Powerpoint was what I incorporated into not only my "Becoming a librarian" slideshow but I also was able to use it for my publication. The powerpoint program is so much more extensive than I had initially perceived. There is so much animation that I had never before been able to incorporate into my powerpoint for classes in college. I also never knew that I could add sounds and use so many different types of tables and charts.
The unfortunate part about powerpoint is the different versions, both between the mac and windows formatting and the editions of powerpoint themselves. The formatting proved to be a great issue whenever I would include my audio. On my computer it worked perfectly, but yet on another there was silence. I also had trouble figuring out which colors, font sizes, and spacing might be affected if another computer were to read into my data. I learned that master slides are helpful for this very purpose. However, I was hesitant to include a master slide because I wanted a lot of variety to go into my powerpoint. This is how I initially began my powerpoint presentation, but then the slides became a lot more synchronous in design than I had initially planned. This is a lesson learned for the next time, it might just be easier to lean towards similarities than too much variation.
The other point I made was about the versions. This was especially frustrating for one of powerpoint slides laying out a listing of all the librarian positions. When I began in class, there was a circle diagram that I initially chose to incorporate. However, my mac version of the Microsoft pp 2004, did not include this feature. I decided to design a flow chart to try to illustrate my general point. Then, I found that formatting issues gave this slide a look of sloppiness. Words did not fit into the text, etc. There was not even an option for me to edit because the version of powerpoint in the lab did not include a flowchart feature. I was faced with the dilemma of completing the tasks all on a windows or choosing to use my mac at the risk of sending information that could be reformatted as unclear. Due to my lack of time to spend on campus during the open hours of the day, I chose to take my chances with my mac. Hopefully playing around with enough of the settings to correct most of these frustrations.
The other assignment was the publication assignment, which included the making of a poster. To begin this project, I began with a blank white powerpoint page and then began using text boxes as my best guide options. The text boxes were matched up to the ruler toolbars and I used the zoom option for better precision. It was enjoyable to choose images, and play around with the pie chart option. The pie chart took a lot of little modifications which seemed difficult to adjust without specifically clicking into a separate chart formating link each time.
Overall, the layout of the publication was the most difficult part, it required some preplanning as well as flexibility. The most frustrating part of this project was also the reformatting.
Several elements appeared differently on my mac in comparison
a regular pc. These elements included the background color. I chose to make my text transparent. On the mac, the image was showing minimal definition of the background image, so I decided to make it continuously darker. I also used a fancy font for my title to make it stand out. When sent to the poster printers I almost didn't recognize the presentation. My poster became so dark that it was difficult to read the text, it also changed the title font. The change in font wouldn't have been as big of an issue except that it pushed my name down to the next line, behind an image where it could no longer be seen. This is a lesson learned for the next time, I also later learned that there is an auto modify text that sometimes automatically adjusts the page to how it might be seen on a pc. We'll see if it works for the next time.
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