Presentation electronic "slide show" options such as SPC's Harvard Graphics, Gold Disk's Astound, Asymetrix's Compel, Microsoft's PowerPoint, Macromedia's Action, Micrografx's Charisma, Just-Ask-Me, On-The-Air, Lotus Corporation's Freelance, Word Perfect's Presentations, Special Delivery, Q/Media, Zuma Group's Curtain Call, and others are mentioned in Chapter 3 and listed in greater detail in Appendix 6. These, in conjunction with spreadsheet software (Lotus, Excel, Quatro Pro, etc.), are the most widely employed aids currently used by accounting professors according to survey results reported in Chapter 4. An extensive list of presentation software vendors and product attributes is provided in Appendix 6.
Green and Green (1994) discuss how presentation software is becoming closer to authoring software.
Jerome and Lee (1995) rate and compare presentation software alternatives with particular focus on multimedia features. Hardware options are reviewed in the NewMedia Tool Guide for 1995 ( pp. 105-112). For a review of presentation software options also see NewMedia Tool Guide for 1995 ( pp. 11-16),
McCraken (1994) and
Green and Green (1994). (The addresses and phone numbers of NewMedia, Multimedia World, and other periodicals are contained in Appendix 4.) The top rated options according to PC Computing, December 1994, p. 178 are PowerPoint from Microsoft Corporation (800-426-9400), Harvard Spotlight (Rank 2) from Software Publishing (800-336-8360), and Freelance Graphics (Rank 3) from Lotus Development (800-343-5414). Paintshow and photoshow options such as Micrografx PhotoMagic, MacPaint, Corel Draw, Publisher's Paintbrush, and Adobe Photoshop may be used for pictures but are cumbersome for group presentations but are often used for images imported into presentation, hypermedia, and CMS courseware.
Robinson and Lee (1994) discuss the fine line between "authoring" and "presentation" software. Many presentation software vendors such as Gold Disk (Astound) are adding audio, video, and button navigation utilities. They also discuss options for crossing platforms between operating systems such as between Windows and Mac operating systems. (See also
Projection and
Authoring)
