Yule Heibel’s Post Studio © 2003-2008

Using google docs for presentations

Here’s a technical question that I need answered by …oh, early tomorrow. Lunchtime at the latest.  On Monday morning I’m supposed to do a technical dry-run for a talk I’m presenting on Wednesday. There are some logistics involved, in terms of equipment. I don’t have a projector, and the organizer of the venue is kind enough to arrange one for me. I have a laptop. And I’m putting my presentation together using google docs’s “Presentation Editor,” which is a real joy to use. Very easy.

But now I wonder if I haven’t dug myself a big hole.

I realized this afternoon that I can’t save this presentation as, say, a PowerPoint. I can save it as a compressed file to my computer, but when I open it, it opens in Firefox.

So …does that mean I need wifi at the venue? Like, do I need internet access to “play” my slide show?

Do any of my 2 or 3 readers have any idea if there’s a work-around for Google Docs “presentation editor,” to save it to one’s computer, open it, but not need internet access to play it?

Otherwise I will be spending tomorrow not just finishing the presentation, but transferring every single slide by hand (pictures and some text) to that clunker PowerPoint format, which I know I can save to my computer and open without benefit of wifi access….

Testing YouTube “embed” function

Gordon Price is having trouble embedding YouTube videos on his blog.

I have never been able to embed them on this blog — only link to. But I thought I’d give it another try… Here’s an architecture-related video: Jean Nouvels Torre Agbar in Barcelona

Wanna bet it’ll show up as just code?

…

Pish. It didn’t even appear as code. I suspect that the free version of WordPress doesn’t allow it. On the other hand, if I simply copy the url for that video and link it to text — like this — I can link to YouTube videos directly. But no pretty embedding…