ActivePresenter - Feb/Mar '98

ActivePresenter

Graphics & Presentations
Internet & Intranet Tools

ActivePresenter is an amazingly simple-to-use program that helps you quickly build impressive slide shows and then publish them on the Web. Once you create your presentation, you are just a couple of clicks away from having that presentation available to the entire world. I was able to publish a "live" presentation and control (in real time) which was seen by whomever logged on to my personal publishing site.

As a devout PowerPoint user, I was utterly amazed at how quickly I made a professional-looking presentation. Given, you don't have the free-form capabilities that you have in PowerPoint, but you certainly have a large number of pre-constructed templates. You begin by selecting a design (14 to choose from), then you select a color scheme (18 to choose from). You may select any color scheme to go with any design. If you do the math, that makes 252 different templates to choose from. And for those of you who have just too much invested in Office 97, ActivePresenter also supports publishing Pow-erPoint presentations.

Once you select your template style, you can then start picking the individual slides to use. You may choose from 22 pre-constructed slide styles (i.e., bullet list, title page, organization chart, decision flowchart, etc.) Although these slides are pre-made, you can still customize each one. The slides contain filler information that allows you to simply type over with your own content.

Once you put the finishing touches on your presentation, you are ready to publish. By clicking the "publish to Web button," you are taken to a program called WebShow Publisher. You may publish one of two ways, "live" or "on demand."

A live presentation is controlled by whomever publishes it and can be viewed only once the publisher begins the show. This is designed to work in conjunction with a conference call or even a RealAudio broadcast. My tests were quite successful, except that it took several minutes (even with a dedicated 56K frame relay connection) to connect to the site. The delay was caused by the downloading of active browser components. Once the components were installed, performance was superb.

An "on demand" presentation is just what it says it is. Internet users may log on to your personal site at any time and view your presentation at their own pace. Even with on demand publishing, though, active browser components must be installed the first time you attempt to access an ActivePresenter slideshow.

Software Publishing Corporation (SPC) includes with its software a 30-day free spot on their Web site for you to publish to. However, the software also supports publishing to any site you choose.

ActivePresenter accommodates password protection for your personal Web site, but that should not be misunderstood. Transmissions are not secure (i.e., encrypted) and can be intercepted.

Overall, I was very impressed with Active-Presenter. Unfortunately, I don't see too much utility for attorneys. Personally, I would buy ActivePresenter even if it didn't have the Web publishing capabilities. When compared with PowerPoint, the time saved in building slide shows is substantial. The Web publishing features are downright impressive, but I doubt that I will ever use it for anything more than showing my colleagues how computer literate I am.

Software Publishing Corporation (SPC)
(800) 557-3743
www.spco.com
Windows 95, NT

$49.99 (three-user version), $99.99 (unlimited-user version)

Reviewed by Rob Cohen, general counsel, Streamline Business Solutions, Inc., Long Beach, Calif.

Feb/Mar '98 Issue