Project Detail

Description

The goal of the project is to enhance Powerpoint:mac by a few features, provided it is possible at all.

I am a professor for computer graphics and would like to write and draw on the slides I'm presenting during class. (I know about Powerpoint's "pen" feature, but read on ...)

The required skills are:
- Development on the Mac under Mac OS X 10.5
- Applescript, Objective-C, and/or Cocoa

Here are a few more details about the requirements:

Software platform: Mac OS X 10.5, Powerpoint 2008 on the mac.
Hardware platform: the "Modbook" (see www.axiotron.com) -- this is equivalent to a Macbook without a keybaord and with a Wacom tablet instead [so during the presentation there is basically no keyboard available].

The plugin or additional software or any other solution I'm looking for should provide the following features:

1. Switch quickly between "writing" and "pointing" mode, and switch quickly between different colors.
(PPT does offer a pen during presentation mode, but switching between pen and arrow is way too clumsy and time-consuming.)

2. Retain what I have written on the slides during presentation. It's not necessary to save everything when I quit PPT. I just want the writing I've written earlier to re-appear when I go back and forth between slides.
(PPT right now erases everything when I switch to the next slide and then back again.)

3. Provide a quick way to insert a new, empty slide after the one that is currently being presented (so that I can scribble on it) without leaving presentation mode.

4. Provide all these features in "view presenters tools" mode, if possible.
I would like to see the writing on both the built-in display and the projector.

The constraint "powerpoint:mac 2008" means that there is no VBA available, but Applescript is.
The Modbook shouldn't be a real constraint, except that there is no keyboard available during presentation.

The enhancement could be done as a powerpoint plugin (which would probably involve Applescript) or as a stand-alone tool (which would probably involve Cocoa), whichever is possible and/or easier.

If you are interested, please contact me so that we can try to roughly estimate the costs of this project.

Questions I might have:
(1) Do you have any experience with programming under Mac OS X 10.5?
(2) Can you give a rough estimate of the costs?
(3) Do you have an idea which solution might work better: plug-in or stand-alone utility?