Free trials of PowerPoint add-ins abound on the internet! The "try before you buy" approach is smart: it lets you know what you're getting into before you make a commitment.
And even if you don't have an immediate need for a particular PowerPoint add-in, someday, somehow, sometime in the future...you might find a very poignant use for the add-in, and you'll plunk down the dough.
That's going to be the case with DzSoft's PowerPoint Slide Show Converter. They offer a free 30 day trial of their nifty product, which...[quote]
"...turns a presentation created with Microsoft PowerPoint into a self-running slide show application (exe file) that can be copied to any computer and will run on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP and 2003 without requiring any additional program files or libraries."
So, I put their free trial to the test. Downloaded and installed it in seconds. Then, I created an .exe file with music sound track and transitions: total time to develop the pres? About six minutes.
(You can download the dolphin presentation here -- but I warn you, it's 4.66 mg....I stripped the soundtrack files, too -- otherwise it would have been 8.5 mg!)
(Cabin Fever Warning: There are also plenty of free pictures of dolphins, whales, and water in this presentation! One of my favorite clients from Hawaii loves to taunt me every February by sending Hawaii dolphins (and whale) photos. I usually put up the whale and dolphin photos in her gallery - which also lets her website visitors view the photographs as an online cetacean slideshow with a three second delay between slides. If you have cabin fever, this might be the site to visit!)
But back to the PowerPoint SlideShow Converter add-in: this is a great application to use for a trade show booth, a self-running sales presentation, or a break loop to use when you want something playing on screen while your audience takes a washroom break. It's easy to use, and at $50, it's definitely a low cost way to package your PowerPoint presentation.
