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Goodbye Powerpoint Hello Visual Communicator
For a number of years I have like millions of other people used PowerPoint to try to communicate. Two years ago I took a one year course in Multimedia Development, using Macromedia and Adobe tools, like Photoshop, Director, Flash, Dreamweaver, and all that good stuff. So when I first read the reviews of Visual Commuicator, I was skeptical, but I was so bored with and tired of Powerpoint that I forked out the cash, and and purchased Visual Communicator. Well, the first problems related to its use were my processor and videocard were underpowered for the program. However, once I got a different processor and more memory, those issues were ironed out. During the last week it has been pretty hectic trying to get video press releases and virtual tours out using Visual Communicator. From that experience, I have found that the program does generate some nasty system errors, so be forewarned, save often!!! Don't take any chances or you could end up with hours of lost work!! My experience has been with the entry level of Visual Communicator, not the pro version. The pro version lets you import Powerpoint presentations automatically! The key advantage I see to this program, is that for the first time green screen and teleprompter technology has been made available to mass PC users! For all the talk of Mac superiority in video production, there just is not that many people using Macs, so the fact that Visual Communicator is PC only captures a much higher audience. The other thing that you do with Visual Communicator, is you can publish your projects to Windows Media or Real Media formats, that can be posted on websites. I think the key advantage of this program, is that it lets people put a personal face, to computer story telling, through showing you the narrator, with visual support in terms of still and video images. The other neat thing, is you can create your own green screen backdrops, so your talking head, can be the Grand Canyon, or the Eiffel Tower for that mattter! So if you are as tired of the corporate grey suit oriented PowerPoint than give Visual Communicator a try!!! My wish list would include the Pro version, so we could translate existing PowerPoint presentations and spice them up with some talking heads and videos. But the clincher would be to be able to do online training materials, that like Authorware and Toolbook, OK, I know it is some other company, now, but you know computer based training tools, that automatically allow test generation, and a database of test scores! Also, it would be great to be able to post Visual Communicator files as enclosures with blogging software!!! So lets here it for Visual Communicator, RSS enclosures!! PS don't use the email size save option, as the quality of the presenation generated with this option sucks!!!
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