Check Your File Name

The file names should be in the format of Congregaion#_Team#.ppt or .pptx. We ask that you submit the files with these names because:

1) These names help us make sure the correct award gets to the correct people.

2) Naming the files in this manner helps our judges keep their judging sheets in order.

3) If you don’t send us your files with these names, we will rename them for you. However, in renaming the files, sometimes links to external media (music, pics, etc) can be lost. Sorry, but we need the files with these names so our judges can figure out who they’re judging. Also, sometimes when we rename the files, stuff happens. I have seen files literally disappear into the digital ozone. I’m sure I still have four-year-old files on my hard drive somewhere hiding. We keep the files backed up for this reason, but still, stuff happens.

Only you can help avoid PowerPoint fires . Please name your files correctly. It’s in the rules, too.

Check The First Slide Info

Everyone seems to be sending pre-convention submission info sheets with their PPT files. Don’t overlook the fact the website used to say, “This is not necessary for PowerPoint.” (BTW, the website has been updated to include a link to upload instructions. Thanks, Tim.) The reason the submission form isn’t necessary for PPT is that all the same information is required for the first slide. We don’t need the duplication of information. We’re not going to use the information sheets. We won’t be downloading them from the website or from email. SO….

Make sure all the required information is on the first slide so that we can double-check our team numbers with the team members! Also, please, congregational coordinators, make sure the right kids’ names are on the right teams. Many times, the kids will switch partners but the teams are not changed. I’m not complaining, but I’m rightly called “simple-minded.” I need everything to be as simple as possible .

There’s another article on this blog that describes what we want as far as “copyright info” so I won’t get into that here.

Check How You’re Submitting The File(s)

If you’re submitting more than one entry, you should upload or email each entry separately. This helps the uploading process tremendously, and if you’re emailing it to us, it helps us keep things straight on this end. 

Also, if your entry has separate presentation and media files (music, usually), please put all related files into one folder, make sure it all works right, and then “zip” the file (compressing it so that it’s easier to email or upload) and then send it to us. This helps makes sure everything will work correctly. Sometimes, files emailed as separate files don’t link back up. This works sometimes, and doesn’t other times. Putting them in a folder, zipping it all together, and sending it works more often. 

Don’t forget to name the folder the same way you do the PPT file, but without the “.ppt” suffix, example: 746_07 folder name, 746_07.ppt file name. Again, this helps us with administrative stuff .

Hope this stuff helps. Don’t hesitate to holler if you need more info or help.

-_Barry

This comes from the NTLTC registration portal. Your congregational coordinator can log on and download the team sheets which will have the team numbers for you. These are the team numbers will be using in preparing to judge your PPT entries. We pre-print up labels for the judging sheets just to be nice to our judges so please help us be nice to our judges, too. If your file name isn’t in the format of <congregation#>_<team#> then they will have to be looking all around to find out which judging sheet to use, or they’ll have to fill out a blank one and they might get writers’ cramp from that!

So, let’s be nice to our judges and they’ll be nice to you!

-_Barry

PS — Aren’t emoticons great?

If at all possible, try your file out on Macs and PCs. This will almost always reveal any difficulties we will have in judging. We use both Macs and PCs in judging, so it’s smart to check it out on both.

-_Barry

If your email service can handle it, you can email your participants’ files directly to me. Please use my “PPT” email address as that will help me keep track of the incoming submissions. That email address is ntltc_ppt@mac.com. Note the “underscore” between ntltc and ppt. 

I have created a link to download a PDF file containing instructions to upload the file(s) to my online storage. The link is “Upload Instructions” at the side. You can “right-click” the link and choose “Save Linked File As” to download the file straight to your hard drive. From there you can print it out or just open the file and follow the directions on your screen.

Just a note about uploading your file to my “public iDisk,” sometimes, your browser will appear to be “working” on uploading it for a long time. Don’t get frustrated. Depending on the traffic on Apple’s websites, it may actually be slow. If this goes on for over an hour, click “Cancel”, wait for your browser window to reset, and check to see if your file appears in the window as being loaded on my online storage. If you see it, it should be there. Don’t know why it doesn’t always tell you it’s finished uploading, just knows that it does this from time to time.

Also, if you are sending me the PowerPoint files electronically, it is IMPERATIVE that the file be named correctly. The correct way is to use your congregational number, followed by an undersore (“_”), and then the “team number.” Example: The proper way to name your files would be like this: “746_01.ppt”. Your congregational coordinator can get the team number for you from the NTLTC registration portal. Just download the “Team Sheets” for all team events, and this will give you the team numbers. Please use these numbers generated by the registration portal instead of any other system you have working there at your church, because I will still have to download the information for all the congregations and seek out the particular kids and rename the file so that our judges can keep track of whose file they are looking at.

-_Barry

Click the right and left arrows to navigate through the presentation.

STOP KILLING STUDENTS WITH POWERPOINT

-_Barry

What is “random” on your computer won’t look the same as the “random” on mine. For some reason, Microsoft Office does not install the same transition choices on both Mac and Windows. And what looks cool on your computer may not look so hot on mine. Changing computers doesn’t always help because, hey, random is random.

Also, ABSOLUTELY UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU USE RANDOM IN THE TRANSITIONS FOR SONGS! Ahem… sorry for yelling like that. But transitions other than a quick and simple change or a quick fade can keep people from following along with the songs. I know that you have to have the slides change automatically and there’s a time limit, but we should be able to see the last words/notes and look back up to the upper left where the next slide’s words/notes start and find them easily instead of waiting for some kind of “fly-in” or “appear by typing” transition or something else that looks cool. Remember that in the worship category, you want to facilitate worship the best way possible, not detract from it and draw attention to your PPT presentation skills.

Just a quick “rant” since I remembered several entries from last year right now. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!

-_Barry

Hello, I am a participant in this years ltc preconvention ltc powerpoint contest.  On the list of rules for the power point, it states that you must have your name, church, grade, churches phone number, and then it says copyright information.
 
neither my youth minister or I understand what it means by copyright information.  Could you please explain this?
 
Thanks alot.

Austin, thanks for asking! What we mean by copyright information is actually two-fold: “what you really must have,” and “what we want to you start thinking about and adding in the future.”

“What you really must have”: On your title slide of your presentation, the rules state that you must show your name(s), grade(s), home congregation, category type, convention location you will be attending, and “copyright information.” What this means is that you need to add a phrase/sentence that says something like: “Copyright, 2009, by Austin Starkey. All rights reserved.” We want you to put this on your title slide because eventually we want to be able to have some of the more outstanding presentations online so that others can view them and we want your work to be covered. Yes, we could add that for you if we were to select your presentation for online viewing, and we could correct any other errors we find in your work, too. But we won’t.  

Now, because we don’t want to be the “copyright police,” we’re not going to put the body slam and the bracelets on you if you don’t do anything more than the above mentioned note. But… you really need to consider going the extra mile and doing what we talk about below.

“What we want to you start thinking about and adding in the future”: Copyright protection is a very important thing to remember and consider as you get into making PowerPoint presentations. You’ve probably already heard that it is illegal for you to take a CD you bought and upload the songs on it to allow your friends and others to download them free of charge. Why? Because you don’t own the copyright to those songs and the artists, composers, and even the music industry have a legal right to money from every copy of those songs in existence, even if you or your friends created the copies by burning extra CD’s or downloading them for free illegally. What? You didn’t know that was wrong? Well, you do now and you need to discuss this with your parents and/or your youth minister.

When you make PPT presentations, you will either use the backgrounds furnished by Microsoft with PowerPoint or you’ll import backgrounds someone else made. Those imported backgrounds are the work of someone else. You may or may not have legal permission to use them. Most likely you do, but everything considered, they should be recognized for their work, too. Some people add songs for the scrapbooking categories. Whoops! Copyright infringement right away, unless you get permission to use those songs from the copyright holders. Same with pictures you might download off the internet to use in the devotional, story telling, or even worship categories. And when you use pictures for the scrapbooks, do you note who took the pictures (that would be the person who holds the copyright on those pics). It may be members of your team, but do you note that somehow?

In short, the rule for copyright information in PowerPoint is for your benefit and protection as well as trying to make you aware of how you are using what you are. We’re not going to report anyone to the “copyright police” for using a song or background without permission. Honestly, we won’t know if you got permission or not. But if you make a note of who holds the copyright on the music, photos, or backgrounds you’re using, we’ll know you’re aware of it and have considered your role in obeying the copyright laws of our nation. How far you go with it is a matter for your conscience. It’s appearance in your presentation (at LEAST your own information) is a matter for our judging to make note of.

So, PLEASE, do the very least! But I hope you’ll think about what you’re doing with everything else. Bottom line, it’s a matter of “giving honor to whom honor is due” (a paraphrase of Romans 13:7).

I welcome any questions you have about the pre-convention event, as well as any suggestions on how to make it better for our kids and more streamlined for all participants and coordinators. I will post responses here for all to see so that your question can help many other people, too.

I will be posting a “handbook” of suggestions on how to make your PowerPoint presentations better and how to fulfill what is required for the event. Lord willing, I’ll have this done by the end of this week. I’ve already received some questions from the NTLTC group as well as my own daughter so responses will be coming soon as well.

Thanks for your interest in using your skills for the Lord and your heart in pursuing His purpose for you through LTC.

God bless!

Barry Wiseman