Adobe Presenter: Narrating Presentations

This is the first tutorial in the Adobe Presenter series. It is recommended that users view this tutorial first before working with other Presenter documents.

About Adobe Presenter

Adobe Presenter is an optional plug-in for Windows that provides an easy means of adding narration to PowerPoint presentations. Narrated PowerPoint files created with Presenter can be formatted to be smaller in size than presentations created using the MicroSoft narration tools. Presenter .zip files can be easily uploaded to ANGEL. The Presenter plugin works only with MicroSoft PowerPoint for Windows. A Macintosh version is NOT available.

Adobe Presenter also provides an easy way to embed Flash objects, such as Flash video, animations, and Captivate as well as various video file formats. Adobe Presenter is compatible with ANGEL’s (V.7.1) version of SCORM-compliant quizzing (V.1.2) (see the post at http://meeting.psu.edu/node/540 for more information).

How to Obtain the Adobe Presenter Plug-In

Please Note: Adobe Presenter V7 and later only works with Microsoft Office 2007 or later. If you have an earlier version of Office (i.e. 2003) you will need to use Adobe Presenter version 6.2. Both Versions are compatible with Adobe Connect V 7.0 or later.

The Presenter plug-in is sold through the Penn State Computer Store: http://computerstore.psu.edu. Search on the key words “Adobe Presenter.” Orders are through departments only. The Adobe Presenter Plug-In to PowerPoint is only available for the Windows platform, not Mac. For additional information on the system requirements for authoring with Presenter, see http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/productinfo/systemreqs/.

New with V.9 of Adobe Acrobat, Adobe is including the Presenter V.7 Windows PowerPoint plugin as a separate installation. The plugin is available when you purchase the "Extended" version of Adobe Acrobat Pro V.9. Purchase of Adobe Acrobat is NOT limited to just departments -- anyone with an active Penn State Access Account is able to purchase it at the special Penn State rate.

Here's what you need to know when ordering Adobe Acrobat 9 Extended from the Penn State Computer Store:
SLWNSR047 Acrobat 9 Pro Extended Win License..........$81.00 (includes the V.7 Presenter plugin)

The Penn State price for Acrobat 9 is about the same as for the plugin by itself, so it's probably a better buy to purchase Acrobat 9 Pro Extended since you get a lot more for the money than when you purchase just the plugin.

You may also be interested in this one-page description of Adobe Connect and Adobe Presenter to attach to your departmental purchase order as justification for your purchase: AdobeConnectProDescription.pdf

Learning How to Use Presenter

Tim Plumer, the Sr. Solutions Engineer for Adobe Connect and Presenter, recently held a couple of sessions for us on how to use Presenter. You can watch the recording at:
Session 1: http://se.adobe.acrobat.com/p39213717
Session 2: http://se.adobe.acrobat.com/p24241827

Here are some recordings I found on YouTube that you might also find helpful: YouTube Presenter V.7 Overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kqcfq7s2Js&feature=related

YouTube Presenter V.6.2 Overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXBKFrfsAyk&feature=related

Documentation for several versions of Presenter is attached to this page and can be downloaded from the links at the bottom of the page.

Directions for uploading Presenter files into the Penn State ANGEL CMS are located in the Penn State ANGEL knowledgebase (http://angelkb.ais.psu.edu/). Search on the keywords "Adobe Presenter." We have included step-by-step descriptions (with pictures!) for publishing your presentation as a .zip file in both V.6.2 and V.7 and then uploading the .zip file into ANGEL.

If you have included a quiz in your Presenter presentation and are uploading the presentation to ANGEL, you can use SCORM to collect scores from the quiz in the ANGEL gradebook. For more information see the post at http://meeting.psu.edu/node/540.

Where to go for help

Have a question or need a little one-on-one help? The following people have agreed to be available to answer questions from Penn State faculty and staff about using Adobe Presenter:

Qi Dunsworth .....................Behrend
Matthew Bodek ..................Delaware
Julie Meyer ........................Great Valley
Mary Lynn Brannon ...........Worthington/Scranton
Carol McQuiggan ................Harrisburg
Suzanne Shaffer ................York
Deborah Sillman .................New Kensington
Mary Ann Mengel ........................Berks
Robin Gill ............................DuBois
Jackie Ritzko .......................Hazleton
Linda Evans ........................Dickinson
Cheryl Tkacs .......................Fayette

At University Park:
Amy Garbrick .....................IST/UP
Mike Hofherr ......................Smeal/UP
Glenn Johnson ...................EMS/UP
Ann Taylor ...........................EMS/UP
Suzanne Bienert .................Ag/UP
Tom Iwinski .......................Engineering/UP
David McNaughton..............Education/UP

Adobe Presenter is supported by the Penn State Digital Commons at University Park (http://digitalcommons.psu.edu/).

Related Files:
breezepresenter.pdf
Adobepresenter62.pdf
Adobepresenter7.doc