The second part of our PowerPoint 2010 review centres around the improvements made in usability. There are two reasons for these improvements to be made: to reduce the stress involved in trying to perfect a presentation by making the process easier; and to save time, by reducing the number of clicks needed to perform a function, or removing the need for plug-ins or other programs.

Our testers noted three distinct areas of improvement in PowerPoint 2010. Here we explain these, and detail examples of each.

Menu Functions

One of the most noticeable things about the move from earlier versions of PowerPoint to 2010 is the shift to more intuitive menus. There has been a real effort to make things simpler and quicker for users, and this has been shown in certain functions in particular. The animation menu is significantly different, with large icons depicting each animation, and a preview of each shown by simply hovering over each option. Motion paths in particular are easier to use from this menu.

The print preview menu displays all options on screen at once, so that it is not necessary to navigate through different folders and tabs. Similarly, users are given different paste options from an automatic menu, creating a much easier option for the user.

More Editing Options

Another great improvement seen in many features of PowerPoint is the inclusion of more editing options. Pie charts are a good example of this; another is gradient fill. 2010 boasts a huge range of preset colour schemes (including everything from Rainbow to Chrome), rather than only offering the choice of two colours.

The introduction of gradient stops is fantastic. These can be added or removed separately, so that the user can include up to 10 different colours or other attributes at his own discretion. This gives a much greater control over any gradient, as colour, transparency and brightness can be changed for each individual gradient stop. The position of each can be adjusted according to percentage, or by dragging across the bar. In short, the user has a much greater control over gradient, and it is possible to get very exact effects.

Far less editing is needed to format pictures correctly after inserting them, and it is now easier and quicker to edit live graphs. The WordArt editing menu in particular is greatly improved. Inserting a WordArt automatically opens up the ‘Drawing Tools’ tab, meaning that it is now much easier to edit these in PowerPoint – a function that in 03 required a plug-in.

Time Saving

The new background removal tool is fantastic when used correctly, and can save a lot of time. Simply insert a picture and the Remove Background icon will appear on the far left of the Picture Tools tab. This feature will automatically remove what it perceives to be the background, and the user can then edit these changes using a few simple buttons, with the background adjusting intelligently.

The best new time saving feature in our opinion is the movie trimming capabilities. A lot of presenters now like to incorporate video in their presentations, and in the past we’ve found ourselves having to resort to using flash to achieve the required effect. With these changes, that is no longer necessary.

Another improvement is that you can now insert a screenshot with only two clicks from the main screen. The process is easy, and eliminates the need to mess around with windows; the user can choose the window he wishes to use from an icon in the drop-down menu.

Any Problems?

Some of our testers reported having trouble with editing shapes they had made. It was reported that it was difficult to find the tools to edit the shape once it was created. The most notable problem became obvious when our testers attempted to fill a shape with a picture: the images distorted to fit the shape making the user either manually resize using the options within the picture format options, or resize using the crop tool, then resaving. This problem was also reported for 2007.

The only real issues our testers found where related to the change in menus. The difference from 07 to 2010 is not too significant, but those who resisted the transition from 03 (as many did, owing to several reported bugs in 07) may struggle to make the transition from toolbars to tabs. That said, the menu change has been made with the user in mind, and once users have adjusted to the new system, it seems likely that they would in fact find it simpler.

Conclusion

PowerPoint 2010 has been designed with the user in mind. Most (if not all) improvements, when used correctly, save time and effort when designing a slide. While it is easy to get distracted by some of the showy new features, using the subtler, more technical, functions to create a more professional presentation should require less clicks. Perhaps most importantly some improvements, particularly in video editing, negate the need to use plug-ins or other software, thus saving the user a lot of time.

In all, PowerPoint 2010 shows a lot of promise, and should make creating effective presentations easier for amateurs and professionals alike.

The video below is an example from the PowerPoint team, showing how easily videos can be produced (and put on YouTube) using PowerPoint 2010. This software can do some very impressive things…

m62 took a short visual presentation of medium complexity and playtested three software packages that convert presentations into Flash™ animations (that can be integrated into a webpage or blog, or distributed without fear of versioning issues on different machines). Here’s what happened.

Articulate Presenter ‘09 – Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows7, tested with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007

Articulate’s offering markets itself as an e-learning material creation tool. It offers a range of publishing options; Flash presentation for Web, a Word document of slide snapshots and speaker notes, self-running CD, or an audio-only podcast. Since we’re in the visual communications business, we have foregone the podcast and handout functionality here.

Installation is simple, embedding an Articulate submenu right into the PowerPoint window (easier to navigate in PPT 2007 which creates a new ribbon of buttons,  than in 2003 which drops down a list, but it’s still pretty intuitive to see what’s on offer). Before converting you can record narrative onto the slides (in a separate preview window), and then afterwards tweak the timings if you’re not happy with them. If you’ve ever used PowerPoint’s own narrative recorder this new interface takes a bit of getting used to. Narration is recorded a slide at a time, and requires clicking on separate buttons to advance the animations and slides rather than just clicking the mouse or keyboard continuously to proceed, as comes naturally.

Audio/video quality options are not available at this stage and are instead confined to a separate submenu, which makes creating or amending a voiceover quick to get into. More confident users (actually, perhaps that should be ‘less confident’…) can even open up an impressive audio wave editor that allows you to trim out all those pauses, coughs, ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’.

Also available is the ‘Add Annotations’ process that offers the interesting option to draw on your slides ‘telestrator-style’, by adding arrows, boxes, highlights, check marks etc. If you haven’t incorporated this kind of thing into your slides at the design stage, and you don’t mind the preset graphics style, you might find this worth getting to grips with. It does take some practice: the interface runs the pre-timed slides while you choose your shapes and place them, so you have to be quick on the draw.

You can then preview your creation and opt to Publish once you’re happy. This brings up a tabbed menu screen with the various format options described above; we’ll focus on publishing for the Web. Some digging at this stage reveals extensive calibration submenus, including specifications for rendering quality, navigation restrictions, and tweaks to change the appearance of the embedded Player (you can also add a presenter photo, bio and email address). There are only a couple of preset layouts for the player however, so if you want less conspicuous play controls you have to build up the design yourself.

Once you’re done calibrating to your heart’s content, hit Publish. Our modest ten slides took around thirty seconds to convert, and then gave options to view the presentation in a browser, upload it via FTP, or email it to someone. The final option generates a friendly email with instructions on what to do with the files inside the attachment in order to get it to work.

Quality of the output file with the default settings is good, albeit slightly less sharp than the native PowerPoint show, and we noticed very little degradation of animation effects even with complex, multi-layered combinations. Puzzlingly, we couldn’t find any way of publishing the presentation with the clicks preserved – viewers  must use the playback controls if the timings haven’t been set, which could be confusing.

The option to email the presentation with instructions is helpful, mostly because the output folder contains a huge number of flash files and construction files to hunt through. There are no options to save out the presentation in different formats (.exe, .swf etc.), the ‘go’ file is always a .html, which might be more or less useful depending what you plan to do with your package once it’s converted.

There’s probably more fun to be had by way of setting up user interaction (quizzes and games), but that reaches beyond the scope of this review. Even ignoring these features, you’re getting a good performer with a huge amount of functionality, but at what cost? Presenter ’09 standalone is currently on special at $699 (UP: $799).

iSpring Presenter / iSpring Pro- Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows7, tested with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007

iSpring Solutions has three products on the market, iSpring Pro, iSpring Presenter and an SDK. We decided to test Presenter,which is a similar type of product to Articulate’s, and also the lighter iSpring Pro program since we’re not overly concerned in our arena with creating interactive content.

Like Articulate’s product, iSpring Presenter integrates easily and rapidly into the PowerPoint window, either as a toolbar and submenu (PPT03) or ribbon (PPT07).  Recording narration is even simpler than with Articulate’s product, providing the option to record audio continuously (just one button to click as the slides build and advance).  iSpring has a similarly friendly way to record video as well, just plug in your webcam and hit Record Video, and you’re taken to the same click-through interface featuring your talking head on screen. You can also sync the animations with the audio and/or video in the same window, which is a real timesaver if you need a few tries to get it perfect.

Elsewhere, like Articulate iSpring lets you add an existing Flash movie onto a slide, and is quite loud and proud about its YouTube button, which in exchange for a YouTube link will embed a clip and a player onto the slide. This is essentially the same ‘insert from link’ function that Articulate uses, but here there’s also an inbuilt video tutorial to guide novices through the process. Again, there’s a feature to insert a quiz, and again we’re not really interested in it. The in-window menu is clean and straightforward: record narration and/or video, sync the slides, make changes to the ‘presenter and company’ metadata if you want, throw in a YouTube clip, and then hit Publish.

A new, large, tabbed window now pops up containing all the various publishing options. iSpring have really put some effort into keeping this part of the process simple - it’s much easier to deal with these options all in one go rather than tinkering during the preparation process. The output can be saved to CD, to iSpring’s online sharing community SlideBoom, attached to an email or saved to hard disk. For increased flexibility, different output formats can be chosen via simple checkboxes: separate flash files for use with other animation packages, an .EXE file which is a completely self-contained single ‘go’ file, or a single .swf movie with an accompanying .html file.

There are nine preset player styles, ranging from the businesslike (with navigation pane, picture / video, and presenter information) to the inconspicuous (transparent player buttons in one corner), with other styles at various degrees of glossiness and functionality. One player allows viewers to types notes as they watch or scribble on the slides themselves.  Depending on the detail each style affords, the players can be customised with colour options and information or photos. Changes can be previewed in real time with the user’s actual slides, which makes it much easier to see how the final product will behave.

On other tabs, a similarly open interface presents settings for video and audio quality, playback controls (this time you do have the option, among others, to advance the slides on a click), and the pixel size of the output video – very useful if you’re using a CMS to insert your presentation into a blog or webpage. Another tab lets you customise the image, video and audio compression.

On hitting Publish, iSpring Presenter converted our test slides in just under thirty seconds and immediately launched the file in a web browser. Using the default settings, the graphics and audio were crisp and the animation very sharp. Upon examining the output folder, there’s just one file in it – in this case a .swf file which opens by default in a web browser – very portable and easy to upload or share. Even simpler is the .exe format option (automatically zipped for security) which bundles the presentation and player with the latest flash launcher as well, again in a single file.

iSpring Pro works in exactly the same way as iSpring Presenter, but without the options to record video and insert quizzes, so it’s all about getting the slides narrated and self running with minimum hassle. The real attractions to these packages are the intuitive interface and low cost. iSpring Presenter downloads with a business licence at $399, and if you can live without the video recording and quizzes, iSpring Pro is just $249.

FlashPoint Professional –Compatible with XP, Vista, Windows 7, PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007. Tested with PowerPoint 2007.

On offer from FlashDemo comes FlashPoint Pro, a straightforward PowerPoint to flash conversion tool. This is the lighter of the three and installs cleanly and easy, embedding a single button into the PowerPoint interface. This immediately launches a Wizard, starting with three options for encoding the final file: a single Flash movie (.swf) with an option to generate an .exe (useful), as separate Flash movies by slide (probably useful), or as a screensaver.

The next stage offers two player options (a row of navigation buttons, or nothing), and sets up some very basic options around the way the slides run and the render quality. An Advanced tab lets you redirect the viewer to a website after the movie has finished playing, which might be a good idea but can be done more easily by adding hyperlinks into the presentation yourself.

The next two stages allow you to import audio files into the presentation, and record a narration for each slide. FlashPoint Pro appears to use PowerPoint’s own Rehearse Timings feature to accurately sync the animations with your voiceover, which is actually a much simpler way than the more sophisticated packages: you get the slides running full screen, and click to advance the builds and slide transitions, rather than working with buttons in a separate window.

Once that’s done, FlashPoint Pro begins the conversion, which takes about the same time as the other two packages. Opening the output file however is disappointing. The converted file is noticeably degraded in image quality, even with the ‘Improved’ image conversion box checked, and many of the PowerPoint shapes that feature gradient fills or transparent fills were not displaying correctly. There were also several graphical artefacts remaining on screen after their objects had disappeared. Several animation effects suffered, with fades building in very slowly and wipes running jerkily, although motion paths and grow/shrink effects were very smooth.

The quality of the voiceover was rather good; FlashPoint provided the same recording quality options as the inbuilt PowerPoint tool, so the narration sounded clear. Unfortunately due to the visual stuttering caused by the conversion of some animation effects, the audio did not always run in sync with the visuals.

Overall, with conversion performance at the bottom-end and a complete lack of customisation, FlashPoint Pro does not live up to its claim of creating “professional-look Flash presentations and e-learning courses”. With a price tag of $59, it’s probably suited only to PowerPoint hobbyists and bullet-pointers. If that’s you, there are much more useful things you could be reading on this website before you start spending on additional software.

Which is best?

Except as an entry level solution for presentations with very basic graphics and low-end animation, FlashPoint Pro is hard to recommend. The last thing you want to do after producing a deck of slides is to then retro-engineer the graphics and animation because of poor conversion quality. It’s very easy to use, has good flexibility in the output options and is inexpensive, but sadly can’t cut it when dealing with graphics and motion of any degree of sophistication. If you’re still working with flat backgrounds and bullet-points, this will probably do what you need, but it’s hard for us to gauge the value of the tool if that’s your desired type of output.

iSpring Presenter and Articulate Presenter ’09 do very similar things in very different ways, the only major gaps in functionality being that iSpring lets you record the video narration, while Articulate gives you the slide annotation feature and audio editor. Each of these features may be more or less useful and would probably balance out the two products (since the rendering times and output quality are pretty much the same). But the big differences are in cost and ease of use.

Articulate Presenter may offer huge flexibility in customising the Player specifications and calibrating the viewer experience, but its extensive menus are not easy to find and navigate. A better range of output formats and settings, and a more thoughtful structure to the submenus would have made for a less bewildering experience. That said, the output quality is first-class, and those looking to produce interactive learning tools or e-brochures will probably find value here once they get up the learning curve and perhaps invest a few hours watching the online tutorials. For publishing a presentation for web or soft/hard copy distribution, we have to wonder whether it’s worth the hefty price tag as well as the effort required to learn where everything is.

iSpring Presenter is far and away more pleasant and intuitive, and a few hundred dollars cheaper. The viewer experience is slightly less customisable than with Articulate’s package, but iSpring delivers flexibility where it’s needed most, and without any hunting around.  Powerful as they are, both iSpring programs feel completely unintimidating at the publishing stage and make it very easy to set up the exact format, size and quality that you need.

As stated, we’re more concerned with presentations than E-learning tools, but in both cases the option to record video narration seems like a more desirable option than the ability to add arrows and boxes (something that really should be thought about at the slide design stage). Even better, if you don’t need the video and quizzes, the lighter iSpring Pro retains all of Presenter’s output quality and flexibility at just $249, so whatever you’re planning to do with your Flash-based presentation, iSpring’s solutions convert to better value all round.

The results we produced were so extensive that we’ve split this review into two parts. This, part one, outlines the improvements and new features PowerPoint 2010 professes over the earlier versions.

What’s New?

Video – In older versions of PowerPoint, videos would have to be linked from PowerPoint to the internet, or to the correct file on your computer. This would cause problems if the internet connection was lost; the file was moved; or when trying to use the PowerPoint file on another computer. It also meant that video could not be edited when in PowerPoint, and when embedded, was in a simple rectangular frame.

2010 has changed the way videos are used in PowerPoint. You can now insert a video file directly into PowerPoint, which, aside from making life a lot easier for the presenter, actually enables the video to be edited within PowerPoint itself. You can adjust the length, brightness, colour, frame… In short, PowerPoint now covers all the basics in video editing, reducing the need for additional software to prepare video for use in presentations.

Animation – I would wager that there are few, if any, presenters who have not at some point experienced a lag in certain animations (unless, that is, the most complicated animations you’ve ever used are ‘Appear’ and ‘Fade Out’). Motion paths have perhaps been the biggest culprit, but there were quite a few animations that had a tendency to jump, and not flow as smoothly as they should with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007.

PowerPoint 2010 has changed all that. Animations now run as they were designed to. Gone is the jumping, gone is the delay, and you are left with animation as it should be.

It’s a Lot Prettier – Those who have customised PowerPoint 2003 will vouch for the fact that if you’ve chosen to make a lot of tools available on the main screen, the view can look a tad messy. 2007, when customised, can also do so. Practical? Perhaps. Pleasing on the eye? No.

PowerPoint 2010 in general just looks better. It’s cleaner than 2007, and much cleaner than 2003. It looks, in fact, like a design tool. Slides themselves are crisper, and were in fact compared by one of our designers to the graphics on an HD advert. In general, the whole program is just nicer to look at.

Share – It’s not that we haven’t had the option to share a PowerPoint file before, it’s just that it had to be done outside of PowerPoint. Send it as an email; upload it to a slide sharing website; convert it to video. All possible, just a little time-consuming.

Now, sharing your presentations has never been easier. You are given the option to ‘share’ right from the ‘backstage’ area. By email, by website… Arguably the best function in this section is the ability to convert a file straight to video with recorded narration. Before, this would have to be done using another piece of software. Now, it can be done with minimal clicks, and minimal fuss.

Stability and Power – PowerPoint 2007, while offering new and improved features on 2003, wasn’t perhaps the most  stable programme. There were bugs, lags, and compatibility issues, that caused many PowerPoint users to revert back to the older PowerPoint 2003.

PowerPoint 2010 has all the features of 2007 (plus extras), with none of the problems (thus far). 2010 has resolved the known bugs, and combined an increased range of options with great constancy in performance. Hyperlinks are more stable, lags have been removed, and the whole experience is a lot less stressful.

Any problems?

With the more obvious, accessible, animations and transitions it might be tempting for amateur designers to go crazy and use every option available. The trouble with this is that most of the new animations in PowerPoint 2010 would serve to distract the audience rather than to direct their attention towards the right things, even to the extent of becoming annoying. Users should think carefully about how they use each function, and why. Probably a challenge for user-education, rather than a problem with the software.

So… How much better is it?

The general opinion of our designers is that PowerPoint 2010 is what 2007 should have been, with the tidy layout, extra features and smooth animations. For functionality, 2010 is the way forward. In the right hands, this software will produce truly beautiful, effective presentations.

In the second half of this review, we will look at usability. How easy is PowerPoint 2010 to use, both for the new user and those experienced in older versions? Our designers judge the ease of use, based on how straightforward a function is to use, and how time-consuming to execute.