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Here are some tips we've collected over time re' use of PowerPoint in Lecture123.

• Embed links on slides by using fully qualified URLs including http:// (e.g. www.lecture123.com will not work, but http://www.lecture123.com will).

• Embedded URLs should not span more than one line. You might have to reduce the font size.

• Realize that the program that runs a clicked URL (e.g. web browser or a video play) is not recorded in Lecture123. Your voice will be recorded though. Depending on the content you may wish to pause the recording. Many presenters announce and circle the link while recording so the person knows to click the URL on playback.

  Here's two exmaple uses:

  • During a presentation you are playing back audio of a poet reading her poem -- in this case you will likely continue recording to capture that audio clip in the recording.

  • You want to play back a video clip. You might tell the user playing back the content that she should click on the URL to start the video player, pause the Lecture123 playback, play the video, and then click Play again in the Lecture123 Player to resume the playback and hear a discussion about the video.

• Some presenters like blank slide regions of full blank slides included in a slide set to prompt for annotation/audio discussion or illustration. Of course at any time the presenter may insert a blank slide (i.e. whiteboard) while recording the session.

• Feel free to include many visuals, e.g. pictures, graphs.

• For PowerPoint files with many pictures: be sure to compress picture objects when saving PowerPoint files. This can reduce file size by a factor of 10 when there's a lot of inserted pictures (we saw art history slide sets go from 200MB to less than 20MB). This reduction in file size reduces disk space on the client computer while improving network up/down load performance when converting the PowerPoint file to SVG (the XML format used by Lecture123). Here's instructions for MS-PowerPoint 2003:

  • right-click on any object in the PowerPoint file, select 'Properties...';
  • select 'Picture' tab;
  • click Compress... button;
  • select 'Apply to' 'All pictures in document', 'Change resolution' 'Web/Screen', 'Options' 'Compress pictures' and 'Delete cropped areas of pictures', and click 'OK'
    (Note: 'Web/Screen' resolution is typically 96dpi. If the intent is to print the PowerPoint file, then use 200dpi. Most Lecture123 instructors do not print the PowerPoint slides for students).

• Consider using empty square bullets on lists so presenter can check off items as discussed. This can be adjusted in the the PowerPoint Slide Master, i.e. View > Master > Slide Master.

• When atypical fonts are used, embed them in the PowerPoint file. Here are instructions to embed fonts in a MS-PowerPoint 2003 file:

  • File > Save > Tools > Save Options > Embed TrueType Fonts

  If these atypical fonts are needed often, you may send an email to Lecture123 Support and ask if they can install those fonts on the Lecture123 SVG Conversion Server.

• Do not insert movies and sounds in the PowerPoint file. Post the movies or sounds where they are accessible via a URL (e.g. on a web site) and include the full URL link in the PowerPoint slide. Use the same method of URLs instead of embedding objects (e.g. OLE) in the PowerPoint file. Likewise for PowerPoint slide narrations.

• Most PowerPoint slide show attributes are not supported, e.g. action buttons, animations, transitions, hide slide. Simply create each step in a slide building method as separate PowerPoint slides and engage the students by using Lecture123 slide navigation and pen/mouse annotations to produce similar results.

• Pen strokes on PowerPoint slides created with Insert > Ink Annotations do not appear in Lecture123.