Stupid question
Stupid question
(OP)
I need a 40 minute (and a 30 minute, and a 10 minute) countdown timer for a PowerPoint presentation. When you do a Google for "PowerPoint Timers" you get a whole bunch of timers that were written (horribly) in PowerPoint (not the best way use of space, one slide per second). My presentation already has hundreds of slides, don't want 2400 more.
So I went into AutoCad 2013 and built 2400 rectangles (a 40 X 60 grid) with numbers from 40:00 to 00:00. What a tedious undertaking, but I got it done in under an hour. Then I built a layout with a rectangle with the same aspect ratio as my boxes and copied the layout 60 times (40:00 to 39:01). Now I can (and did) print all the layouts into a .pdf. I can go into PhotoShop and extract the layouts into layers that I can then animate into a .gif that comes into PowerPoint clean, easy, reliable, and small. An incredible amount of computing horsepower and time to do a trivial thing.
Anyone got an idea of a less stupid way to do this?
So I went into AutoCad 2013 and built 2400 rectangles (a 40 X 60 grid) with numbers from 40:00 to 00:00. What a tedious undertaking, but I got it done in under an hour. Then I built a layout with a rectangle with the same aspect ratio as my boxes and copied the layout 60 times (40:00 to 39:01). Now I can (and did) print all the layouts into a .pdf. I can go into PhotoShop and extract the layouts into layers that I can then animate into a .gif that comes into PowerPoint clean, easy, reliable, and small. An incredible amount of computing horsepower and time to do a trivial thing.
Anyone got an idea of a less stupid way to do this?
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
The plural of anecdote is not "data"





RE: Stupid question
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Stupid question
http://www.janusec.com/product/4/janus+powerpoint+...
It's not exactly like what you want (it's a floating window / not part of your slideshow).
For the effort, though, I'd choose this one.
I'm sure your Rube method looks better...
Best to you,
Goober Dave
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RE: Stupid question
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
The plural of anecdote is not "data"
RE: Stupid question
I was thinking from some of your earlier posts that your presentations are generally more formal than what I do. My audience doesn't mind watching me fiddle with setting the timer.
Best to you,
Goober Dave
Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies
RE: Stupid question
As I started building the timer in PhotoShop with the first 60 AutoCAD layers I realized that PhotoShop can handle it just fine without the (fairly large) AutoCAD file. I got it built and PhotoShop failed because of an unpublished 500 frame limitation in their gif converter. I deleted 80% of the frames (leave 30:00 up for 5 seconds and then ticks over to 29:55, etc.) and it worked fine. I've attached the 30 minute version in case anyone needs it. It works well in PowerPoint and is pretty small.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
The plural of anecdote is not "data"
RE: Stupid question
Best to you,
Goober Dave
Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies
RE: Stupid question
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
The plural of anecdote is not "data"
RE: Stupid question
Sounds like there might be a small market for an actual PowerPoint add-on countdown timer. I'm going to tip off a guy I know who can do that sort of Microsoft wizardry.
Best to you,
Goober Dave
Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies
RE: Stupid question
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
The plural of anecdote is not "data"
RE: Stupid question
DW
Best to you,
Goober Dave
Haven't see the forum policies? Do so now: Forum Policies