IDEA: A minute countdown timer in PowerPoint

[traffic_doc]

I conduct a number of training seminars, conferences, webinar's, etc.  What I'm looking for is a PowerPoint file that would count down the time from a preset number to zero. via some sort of PowerPoint loop.

For example, 15 minutes prior to the start of a conference, there would be a big '15 minutes to start' displayed on the screen.  The next minute it would change to 14 minutes, etc. 

If a 'screen-saver' type photo display could be incorporated, that would be great.

[mediaguycouk]

There would be 'whizzier' ways of doing it, but would the easiest be 15 frames set to automatically progress to the next slide after 60 seconds?

[mouser]

there are plenty of such standalone utilities that people use with powerpoint but not powerpoint slides themselves.
you start it up and set it to say "TALK BEGINS in 5 minutes" and it fills up entire screen with large text and counts down.

[cranioscopical]

there are plenty of such standalone utilities that people use with powerpoint but not powerpoint slides themselves.
you start it up and set it to say "TALK BEGINS in 5 minutes" and it fills up entire screen with large text and counts down.

Very dangerous in my experience.
 

• At '5' most of the canapés have gone
• at '4' 90% of the wine has gone
• at '3' all of the beer has gone
• at '2' even the dregs have gone
• at '1' the swine who were supposed to listen to you have left
• at '0'... 0 WTF, might as well go home.

[Codebyte]

I made you an application to take care of this... Let me know what you think and if you need something changed! If I respond 1-2 days late, it is because I am on vacation at the moment Enjoy!

http://www.codebyter...a/Programs/timer.exe

[traffic_doc]

Nice implementation.  Two requests:

1. Add a text box to your input screen to give it a 'title' that is displayed (e.g. Session starts in:)

2. Rather than displaying the 'seconds' can there be a 'filter' so that the app only displays the minutes?  Or, better yet,  add a check box or some parameter such that the user can determine if the seconds should be displayed or not?

Thanks!

[mouser]

I think another thing you will need to do is when the time is up, you dont want it to flash like crazy saying "TIME IS UP!"

You probably want it to change the display to some text like "The presentation is about to begin."
Even better would be to let user set the text to display at end of timer.

More nice things would be:
1) remember the last settings (including text to display during countdown as traffic_doc requested), and text to display at end, and time, etc.
2) be nice if you could configure font size.
3) i think it would be good to have it exit also if the user presses the escape key.  maybe it should exit if user presses ANY key or ANY mouse button.
4) probably better for it to completely exit instead of show its window again after you double click, as you will want to begin your presentation right away not have users see they timer program on screen and watch user go exit it manually before beginning the talk.

[jgpaiva]

maybe it should exit if user presses ANY key

-mouser (July 01, 2008, 08:55 AM)

Not sure if that's safe, not all keyboards have that key    

[mouser]

From wikipedia: The confusion over the Any key dates back at least to the days of the ZX Spectrum where "Press any key to continue" was often used as a way to ensure programs did not continue operation without gaining the user's attention. The computer would then wait for any key to be pressed by the user before continuing execution. A few new users were confused by this reference to the Any key and began wondering where the "any" key was on the keyboard.

[traffic_doc]

mouser -- good ideas -- thanx! 

[Codebyte]

im working on a nice little app stay posted
EDIT: Im on vacation and Internet costs $9 so I'm trying to find some free wifi around here... app is done though

[lanux128]

EDIT: Im on vacation and Internet costs $9 so I'm trying to find some free wifi around here...

-Codebyte (July 02, 2008, 12:48 AM)

is that for one day?

[Codebyte]

nah, im back now and im actually gonna upload this in a day or two... i know its taken awhile but its not a poor planning schedule that caused the delay but rather 4th of july, lol... im actually going to redo the app because i dont like the output... trying to match what mouser and traffic wanted..

[Nod5]

I like these programs - they make conferences just a little bit more efficient. So the more alternative tools the better. That said I think ZoomIt by Windows Sysinternals ( http://technet.micro...ernals/bb897434.aspx ) already works really well and has some good options:

It doesn't support a text header directly, but that can be solved through a custom background image with text.
It can't display a slideshow in the background - that would have been really nice.