PowerPoint to Web - Articulate Presenter Product Review

Synopsis

Articulate Presenter is a PowerPoint to Flash conversion utility that allows instructors to integrate narration, animations and interactivity into any PowerPoint presentation for on-demand delivery via the Web. After installation, Articulate Presenter becomes part of PowerPoint's pull-down menu structure. Articulate's menu options enable instructors to add narration to individual slides by importing sound files or recording live narration with a microphone. You can then synchronize narration with PowerPoint's animation effects as well as import Flash movies, videos and other web objects into individual slides. Articulate Presenter also comes with built-in interactive objects such as simple quizzing and gaming activities that can be integrated anywhere into a presentation. Instructors can also customize the user interface students will see as they access presentations on the Web. You can also add attachments and hyperlinks to a presentation.

The Good

Articulate Presenter is easy to use and very intuitive. You can create highly interactive and media rich online lectures by combining PowerPoint animation effects, Flash objects, audio narration and links to external web resources. No streaming server is needed to deliver your presentations. Since most everyone has the Flash plug-in installed on their PC, there are fewer issues with students installing supporting plug-ins. On high speed connections, Articulate presentations start fast and seem to perform better than presentations that use true streaming. Publishing a presentation to the Web is largely a matter of copying your Articulate presentation folder to a web server and linking to the index file in the root directory of that folder.

Articulate Presenter enables instructors to customize color schemes and navigational controls of the user interface. Instructors can set-up presentations that automatically advance from slide-to-slide or allows users to click a forward button to move on. Such navigational control is especially desirable when Flash animations, quiz questions and web objects are embedded into specific slides. There is little noticeable quality loss in PowerPoint slides following conversion to the Flash format.

The Bad

A constraint for producers is the need to parse an audio narration file into separate files -- one for each slide of the presentation. This makes it more time consuming to take pre-recordings of presenters and synchronize them with slides. There are also problems with synchronizing audio with video when using .swf clips embedded in the PowerPoint slide and the length is greater than two minutes. This problem does not occur when using .flv clips.

Product Evaluation

Platform and Delivery Issues
Authoring Environment	Menu within PowerPoint
Authoring Platform	Windows
Deliver Platform	Web, Stand-alone computer and CD-ROM
Accessibility	Issues remain with screen readers not being able to read button labels.
Foreign Language	multilingual support (left to right and right to left language)
Importing into Presentation Space
Importing existing PowerPoint files	Since Articulate Presenter Pro works within PowerPoint, any existing PowerPoint files can be used.
Importing JPEG	Any JPEG image can be added to a PowerPoint slide
Importing PowerPoint with embedded audio	Audio added to the PowerPoint slide are ignored by Articulate Presenter Pro.
Embedding audio in slide	.swf and .flv audio clips can be embedded into the slide. .wav and mp3 files added to the PowerPoint slide are ignored.
Embedding video in slide	.swf and .flv video clips can be embedded into the slide. There are synchronization problems with .swf clips longer than two minutes
Importing Notes	Any notes within PowerPoint will be processed by Articulate Presenter Pro.
Importing into Lecture Space
Importing audio	.wav and .mp3 files can be imported
Importing video	.flv clips can be added to the lecture view.
Importing reference to streamed media	There is no clear way to reference a streamed media clip
Importing / Synchronizing a single audio clip with slides	There is no way to upload one audio clip for the entire presentation.
Importing / Synchronizing multiple audio clips with slides	Individual audio clips can be added to each slide
Audio editing	There is a basic editing tool to clean up audio clips
Supplemental Materials
Instructor Picture	A picture of the instructor can be displayed in the player
Instructor Biography	A biography can be added and a link is created to it within the player
Importing Documents	Supporting documents and links can be included with the presentation. A popup menu at the bottom of the player displays all links included.
Importing Captions	Captions can be added and imported when recording and importing audio. Captions are added to the notes tab, along with PowerPoint lecture notes.
Layout Controls
Layout controlled via timeline	The layout of the player cannot be changed based on position on the timeline
Layout colors adjustable	There are a number of preset templates that can be used and users can create their own layout colors.
Presentation is the main focus of player	The presentation space is the main focus of player
Lecture space is the main focus of player	The lecture space will never become the main focus of the player
Layout can be defined by user	There is a basic layout configuration.
Publishing / Revising Content
Web Export	Content can be exported for web delivery.
CD Export	Content can be exported for CD export. An auto execute option is included for CD export -- allowing the player to load when cd placed in cd-rom drive
iPod Export	Content is not exportable for delivery with an ipod
Native format retained for future edits	Since content is created in PowerPoint, changes can be made whenever necessary. However, when changes are made, the presentation needs to be republished.
Export preserves PowerPoint animations	Most PowerPoint animations are preserved.
Support / Availability
DoIT Help Desk Support	No support is provided by the DoIT Help Desk
Campus Support	No formal campus support exists.
Length of Commitment	N/A
Supported by AT
Supported by Vendor	Vendor provided email support.
Price	$699
Installation Issues	Requires most current version of the Flash Player. Serialization issues make it difficult to move product from one computer to another.

Recommendations/Final Notes:

The developers of this product paid attention to the needs of instructors and learners. If your course web site already incorporates Flash elements, then Articulate Presenter allows you to get the most from your Flash player. There is no reason to create passive PowerPoint lectures for the web. Articulate presenter enables you to convert PowerPoint slides into an interactive learning experience. This is an excellent product that is not only fun and easy to use but also highly functional.

Sample Demos

Complex Multimedia presentation (NOTE: Broadband or higher connection for optimum performance)	Sample 1 with audio Sample 2 with video
Simple text and graphics presentation	N/A (one could be done that would work well on 56k modem)
UW faculty demos	Instructional Design
Vendor demos	http://www.articulateglobal.com/main.html