annotations vs animating ppt shapes
Feb 01, 2011
I'm curious how many of you use the Presenter Annotations feature vs animating PPT shapes at the appropriate times on the slide? I'd like to get an idea of when you choose one over the other and why?
For myself, if I'm using an arrow to point to things, I usually find myself using a PPT arrow. If I'm animating a callout box, that's using a PPT shape, too. The spotlight annotation is really cool, so I'd use that if needed.
I have found the arrow Annotation feature just too cumbersome to have to keep going back and resynching when I do updates. Maybe I'm just missing a workflow step that would make it easier.
When do you use Annotations instead of PPT shapes and why? Do you have any tips on how to easily maintain them? I love the look of them and would like to start using them more.
Thanks!
Heather
6 Replies
Hi Heather
I agree with you, I generally only use the spotlight annotation and do everything else in powerpoint, maybe I am missing something as well, but find the synching resynching for annotatons too fiddly
Phil
Ditto! Syncing PPT animations is tons easier than using the Annotations (for me, anyway). Like you guys, maybe I'm missing something. But, since it's not intuitive, I stick with the tried and true...
Charity
My favorite annotation is the spotlight feature - particularly when I need to focus the learner to one area of the screen. One trick is to put a series of symbols, such as ***, in the notes section as a prompt for when I need to synch an animation and a different symbol, such as ###, when I need to synch an annotation. This allows me to record, synch and annotate in one step. Once I'm happy with the slide and how it functions, I just do a simple "find and replace" and remove my prompts. May be a trick you want to try if it will help streamline your process and minimize the number of times you "touch" the slide once you are at this stage of the development process.
Yeah, the annotations are a bit "fiddly" as someone said . I am hoping that they put a timeline and a more robust editing feature in the next version of Articulate. **hint hint** that's really easy, right? :-)
Well, I guess, I didn't and may won't use and apply Powerpoint Presenter Annotations to add and create annotations on Powerpoint presentaion slides, so, I cannot be sure of its features. I would like to search online to get some free powerpoint annotation add-on tool when I need to draw and add annotations on my ppt slides, it will be best if the annotation tool supports variable annotation shapes, such as, text, callout, esllipse and line as well as rubber stamp.
I find the PPT shapes are easier to place with consistency, more colour options and shape otions. I am hoping when I convert to Articulate '13 that maybe the annotations are cleaner, smoother to use.
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