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Category Archives: Powerpoint

How Do I Do My Screen Captures?

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Capture. Edit. Share.

I’m a big fan of Techsmith’s Screen Capture software. Camtasia is a POWERFUL video screen capture and editing tool. Perfect for teachers, but also really useful for any videos in which one needs effects, objects, animations and more. With a simple user interface and super-powerful tools.

But, when I need to capture either a still or video on my screen, I use Snagit! That’s right – it captures still images, full screen, part screen, menus, anything you want. It also captures video of your actions (with or without your audio and/or webcam). It has a simpler editor than Camtasia, and it’s quick, easy, and powerful enough for me to make quick demo videos and go further.

Also, both of these programs will allow you to edit video and still images captured from your phone or camera (not camera raw).

Take a look at Snagit! It’s $49 for regular users, and only $29 for educators!

Let me know what you think, in the comments!

 

For the love of Typography

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As most of my design and graphics students know, I’m a bit of a type geek. In almost every class, even if it’s not in our regular syllabus, I try to include at least a brief introduction to Type as Design – or, Typography. 

And, you probably also know how I stress the idea of kerning – the way individual letterforms fit together, as a method of refining your work, adding a cohesive look and confirming that you’ve taken some time and put in some effort at making your type look good, as well as read well.

Today, I found an excellent infographic at Digital Synopsis.com, that may help you to make better decisions about how to improve your Headers, your Titles, and all display type. Take a look!

Really Interesting and Informative Typography Article

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As almost all of my students know, I’m a bit of a type geek. So, imagine how fulfilled my inner geek feels, when I find blog post about Typefaces, Type Structure, Type families, Type anatomy, and Type Classification, the use of Type in Paragraphs, Typographic Terms like kerning and spacing, Page Layout and Type, and so much more!

Although this article is written with a focus on software development, the article is about DESIGN. Knowing what you’re using, and why. As I always say “in design, you can always break the rules, but first you have to know what the rules are!”

I seriously recommend this article to all my design students, my motion graphics students, my still image students, and anyone else who feels that Type is more than just a way to make a word show up.

http://www.imaginarycloud.com/blog/a-typography-workshop/?ref=webdesignernews.com

17 Amazing Typography-Based Posters

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For my design and typography students – anyone into Illlustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, even Dreamweaver, After Effects… this article shows some excellent work with type as graphic – even when the posters are about the typeface itself!

http://www.teamofdesigner.com/index.php/inspiration/typography/43-17-amazing-typography-based-posters

Powerpoint Problem with Boot Camp – and Resolution!

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As you probably know, most of the actual work I do is on the Mac side of my computer, and I haven’t had much need to use the Windows version of Powerpoint in some time. Of course, today I had to use it… and so the saga begins!

Every time I started to type on a slide, Powerpoint crashed! I tried all the usual suspects – eliminated all my add-ons. Tried troubleshooting by starting Powerpoint in Safe Mode… nothing worked. Fortunately, I had it installed in Parallels on my laptop, so I was able to get work done, but I really needed it on my Windows 7 BootCamp partition (running through Parallels).

After MUCH research, I found the answer at http://blog.cdeutsch.com/2010/12/fixed-powerpoint-2010-crashes-when.html  . Worked like a charm – and SO easy. I find it hard to believe Apple hasn’t issued an update to fix this problem – but I’m really quite grateful to Mr. Deutsch for helping me get it resolved so quickly!