>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       "Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk"
>              <[log in to unmask]>
>Poster:       Ed Conry <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      Overheads, Presentations & Facts
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
 
>I saw this demonstrated, as did many of you, at the Midwest, by Laura
>Pincus (are you still talking to me Laura?).  When I bought a second book
>describing how Harvard Graphics works, I noticed there were only two
>books on HG but 12 on Corel Draw.  Is anyone out there aware of the
>differences among the "draw" and "presentation" programs?  I know HG is
>object oriented while other programs are bit mapped, but I don't have a
>feel for how this affects the usefulness of the programs.  I'm wondering
>now if I should shift to PowerPoint, Corel or something else?  I'm also
>considering asking my college to buy a high end color printer.  Has anyone
>out there any suggestions for this graphics novice?
>
>Ed Conry
>[log in to unmask]
 
The early versions of Corel Draw that I used had the ability to use a show
program, but the process for setting up the show was pretty convoluted. I
have not seen Corel 4 or 5, so I do not know if the company has come up with
a more straightforward way of putting together a series of slides. The
version that I used was also very weak in terms of formatting and presenting
text.
 
I have worked with about three different packages (early versions of
Powerpoint and the currect one, a product called Compel from Asymetrix, and
a product put out by Univ. of Delaware called Podium). Powerpoint was the
easiest to learn, and it has some nice features for transitions and
preformatted slides and excellent templates (color schemes that can be
applied to whole slide shows that you create). It appears weak in animation
since it relies heavily on OLE to connect things together such as animation
and sound.
 
Compel is a little weak on the pre-design when compared to Powerpoint, but
the ability to animate and add sound are really top notch. I did a bit last
Spring when I discussed the concept of master liability for the errant truck
driving employee in which I literally moved the employee around the screen
and discussed the liability questions at each point of the "frolic." I had
fun, students loved it and understood the concepts, and it was not hard to
set up. The weakness to the program is its predesign: you will probably want
to spend the time to design your own basic layout and that takes a certain
amount of effort and design expertise to do it right.
 
I was just given a copy of Podium by a member of the College's computer
staff. My early impressions are that it is a pretty good program but the
effort to learn it is not justified. It requires a certain amount of
programming and it has what appear to me to be some quirky approaches to
setting up a slide show. The output, however, can be very good if one will
take the time to learn the construction.
 
Your comment about getting a high color printer is interesting: what would
you use it for? The point of the presentation software is to get off the
paper merry-go-round. My goal is to get the lap top and lcd panel and make
sure that good overhead projectors are available.
 
By the way, I just got a color printer for the family. I was really
impressed by the HP 560C. Color or black and white and a good price.
****************************************************
Frank P. Darr
College of Business
Ohio State University
1775 College Road
Columbus, Ohio 43210
(614) 292-7803
[log in to unmask]
****************************************************