If you are a Microsoft PowerPoint user there is one thing that could possibly make it a much better program for you.  The addition I am thinking of would be the ability to run a PowerPoint show with PowerPoint as a movie.  In other words you make a link from your web site or place it on a CD and the show just starts and runs by itself.

Well it happens that this week I stumbled into one that does just that.  The program is called, “iSpring Free” and their main site is located at ispringsolutions.com.  For the actual free software click here.

Note that they have two other versions which are several hundreds of dollars; however, the one that I am reviewing here is free and seems to work very well.

I received an email this week from a relative with a PowerPoint show entitled, “How Many do you Recognize”.  This show gives you a recent picture of a celebrity and allows you to guess who they were years ago.  Since everyone changes as they age it was hard to recognize some of them.  I created a movie with iSpring which was much easy and fun to use.

I have been playing with it for a few days and it is very easy to use.  After you install the software you open PowerPoint just as you always have and you have a new menu item labeled, “iSpring Converter”.

Once you have a slide show designed you use the new iSpring menu and create a Flash file (.swf) with all needed webpages.  To make this work in the old days (a year or two ago) would have intimidated most users but with this program it is a snap.

There is something else interesting I discovered about iSpring.  The PowerPoint show that I created for web use was about 9mb in size.  The iSpring files were about 5mb in size (and included music which PP didn’t) and both of these shows used the same 65 slides.  iSpring provides you with some considerable size savings.

This program allows you to have an easy to use animated PowerPoint show which can be run automatically with slides changing at a prescribed rate or the user may click through them as they wish.

This is really the best of all worlds for preparing a PowerPopint presentation for the web.  There are other uses too.  Give it a try and let me know what you think about iSpring.

This week a geek friend of mine showed me a very interesting website.  It may not be of much interest to you but for me it’s a hoot and a help.

Let me set this up first.  Since I write a computer column published in newspapers and on the internet I get occasional questions from readers.  That is great with me because I like getting them, figuring out the problem (if I can which is sometimes hard without putting hands on their keyboard) and solving their problems.

But sometimes I get a question that could be easily answered by just using Google.  I also have to admit here that I do not know everything about computers; far from it as a matter of fact.  When I get the questions I know little about I also use Google (or GoodSearch.com – read a couple of columns back for info on that one) to research the issue.  I may not get the full answer from a search engine but it will usually lead me in the right direction.

Going back to the easily answered question like, “How do I copy text?”  I will gladly answer that question and that’s great, but sometimes I am busy and just want to advise someone to just Google for the solution.

The neat little site I want you to try is called, “Let Me Google That For You” at appropriately enough, letmegooglethatforyou.com. When you go there it looks very similar to Google.com.  Try it out and type in a search and it still looks similar.  However, once you click the “Google Search” button strange things start to happen.

First a text box below fills in with a link address.  Next, if you hover your mouse over the new link two small links appear, “tinyurl” and “go”.  Try “go” first and watch it go to an animation with instructions on how to use Google, simple but effective.

Now try “tinyurl” which will shorten the link.  For instance, I did the question above about copying text and got a link that was almost 60 characters long.  Once I used “tinyurl” is was shortened to http://tinyurl.com/5cy4xp.  By-the-way, try that link and see what you think.

So here is the deal.  This week, if possible, I will use “Let Me Google That For You” to find your answers and send you a tinyurl when you write with a question.

I would like to mention a couple of things to check on before you buy a new computer Christmas present.  And I realize some of you haven’t yet.

First, people email, and ask me, “What brand of computer should I purchase?”  Well there are many brands to choose from.  In the past I mentioned that it is a good idea to buy from a local computer shop; however, today they are few and far between.  That is a good way to go especially if you run into a problem later, you can go directly to the designer – builder of your system and get them to work on the repair.  But like I said there are not that many of them around any longer.  My suspicion would be that to build a nice computer it may now cost more than ordering online or from an electronics or department store.  The local shops just can’t compete with mass marketing.

Next, ask a friend where they got theirs.  They will be happy to tell you; good news or bad.  Word-of-mouth advertising is still very useful.

Many people want to buy a brand name and/or to order on the internet.  Both ways are fine.  Just make sure that you buy from a reputable dealer.  Dell (my choice last year), HP and Acer come to mind, and these are not the only ones, but they are the ones you hear about the most through advertising.  All of these make good units and most provide “on-site” warranted repairs.

Now here is a suggestion.  Call the toll-free technical support line of the company you are going to buy from (not their sales office, sales people answer swiftly), before you buy their computer.  Find out how quick you get a human response.  Also make sure that you can understand them easily.  See how they treat you when you can’t find your customer number, how many times they transfer you, etc.  Most likely they will ask for a customer id or service tag of some sort which you won’t have so you may not get any further.  However, you will get to see how they respond to consumers and how swift they are to answer your call.  If you are the creative type, make up a problem and see how they help.  Shoot pull out all the stops and just tell them you were checking to see how they handle tech calls and say bye-bye.

I have called several companies and had to wait on hold for up to an hour before I got to talk to the first “real” person.  That is a really great use for a speaker phone but in my opinion an hour is not acceptable.  Find out all you can before you buy.  It is your hard earned money we are talking about so spend it wisely.

I received a good question recently which I really don’t have a good answer for since things were a little backwards on this one.

Ben told me that his desktop computer’s hard drive is divided into two separate drives – C and D.   His C drive’s capacity was about 14 GB and the D drive’s was at 129 GB.  He went on to ask, “Why is the hard drive divided that way and is there a way that I can shift some or all of the D drive’s 129 GB to the C drive?”

First off, that sounds normal but backwards.

Most modern computers today (sold as inexpensively as possible) do away with all the CD/DVDs that you got with a new computer in the past.  In the old days you would get a DVD with the operating system on it and possibly a DVD with an emergency program on it that could be used to rebuild your computer if the hard drive went bad.  Even if a severe virus hit it you could rebuild it the way it was the day it was purchased using one of those DVDs.  This doesn’t even touch the many other programs that came with your new computer, such as the extras like games, Office programs, photo programs, etc.

Several years ago they started something new that saved the manufacturers money.  They divided the hard drive (since they became larger for a smaller price) into two “partitions”.  One is titled the C drive for your operating system and day-to-day use.  Then the D drive was used to store all of those CD/DVDs.  The D drive becomes a backup of your computer as it was the day you got it out of the box.

This makes it very convenient if your computer has to be rebuilt.  You don’t have to search for the disks to restore all of your programs since they are already on your computer.  Your manufacturer can tell you how to use it if needed.

Now, yes if your hard drive is totally destroyed you will have problems but that would most likely happen after your warranty period was up.  By that time the manufacturers want you to buy a new computer anyway so they don’t worry about that situation.

Ben’s setup seemed wrong since the C drive should be the larger partition and the D drive is the smaller emergency/backup drive.  For instance mine are set with the C = 222 GB and the D = 10 GB.

He did indicate that someone had done work on it for him and that could have caused the reversal.  They are ways to fix it but you need to be a pretty advanced user.  Ben can continue to use his computer without fear; it is just more “customized” than most.

Related Link: Partition Magic