Presentation Software

At one time presentations were made only in a frontal position, before a live audience. These audiences were to be lectured to either at a sales meeting, congress or conference or when a business deal was about to be struck, and in-depths explanation are required. In recent years, as a result of the advancement of online technologies, especially through the internet people are less inclined to attend live events. An additional factor causing people to stay at home is the increased cost of air travel and the increased security that has become a factor of every day life in the Western World.

Software programmers and those of us who understand presentation software have witnessed this development and have understand the changes that are taking place in programming presentation software. Presentation software needs to apply to two levels; principally as platforms.

In the production of presentations and laterally, but no less important, as that providing and enhancing the presentation's content. Content is king in any form of presentation and is required to be presented in many formats, from word processing to photo management, animations, graphics, and chart as well as in interactive forms.

Computer generated presentations began to raise their heads around ten to twelve years, and then as is now, Microsoft PowerPoint was the most prominent software, and was used to display information in the form of a slide show. Even Bill Gates himself, if pressed on the subject, might grudgingly admit that the early PowerPoint presentations could be best described as primitive, and were very inclined to the most annoying of technical breakdowns. To be fair, over the years, the presentation software technology behind PowerPoint has undergone several upgrades, and there still remains no other program like it, in its niche. The most up to date version PowerPoint2007 can absorb any amount of plug ins, including Flash Animations, mpeg movies and audio/visual presentations to the highest standards. One of the major problems and limitations with Microsoft PowerPoint is that it does not transfer well to an online application.

The most common software for producing web sites is Macromedia Dreamweaver, although there are many other similar programs available on and off line. Dreamweaver is not the least expensive software of its type available. However it is the most flexible and offers a vast range of features and plug ins. The program was produced for many years through Macromedia, one of the largest presentation software programmers in the United States. However Macromedia were taken over just over a year ago by Adobe, making them by far away the largest company in the World in the specific field of software graphics production. There are many detractors who claim that there are better programs available that will carry out the functions that Adobe and Microsoft offer in presentation software and at a significantly lower price. Those in the know will disagree and will strengthen their argument by saying that all the programs in these ranges, because they are so compatible to each other, that they are worth what ever the difference in price. In addition, there are many smaller software developers who are busy developing plug ins and mini-software programs that can be embedded into the Adobe/Macromedia software to add to its versatility.

Know as behaviors or extensions, they add a lot of tools to the interactivity of the programs, as well as an endless variety of photo, graphics and animation effects. These effects can be utilized to produce am online or offline presentation that is highly effective, standard and running through all the company's promotional material even in printed materials. The incredible success of these two market leaders, Adobe and Microsoft, only go to prove the point that in presentation software, big is indeed beautiful.