Common Craft - Modern Tech Topics in Plain English

September 19, 2007 | 3 Comments

Common Craft has built a series of presentations explaining modern tech topics in “Plain English”. What’s most interesting about their presentations is that they use a classic method of stop motion animation to explain these things. This counterintuitive approach is done entertainingly with paper cut-outs.

I think the Google Docs video I included above is their best, but if you were entertained by that, check out the older ones:


RSS in Plain English


Wikis in Plain English


Social Bookmarking in Plain English

common craft, commoncraft, delicious, google docs, plain english, presentations, rss, social bookmarking, stop motion, video, wiki, wikis

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related:

Google Presently?

February 7, 2007 | 3 Comments

Garett Rogers on ZDNet points out an interesting section of the Google language file in Google Docs.

JavaScript:
  1. var MSG_VIEW_PRESENTATION="View presentation";
  2. var MSG_PRESENTATION_SETTINGS="Presentation settings";
  3. var MSG_DOC_TO_PRESENTATION="Convert document to presentation";
  4. var MSG_DOC_TO_PRESENTATION_HINT="Once your document is converted to a presentation, you can insert slide breaks using Insert> Slide from the main menu.";
  5. var MSG_PRESENTATION_TO_DOC="Convert presentation to document";
  6. var MSG_POPUP_BLOCKER="Presently is unable to launch your presentation in full-screen mode. Check your pop-up blocker settings.";
  7. var MSG_NEW_SLIDE_TITLE="New Slide";
  8. var MSG_UNSUPPORTED_BROWSER="Unsupported Browser Presently doesn't support Opera and will not function properly. Would you like to continue anyway?";
  9. var MSG_SLIDE_INDEX="Slide %1 of %2: %3";
  10. var MSG_NEXT="Next";
  11. var MSG_NEXT_HINT="Space, Enter, N";
  12. var MSG_PREV="Previous";
  13. var MSG_PREV_HINT="Backspace, Del, P";
  14. var MSG_ZOOM_IN="Zoom in";
  15. var MSG_ZOOM_OUT="Zoom out";
  16. var MSG_ZOOM_RESET="Zoom reset";
  17. var MSG_TOGGLE_AUTOFIT="Toggle AutoFit";
  18. var MSG_PICK_THEME="Choose theme:";
  19. var MSG_THEME_BLANK="Blank";
  20. var MSG_THEME_GOOGLE="Google";
  21. var MSG_THEME_LIQUID="Liquid";
  22. var MSG_THEME_MONOCHROME="Monochrome";
  23. var MSG_TOGGLE_TOOLBAR="Hide/show toolbar";
  24. var MSG_EXIT_PRESENTATION="Exit presentation";
  25. var MSG_END_OF_PRESENTATION="End of presentation. Are you sure you want to exit?";

This tips the hand and shows they are intending to have an application called "Presently" and it will have theme capabilities. We would assume it will export and import from Microsoft Powerpoint...

On a side note, Google has already reacted to this by pulling the above quoted language from the file.

google, presently, presentation, google docs, google presently, google, powerpoint, microsoft, microsoft powerpoint, javascript, garett rogers, zdnet

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Related: