Need recommendation for creating a digital portfolio

[FasterMD]

I'm about to begin searching for a new employer.

What I'd like to do is create a digital portfolio of my work on a self-contained disc where all the employer will need to do is put in the disc, click on the icon and the presentation takes over and begin to play...regardless of the OS - Mac or PC.

Anyone says PowerPoint and I'll hunt you down!

I'm guessing Flash is the way to go - I know nothing about Flash but I'm thinking it's time to learn.

Thanks for your help!

[Joe]

I'd go with Powe...errr I mean flash. :lol:

[Sparky]

I don't know what your problem with Power Point is. It's a very powerful presentation app that when used correctly will perform exactly what you want, and it's cross compatible. What you need to figure out is how to get the "Auto Start" script to run for either Mac or PC when the CD is inserted. That's what needs to be learned here, also not every PC or Mac is set up to "Auto Run" what's on a CD. I know both my PC and Mac at work were set to query user as to what to do when a CD was detected that wasn't an audio CD.

I'm also in the job seeking arena right now so I can feel your pain. I have 35 years of "samples" that I need to put on disk most of it is hard copy samples from the "pre-desktop" era. so my problem is getting it scanned and presented the way I need it. Ironically for as much desktop experience I have I never used Power Point at work so I'm having my 15 year old daughter help me put together my presentation :roll:

[Jezza]

I was flat broke trying to do the same thing and created a blog at wordpress.com. It's completely free. I also created an interactive pdf (laid out in Indy first) that you could navigate around by clicking buttons and so on. It helped having both.

I hope this is useful for both of you.

My blog is still there, I use it as a website really, it's never updated, just my folio and resume etc on line.

http://proartworker.wordpress.com/

[Pointyhat]

I'm with Sparky, that's what PowerPoint is for.

[jem0701]

I design web sites so I'm going to say Flash. It's really not that hard to create basic animations and buttons. It's all based on a time line and you won't have to write much ActionScript other than start and stop if it's going to be less interactive. Check out www.flashkit.com. Tons of resources tutorials, templates etc. And it's really easy to make a stand alone player for both the Mac and PC.

[FasterMD]

My problem with PowerPoint lies in the fact that designers have always scoffed at this program. I'm affraid that submitting my portfolio as a PowerPoint presentation may have a negative effect on the viewers perception of what I'm capable of. Submitting a portfolio as a Flash presentation will give it... for lack of a better term...more flash!

Seeing that quite a few of you are siding with the PowerPoint side, I will at least consider using it.

Thanks for all your help!

[FasterMD]

I also like the idea of an interactive PDF. I've forgotten about all the advancements they've made in the past few years.

[Joe]

Powerpoint, done correctly, can be pretty slick. Like any other program, in the hands of idiots, it can look pretty bad. You can view Flash in a web browser though while you have to either have Powerpoint or the Powerpoint viewer to view powerpoint files. That's why I prefer Flash. I'd hate for someone to toss my presentation because they didn't want to have to download the viewer and install it. On the other hand, most people have Office on their computer. What would be great would be to do it in both and have it give them a choice of which to run via autostart.

Edit: Or all 3 including interactive PDF.

[TimS]

Do it as a website, then anyone with a browser can view it. Put the address on your resume, and they can look at it while reviewing the resume. A basic html website isn't too hard to get going. You probably have some webspace with your ISP email account. You will also then be demonstrating your ability to go beyond prepress and do some web stuff if needed.