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Overview of Presentations: Policies and Guidelines

   The Symposium will provide appropriate equipment for computer/LCD projection in every lecture room. All digital presentation files must be electronically submitted in advance. This page provides information about the computers available, recommendations and guidelines for preparing digital presentations, and links to the file submission website.

Reasons For the Current Policy [top]

   Because Symposium presentations are short and the number of presenters is large, allowing each presenter to use their own computer would make transitions between speakers too slow and cumbersome. We have therefore chosen to provide a single computer in each presentation room. All presenters must submit their presentations to the Symposium in advance, and the presentation file(s) will then be transferred to the appropriate computer by the Symposium staff. We hope that this greatly speeds the transitions between talks without substantially limiting the technology options available to presenters.

   Any questions or comments regarding this policy, as well as specific questions about using this web site, can be emailed to the Symposium staff.

Computer Hardware and Software Available [top]

   The computers available for each session will be running Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, and a recent version of Adobe Reader. Each computer is attached to a digital projector and run at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768.

   In order to support multimedia files the following programs are available on each computer: Adobe Acrobat Reader, Windows Media Player, Apple QuickTime Player, Real Audio Player, Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Shockwave Player. We will offer the most current free versions of these programs, but we reserve the right to downgrade to a more reliable version, if necessary. We encourage you to preview your talk during the week of the conference on the computers located in McPherson Lab Room #0008. These computers will have the same programs as the ones used in the presentation rooms.

   Each computer has a standard set of fonts. Options for using fonts other than those in the standard set are described in the Guidelines and Recommendations below.

Guidelines and Recommendations for Preparing Presentations [top]

   To encourage the development of high quality presentations that will be compatible with the provided computers, we have developed the following recommendations for preparing a PowerPoint presentation. Please read and follow the instructions carefully before submitting your presentation.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
  • Office 2010 and a recent version of Adobe Reader will be on the presentation computers this year.
  • If your PowerPoint presentation contains special fonts, we recommend embedding the fonts in the presentation, or saving the presentation as a PDF and uploading that format.
  • Remember that pasting a Sigmaplot or Origin graph into your PowerPoint presentation keeps the data that created it accessible to everyone who can access the presentation. To prevent this, save your graph file as a picture and import it into your presentation as you would a picture.
  • If your presentation includes media files, please upload your original files after uploading your powerpoint file.
  • PowerPoint, PDF, and media file names MUST NOT contain any characters other than ISO Latin-1 characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, hyphens, and underscores. Please note that spaces in file names are not allowed. File names and their suffixes/extensions should be separated by a period; e.g. presentation.ppt. We cannot guarantee that we will successfully filter file names that do not conform to these guidelines, and presentations with non-conforming file names might fail to upload correctly.
Document Retention Policy [top]

   Starting with the 58th Symposium, presentation files have been retained (if permission was granted) and are freely available online to the community from our repository. The Symposium plans on maintaining this repository for the indefinite future. By agreeing to deposit your presentation in the repository, you grant the OSU International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy on behalf of The Ohio State University the non-exclusive right to make content for the Spectroscopy Symposium Repository (hereafter called the “Work”) available in any format in perpetuity.

I warrant as follows:

  1. that I have the full power and authority to make this agreement;
  2. that the Work does not infringe any copyright, nor violate any proprietary rights, nor contain any libelous matter, nor invade the privacy of any person or third party; and
  3. that no right in the Work has in any way been sold, mortgaged, or otherwise disposed of, and that the Work is free from all liens and claims.

I understand that once the Work is deposited in the repository, a full bibliographic citation to the Work will remain visible in so long as the Repository is maintained. I agree to hold The Ohio State University and the OSU International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy, and its agents harmless from any claim, action, or proceeding alleging facts that constitute a breach of any warranty implied or enumerated in this paragraph.

Submitting Presentation Files [top]

   Your PowerPoint or PDF presentation file and all supporting documents can be submitted here. These files MUST be submitted to the Symposium by midnight, the night before your presentation (i.e. if your talk is in a Tuesday afternoon session, the files must be submitted by 12am on Tuesday). All submitted files will then be transferred by Symposium staff to the presentation computer at least one half-hour prior to the beginning of the session.

   NOTE THAT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU OBSERVE THE MIDNIGHT DEADLINE. Because unexpected issues do arise with the technology and tools that service the symposium from time to time, you cannot assume that late uploads will reach the lecture room presentation computers.

   Please make careful note of the username (pnumber) and password provided in the email confirming receipt of your abstract. This username (pnumber)/password combination will be required to submit digital presentation files. If you have misplaced this username (pnumber) or password, please click here to retrieve it.

   If you are submitting multiple presentations, keep in mind that each presentation was assigned a username (pnumber)/password when the abstracts were submitted. Logging into the submission web site as another user, to submit a second presentation, requires quitting and restarting the browser program so that it "forgets" the previous username (pnumber)/password. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

   You may submit updated versions of your presentation files as many times as you desire until the submission deadline (i.e. midnight the night before your scheduled talk) . Use caution, though, if your presentation includes supporting files. Each time a new file is submitted, all of the previously submitted files are removed. It is therefore necessary to resubmit all of the presentation files even if only one file has been modified.

Reviewing Submitted Files [top]

   For PowerPoint presentations only: The web page for reviewing your files allows you to verify that your file was successfully transferred and that its fundamental features will display correctly at the Symposium. After "finalizing" your file submission, you have the option of having your PowerPoint file duplicated and the copy converted to a series of GIF images that are viewable in your browser. Your original PowerPoint file is not at all affected by this process.

   This file conversion is performed on a computer that is running Office 2010, and PowerPoint 2010 is used to make the final GIFs, so thse are illustrative of your presentation's appearance at the Symposium. Reviewing these GIFs will allow you to detect problems with fonts, embedded graphics, or equations.

   These GIFs are not, though, an exact reproduction of your PowerPoint file. Conversion to the GIF format may reduce the sharpness of some graphical elements and make colors appear pixelated. Animated features, such as slide transitions, will not appear at all in the GIFs. Linked images may not appear correctly or may be replaced by a simple icon or textual reference to the file.

   Since there is no remote means of verifying that animations and linked files are working correctly, please review the Guidelines and Recommendations carefully before including them in your presentation. If you wish to preview your presentation after arriving at the Symposium on computers configured like those that will be used in the presentation rooms, please go to the Symposium Computer Lab located in McPherson Lab Room #0008. By doing this, you will be able to detect and repair any and all problems with fonts, graphics, or equations in your presentation, in advance. Please contact the Symposium staff in the Registration Office if you have problems with the appearance of your presentation.

At the Symposium [top]

   While we will make every effort to transfer all files to the correct presentation computer, we also encourage you to verify, before the beginning of your session, that your file is loaded on the computer. If your presentation is not present please contact the Symposium staff in the Registration Office immediately.

CAVEATS:
General [top]

   Microsoft Powerpoint and Adobe Acrobat Reader are commercial products and, like any such products, have a number of features and characteristics beyond our ability to control. We have made every effort to de-bug and test the procedures for making PowerPoint and PDF presentations work in a consistent fashion. Nonetheless we frankly admit the possibility of "glitches" occurring. We strongly recommend that you bring a backup copy of your presentation, e.g., on a thumb drive (USB drive), in case of an unforeseen emergency.

Mac OS X-to-Windows PowerPoint translation problems [top]

   PowerPoint files created with a Mac OS X version of PowerPoint that include a linked video file rarely work correctly when transferred to a Windows machine. The only way we have found to avoid this problem is to link the movie file using a Windows version of PowerPoint. Once the movie is linked on a Windows machine, the file can be edited or displayed on both platforms. However, the initial linking of the video file must be done on a Windows machine. This re-linking is done using the "Insert:Movie or File..." command just as on a Mac. If you do not have convenient access to a Windows machine, we are happy to assist you at the Symposium. Upload your PowerPoint file and all linked files to the Symposium server. After arriving in Columbus, the Symposium staff in the registration office can download your files to a Windows machine so that you can correct the links and then upload the working files to the Symposium server.

    Even for presentations without linked video files, the OS X-to-Windows PowerPoint translation process is imperfect. If you have used a Mac to create your presentation, and it doesn't contain linked video files, we advise you to create a PDF file from your presentation and upload your presentation in that format.

   If you will need access to a Mac to modify your files after arriving, please contact the Symposium staff to schedule a time for this.

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