Zoomable, Non-Linear PowerPoint Presentations with pptPlex

OK, so many people have asked me how I do my presentations and could they have a link that I've decided to put the links and a short explanation on my blog. My presentations are all done in PowerPoint 2007, but I use a Microsoft Office Labs plug-in called pptPlex. From their website come the following quotes:

"pptPlex uses Plex technology to give you the power to zoom in and out of slide sections and move directly between slides that are not sequential in your presentation."

"...pptPlex can help you organize and present information in a non-linear fashion."

If you don't know what any of this means, then you should ask me to do a presentation :-) or have a look at their videos. It's very simple to install and use. However, remember that you need it to be installed on your presentation machine in order to give the Plex version of the presentation, otherwise it will just show as a normal PowerPoint presentation.

If the pptPlex Ribbon Tab doesn't display in PowerPoint...

There are several reports of the plug-in becoming disabled on some systems and the ribbon tab not displaying. There are solutions on the forums for this, but most of them have an error in the selection of which plug-ins to manage, so I'll quickly give an explanation here. If you have any other problems, don't ask me, use their forums.

1. Click the (round) Office button and then click on PowerPoint Options
2. Select Add-Ins from the left
3. If pptPlex from Microsoft Office Labs appears in the disabled list then carry on, otherwise you have a different problem
4. Right at the bottom, select Disabled Items from the Manage drop down list box and click Go...
5. Select the add-in from the list and click Enable, then click OK in the PowerPoint Options dialog (you may need to shut PowerPoint down and start again).

IPICS Risk Assessment Slides

These are my slides on Information Security Risk Assessment, presented at the Intensive Programme on Information and Communication Security (IPICS). The topics covered are: the System-Holistic Approach to ICT Security; Risk Assessment approaches, strategies & terminology; Three Card RAG / Obstacle Poker; OCTAVE^® - Operationally Critical Threat, Asset and Vulnerability Evaluation.

A PDF of the slides can be downloaded from here. (updated)

I will publish more information on the topics covered in due course (and if anyone asks). However, more information on Three Card RAG / Obstacle Poker can be found in a previous blog post.