Presentation Tools

MagPointer is a downloadable Windows PC software which provides a set of highlighting tools to support the delivery of a PowerPoint presentation.

MagPointer leverages in-depth PowerPoint traits and characteristics, enabling the user to highlight and manipulate easily objects inside any slide.

The toolset includes:

• Selecting and enlarging a specific slide object
• Creating frames around specific elements present on a slide
• Laser pointer
• Zooming tool
• Dimming screen outside of the highlighted area
• Magnify and freeze
• Element Highlighting tool

MagPointer auto-activates itself when you are in PowerPoint slideshow mode and it appears on the right side of the screen as a vertical toolbar.

It can be used only in conjunction with PowerPoint.

My comment: Very useful tool for presenter and effective feature set. The integrated features and tools are very useful but when MagPointer is active I dislike seeing subtle grey areas appear under every object in a slide. Usability leaves something to be desired especially when it comes to the vertical toolbar and cursor-contextual menu. Could prove very useful and handy for certain trainers/educators who find themselevs at ease with this small downsides.

Free trial version available: http://www.magpointer.com

(padi version $19.95)

Download: http://www.magpointer.com/download.html

Get started: http://www.magpointer.com/getting-started.html

User Guide: http://www.magpointer.com/uploads/1/2/1/2/12121421/magpointer_user_guide.pdf

Buy: http://www.magpointer.com/buy.html

If you need to rapidly add some notes, text, highlights or arrows to a screenshot or a photo, there is no better and easier free tool that I know of than Evernote Skitch.

The newly released version 2.5 introduces full PDF annotation capabilities, and a great set of superuseful "visual stamps", that further enhance Skitch fast and elegant markup capabilities. 

At its core Skitch is a super-handy image capture and editing utility that allows you to resize, crop, and add unique annotations and highlights to any image while allowing you to save and export in all major image file formats.

Skitch fully integrates with Evernote allowing you to automatically save all of your annotated images into one or more dedicated "notebooks".

Free to download and use.

More info: http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2013/04/18/the-new-skitch-for-mac-and-ios-the-fastest-friendliest-way-to-give-feedback-on-pdfs/

Video intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XE325A4RvQc

iTunes info: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skitch/id425955336?mt=12

Official site: Try it out: http://evernote.com/skitch/

Downloads:

• iOS download: http://appstore.com/skitch/skitch/
  
  
• Windows download: http://evernote.com/download/get.php?file=SkitchWindows
  
  
• Windows 8 (touch): http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/skitch/95a8df2f-f779-4034-a995-82d8e723b246
  
  
• Mac: http://evernote.com/download/get.php?file=SkitchMac
  
  
• Android download: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.evernote.skitch