E-Chalk Talk

Although electronic whiteboards come in several sizes and shapes, their main function is the same – to capture written annotations, notes and drawings and store them for future reference. This is accomplished with infrared sensors, radio-signal-emitting pens, plasma overlays and other technologies. The end product is a file of digitally stored notes that can be e-mailed, posted online, or printed and handed out to an audience immediately after a presentation or training session. Beyond these basic features, some electronic whiteboards are interactive – letting you connect a computer and projector to the whiteboard to combine its features with common software programs. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, for example, can be projected onto an interactive whiteboard where it can be marked up with colored pens to highlight important numbers or trends. Or, using an interactive whiteboard's touchscreen feature, a presenter can navigate the Web using a finger to move the cursor and double-clicking with taps on the screen. Even videoconferencing functions have been integrated into electronic whiteboards in the past year.

Regenold, Stephen. Presentations (2003). Articles>Education>Multimedia>Videoconferencing

Presentation Shui

Have you ever been in a room that felt strangely uncomfortable? Most presenters have, making comments afterwards about a forebodingly long executive table, a sterile design that put a chill in the air or a frenetic disorganized feeling that seemed to bounce around the room during the talk. It's reactions like these that corporate room designers and architects seek to avoid, striving to use technology and interior design to create a professional yet welcoming atmosphere. That quest has opened the door to fresh ideas, including the Chinese art of feng shui.

Regenold, Stephen. Presentations (2002). Design>Human Computer Interaction>Presentations

Use Actions in Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop's Actions utility is a great way to speed up repetitive image-editing jobs or quickly perform commonly used edits. This tool lets you assign a sequence of commands to a single key. Rather than going through a number of steps, the program records a set of actions and allows you to recall those same actions with a single keystroke the F12 function key, for example.

Regenold, Stephen. Presentations (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop