This and That: Best Laid Plans, Etc.
By Elizabeth B. Wright May 2006
After working on my PowerPoint demo for the senior study group, I thought
all the potential problems were addressed.
However -
Knowing how often people bring something from home to present to the group,
only to find that “it worked fine on my computer” is not just an idle
expression, my next step was to take all the material to the Resource Center
a week ahead of time for a practice session. It’s well that I did. It worked
on my computer(s) at home, but not on the Resource Center’s computers. Using
different versions of PowerPoint seemed to make little difference, nor did
Operating System types. This is not the time to go into too many details
about that. Just that most of the presentation worked fine, but not the .MPG
video file which was to represent my “Grande Finale”. Mainly I was trying to
show the different types of files that could be embedded in presentations,
but that one just would not play fair. It was possible to open the .MPG file
as a stand alone movie using RealPlayer, but the clubs computer could not
access it from within the slide show.
The show was saved in both .PPT, the format used when playing the show from
within PowerPoint, and .PPS formats. Assuming the .PPS to be a stand alone
executable file, not requiring PowerPoint to be installed on the computer
being used for the presentation, I was dismayed when the club computer would
not run the .MPG video as part of the .PPS file. All of my material
pertinent to the project was on the CD and the slideshow itself was created
from those files. But during the actual group meeting, it was futile trying
to show how the .MPG could be incorporated into the show. The rest of the
presentation worked fine. It was possible to show the audience the video
clip, but it was played as a stand alone using RealPlayer which is installed
on the club computer. So, it’s back to the drawing board, and maybe I will
actually get something to work. If so, the information will be shared at a
later date. For now, read ahead for other things.
Can you use older software with WindowsXP? Yes, often you can. Not sure what
the new Microsoft OS will offer, but in XP you can find the executable file
for the program you may need to run in an earlier mode, right click on it
then click “Properties”. The dialog box that ensues will have a tab labeled
“Compatibility”. Click on that tab, then click in the box titled “Run this
program in compatibility mode for”. A check mark will appear in the box and
there will be a line with a drop down menu to choose the OS which best fits
the software in question. I have an old version of QuickBooks which I run in
the mode for Windows 95. Hopefully this utility will be useful for many of
the older versions of popular software.
Why doesn’t someone make a 1 or 2 gig 3.5 floppy disk? And please don’t
give us the old line that it would require new hardware. Many of us remember
when we found out that the size of a hard drive was in its programming, not
in its hardware. It still seems to me that the relative ease of saving
information on the old standby is superior to burning CDs or DVDs. I know
there are so many other peripherals available for backups, but once they are
filled, how do you store them? And with the small USB drives, how do you
label them? With the old floppy disks, labeling was simple and storage space
was minimal. Today’s graphic files will not fit on anything less than a CD
many times. The technology is bound to be out there for a large capacity
floppy, but I guess that would be too good a deal for the consumer, unless
of course such a disk could be produced for pennies and sold for high
dollars. Never let it be said that the end user has ever been considered in
this high tech world in which we live.
When I changed my ISP and went from a 56K modem to a DSL connection, a new
email address was part of the deal. Since then, there has been a long hiatus
from spam. But finally, after signing on to an interactive website, those
spam free days are gone. The site turned out to be very invasive. It looked
as though it did not actually complete the process of taking the information
I provided, but it must have because once again the mailbox is back in the
spamrat race.
Elizabeth Wright is a member of the CCOKC and a regular writer for the eMonitor