Recently when I did my first NxtGenUG nugget, I used an application called Yod’m 3D to flip between powerpoint and demo and it worked well. The application allows you to have multiple virtual desktops. I also notice Mike Ormond (Microsoft DPE) used it for his WPF presentation. It impressed Dave anyway.
Shortly after I found the software, Otaku Software purchased the source code/rights. The company already do a software designed at making life easier so its a good fit into their portfolio. This morning, I received an email saying they have released a beta of their version, called DeskSpace.
Improvements
1) Still drag and drop install, however you can now set it to start on windows startup.
2) Performance improvements.
3) Improved icons/backgrounds. When you press the key combo (shift, ctrl, alt) an icon appears on your cursor.
4) Includes mouse dragging support, hold the combo keys and use the mouse to drag to the different desktops.
5) Improved Vista support. Last time I used Yod’m, it wasn’t happy.
6) Appears to work well with Powerpoint running.
7) Improved context menu, now displays icons of the application on each desktop and you can go to that application directly.
Some good progress has been made. Its very useful if your giving powerpoint/demo presentation but also allows you to have a ‘work’ desktop and a ‘play’ desktop which you can switch between with a simple keystroke.
There are a few things which I don’t like, but this is it’s first release and it doesn’t stop the actual functionality.
1) It keeps setting my MSN status to busy.
2) Using WinKey + Desktop# (1,2,3,4) doesn’t seem to work.
3) When you flip over to a desktop for the first time, the screen is blank as it hasn’t been loaded yet. Second time it works fine.
4) If you kill the app via Task Manager and reload it, it doesn’t remember what desktops it had open.
Apart from that, it looks to work great! Now they have the core base completed, hopefully they will start adding some nifty features.
It’s currently in beta/30 day trail, you can signup to join the program at their website:
http://www.otakusoftware.com/deskspace/
Definitely worth a look. It’s due to retail around $19.95 USD, with some discounts for education etc. I’ve heard, beta testers get 50% off, if so I will definitely grab a copy. Always handy to have on your tools list.