Reduce PowerPoint File Size - Working!

As a elearning professional we may have to work with lot of PowerPoint files for Presentations, Internal discussions, Content creation etc. I am sure everyone will admit with me that the proportionate file size increase make us think before we add further slides to the Presentation.

There are quite a few reasons why the files might get huge. We're going to look at why it happens, how you can fix it, and what you can do to prevent it from happening again.

Turn off fast Save Option

First off, you'll need to do a little setup in PowerPoint. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the Save tab, and then clear the Allow fast saves check box. Doing this forces PowerPoint to remove excess data from your presentation file each time you save.

After you've turned off fast saves, save your presentation again under a new name. On the File menu, click Save As, type a name for the new version of your presentation in the File namebox, and then click OK.

In fact, it's a good idea to save another copy of your presentation before continuing. Some of the following steps make irreversible changes to your presentation. You'll want a backup copy of your slide show.

Watch out for oversize image files

In most cases, images don't need to be much larger than 1024 × 768 pixels. If your images are larger than this, your PowerPoint files are probably bigger than they need to be.

PowerPoint 2002 and later can compress images and remove unneeded data:
1. Right-click the picture, and then click Format Picture on the shortcut menu.
2. In the Format dialog box, click the Picture tab, and then click Compress.
3. Under Apply to, do one of the following:
To compress just the current picture, click Selected pictures.
To compress all the pictures in your presentation, click All pictures in document.
4. Under Change resolution, do one of the following:
If your presentation will be used for a screen show, click Web/Screen.
If you plan to distribute your presentation as printed pages, click Print.
5. Under Options, select the Compress pictures check box and the Delete cropped areas of

pictures check box.
6. Click OK.
7. If prompted, click Apply in the Compress Pictures dialog box.

PowerPoint compresses the picture or pictures for you automatically.

If you use PowerPoint 2000 or earlier, do the following for each image that you want to compress:
1. Click the picture to select it.
2. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
3. Again on the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
4. Do one of the following:
For most images, such as photos and scans, click JPG.
For images with large areas of flat color, or that contain important text or fine details, click

PNG. Note JPG files are usually smaller, but JPG's "lossy" compression can blur thin lines and

other fine detail, or leave "artifacts" (stray odd-colored pixels) around text.

5. Delete the original image.

Watch for embedded objects, pasted or dragged graphics

If possible, bring images into PowerPoint by doing the following: On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click From File.

When you copy and paste (or drag) an image or a graphic that includes an image from another program into PowerPoint, PowerPoint may create an embedded OLE object. The OLE object includes a Windows® Metafile (WMF) picture of the image. PowerPoint normally compresses images very efficiently, but it can't compress images in WMFs, so copying and pasting or dragging images into your files can make your files quite large.

Embedded objects are easy to shrink. After you no longer need to edit the image (by double-clicking it), do the following: Right-click the image, point to Grouping on the shortcut menu, and then click Ungroup. Next, immediately right-click the image again, point to Grouping on the shortcut menu, and then click Regroup. Ungrouping throws away the OLE data and leaves just the picture — in a form that PowerPoint can now compress.

Incidentally, it's okay to copy and paste images from one slide to another within PowerPoint. PowerPoint stores only one copy of the image no matter how many times you use it, so reusing an image can actually help keep your file sizes down.

Check the master slides, too!

When you check your presentation for oversize images and embedded OLE objects, don't forget to check the slide, title, notes, and handout masters as well as the individual slides.

Also check each notes page in Notes Page view (graphics on the notes pages don't appear in the Notes pane in Normal view in PowerPoint 2000 and later).

Uniting for a Good Cause - Global Warming

Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting, and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time, and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone. The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea.

At the deal’s heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels. Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere — three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce its emissions within a decade to very substantially less than its 1990 level. Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world’s biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.

Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of “exported emissions” so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than “old Europe,” must not suffer more than their richer partners.

The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance — and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing. Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat, and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it. But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognised that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs, and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels. Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.
Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over shortsightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too. The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.
Reference: The Hindu

Did you Know?

Did you realise how eLearning/Technology based education/ICT is environmentally friendly learning mode really is as compared to the traditional academic setting of a classroom. Think about it for a minute. How many books and papers do you suppose is wasted in every classroom education year? Tons. But one can eliminate most of the need for such waste. Even chalk is something consumed but with this innovative learning delivery nothing is expended apart from electricity which is expended anyway in any classroom with the harsh lights and room air-conditioning system. We are after all in a time of environmental crisis, in the brink of dangerous global warming. A lot of teachers know the importance of environmentalism and would love to take steps to reduce any of the emissions and pollution created from the production of paper and other classroom materials that the computer will make obsolete.

Now, Gmail, Facebook accessible on cable TV

New Delhi: There's good news for those who use cable television services. You can now check your mail, watch YouTube videos or connect with friends on Facebook at the regular cable subscription charge of Rs. 150-200 per month.Logic Eastern, a Noida-based manufacturer of cable infrastructure, has developed special set-top boxes which come with an in-built patented hardware that enables connection to Gmail, Facebook and YouTube. The company has made possible two-way flow of data - from websites to cable operators to consumers and return by using the existing cellphone technology.

The company has installed large servers which download Gmail, YouTube and Facebook pages on behalf of its subscribers and pushes them on to their television screens. For now, consumers can access this service with a special remote control. However the company is developing a wi-fi keyboard that will be given along with the set-top boxes. Also, apart from the remote control, consumers can use their mobile phones to surf channels or access these websites.Logic Eastern has already deployed 60,000 such set-top boxes across South Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar and Jammu. The company has roped in ICICI as an investor. It has bought a 20 percent stake, which is helping Logic Eastern monetise these services that even existing Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) companies and the Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators have not been able to achieve."We believe it will be critical for cable operators to differentiate their services by leveraging the massive bandwidth that their cables take to each home. This is something that even DTH cannot do," says Vineet Wadhwa, Chief Technology Officer and Promoter of Logic Eastern. Instead of value-added services, the company prefers to call them 'enhanced services.' But how safe is accessing your email via cable? It is as safe as logging on to the internet on your home computer or laptop, says Wadhwa.

Source: siliconindia news bureau

Free Online Collaboration Tool

Freebee’s are quite useful now a days, especially in education sector. Recently I have been searching for a quick collaboration tool to talk about a document with whiteboard tool facility and found http://www.showdocument.com/ interesting. There are many cool features available in this online tool, it allowed me to work on it without any registration. However once I registered with showdocument.com I received account that serves as my online storage for the documents. It allowed me to launch web meeting with my files from anywhere.

Some of the features that might interest you

Share documents online
A file sharing and online document review service that allows users to work together with any document including PDF, Word, Power Point, jpg files. Elearning, online training and work meetings use this service.

Share document from URL
A rapid share file from a URL. Insert a document URL within the Web Meeting application once you entered the live meeting. Begin session by clicking on Interactive Whiteboard and open a new tab and select Document from URL.

Interactive Whiteboard
The interactive whiteboard allow users to work together. They can write and draw images on the whiteboard during the web meeting.

Shared Text Editor
An advanced online text editor allow users to work together during the web meeting on text files and save the files on their workstation afterword.

Share You Tube
Share YouTube video clips with others during your net meeting, elearning session or online training. You control what they see, seek, pause and draw on the video. Begin the Net Meeting by clicking on Interactive Whiteboard and open a new tab and select Share You Tube video.

I have used skype for the VoIP and it really worked well. But some of the typical virtual classroom features that are missed here are Archiving, VoIP, Real time video conferencing, Application sharing etc. This is good for internal team member collaboration with documents and whiteboard calculations.

Empower IT - TrITchy 2009

TIRUCHI: The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) expects a massive turnout of about 10,000 under graduates and post-graduates from arts and science, and engineering colleges from Tiruchi and seven surrounding districts for the ‘Empower IT’ programme it has decided to host here on November 28 in association with NASSCOM (National Association of Software & Service Companies).

The day-long event has been conceptualised to project Tiruchi as an IT destination, while orienting the students to the current requirements and expectations of IT and ITES sector. The event conducted at Tirunelveli last year attracted 14,000 and 12,000 students on the first and second day.

Fifty companies, including most of the IT majors, have been roped in for the Tiruchi event. According to ELCOT Managing Director Santhosh Babu, Empower IT will take Tiruchi that already ranks high among tier-II cities by attracting nine companies to its IT Park owing to factors like cost advantage and presence of quality educational institutions to the next level.

At a preparatory meeting with college principals, representatives of universities, industrialists, and members of Rotary and Lions Clubs, he said about 30 speakers would be invited from Chennai to address the students. The event that would be organised by the NASSCOM in corporate style.

The ELCOT MD sought the fullest cooperation of the colleges and universities to publicise the event to the students. He wanted the printouts of the details of the event and the competitions to be put up on the notice boards, and urged the institution heads to evolve a collective vision and ideate such that Tiruchi could be projected as the next IT destination of Tamil Nadu.

The Regional Director of NASSCOM K. Purushothaman said all particulars of Empower IT can be accessed at Elcot’s website: http://www.elcot.in/, from November 5. He identified aspiring arts and science colleges, engineering colleges, and universities, and the National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi to function as nodal institutions to conduct 10 competitions, including paper presentation, coding, group discussion, debugging, quiz, elocution and essay writing. Each event will be coordinated by an IT company, Mr. Purushothaman said.

Inviting suggestions from the gathering, Mr. Santhosh Babu called upon institutions to suggest competitions on topical software that would be of utility to the Government. Topics like green computing and mobile computing were suggested at the meeting.

The competitions would be conducted in arts and science colleges on November 21 and 22, and in engineering colleges on November 22 and 23, he said. The Director of NIT-T M. Chidambaram mooted the idea of institutions joining hands for conducting train the trainer programmes on what the IT industry expects from graduates of various disciplines and specialisations. The objective was to make all employable, he said.

Source: Hindu

National Education Day

Educational institutions at all levels across the country will celebrate November 11 as the National Education Day, commemorating the birthday of Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, an eminent educationist and the first Union Minister of Education of independent India.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development, had on September 11, 2008 announced, "November 11 every year, from 2008 will be celebrated as the National Education Day, without declaring it a holiday".

National Education Day - November 11

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also asked all its affiliated schools to celebrate the day in a befitting manner by organizing various activities like seminars, symposia, essay writing, elocution competitions etc.

Source:http://www.indiaedunews.net/Today/National_Education_Day_to_be_celebrated_on_Nov_11_6500/

Education without Boundaries

Team Virtuosity

Virtuosity Skill Development shares its élan vital with CII’s Skills Development Initiative of ‘Making India the Skill’s Capital of the World’. Virtuosity’s initiative to pioneer 21st Century education in Indian Academia through Technology-aided learning solutions; and its intrinsic capability to provide highly scalable, inclusive (regardless of geographical, socio-economic and/or personal backgrounds), global quality education- was appreciated at the Summit.

Mr. Shiva Prasath, Managing Director of Virtuosity in his keynote address titled “Education without Boundaries” highlighted the present and future challenges facing Higher Education in India and advocated the vitality and capability of e-learning, making the case for e-learning as the most viable solution to address those challenges.

Expressing concern over the daunting challenges faced by Higher Education which has faced decades of neglect, he pointed out that during the next decade there would be 17 million students needing access to Higher education and the challenge before India lies in increasing access and quality simultaneously. The statistics that he provided on India’s education scenario, with special reference to higher education was an eye-opener. He pointed out that India ranks only 81 in terms of % of GDP spending in education which amounts to 4.1%, of which higher education is allotted only 18%. He further revealed that the Graduate Employability Ratio (GER) of India stands at a meager 11.8% while it is around 25% in developed countries. On challenges on the Scalability front he said there is an estimated shortfall of 45% between seats required and available. On Inclusiveness he said over 170mn students are not receiving higher education today due to inadequate and uneven infrastructure across the country. On Quality he pointed out that only 25% of technical graduates and 10-15% of general graduates are found to be employable in a global workplace. Given these mounting challenges he said the adoption of e-learning as central to India’s education policy gives India the best chance to counter these and emerge as a knowledge superpower.

Echoing similar thoughts of making education in India scalable, qualitative and inclusive, K.N. Shenoy, Chairman of the CII Institute of Quality sought for an appropriate hand-holding for rural India, while Anand Sudarshan, CEO of Manipal pointed out that “demographic divide can become a demographic disaster unless scalability, inclusiveness and excellence are achieved.” Y.S. Rajan, Principal Advisor to CII made an appeal to “leverage technology in a major way to reach out to the masses” but felt connectivity and penetration of technology to be a big hitch. Urgency for skill development was also expressed by M.V. Subbiah, Chairman, National Skills Development Corporation. In the concluding address, N. Kumar Vice-chairman of Sanmar Group was hopeful that education summits will go a long way in bridging the gap between the academia and the industry.

The summit showcased technology and solutions for the education sector, which was brought forth by Virtuosity, Everonn, Educomp, Manipal Education, ebek and NIIT amongst others.

Source : Virtuosity Skill Development

Contact Virtuosity for more details