RSS: What is it? Why do I want it? How do I get it?

E-mail This Page 
to a Friend

PowerPoint News

Interview with Tim Hards of Perspector

Perspector is a new add-in for PowerPoint that offers powerful 3D capabilities. (Read on for a special offer!) Because I work in 3D in AutoCAD, I often wish that PowerPoint would do more with its 3D features. For example, you can easily create a 3D diagram like this one:

Here's another graphic. Don't you just want to turn over the cube and see the other sides?

You can find more information at the Perspector Web site, and specifically see more slide examples on their Example Slides page.

I was intrigued enough to ask Tim Hards, the principle developer of Perspector if I could interview him for this site. Here are my questions and hi answers:

Ellen: Why did you create Perspector?

Tim: When communicating an idea or set of ideas to an audience, it is easier to grab and keep their attention if you have stimulating images to illustrate or otherwise entertain them while delivering your message. Adding 3D images to your presentation helps with both engaging their emotions and conveying information. Perspector started as a means to help communicate complicated information by enabling presenters to create their own 3D images. We now see that our mission is wider; we want to help a presenter not only to explain, but also to entertain.

Ellen: Briefly explain what Perspector adds to PowerPoint.

Tim: We add the extra "3rd" dimension to PowerPoint. With the success of movies like Toy Story and Shrek, not to mention computer games, nearly everyone is aware of the 3D capabilities of computers. The major change in the last half decade is that even very ordinary computers used for business purposes are capable of rendering impressive 3D graphics in real time. So while we are all now used to consuming 3D graphics, it is still a very exclusive club that creates new 3D images. Perspector opens the door of 3D image creation to anyone mildly familiar with the PowerPoint user interface. And having played a computer game won't hurt either!

Ellen: What is your favorite feature of Perspector?

Tim: When using Perspector, you don’t feel detached from PowerPoint. We have worked very hard to make the extension into 3D seamless - when looking to turn a shape in 3D, you are probably likely just to try the extra grab handle we have added to make that possible in the extra dimension rather than agonise over how to do it. There are lots of additional capabilities offered by Perspector, but we are most proud of the fact that you can find them without too much bother.

Ellen: Could you provide a scenario of how a user would gain value from incorporating Perspector into a PowerPoint presentation?

Tim: The motivating scenario behind the whole Perspector project is the "Layered Hierarchical Diagram." Our CTO George McCaskill has long been bothered by the lack of software support for drawing diagrams where you have several layers of information which have relationships between the layers which also need to be illustrated. That sounds complicated, but the pictures are much easier to understand, as shown in his hierarchical diagrams blog post. Here is a layered diagram showing the location of George’s house in Edinburgh:

Ellen: Does Perspector work in PowerPoint 2007?

Tim: Perspector not only works in PowerPoint 2007, but it also amplifies your enjoyment of PPT 2007's great new features in the 3rd dimension!

Ellen: H ave you had teachers and educators use Perspector? If so, how?

Tim: One of our very first users of Perspector was a science teacher; he submitted a great example to us which uses Perspector’s animation capability to illustrate chemical bonding (ethene polymerisation). His example is available to download from our site from here.

Ellen: Any other comments you would like to make?

Tim: Just to say thank you for this opportunity to talk about Perspector, and to urge anyone interested in learning more to check out the examples on http://www.perspector.com – hopefully we may help you with some inspiration for that next tricky presentation!

Tim is providing a special offer to EllenFinkelstein.com subscribers and visitors - 20% off on Perspector Standard Edition (normally $99) and Perspector Professional Edition (which includes 3D charts and slide layouts and is normally $299) for 1 month from Monday, August 27, 2007. To get the discount, enter ellenfinkelstein as the coupon code on the purchase page.