Re: [Phys-L] presentation tools (NOT powerpoint)

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 09/01/2014 03:43 PM, rjensen@ualberta.ca wrote:

> And if you want to do this in PowerPoint: 
>  www.consol.ca/CountdownTimer.ppt

That does not work on my laptop: LibreOffice / Ubuntu Linux.

There is no "five-second fade on the ellipses" and never
any progression to the next slide.

==============

Also: I haven't used powerpoint (or any similar slideware)
in about 20 years.  I'm not gonna pay a bunch of money to 
install brand-name PowerPoint just to have a countdown timer.

Edward Tufte has argued vehemently about chartjunk and the
slideware that encourages it:
  http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

IMHO Tufte goes slightly overboard sometimes, but still
he has some important insights.  You can learn a lot from
him, even if you don't agree with every detail.

I use tools that are simultaneously easier to use, more 
powerful, more flexible, and more portable.  They can be 
used to produce (among other things) a .pdf file that I
can project on the screen and flip through while I'm
talking.

I also have a somewhat cruftier setup that allows me to 
page through "slides" in such a way that I can interactively 
edit and annotate them in real time, using the keyboard, 
mouse, and/or graphics tablet.

I like to prepare a lot of stuff in advance, and /also/
do stuff extemporaneously and interactively.  I try to 
split the difference between:
 a) the "Sal Khan" style, where very little is prepared 
  in advance, and the graphics are mostly improvised in 
  real time, and
 b) "MST3K" style, where all the graphics are prepared
  in advance, and the presenter just comments on the
  movie as it goes by.