One of the A/V guy's at work said that he could do anything with
Power Point that could be done with Vegas 5. Is the latest version
of Power Point that powerful?
What can you actually do in terms of photo and video with Power Point compared to Vegas 5?
No, Power Point can't do all Vegas can do, not even close, they are two totally different kinds of applications. The main purpose of Power Point is to make presentations, slides, that kind of thing. I use to fool around with it amost 18 years ago when laptops weighted 40 pounds.
While Powerpoint is undoubtedly a very powerful tool... and many people do not even scratch the surface of what it can do... it cannot possibly do what Vegas does.
I have been doing more and more trade-show type video loops where the client had originaly thought they would simply pull together a powerpoint slide-show hooked up to a wide-screen monitor. Problem is that such slideshow (even with using custom animation schemes) just don't offer the types of animation / dynamic / synced audio / music / looping / full-motion animated background / full motion-full screen video that is possible to do within Vegas.
You might be able to create a quite respectable presentation using powerpoint in a short amount of time... but to create something that is spectacular you would have to use something like Vegas.
That is, of course, only my opinion... but I have had many clients now that are willing to pay quite a bit to produce something that is more engaging than what can be done with powerpoint.
We have two banquets a year with people insisting that Power Point Presentations be used instead of having me do a couple of hours work with Vegas. After the banquet they of course want the work of art posted on the web site.
While the presentations are impressive , they never quite work as planned - audio visual sync issues, distorted text, unreadable text, and a host of other problem. And we will not even talk about what it takes to get those on the web in a format people can actually watch.
Next year my daughter will be doing the presentation and they will be using Vegas (another freebie project for me - but it will look good and can be put on the web without a lot of work.
Crossfades? Sounds like Producer - the tool that adds MovieMaker sorts of stuff and take powerpoint slides. Timelines, fades, audio tracks. Doesn't really close the gap, but can do quite a bit with it. Especially if your buddy is just looking at making training video.