Want to turn your Microsoft PowerPoint® 2000 presentation into a video presentation? Need to deliver your presentation on a television screen instead of a computer screen? Although PowerPoint does not have a built-in feature to record your presentation to videotape, there are a number of third-party products you can use to videotape your presentation.

Here are some things to think about as you look into the best method to use to videotape your presentation:

• First you need to prepare your presentation for the TV screen. This article directs you to a list of tips to help you achieve the best results.
• If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive method of videotaping your presentation, you can use a scan converter to convert the signal your computer produces into one that a television or home videocassette recorder (VCR) can understand.
• If you are looking for a higher quality solution and cost is less important, you can use digital video editing software and hardware to edit the graphic files created from your presentation and record them to videotape.
• For the very highest quality videotape recording of your presentation, you may want to look into using a video production service.
  

  Note   You can order a videotape of your presentation from within PowerPoint by using the Genigraphics Wizard (Genigraphics submenu, Send To command, File menu).

Whichever method you use, don't expect your presentation to look as good on a television screen as it does on your high-resolution computer monitor. The Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) display of your computer monitor uses a higher scan rate, which means that the lines on the display are updated almost twice as fast as your TV can display them. The resolution of NTSC (National Television Standard Committee), the US television video standard, is much lower than that of a high-resolution computer monitor. NTSC also limits the range of RGB color that can be displayed on a television screen.

More information

Converting PowerPoint to video isn't really that scary, Jim Endicott. Presentations magazine, September 1999.