Teaching Aids
Monday, November 14, 2005
Given the above, its not surprising that I use Powerpoint to present many of my lectures. Whether research seminars or undergraduate lectures, I usually make these available for download at a later date. I usually put my Powerpoint files through two stages:
- 1. NXPowerlite - this is a stand-alone program which optimises Powerpoint file sizes. Specifically it resizes and compresses graphics and “flattens” (into graphics) OLE objects. It generally does an amazing job of compressing a Powerpoint file.
- 2. I often want to distribute PDFs of my Powerpoint material. This prevents people stripping elements out of my presentations for re-use. I am not averse to this, but would prefer people to request this. For a while I have been searching for a PDF print driver that can perform edge-to-edge printing in such a way that the PDF looks like the original Powerpoint. I have had little success until recently when I installed Open Office 2. Unlike Powerpoint, Open Office (in particular Impress) can export a Powerpoint file to a borderless PDF (or indeed a Flash animation). OO’s ability to import Powerpoint is excellent, so this is the route I use now.
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