Batch Importer for PPT 2011 on Macs

I've created an automator file for batch importing folders of jpgs to PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. Instead of loading your jpgs to your PPT 1-by-1, the tool will load all of the images in 1 step. The automated process also resizes the images to screen-sized within the PPT slides. You may download the file here.

See this 30-second video tutorial to learn how to use the tool:
http://screencast.com/t/LCiVLfOE

Art.sy Education Offers 25,000+ Open-Access Images

Art.sy Education has partnered with over 650 museums, galleries and nonprofits to provide access to their collections from one portal. Over half of the Art.sy images are downloadable on an open-access basis and may be used without restriction. Look for images on their site with a 'download image' button. See the Art.sy site for more information.

Grant Opportunities for Digital Humanities Projects

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced start-up grants for digital humanities projects. The NEH program awards relatively small grants to support the planning stages of innovative projects that promise to benefit the humanities.

The deadline for proposals is September 11, 2014 for projects beginning May 2015. See their website for more information.

Digital Humanities Summer Institute

The Getty Foundation has provided funding for a digital humanities summer institute for art historians to be held at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in 2014. The institute aims to engage art historians, graduate students, and scholars from varied backgrounds, including curators, art librarians and archivists.

The institute is now accepting applications. For more information and to apply, see their website.

ARTstor Announces Image Group Download

ARTstor has added a new tool for group image downloads. You may already be familiar with their existing tool for batch downloading directly into PowerPoint, but now they have launched a new tool for batch downloading groups of images as jpgs.

You may download groups of 150 images or fewer with one click. These files will download as a zip file containing jpgs. Look for this icon when logged into your ARTstor account and in an image group:

For more information and a short instructional video created by ARTstor, click here.

Getty Announces 'Open Content' Program

The Paul J. Getty Museum announces their new 'Open Content' Program. All of the Getty's public domain objects, totalling around 4,600, are available for download as high-resolution images and are free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose. They will be releasing more images over time. You can browse the images currently available from this link. You may read more about their program here.

Update 11/10/2013: The Getty Open Content Program now has around 10,000 images available for unrestricted use.

Using Video in PowerPoint for Mac

Do you have a great video you want to show in your class but don't know how to seamlessly integrate it into your PowerPoint presentation?  Today I gave a tech tutorial in the VRC demonstrating how to do exactly this.  If you were unable to make it I am available to sit down with you for a personal session.  There is also an instructional guide that you can download here.

Instructional Sessions

The Visual Resources Collection will be presenting a series of instructional sessions for departmental faculty, staff , and graduate students. Dates and topics are as follows:


Bspace Schedule and Calendar Tools
Wednesday 2/6, 12:30-1:30, 308A Doe
Presented by: Lynn Cunningham
A brief tutorial on how to set up online office-hour scheduling from within bspace. You can do away with the paper-format scheduling, and your students will be able to sign up for office hours virtually. If you are unable to attend the session, I have created a quick start guide that you may download from the VRC blog: havrc.blogspot.com/2013/01/online-office-hour-sign-up-in-bspace.html

PowerPoint Tools -- Video
Wednesday 3/6, 12:30-1:30, 308A Doe
Presented by: Jason Hosford
Jason will discuss how to use video in PowerPoint. He will instruct users on how to embed, link, and play video in a presentation.

PowerPoint Tools -- Transitions and Animations
Wednesday 3/20, 12:30-1:30, 308A Doe
Presented by: Jason Hosford
Jason will cover transitions and animations in PowerPoint.

Europeana Portal
Wednesday 4/17, 12:30-1:30, 308A Doe
Presented by: Lynn Cunningham
Lynn will present on Europeana, a search engine for the digitized collections of museums, libraries, archives and galleries across Europe. Europeana is a single access point to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records. It is an authoritative source of information coming from European cultural and scientific institutions. www.europeana.eu/portal/

Digital Photography
Wednesday 5/1, 12:30-1:30, 308A Doe
Presented by: Julie Wolf
TBD