Not so much a Tablet PC need, but for one those who are tasked with transforming PowerPoint presentations to other formats.

I was givend a HUGE PowerPoint file, and told to use the images inside for a web site. Not wanting to ask for the originals (you can insert your own reason), I needed a fast and or easy way to extract the images without having to open PowerPoint and export them one-by-one.

Oddly, I didn’t find that many Freeware options.A quick Google search turned up these options, maybe this can be of help to someone.

PowerpointImageCopier 1.0 - Free, but when I used it, all it did was take screenshots of my desktop with PowerPoint open. Not what I wanted.

Shyam’s Toolbox - Now THIS did exactly what I wanted! The Toolbox adds a huge amount of functionality to PowerPoint other that just exporting. It isn’t free though. $49 seems high, but if you were able to get your employer to purchase it, then maybe. The time-limited trial has no crippled functions or watermarks. Worth a look if you use PPT a lot.

PowerPoint 2007’s PPTX option - I don’t have the beta, so I couldn’t use this. But apparently, you can save in the PPTX option, which is actually a ZIP file with all of your PPT’s image files. Neat-o!

That’s the best I could do! If you have a tip on how to extract images in bulk from PowerPoint, let me know.

I try to check BoingBoing every day, but this one I nearly missed: H@cking the Mattel JuiceBox.

The Juicebox accepts media cards (with an MP3 adpater kit) and were at one time very popular with tweens. Now (still) they sit forgotten on the clearance asile at Target and the Wal-Marts for under $5 (check your local store, they aren’t this cheap online yet). One flickr user has hacked hers to be a digital picture frame. Now THAT looks like a fun project! I don’t know how she did it, and she doesn’t give a “How To” - but promises one eventually (thank goodness someone else did). This is what I love about the internet!

Another user has made it into an e-book reader.

I should note, this h@ck is over a year old. Joe has actually made a more recent post on this, with a spiffy new clear case (and a classic frame he did for his Mom). Nice!

This StreetTech article has more information, such as the linux version it uses, and other resources. Make Magazine’s blog has some more details as well.

If I were to Google, I am sure I would find more things you can do with a JuicBox. I’d wager there is a culture out there h@cking the VideoNow player too.

Also worth a look: the Audrey and the h@cking thereof. I love Do-It-yourself articles, though I have yet to attempt following one.

Since I am on the subject of old tech toys - the toy I really want is the PXL-2000.

(yes, this post is little more than a personal bookmark because I don’t have time to delve into this right now)

I am stuck. I really want to purchase ArtRage 2.0 but I can’t because Ambient does not accept Paypal. To be fair, it is their online transaction vendor that doesn’t accept Paypal.

(this post for some reason never got published, and now it isn’t even accurate - ArtRage 2.0 can be purchased with PayPal by visiting this site!)

Also I really would like to get Sketchbook Pro, but the cost for that one is just way too high. Since I am out of luck on both of these, I will keep looking for a product I can afford and has Paypal online. I wish it had been bundled with my Tablet like some have. I have ArtRage 1.x, and it is great, but I really am looking forward to the features in 2.0.

I think I am becoming a Tablet Art Software addict!

I was watching the excellent GottabeMobile.com InkShow on Vista’s PenFlicks. In it, Rob shows how in Vista dragging on the Tablet PC-screen allows you to:
Scroll Up
Scroll Down
Copy
Paste
Delete
(and many more - watch the InkShow)

StrokeIt does much the same thing. Like Flicks, it supports keystrokes and key combinations. So, just like in Flicks if I am In a browser, I can drag left/right to go backward/forward, and drag up or down to scroll the page in that direction. StrokeIt will leave an on-screen trail showing showing your gesture (Flicks uses icons). It comes loaded with lots of “global” strokes that work no matter what program you are in: draw an O to open a file, draw N for a new document - but you can bypass those (or turn them off alltogether).

What I like about StrokeIt is that it has the ability to know what program you are using (if you set it up using the Program Identifier) and can store custom strokes just to be used in that program. There is a lot of value to being able to change the strokes depending on the program you are in. For example, in my web browser dragging left will take me backwards. But in Photoshop, I can assign that same stroke to mean “Apply Filter.”

A nice touch is that you can tell StrokeIt to ignore strokes in a specific program. For example, you would not want StrokeIt to activate when writing in OneNote. I’d say there is a steeper learning curve, but with that comes greater flexibility and control.

I don’t think PenFlicks has the level conditional functionality found in StrokeIt. But I would think it wouldn’t be long before that function is added.

I like PenFlicks, I think it has a much slicker interface and the on-screen icons are a nice touch. But for those of us without a clear path to Vista (me!), StrokeIt is a very nice, powerful, and free, alternative.

Download StrokeIt here.

If I get the guts up, I will post a video show about this cool program.

I am in the process of migrating myself back to Outlook after having used (ugh) Lotus Notes for the past year. I wanted to use what everyone else used and opted for Notes. I couldn’t stand it! I lasted as long as I could, but I have always used Outlook, and now I am returning home.

So, since I’ve been away, there are several neat tools that MS has made available. Here are a few, and if you know of more/better, please leave a note.

Outlook 2003 Automated PST Backup Add-in - Not the official name, but my description of it. Here is Microsoft’s:
The Personal Folders Backup download creates backup copies of your .PST files at regular intervals, in Outlook 2000 and later versions, making it easy to keep all of your Outlook folders safely backed up.
Instructions for use can be found here.

FolderShare - Once a commercial product, but now free thanks to a Microsoft purchase. With it you can share a folder, securely, between several PCs, sync files, and even share folders with friends. This isn’t a new program, it had been discussed on many Tablet PC site (and tech sites). But I somehow overlooked FolderShare and have just now installed it. I am hoping it will be a good way to keep my Outlook PST file sync’d between my PC and Tablet.

SyncToy - Not as powerful as FolderShare, but a very slick tool to sync files between 2 computers. I believe the PCs have to be connected or networked in some way, it isn’t an online solution. It is from the MS Digital Photography site, but has much wider uses. I bet you could use in in conjunction with FolderShare to get some interesting results.Developers listened to user feedback and updated SyncToy to 1.2 on 3/28/2006 and are taking feedback on their forum.

Like any of us need yet ANOTHER blog (I have 3, no 4?), I just came into had a few invitations for the new SixApart Community/Social Blog thing called VOX.

If you are an active blogger and feel like you want to be part of a community of like-minded folks, let me know. I will pass out the invites to the first that ask.

All gone for now. If I get more, I will post it.

I have a need to Ink onscreen while showing web sites, and I am having trouble finding a good program for this.

I have looked at M2 ScreenInk, and it just doesn’t work properly on my Tablet. With no updates since 2003, it could be due to changes in the Tablet OS. I like the price (free), but it just doesn’t do the job.

OK, I searched Tablet PC Buzz and Google and found these:

AnnotatePro - $19.95
Screen Annotator - Free
(Nauman has some great stuff in his blog, be sure to read it too)
WinPointer 2 from PCmag - $7.97 (when did PCmag tools stop being free?)
Deskmarker by Delight Software (german text)- free
VB Doodle - free
Focus Express - no longer available

I’ll give these a try and report.

So I noticed the keen-sounding Tablet Button Profile Manager on a few Tablet PC blogs, and wanted to try it. Problem is, when I try to launch it, I get the warning message that I must install .Net version 2.0.50727.

I take a look, and sure enough, my Tablet has the .Net 2 Beta (2.0.5215.322). But also version 1.1, plus a 1.0 Hotfix and a 1.1 Hotfix. OK, this doesn’t look good.

So hey, how about using Windows Update to update .Net? Nope, Windows update refuses to let me update the .Net framework to 2.0. Beta 2. Update failed.

I figure I should remove the 2.0 Beta and then I can install the 2.0 Final. Sure, so when trying to remove it, I see “uninstalling might cause other programs to stop working correctly….are you sure?” Well, yeah.

Another pop-up: the uninstall cannot continue because it might affect other applications that are installed. For more information see http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q312/5/00.asp. Except it isn’t a link, it is text in a VB dialog box. Meaning I have to type this in a browser.

According to the KB article, it turns out there is something called WinFX Runtime Components 3.0 Beta 2 installed on my system.

This problem occurs because the .NET Framework is part of the WinFX technology. WinFX will not function correctly if you remove the .NET Framework 2.0.

Ohh-kay, let’s remove WinFX (now renamed as .Net 3.0).

Great, that worked. Now on to the .Net 2 Beta removal.

Easy! Now, back to Windows Update for the .Net 2.0 final release.

Hmm, it seems to be stuck in the download phase. I cancelled the update and Update tells me it completed the process. Very strange.

I rebooted just to be sure, and re-ran Windows Update and .Net no is longer listed as needing to be updated. Using the DotNet VersionCheck utility I see I now have 2.0.RTM version 2.0.50727.42. That seems lower that the “Beta” I had before. Still, I consider this progress since there is no “beta” anymore.

Now, to re-run TBPM …. and …. it worked!

Seriously, this should not have taken so much effort to update dot Net. I have to admit, I don’t remember installing the .Net 2 beta or WinFX beta. I probably did just to run some piece of software. So I can’t totally blame Microsoft. I am sure the ELAs said something about using the betas at my own risk and causing compatibility issues.

Still, I should just be happy my system didn’t crash during this.

Yeah, I’m good with that thought.

The AP is reporting that Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library will team up and make a third of a million e-Books available for a month, starting July 4, 2006.

Get your download managers ready folks. I can’t imagine that anyone would need that many texts, but why not?

Read more: Post-Gazette.com.

Google, who recently purchased 3-D moldeling software maker @LastSoftware, has released a free version of SketchUp.

I am not so sure there is any great benefit by using it on a Tablet PC though. When I hear “Sketch” I visualize a sketchpad of some sort, not a 3-D modeling program. Maybe it has both.

That said, free is free. And 3D is mighty nifty, so I am giving it a try this weekend. Users are sharing their works on the 3D Warehouse, maybe I will have one there soon.

Download it: Google SketchUp

via Google’s Blog via Digg