It's done!

I have finally finished my presentation in VoiceThread. Here is the link/location:
http://voicethread.com/share/551370/

Please feel free to add comments to the video. Experiment with the different types of comments!
You will need to create a free k-12 VoiceThread account in order to comment.

I had problems getting a creating a movie that I liked in PowerPoint. I tried to edit the PowerPoint movie in iMovie, but the frame size on the slides were too big. The slides kept being cut off. So I added a few more slides and created a video comment as an example. I still can't draw and talk at the same time!

Templates created for thesis

I created templates for the thesis document in Word and OpenOffice. For word, I created both a .doc file and a .dotx file. The .dotx file can be used with the project manager/template feature in Word.

In order for Word to find the template, it needs to be placed in the following folder:
/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/My Templates/.

I created templates for OpenOffice as well. The .odt file is a document. The .ott is a template file. OpenOffice looks for the template files in:
/user/user_name/Library/Application_support/OpenOffice.org/3/user/template/

To use a template in OpenOffice, select the templates icon at startup and look in the my templates folder.

I think that these will be uploaded to a server at UCSD. Jim will let us know where we can access them.

Open Office rocks!

I finally got tired of all of the bugs and oddities that I was running into with MSWord 2008 for Mac. The final straw was the "can't save file" bug that nearly lost me a good deal of work. I finally cut and paste the section that I could not save to a Google Doc and then had to reset my machine!

So I moved my document over to OpenOffice. What a difference! When I tried to create a .pdf file in Word, I ended up with 14 different .pdfs because I was using both portrait and landscape page layouts in my document. With OpenOffice I ended up with one .pdf, correctly formatted. If you want to know more about OpenOffice check out this site http://www.openoffice.org/. There are a few formatting differences between OpenOffice and Word, but nothing drastic. The help files are very complete and actually helpful! I will create a thesis template in OpenOffice for anyone who is interested.

Can't talk and draw at the same time!

Well, the drawing tool is neat, but I found out that I can't talk and draw at the same time. My brain goes into overload! I have added a "movie" that I created in PowerPoint. I forgot to export the soundtrack with it, so the movie is silent. I think that I should still be able to add comments to it in VoiceThread. My husband said that he tried to send a phone comment, but I have not seen it yet. I am going to try to add a video comment tonight.

Can do audio and drawing at the same time

I found out that you can do audio and drawing comments at the same time. So I am going to re-record some of the comments and use these features. I am also going to try to create a video that I am going to insert as a comment or as another frame.

Audio added for the VoiceThread

I have added my audio comments for my VoiceThread comments. Please feel free to look at the project and add you comments. You will need a VoiceThread account in order to post comments. Fortunately, you can set up a k-12 account for free. The site is www.voicethread.com. I am now looking into enbedding videos in the presentation.

Here is the link to my latest video:
http://voicethread.com/share/551370/

Update on the project

I started to record comments on the slides . I split up and simplified some of the slides. The recording of the audio comments is really easy.