Freepath 3.0!

We are excited to announce the release of Freepath 3.0! We will be launching Freepath 3.0 on October 13, 2010. After this date, the next time you launch Freepath with an internet connection, you will see a message in the upper right hand corner informing you that the update is ready to install. Once you see this message, exit Freepath and launch it again, the update will be automatically installed.


Freepath 3.0 includes the following improvements and new features:

• Speaker Notes: add notes to your cues
• Video check: improved video playback in dual screen mode
• Wait cursor: a wait cursor now appears when loading media in a cue
• New Look: an updated user interface

Speaker Notes: A new feature to help you keep your message on track! To open speaker notes, select “speaker notes” from the SHOW dropdown menu when in the prep screen.

Do you have notes in your PowerPoint decks? To import speaker notes that were added in PowerPoint, open the PowerPoint deck and double click a slide in the slide chooser. Select the arrow button on the speaker notes toolbar to load the notes for that slide deck. Each time you launch slides in this slide deck going forward, the notes will appear in the speaker notes area at the bottom of the cue grid.

To add speaker notes to all other media and files, double click a cue. Next, select the pencil icon on the speaker notes toolbar above the speaker notes area at the bottom of the cue grid. Enter your speaker notes, then select the “save” icon once you are done. You can go back at any time to add or delete by simply selecting the pencil icon. Just remember to select the “save” button once you are done!

To increase or decrease the font size of your text move the slider located in the upper right hand corner of the pane to the left or right. To “tear off” or unanchor the notes box from the bottom of the cue grid click on the button in the upper left hand corner of the pane. The speaker notes now are floating and can be moved. To anchor it back, select the button in the upper left hand corner of the pane once again.

Video check: Experiencing “jerky” video when in dual screen mode? Freepath now has new mechanisms that detect possible video playback issues and automatically suppresses the “preview” screen when in dual screen mode for improved video performance on your second display.

Wait cursor: A wait cursor now appears when launching your media in a cue to let you know that the file is loading. For a smoother presentation, wait for your media to load prior to moving on to your next cue.

New Look: Freepath 3.0 has a new and exciting user interface. We hope you like the new look!

We have also made a change to a couple of existing features.

One Click to Unlock:

We have changed the default setting for one click to unlock when in full or dual screen mode. When you launch Freepath, this feature is now turned off. To unlock the screen, move your mouse cursor down to the bottom of the screen when in full or dual screen mode to make the toolbar appear at the bottom of your screen. On the toolbar, click the lock to unlock a document or website. When you are done interacting with your “live” document or web page, click the lock on the toolbar to proceed with your presentation. We hope changing this feature will be more obvious to users when they have unlocked the screen.
To turn the “one click to unlock” feature on, select the “Show” dropdown menu in the Freepath prep screen and check “Click to unlock”. This will also make the Freepath logo in the lower right hand corner disappear when in full or dual screen mode.

Blank the Screen:

We have had a number of requests to change the screen from a gray gradient to a solid black when the “Blank the screen” button is selected. This change has been made in the current release.

Prefer the gray gradient? Right click the image below and save it to your computer. When in the Freepath prep screen, select the down arrow for the "blank the screen" feature and choose "Select Image". Drill down to where you saved the gray gradient and select it or choose another image...the choice is yours!

Coming soon!

Freepath Viewer:

Lastly, we are excited to inform you that we will be releasing a Freepath viewer in the next couple of months. Do you have playlist that you would like to show to a person who does not have Freepath installed? They will be able to download the Freepath Viewer for free to view your playlist. The viewer is unable to create, edit or view more than one playlist at a time.

Freepath Live

Would you like to see a more in depth overview of any of the new features? Join Freepath Live, a "FREE" webinar that is scheduled weekly at 9:00AM Pacific time. At the designated time, click the link on the Freepath Live page and join us

Tutorial Videos and Webinars

Just getting started with Freepath? Want to see a feature overview? We have posted 8 tutorial videos to help you get the most out of Freepath. Check them out!

Would you or your team like to see an online demo? Have questions about features? If so, let us know! We can schedule a webinar with you and your team to go over Freepath features, answer questions or give you ideas for a presentation! Please send requests to info@freepath.com

We also have a weekly webinar every Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time called Freepath Live. Would you like to learn how to get even more out of Freepath? Join us with your questions. Visit the Freepath Live page Wednesdays at 9am Pacific Time and follow the link to join the webinar. The link to the webinar will appear 10 minutes prior to start time.

Freepath on Windows 7

We have completed Freepath testing on Windows 7 and it went well. We did encounter an issue displaying MPEG-2 files in Freepath. This issue is being investigated and a fix will be available in the future.

If you encounter issues with Freepath after either installing or upgrading to Windows 7, it is a good idea to make sure your drivers are updated. The Microsoft site has a Windows 7 Help and How-to page to help you diagnose issues you may have encountered after installing or upgrading to Windows 7. Visit the Microsoft Update drivers page for recommended driver updates for Windows 7.

Freepath is recognized as a New California 100 Business Innovator by Golden Capital Network & Hamilton Lane

New California 100 businesses are some of the most innovative companies in the state representing California’s commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce competitiveness. They are market leading technology companies who have been selected based on the uniqueness of their innovation, competitive advantages, and job and economic impact on California’s economy now and into the future. Freepath is honored to be recognized as a New California 100 Business Innovator.

We are excited to announce Multi-user packs!

Seems that many Freepath users work in the same company or live in the same house...so, it makes sense to have a single account option that offers access across multiple users and machines. We are excited to announce the availability of multi-user packs. Our multi-user packs are now available as an annual license and include volume discounts. To learn more about our exciting new product offerings, please follow this link to sign in or create a free account.

Learn even more!

Want to hear about what people are saying about Freepath? Want to check out some feature overviews? Great! Check us out on YouTube.

Freepath makes Frost and Sullivan's 2009 Hot Company watch list...

Its been a busy summer at the Freepath offices! We made a prestigious watch list, made it easier for multiple users to access Freepath, created a public playlist to help you get up to speed and kicked off a weekly webinar that you can attend to learn how to get the most out of Freepath. Stay tuned to learn more!

Best in show!

We are proud to announce that Freepath was added by Frost and Sullivan to its Hot Company watch list in the 2009 report of the World Presentation Assembly and Management Platforms Market. Frost and Sullivan showcases Freepath 2.0 as a match with its key features of a winning presentation solution.

If you are a Freepath user, you are most likely well aware of some of the key features that Frost and Sullivan highlight in their report. The ability to play assets in their native format is very powerful. Why reinvent the wheel? You have the content in its various forms—PowerPoint slides, web sites, PDFs, word documents—drag, drop, present!

Another strength of Freepath is the flexibility it gives to the presenter. It allows you to access content nonlinearly. During your presentation, you may want to revisit a slide or a piece of your content. Freepath’s user interface makes it simple to access what you want when you want it.

Another key feature is the ability to edit in real-time while in presentation mode. Perhaps you are displaying a spreadsheet or a document—use the “One click to Unlock” feature to interact live with your content. Simply click once anywhere on the Audience screen to unlock. Edit a document, traverse a website, pick the content and do what you will from within the audience screen.

Learn more!

To learn more about some of Freepath’s powerful features, visit http://freebits.weebly.com to view a series of overviews in the form of screencasts. Also, check out the "Getting Started" playlist on myFreepath. This playlist includes a series of screencasts to help you get up to speed with Freepath. Going forward, all new Freepath downloads will include this playlist. We have posted it on myFreepath so that existing users will be able to benefit from these short tips and tricks.

FREEPATH RELEASES PLAYLIST APPLICATION FOR RICH MEDIA PRESENTATIONS AND COLLABORATION

Freepath 2.0 Now Available for the Public

Folsom, CA, March 24, 2009 – Freepath, Inc. (www.freepath.com), providers of technology to enable live digital content sharing, launched the commercial release of Freepath 2.0 and its companion myFreepath content sharing community. Last August, the Freepath 2.0 beta version attracted thousands of users ranging from speakers to sales professionals to teachers.

Freepath enhances how people deliver live presentations using their digital assets. A variety of files and websites can be easily organized into a ‘playlist’ for non-linear access on demand. Freepath lets users show anything from the web seamlessly with their favorite content on their PC resulting in dynamic presentations of PowerPoint slides, videos, images, music and documents such as PDFs, Word and Excel.

Freepath’s ease-of-use and portability is a significant breakthrough to previous communication boundaries. Freepath integrates a companion community called ‘myFreepath’ where users have online storage to seamlessly share playlists with private groups or public audiences worldwide. In this manner, Freepath acts as a knowledge transfer platform for businesses, government agencies, schools and universities, churches, social networks and beyond.

“We are improving the way everyday users show and share their digital stuff,” said John Stone, Freepath’s CEO. “Freepath makes it easy for people to put their content to use in productive and creative ways. This means people will significantly reduce the time and cost for delivering engaging and effective presentations.”

Freepath 2.0 is being released with several new features for playing diverse types of media:

• PowerPoint Chooser –PowerPoint files open with presenter controls for non-linear access to any slide.
• Video Prep – Freepath makes it simple to only play the portion you want without having to edit the original video file.
• Autoplay – playlists can loop content in a preset order making it ideal for storefront displays, kiosks or before and after a presentation or web meeting.
• Online Collaboration – Freepath is compatible with leading web conferencing tools such as Webex, GoToMeeting, Live Meeting and Intercall.
• Viral Sharing and Exchange – myFreepath is an online network where playlists can be uploaded and downloaded for private and public access.

Availability and System Requirements: Freepath 2.0 is downloadable now at www.freepath.com for all PC users running either Microsoft Windows Vista or Microsoft Windows XP.

Freepath 2.0 has a list price of $249 per license but is currently offering an introductory promotion of $99 plus a free first-year subscription for myFreepath (normally a $79 value).

About Freepath: Founded in 2007, Freepath is a company focused on rich media communication and collaboration for the business, education, and consumer markets. The Freepath team has many years of media, technology and consumer products experience with companies such as Google, Microsoft and HP and is led by a former Apple executive. Freepath is based in Folsom, California and is funded by Velocity Venture Capital and angel investors from Strategis Early Ventures, the Sacramento Angels and the Sierra Angels.

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“Freepath” is the property of Freepath, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Post details: Don't Present Another Slide Until You Read This

Don't Present Another Slide Until You Read This

Sometimes you come across a work that expresses your thoughts so well you wish you had written them yourself. This Chris Brogan post from more than two years ago was just brought to my attention by a determined Google Alert. I read the article and thought it most appropriate to every Freepath user. May this be the inspiration for a 2009 resolution to make your digital storytelling the best ever.

Oh, one more thing… After reading this post, you may be wondering what to do next. If there’s still room on your Christmas budget, buy yourself a present. Nancy Duarte’s new book, “Slide:ology” is the best resource of 2008, in my opinion. (That link takes you to Nancy’s blog - a must RSS or bookmark. Buy the book through the Amazon link there.) Every page is an effort to move slide-jockeys out of their safe (read: “boring") zone of flat thinking.

May 16th, 2006 in Lifehack
My Best Presentation Tricks
Giving presentations can be a complete and utter thrill. Too bad attending them can be a complete and utter bore. If you are on the giving side, I want to offer you up a collection of my best presentation tricks to date. I’ve written on presentation and the storyteller’s promise before at my site. I’ve written what has oddly become my top-rated post of all time, Bring out your inner David Lee Roth. This will draw from these concepts and more.

Stories and Characters

With few exceptions, a presentation is an opportunity for you to tell a story to an audience. You have the conch shell. You are the wielder of the fire stick. And your audience enters into a relationship with you from the moment they choose to sit in your presence. (Here’s a hack- what if you gave a presentation and provided no chairs? What would a standing audience look and feel like?) As such, your audience is expecting a story.

A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. You’ve heard this before, and you understand, but apply it to your presentation. And no, I don’t mean, “Here’s what we’ll talk about, talk-talk, that’s what we talked about.” Stories also have characters. So, start your story at the beginning with a character. If you’re describing a product, start with the user of the product. Or start with the person who moves your product from one business to the other. But put PEOPLE in your story.

At the beginning, your character should have a problem. Maybe she has too many spreadsheets and not enough linking, and people are starting to give her information in ways that her spreadsheets are overflowing their banks. In the middle, your character meets the new product, a database, and now she’s really excited because the database can do EVERYTHING the spreadsheets were lacking. By the end of the story, your character is poised on all the great new ways the database will save her in the future, and she’s looking forward to applying her new skills to a new challenge.

Ads are presentations. Watch TV for a few minutes and see the stories; think about them in terms of a story with a character, a structure, etc. Do you see it?

Touch Their Eyes

Presentations are not opportunities for people to read in a group setting. Your slides, if you choose to use them, should not be textual orgies. Use visual shorthand. Are you talking about budget numbers? How about a big picture of a cash register, with the numbers showing up as the register tape? If you can turn your information into a visual summation, even if you read actual statistics and numbers out over the presentation of the slide, that’s useful.

Remember that a slide deck doesn’t have to equal the handout provided after the presentation. You can send people off with a document containing all the textual support of your presentation. But truly, do you think people want to sit around the room and read complex graphs of numbers, huge text dumps regarding a new product, or anything else that requires an intense amount of leaning in and squinting? (Yes, exceptions to this concept exist in abundance, but please consider whether your presentation is the exception, or more likely, is a target for more imagery and fewer words).

There are all kinds of great sources for interesting graphics and images to add to your slide deck. Heck, even Flickr offers lots of material that’s licensed for use under Creative Commons. (I use them frequently)

A Presentation Doesn’t Equal a PowerPoint Side Deck

I was once in an argument with someone over the fact that I didn’t have slide deck materials to give her. She said I couldn’t present without slides. I said that slides were merely one tool. In the end, she wouldn’t relent, so I sent her a slide deck with 24 slides of all black background with orange title headers. I knew she would be printing (call me spiteful), and yes, when I got there to present, she’d dutifully depleted the earth of several ink catridges to be faithful to her documentation bent.

You can present without a slide deck. It’s scary, because you are the focus of the audience. They are all staring at you, and every point you make, either causes eyeballs to refocus on you, or every time you lose them, it causes eyeballs to drift away and examine the walls, the ceiling, their BlackBerrys. It becomes much more of a “live without a net” feeling to have a presentation without a slide deck to serve as backup.

Which is why it’s really powerful.

If you can pull off this kind of presentation, it’s often very memorable. People will hold on to the words you used to paint stories in their heads. It will keep their visual memory working, which is why great radio programs can often engage more of our senses than you’d expect. Try it once in a while. You might find it truly terrifying, but you might also see a reward.

You are an Entertainer

Presenting, even to your coworkers and colleagues, is an entertainment experience. If not, why are you standing there with a room full of people looking at you? You could just send an email, mail out a brochure. The presumption is that there’s something inherent in your presence that people can’t get from just browsing the brochure. Most people incorrectly assume that they ship a human along with the presentation merely for the Q&A session that follows.

Wrong.

This is your opportunity to breathe life into material that might not stand so well on its own. It’s a chance to give a face and a voice to something that might not be easily humanized. (What if you’re selling waste treatment engineering supplies? I’m doubting people can see the “story” in that easily). It’s a chance to connect with an audience and give them something that they’re never going to receive directly from the product or service or material you’re presenting about. Why present about your last quarter’s numbers? Because either you’re presenting the proud face of a group’s accomplishment, or you’re giving the story and the news behind why you didn’t measure up.

Entertainers are strong on giving their stories life, but they are also strong on reading the room. An entertainer will know whether the people in the audience are being bored by something you’re presenting, and perhaps they’ll mix it up a bit. This requires work. Again, if all you had to do was send an audio voiceover with the slides, you would. Entertainers, er, presenters, are there to make sure the audience is playing along at the same pace, and that everyone is connecting with the material. It goes back to the relationship I mentioned in the storytelling section.

Why Not You?

If you think your presentations can’t benefit from the above, why not? What line of work are you in that humans don’t want to be engaged? What serious business do you conduct that can’t be brought to riveting and rapt attention by giving your information a flair? Do you doubt for a moment that even the most grave information you see on the news isn’t built into a presentation? Even there, the aspect of storytelling and connection to the audience through a human character is the point that brings back great feedback and connection.

Humans want to connect. They are built to want to belong. A great presentation is a fire to gather around and share an experience. Use every opportunity you have to present to tell a story, and I guarantee that you will be sought out to present material of more and more importance. As a presenter, you have the opportunity to give a rockstar performance that gives people something to think about. Why not? Are you saving your performance for some other venue?

–Chris Brogan writes about self-improvement and creativity at [chrisbrogan.com]. He recently launched the Grasshopper Factory.