Alright...so the last two and a half days have been a lesson in perserverence, exhaustion, problem solving and patience. Some questions have been answered...some problems have been solved, and some questions are being put on the clipboard for now.
It all began with Jury Duty again on Monday. So what happens if you actually get to go into the courtroom to be a part of the selection process? All rise please, for the Judge. The Judge explains the case and reads a list of questions, to which you must ask yourself....is my answer "yes" to any of these? If your answer is yes, and they pull your name out of the little wooden box, then you must say "Yes" when the Judge asks if there is any reason why you cannot be on the jury. Nine names selected....safe so far...then they pulled my name. "Yes" I said. "Please approach the bench," the judge said. "Judge, I am to present at a technology conference in Connecticut tomorrow...AND I know one of the lawyers."
"You're excused." As I nervously walked toward the back of the courtroom to escape, I really wasn't thinking about much except, "Phew..that was close."
The court clerk blocking the door simply stood there and waited for me to get right up close to him before he said,"You have to stay."
"Right, oops, sorry.." as I scurried back to my seat.
I was in such a hurry to get the heck out of there, I was halfway home before I realized I had left my new book, The PHOTOCOACH, back in the Jury Assembly Room. GRRRRR!!! All the way back to the courthouse, back through the metal detector with my shoes in my hand because they set off the detector every time. Up the stairs, with the guard who unlocks the door because everyone has gone to lunch, into the room where my book is right where I left it. Phew again.
So night time arrives, and my colleague and I prepare to finalize our presentation for the CECA/CEMA Conference at the Hartford Convention Center the next day. We were using a powerpoint presentation we had done once before, with revisions, however.I had my snazzy new operating system, and she had her slick new macbook. And the macbook was running xp as well. So 4 operating systems. 2 Notebooks. 2 presentation softwares.
Let the fun and games begin. Inserting movie and audio files into powerpoint is no small feat on a day when you are rested and ready to go. It is a challenge when you have put in a 10 hour day, and you still have a few hours to go. Let's remember the trick about powerpoint-all the files associated with the project have to be saved in the same location as the powerpoint in order to play properly.
Question # 1: Why doesn't my movie play? It was playing the last time I opened the presentation.
Question # 2: Why is there audio but no video when I click my movie?
Question # 3: Why is there no audio on this podcast?
Question # 4: Should I convert the file from wmf back to quicktime...back to wmf?
Question # 5: Should I convert the video to avi?mp4?mov?
Question # 6: How can I get this to advance to the next slide? The movie keeps playing over, and over when I click it.."
Question # 7: Can you import avi files into powerpoint?
Question# 8: Can you import mov files into keynote?
Some of the random answers we came up with:
Let's make a movie of the podcast and trick powerpoint into thinking it's a movie.
Let's use moviemaker to make a movie of the slide show and then import it into 1 slide.
I know..let's not save the project and just leave the macbook plugged in and the project open until we present...
10 pm..still not working...11pm...still not working. I am knapping on the couch at this point. "Why don't you just stay here tonight?" Did I mention registration for the conference began at 6:30 am??? The next morning. In Hartford. Three hours away.
SO now it's midnight. We don't really know if the project is saved...because the macbook needed to be shut down. The notebook with vista, meanwhile, had a close second to the cool keynote presentation, but not as slick. But it was saved, and would work in the event of a macbook disaster.
"I'm going home for a few hours sleep," my colleague said. "I'll be back at 5am to take a shower and get ready." Did I mention she had no hot water at her house?
So at 5:30 am I awoke to dim headlights in my driveway." Did you sleep in my driveway?" I asked. "No, but I really wanted to stay up all night and come back into your house and finish the presentation. But I was afraid I would scare you."
When the macbook booted up and the keynote presentation opened...it all came together and worked like a charm....EXCELLENT! "Let's bring both, just in case...... by 7am we were on our way to Connecticut to present at their regional technology conference armed with our 2 laptops, 2 presentations, 4 operating systems and a couple of portable speakers...just in case.
Tomorrow....stay tuned to more blogging about the Presentation From Hell.
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