uploading powerpoint slides

By batyaf on 6 Nov 2008 at 11:22 UTC

I have drupal 5, and wish to upload a powerpoint presentation.

I was told to save the ppt as a webpage, and then to upload this to my site via ftp. However, the presentation won't open in the ftp.

Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible to save ppt as a web file? Do I need a special programme to open the ppt?

Comments

Subscribing. ppt files open

-Anti- commented 6 November 2008 at 14:28

Subscribing.

ppt files open automatically in a IE6/7 browser plugin if MSoffice is installed. But it won't work with other browsers. Also ppt files don't stream, so the user has to wait whilst the (often large) file loads into their browser.

Do you need interaction? If so, I would imagine that the only way would be to let users download the ppt file and run it themselves on powerpoint. I've heard of software which will turn ppt into interactive flash, but I can't imagine it works very well, and I doubt there is any free software which would do that.

If you have auto-timed animation without user interaction, your best option is to screen-capture it and save as swf or flv. Drupal has several modules which will play flash files.

Also, look at whether powerpoint is really the best tool for making your web presentations in the first place. You might be better off with something like Jing or CamStudio.

I'd certainly be interested in hearing other options.

This thread discusses some

WorldFallz commented 6 November 2008 at 16:38

This thread discusses some interesting possibilities. The ipaper module looks promising if you don't mind hosting your files remotely. For local, you should be able to do this with openoffice (also discussed in the thread) but it might take some playing to get it working.

EDIT: also, this article has some more options. The bytescout one is pretty cheap, but i've not tried it. The wondershare option also looks good but is a little more expensive.

_{===

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." - Lao Tzu

"God helps those who help themselves." - Ben Franklin

"Search is your best friend." - Worldfallz}

Thanks for that link. I'm

-Anti- commented 6 November 2008 at 18:02

Thanks for that link.

I'm going to try the free ispring powerpoint plugin. The logo seems to be on the player interface rather than an overlay on the screen, which is a totally acceptable trade-off for a free product. If it can keep the animations and sound and still reduce the file size, it will be a winner!

I'll tell you how I get on with it.

EDIT:
Oh wow! Absolutely fantastic! The workflow is awesome:

· users will use iSpring to easily turn their presentations (including sound and animations and some mouseclick interactivity) into flash.
· upload it to their folder using IMCE.
· creating a link to the file using fckeditor/IMCE.
· apply a 'media' style to the link, using fckeditor, which gives it a 'media' css class.
· jquery media module activates due to the 'media' class trigger, and embeds the flash file in the content.

The entire thing is less than ten clicks, and the user never sees any html or css! And powerpoint is a really simple way to make media; the students will be stoked at being able to add stuff like this to their school website so easily.

Other workflow options include simply linking to the file so it opens in the full browser window, or using the slideboom website (if there's enough privacy and security) and copy/pasting the embed code.

At last... something on my site that actually seems to work! Thanks, I really needed this little boost, after weeks of continued failure to make any real progress with anything.

Excellent-- usually i end up

WorldFallz commented 6 November 2008 at 20:25

Excellent-- usually i end up bringing you only marginally useful info. It's nice to actually point out something you really found useful! ;-)

> usually i end up bringing

-Anti- commented 7 November 2008 at 07:45

> usually i end up bringing you only marginally useful info

Lol... apologies if I give that impression. The advice and help around here is always first class - always *very* useful. The fact that there might not always be a good solution to an issue has no bearing on the people who are sharing their knowledge, and you shouldn't think your help is 'marginal' just because you can't solve all problems. Even if there isn't a solution, it is very helpful to know that, so I don't dwell on it and can move on, or try another approach.

Example is the Views that you tested out for me in the last couple of weeks - there was no solution because they were Views bugs, but do you have any idea how much time, energy and late-nights it saved me knowing that it wasn't just me setting the View up wrongly? Hardly marginal information!

That goes for everyone else too - just because I'm frustrated by the software itself, doesn't mean I don't *really* appreciate the support around here; it's just fantastic.

Thanks for the kind words--

WorldFallz commented 7 November 2008 at 14:42

Thanks for the kind words-- i wasn't compliment fishing, i promise, lol. I appreciate how frustrating drupal can be-- i was just reveling in the moment of actually being able to help fulfill a need instead of working around limitations.

fyi-- i checked out ispring too-- very, very nice indeed. I also checked out ipaper which uses scribd-- i hadn't realized there is the option of keeping documents private. Its actually an excellent way to offer live versions of documents (with thumbnails). It handles many more formats than just ppt, but I found ispring preferable for ppts.