Presentation Assistant Pro: The Indezine Review

Introduction
Using Presentation Assistant Pro
Pricing and Support
Conclusion

Introduction

Presentation Assistant Pro is the professional edition of Presentation Assistant -- both are on-screen presentation tools that work like an assistant when you are delivering a presentation, or doing a training session. In this review, we are looking at the Pro version of Presentation Assistant.

Presentation Assistant Pro provides various tools that equip you to make your audience attentive -- some of these tools such as zoom can enlarge portions of the screen. Other tools such as spotlight, curtain, screen digital clock, arrow point, magnification, screen capture etc. offer significant assistance in explaining processes or steps to an audience.

Presentation Assistant Pro is from GoldGingko Inc, a Guangzhou, China based company. You can learn more about Presentation Assistant Pro, and download a demo version from their site.

My contact at GoldGingko Inc for this review was Garvey Liu - thank you, Garvey.

Using Presentation Assistant Pro

Download the installer from the link given above, run the setup routine, and follow the instructions -- although you can also read this review without replicating any steps on your computer. We have used Presentation Assistant Pro to add more tools to our PowerPoint presentation -- but you can use this product with any other program:

1. Launch PowerPoint, and open any presentation (or, any other program as you require). Now, go to your Windows Start menu and choose All Programs | Presentation Assistant Pro | Presentation Assistant Pro.
2. This launches the Presentation Assistant Pro, as shown in Figure 1. Note that the Presentation Assistant Pro interface windows floats atop the PowerPoint interface.
3. 
   Figure 1: Presentation Assistant Pro interface
4. Presentation Assistant Pro's interface is explained below, as marked in Figure 1:

5. A. Main Control Pane

6. Here you'll find options to set the timer, screen zoom, annotation tool, pointer effect, electronic whiteboard, etc. You can also customize task shortcuts, play music, and switch monitors.

7. B. Desktop Drawing Toolbar

8. Many drawing and writing tools can be found here -- some additional tools such as spotlight, mouse tracking magnification, full-screen zoom, on-screen keyboard, clock, screen capture, etc. can also be accessed from the Desktop Drawing Toolbar.

9. C. Shapes Gallery

10. Here you find various simple shapes, computer symbols, etc.
3. Since Presentation Assistant Pro is a very vast application with lots of tools and options, we'll limit this review to explore Pointer Effect options as they make it easy for your audience to follow your actions while doing a demo, or even presenting a PowerPoint presentation. Within the Main Control Pane, choose the Pointer Effect option (highlighted in red in Figure 2).
4. 
   Figure 2: Pointer Effect option selected within the Main Control Pane
4. Now, click the Activate Mouse Clicks (F9) button (highlighted in blue in Figure 2 above) to enable the mouse clicks. Just click anywhere on your screen -- you'll see some animated outlined circles emanating from the point where you clicked (see Figure 3). This gives your audience a visual indication of where you clicked. By default, left-clicking gets you red outlined circles and right-clicking results in similar, green circles -- you can customize the color, size, and duration of these animated circles, as required.
5. 
   Figure 3: Selecting Activate Mouse Clicks (F9) button causes the Pointer effect to appear, when clicked
5. Similarly, if you click the Activate Keystrokes (F10) button (highlighted in green in Figure 2 above), all keyboard keys you press will be displayed on a transparent overlay, as shown in Figure 4.
6. 
   Figure 4: A keystroke being displayed on the screen
6. You can deactivate these options by clicking the DeActivate Mouse Clicks (F9) and DeActivate Keystrokes (F10) buttons, highlighted in blue and green respectively in Figure 5.
7. 
   Figure 5: Deactivate Mouse Clicks and Keystrokes
7. Click the Change Settings button (highlighted in red in Figure 5 above) to bring up a dialog box where you can tweak the parameters of all the pointer effects.
8. To suspend this Presentation Assistant Pro click the Main button within the Main Control Pane (highlighted in red in Figure 6 below), and within the resultant menu, click the Exit option.
9. 
   Figure 6: Select Exit option to suspend Presentation Assistant Pro

Pricing and Support

Presentation Assistant Pro costs $39.95. Multiple licenses are available.

Support is through e-mail and online FAQ.

Conclusion

For $39.95, Presentation Assistant Pro packs quite a punch -- it adds a vast repertoire of options that can greatly assist in presenting and demoing.