Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Applications to Make PowerPoint Interactive [Paperback]

David M. Marcovitz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1591580951 | ISBN-13: 978-1591580959 | Publication Date: March 30, 2004

Learn to use PowerPoint in ways you never thought possible. Marcovitz shows how, providing practical instruction for using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to create learning environments and educational materials that support and enhance student success. With the widespread availability of PowerPoint (every copy beginning with version 1997 comes with VBA built-in) schools have all the tools they need to create powerful and interactive multimedia resources. The true power of multimedia lies in its ability to engage students' minds. Professional multimedia tools are too difficult to learn, too expensive, or both, and although many teachers and students use HyperStudio or PowerPoint to develop multimedia projects, these projects often lack true interactivity. Using VBA with PowerPoint gives teachers and students an accessible way to easily create interactive multimedia resources and projects. After introducing the basics of educational planning, the design process, and the benefits of designing and using multimedia, this book offers the practical knowledge you need to create powerful educational resources. Learn to create projects that include:

Pictures, videos, recorded voices, and links to Web sites

Interactive menus

Quizzes and short-answer questions with automatic user-feedback

The ability to score quizzes

The ability to keep track of which presentation sections have or haven't been visited

The ability to allow the user to type and alter slides during the presentation

And much more The possibilities are endless. Anyone with basic PowerPoint skills can use this book to create powerful educational material for themselves, their colleagues, their students, or their own children.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“With clear, concise, step-by-step instructions on how to create presentations, users can create multiple-choice tests that not only give feedback, but also keep score....This is a powerful tool for educators to have in their repertoire....This book will encourage PowerPoint users to push their skills beyond the status quo.”–Library Media Connection

Book Description

Using multimedia tools in the classroom can be both challenging and daunting. PowerPoint, a popular classroom tool, includes an application for creating dynamic, interactive presentations. By tapping into the hidden power of this feature, teachers and students can use PowerPoint in innovative ways and create better learning environments.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591580951
• ISBN-13: 978-1591580959
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #909,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #68 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Applications > PowerPoint

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only book on VBA devoted to PowerPoint, April 28, 2004

By 

MargeS (Tampa, FL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Applications to Make PowerPoint Interactive (Paperback)

Every computer coordinator and interested computer teacher, anyone who does instructional presentations / training, and college level professors who are accustomed to using PowerPoint and those constructing online programs for medical CEU programs, now using such programs as Agility Presenter or Appraiso would benefit from this book. This method of using VBA with PowerPoint truly allows for authentic, interactive, memorable, meaningful, and fun e-learning with a program many trainers already use. Sure you can do this with Flash, but most instructors in other fields than computer technology really don't have time for that learning curve. Maybe the computer teacher has time, but not the social studies teacher nor the medical professor teaching second year medical students interview techniques, for example. As an instructor it would be great to provide an additional e-learning module on CD that you created with PowerPoint and VBA. It will leave a lasting impression.
I have searched many a thousand paged books for dribs and drabs of VBA on PowerPoint. This book immediately gives you useful, real world problems and gets right to the point in about 180+ pages and contains more information than many thousand page books that cost considerably more. The author also provides a Web site with actual samples of the programs that work in case you run into difficulties.
I went on a newsgroup site to ask a VBA question about PowerPoint before Amazon sent my book. Normally I receive answers that are completely beyond anything I need or want. It just so happens that the book's author answered my question and helped me solve my problem and told me about his book, at which point I realized I had recently ordered it. I often rate books, but I rarely write reviews. This one deserves all 5 stars and then add five more! I can't say enough about it. It is one of a kind.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of a Programmer (without being one), July 17, 2006

By 

Trainer Guy "Bob T." (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Applications to Make PowerPoint Interactive (Paperback)

If you're like me, experienced with PowerPoint, but not a programmer, then taking a trip into the world of vba scripting with David Marcovitz's "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators" makes it easy and enjoyable. This book is like having a conversation with the author who has "been there and done it" in terms of developing script that is practical and useful in so many PowerPoint projects you may need to develop. Among other objectives, I had the need to incorporate an interactive leadership style self-assessment in my cbt of the same name, and thanks to David's book I was able to let the user make his/her selections (as well as change them too), track scores, and then take those scores on to subsequent slides to discern the meaning of each of them (not to mention printing as well as saving those scores based on user preference). And of course, all along the way, I learned a great deal about other scripting options that proved useful in this application as well as for future projects.
If you're at the stage where you need to use vba scripting, this is the book that should be your primer. It will take you where you need to go!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Improperly Titled, July 10, 2006

By 

K. Ingle (Azle TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Applications to Make PowerPoint Interactive (Paperback)

This book is not really properly titled -- it should be "Using Scripting to Make PowerPoint Interactive." The author makes it clear (part way through the book) that he is not writing this for people with programming knowledge -- all he intends for you to do is copy the scripts he provides and use them as he intends. He even discourages the reader to read what little is written about programming.

In addition, the $45 price tag is ludicrously high. This book is worth $19.95 tops.