It's 2012 already! Where has the time gone?

This is a letter to all my loyal InZones customers. I've risen and am back with the living, recovering from an overwhelming life. InZones is a one-woman operation, created and maintained by me so when life overtakes, the website suffers. My apologies to anyone that ordered a custom template and didn't receive it on time. Things are much better now and 2012 is going to be a great year.

The last few years have been tough ... beginning with a Lupus attack to my brain (which impaired my thinking) followed by the release of PowerPoint 2007 (which took me a long time to get a handle on ... 2010 is next) then a switch from a PC to a Mac. On top of that trying to juggle too many things like too much volunteer work and ongoing clients. Not to mention lots of travel to NY visiting sick and dying parents. This is a new year and for me a new life.

My resolutions for 2012:
1. Stay healthy
2. Focus and concentrate on clients and templates
3. Create at least 5 new PowerPoint templates a month
4. Fulfill all custom PowerPoint template requests

You will see more photos this year, but I am discontinuing new web and MS Word templates until i can come up to speed on the technology. Watch for an announcement later this year about Word templates. I'm also discontinuing any custom graphic design work through InZones. That work will be handled by Robinson-Cox Studio from now on.

I don't know if anyone even reads this blog, but if you do and want to email me, send your email to jcox@inzones.com. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Judy

My Favorite PowerPoint Links

Here are some of my favorite PowerPoint Links published in the last few months.

Avoiding Death by PowerPoint

PowerPoint is my Slave

How Not to use PowerPoint

How to insert U-Tube Videos into PowerPoint

This is just a great page, it doesn't have anything to do with PowerPoint

Why it is good for you to be a vegetarian

PowerPoint 2007 hints

The first few times I fired up PowerPoint 2007, my main reaction was confusion and frustration. It took about three times longer to do the same thing in 2007 that I could easily do in 2003. The menus had all changed and it seemed that there were certain things that were downright impossible.

What happened to the 2003 .pot templates? What's this Ribbon thing at the top of the page? Why is it so hard just to change the basic font or colors on my template (now called Theme)? These and dozens more questions have bogged down my workflow. That is, until I found Microsoft'2 2003 to 2007 Command Reference Guide!

This interactive Tutorial displays the familiar 2003 interface and menus. When you click on the 2003 menu to perform a common task, such as Insert New Slide, the 2007 interface appears and the command sequence blinks to show you the way. In this case, you click on Home and then click the icon for New Slide. Since almost every command has moved or changed in some way, this tutorial is a life saver.

I'm just beginning to catch up since my 2 week vacation to Seattle. I just uploaded 4 new PowerPoint templates in two versions (2003 and 2007), a new web template, and over 40 new photos all taken with my Canon 40D in Seattle and Portland.

Next month you should see a signifant increase in templates and the 2007 versions will take advantage of many of the new features possible with the upgrade, such as different background for the eleven standard layouts and customized handouts.

As you peruse the inzones.com site, be sure to send feedback to help@inzones.com if you have any problems or have suggestions for improvement.

Judy Cox

July 8, 2008: Better late than never

Two recent events inspired me to finally start a Blog on InZones. One was a 10-day working vacation to the Pacific Northwest and the other was a recent upgrade to Office 2007. Both of these events have caused a serious gap in my custom templates. The good news is that my trip to the Northwest has provided dozens of new photos that I will be uploading soon to the Picture Zone. Many InZones members are now using Office 2007, so as much as I loved 2003, decided that I had to upgrade. Little did I know how dramatic a change this would be to the way I make templates.

For the next year or so, I will be uploading 2 versions of each template: one for Office 2003 and the other for 2007. This is so people who don't want to upgrade can still use all of the templates and so those who have upgraded will be able to take advantage of many of the new features. Future blog entries will focus on some of the new features of 2007 and how to do what you used to do in 2003 in the new format.