Look for me at Booth 302! Come by and say hello...

I'll be at the Podcasting and New Media Conference in Ontario, California this week and I hope to meet some of you who are going to be attending. Our new business division, intellipodcast will be exhibiting in Booth 302. We have a lot of giveaways and a lot of good information about podcasting for corporations and universities as well as a lot of fun planned! So, if you stop by, say Hi! You can find more information about the Expo here.

And if you are just getting into podcasting in your own company - (either audio or video) - you may want to start by reading my new book: Podcasting for Trainers and Educators : A digital shortcut. It was recently published by Prentice-hall Professional and can be found at Safari/O'Reilly as well as InformIT.

Here's the introduction...

In many ways, trainers, educators, professors, teachers, instructors, SMEs or course developers — whatever your title may be, if you are responsible for any knowledge transfer process — you are the people leading the way for corporations and educational institutions to forge into the new century. By learning about new technologies and learning and adapting them to our workplaces and our personal lives, we change the mindset, not to mention the productivity of the lives of those around us.

At one time, it was the IT Department who were considered "First Tier Adopters" when it came to technology. Now, educators of all types have stepped into this role as well — we must learn it before we can teach it. It is our belief that podcasting is the next wave of technology that corporations and educational institutions can immediately use to solve a host of training and business problems. This book aims to show you, the educator — whatever your title may be, how.

You'll learn

· what podcasting is

· how to use it

· what tools you'll need (free or inexpensive tools as well)

· how to leverage podcasts in your own place of work

· and much more in easy to understand, non-technical terms

You'll also find in this book

· simulation tutorials and demos

· free resources

· free templates

· sample communications for buy-in at your place of work

· video testimonials from existing trainers, teachers and professors

Dave and I have been involved in the areas of teaching, training and knowledge management for many years. Dave has taught at the university level and both of us have much experience with instructor led training, e-learning and a wide variety of tools from Macromedia Breeze and Captivate to Microsoft SharePoint and Live Meeting. We are excited about the possibilities that podcasting brings and we invite you to join us in exploring this new technology.

Have a great hump day!

Nan @ brainybetty

CG 75% off offer ends September 30th, guys.

I can't remember the last time I got 75% off on something I knew was coming to my company - specifically, PowerPoint 2007, or really, the LATEST version of Office... I have worked in the corporate arena for a long time but, this means you can be ahead of the curve, and pay less than you may in the future - 75% less. Man, 75%. I wish I got that in the sales at Kohl's.

You can get this now. Go play with it. Go learn it. And benefit from it as a teacher or practitioner OF IT.

Let me tell you from experience, PPT 2007 is HUGELY different from the previous versions. But gosh, you get so much from this bundle:

• Video Backgrounds Player - New version! (Have ya ever envisioned playing a video background - something really COOL and ELEGANT behind your presenation?) TRY IT - it's awesome...
• Templates Subscription - More templates! Hundreds of templates!
• Pictures Subscription - More photos! Royalty free stuff -
• Transitions volumes I-VII - New version! These really COOL transitions make your presentations POP
• 3D Titles volumes I&II - New version! REal NICE. Try it.
• Video Backgrounds Subscription
• Animator
• FlashReady (the coolest.. and we get the MOST questions about this one at BB)
• Presentations To Go
• Music volumes I&II GORGEOUS MUSIC TO ADD TO YOUR PRESENTATION SO VERY EASILY.

Get it here. Ya got 5 days.
Nan @ brainybetty

Inserting Flash into PowerPoint 2007

Sameshow has an excellent tutorial that walks you step by step through how to insert Flash in Powerpoint 2007.

It's a little different than PowerPoint 2003 and there are a few additional steps as well.

If you are using an earlier version of PowerPoint , you can view Brainy Betty's original tutorial.

If you want the easiest option, you could always get this software to do it for you (and it has additional tools to convert entire large presentations to Flash for use on the web or to send by email!) A big plus if you know how big those PowerPoint decks get for larger presentations!

Have a great week!

Nan @ brainybetty

Excel Macros.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

I know. i know. You look at the word macros and think oh dang, I have no CLUE what that means.

It's really easy - so take a minute and learn, ok? I promise it is NOT as painful as a root canal and definitely way more beneficial. You learn how to AUTOMATE tasks with macros so you aren't spending time doing things over and over and OVER again. You will be programming! You go girl! (ok, or Guy!)

Go learn. Seriously, take a 20 minute lunch at your desk and do this. It will be SO worth it.

Oh, and BTW, my friend Dennis at CG sent me this: Do you know that for $99 BUCKS a year you can have access to THOUSANDS of professional templates that will so make your presentations POP? And more are added [FREE] monthly to your library. Hey, if you are a speaker, a person who needs to persuade or teach or sell ideas, a person who relies on presentations to make a living, please do go and invest in this. You will be able to make gorgeous presentations and create something that people remember and ACT upon.

Seriously, $99 bucks a year is nothing. It's like 27 cents a day. Can you invest that in improving you, your business, your organization or church or university or department? Your message? Ok, yeah. go do it now then.

Google Presentations?

This was interesting news I came about recently. Google has acquired Tonic Systems -who have a Java based presentation software I believe comparable to PowerPoint.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets as you may know has been around for a while now and has had a good deal of success - and rightly so. Google's online editing system allows people to collaborate on documents very easily without the expense of a shared server or other special program.

Now, the ability to collaborate on presentations as well looks like it may be coming down the pike very soon. I, for one, will be interested in seeing what it looks like!

My PowerPoint 2007 tip of the week is this:

If you are a little confused with the new "Ribbon" menu and trying to find the Help button in PowerPoint, you may get flustered. In previous versions, you simply clicked on the Help menu, right? Surprise, it's no longer there!

So, in PowerPoint 2007, press your F1 key or in the program itself...The Help button is a small "question mark" graphic in the top right corner of the program window -- just below the X that you use to close the program.

Have a great week!
nan @ brainybetty

Crystal Graphics releases new bundle!

Ok, Vista users - you are in for a treat.

CG announced today the NEW PowerPlugs: Ultimate Combo 2007 version 3.0 for PowerPoint! Now fully Vista compatible and with a new streamlined installer, it has everything you need to energize your PowerPoint presentations including:

• Video Backgrounds Player - New version!
• Templates Subscription - More templates!
• Pictures Subscription - More photos!
• Transitions volumes I-VII - New version!
• 3D Titles volumes I&II - New version!
• Video Backgrounds Subscription
• Animator
• FlashReady
• Presentations To Go
• Music volumes I&II

This is pretty awesome stuff for making gorgeous, knock-your-audience's-socks-off presentations. I love playing with this program!

You can get it here. LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR THE DEAL.

Oh, and did I mention that it's over 75% OFF the price of buying these items separately? Act quick, guys - it's only valid until the end of the month.