WildPresenter Tackles Many Presentation Tasks
Sometimes e-mails just seem to come to me at the best times. I got one recently from the folks at WildForm asking me to look at WildPresenter. Over the years, I had been on their list for press releases and had looked at some of their products. This one really caught my eye and the timing was just perfect. WildForm is located in Los Angeles and I was going to be there three days after the fateful e-mail. It is always much easier to get a head start on understanding exactly how software works and its ease of use if you have someone show you how it works.
Since WildForm is a relatively small company, I got to meet with the two executives who run the show. This was no flashy demo (no pun intended), we just walked through the various features.
What exactly does WildPresenter do? My first impression was that it was a cool program for converting a PowerPoint presentation to a Flash file. Yes, it does that and does it quite well. Users do submit files that don't convert correctly and WildForm attempts to get out a fix as quickly as possible. You also have the ability to create a Flash-based slideshow from scratch if you'd like. That alone is a pretty good program.
As they say in the infomercials, but wait, there's more. One of WildForm's main strengths has always been working with video and audio multimedia components. So it is very easy to import a movie or a sound clip into your presentation. Sure, some of this is available in PowerPoint, but not to the extent you'll find in WildPresenter. It even has a timeline so you can see exactly when things are going to happen.
I use a program called Camtasia extensively to record movies of screen activity. If you have my book, the movies that are included are all thanks to Camtasia. I'm not so sure I'll need Camtasia any more. WildPresenter also allows you to record your screen and then plug the resulting movie into your presentation or to just have it as a standalone Flash file.
Want to add some animation to your presentation? WildPresenter definitely has more option available that you'll find in PowerPoint. It even includes a bunch of pre-programmed text effects that can really bring things to life.
OK, so it has a lot of features that anyone who relies on PowerPoint or who gives presentations could certainly use. But what was the killer feature? It was one they definitely hadn't planned on showing me. I found the interface to be very similar to CorelDRAW. While many other graphics products use "palettes", WildPresenter has something nearly identical to Dockers where it stores all the settings. There are also lots of wizards that can aid new users or dialog boxes for more experienced users that don't need the hand holding. In short, it does all the things I would want to do for a Flash file and is much easier to use than Flash. You don't have to be a software geek to produce a quality visual presentation.
I was also impressed that WildForm "eats their own dog food". Much of the technical support information on their Web site is built with their own product. So if you want to learn how to do something, go to the Online Training page and they have a number of movies that show you exactly how things work.
If you give presentations or have to create them for others in your company, you definitely want to check out WildPresenter. Yes, you can download a free trial. Even if you only convert PowerPoint files to Flash, it makes them much more portable. I know I'll be finding a lot of different ways to use the product.
Since WildForm is a relatively small company, I got to meet with the two executives who run the show. This was no flashy demo (no pun intended), we just walked through the various features.
What exactly does WildPresenter do? My first impression was that it was a cool program for converting a PowerPoint presentation to a Flash file. Yes, it does that and does it quite well. Users do submit files that don't convert correctly and WildForm attempts to get out a fix as quickly as possible. You also have the ability to create a Flash-based slideshow from scratch if you'd like. That alone is a pretty good program.
As they say in the infomercials, but wait, there's more. One of WildForm's main strengths has always been working with video and audio multimedia components. So it is very easy to import a movie or a sound clip into your presentation. Sure, some of this is available in PowerPoint, but not to the extent you'll find in WildPresenter. It even has a timeline so you can see exactly when things are going to happen.
I use a program called Camtasia extensively to record movies of screen activity. If you have my book, the movies that are included are all thanks to Camtasia. I'm not so sure I'll need Camtasia any more. WildPresenter also allows you to record your screen and then plug the resulting movie into your presentation or to just have it as a standalone Flash file.
Want to add some animation to your presentation? WildPresenter definitely has more option available that you'll find in PowerPoint. It even includes a bunch of pre-programmed text effects that can really bring things to life.
OK, so it has a lot of features that anyone who relies on PowerPoint or who gives presentations could certainly use. But what was the killer feature? It was one they definitely hadn't planned on showing me. I found the interface to be very similar to CorelDRAW. While many other graphics products use "palettes", WildPresenter has something nearly identical to Dockers where it stores all the settings. There are also lots of wizards that can aid new users or dialog boxes for more experienced users that don't need the hand holding. In short, it does all the things I would want to do for a Flash file and is much easier to use than Flash. You don't have to be a software geek to produce a quality visual presentation.
I was also impressed that WildForm "eats their own dog food". Much of the technical support information on their Web site is built with their own product. So if you want to learn how to do something, go to the Online Training page and they have a number of movies that show you exactly how things work.
If you give presentations or have to create them for others in your company, you definitely want to check out WildPresenter. Yes, you can download a free trial. Even if you only convert PowerPoint files to Flash, it makes them much more portable. I know I'll be finding a lot of different ways to use the product.
posted by Foster D. Coburn III at
9:23 PM
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