with resolution. This refers
to the number of dots per inch in the picture. The higher
the resolution, the better the quality of the image. Where
that rule falls apart though, is where the device you are
viewing the image on cannot display more than a certain
resolution. And your monitor is a device that has a
limitation. In general, computer screens display no more
than 72 dpi (dots per inch). For print publications, it is
not uncommon to see resolutions of 1200 dpi - even laser
printers print at 300-600 dpi. When you scan an image for
print use, you must scan it at the high resolution. But when
you go to use it in an electronic format, you should resample
it down to a lower resolution. Resampling is a process where
the software intelligently removes dots from the image but
does not reduce the overall quality of appearance. To resize
and resample an image requires software. You can use
expensive, complex image software, or you can do what I do,
which is go cheap and easy. I use a great utility called
IrFanView (interesting name, great software). This utility
allows you to load an image in any of dozens of formats,
resize, resample and do a whole lot of other things if you
need to, and then save in any of lots of formats. I have
used it extensively to help my images appear crisp and clear
on my web site and in presentations. I highly recommend it
and encourage you to start using it to improve the quality of
the images you use in presentations and online. Here is a
link to download IrFanView from download.com, a site I trust:
http://download.com.com/3000-2192-10223761.html?tag=lst-0-1
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2. New PowerPoint Viewer
With the release of Microsoft Office 2003 last week, we also
finally got a new version of the PowerPoint Viewer. The
Viewer is a small program that allows someone who does not
have the full PowerPoint program the ability to view and
print a presentation. The last version was released with
Office 97 and has not supported any of the new bullets or
animations that were added since then. This new version
supports almost all of the features in Office 2000 through
2003, and the ones that it does not support are not used by
many people. One feature that changed since the last version
is the ability to run multiple PowerPoint shows one after the
other. Instead of the previous list file, now you can use a
command line switch. You can create a list of PowerPoint
files you want to be run one after the other as a simple text
file and use the /L command line switch. This is great for
multiple presenters who follow one another with no break.
For a list of all of the new command line switches for the
PowerPoint Viewer, see this article:
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00153.htm. The one
feature that the new Viewer does not support which I wish it
did, is the ability to run a Custom Show. I use Custom Shows
a lot and the only way that the Viewer shows a file is
starting at slide 1. Other than that, I think the Viewer is
great and I highly recommend it as a backup strategy. I
always carry it with me in case my computer dies and I have
to run from another PC that may not have PowerPoint or at
least not the version I use (XP). You can download the new
PowerPoint viewer by going to: http://office.microsoft.com
and click on the Downloads link on the left. Then click on
the Downloads for Office 2003 and you will see viewers under
PowerPoint 2003.
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better PowerPoint slides? Learn an easy 13-step process in
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3. Useful Resource - Inside Outlook Express
I know that many of you are using Outlook Express as your e-
mail program. It is simple and it came with your PC, so why
change. And for many people it does everything you need it
to do. My wife uses it for her e-mail and it works great.
If you want to investigate the differences between Outlook
Express and Outlook, there is an article on the web site
about it, but that not what I wanted to share here. I wanted
to tell you Outlook Express users about a neat web site
dedicated to OE (as it's known). It provides great advice
and updates. Check out:
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com
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Would you like me to speak to your professional association
or chapter event? I am always looking for opportunities to
share my information with others and would consider speaking
to your group if you are in or near the following areas:
Rochester, NY, Buffalo NY, Detroit, MI, Cleveland, OH,
Pittsburgh, PA or Toronto, ON. Just e-mail me at:
dave@communicateusingtechnology.com for more info.
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Check out the books, e-books and other learning tools at:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/tools.htm
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