ProfCast records your voice as you move through your presentation and syncs your voice to each slide. It does all the hard work, you just have to give your presentation sitting at your computer. There are a couple of things to note about ProfCast.
Enhanced podcasts use only still images. So all those fancy transitions and fly-ins and things will not appear. ProfCast will simply ignore them and use an image of your slide in its final state after eveything has flown in and appeared.While this may seem like a limitation, it is actually a blessing for two reasons. First, the still images are nice and small and help keep the file size of your podcasts down. Second, since ProfCast simply ignores the motion and transitions, you don't need to maintain a different presentation for recording versus a live setting. Make one presentation and use it for both live and podcasting situations.
On important instructional feature that is used in both PowerPoint and KeyNote is the built list. This is when one bullet point appears, then you can click the mouse button or arrow key and the next bullet point appears. From an instructional standpoint, this is a great tool. It allows you to keep your audience from "reading ahead." ProfCast can make this happen, but there are a couple of strings. I'll explain them below based on the platform you might use.
Windows Users:
If you are using Windows, you will be using PowerPoint and ProfCast will automatically make a built list appear as it does when you are presenting.
Mac Users:
If you are using KeyNote, ProfCast will make your built lists appear just like they do when presenting. However, if you are using PowerPoint on a Mac, ProfCast will not be able to do this automatically. There is some issue that cannot be resolved between PowerPoint (or Microsoft) and ProfCast for Mac. Fear not, there is a way to make this work, it just takes a little planning at the beginning.
If you are using PowerPoint on a Mac and want to use built lists in your ProfCast, here is the way to make it work. For the purposes of this posting, let's assume we have 3 bullet points we want to list on a slide. The trick is, we use three slides. Slide 1 has the first bullet point. Duplicate slide 1 to make slide 2. On Slide 2, add the second bullet point. Now duplicate slide 2 and create slide 3. Then add the third bullet point to slide 3. This way slide 1 has the first bullet, slide 2 has the first and second bullets, and slide 3 has all three bullets. When you give the presentation, your audience will not know the difference. ProfCast won't know the difference either, and it will appear that you have a 3 bullet point list that builds on one slide.
ProfCast is available for both Mac and Windows and costs as little as $15 with the educational discount. Even the retail price is as low as $30-$60 (currently ProfCast is running a special pricing offer for $30). Pair ProfCast with a high quality microphone like the Blue mics discussed in the previous posting, and you have a great tool for creating enhanced podcasts of lectures and presentations.
