PowerPoint vs. Timing is an old and tired tune. It is the Achilles heel of
PowerPoint and regretfully, not one of the issues addressed in the latest
upgrade to PowerPoint 2003.
Timing is machine & media dependent, meaning that it will vary with the
machine's abilities and the speed of access to the media. Some of the issue
results from the way PowerPoint times the transitions/animations. It does
not time from the start of the last one, but from the end. So if your
machine is busy and takes 4 seconds to fade in instead of 3, all the
subsequent animations/transitions will be off by that second. Worse, it is
cumulative, getting further and further off as each change variance
snowballs.
There are a few options: none great, but better, I suppose.
1) Convert the presentation to a movie format. These have much better
audio/video sync, but will be a much larger file, since each frame is
recorded as a separate image.
2) Transfer the PPT file to the hard drive prior to running the show. The
HDD access speed is far better than the CD speed, so will delay the show
less.
3) Free up you computer to work on PowerPoint. The more tasks your computer
is working on, the less processing is available for graphics/audio handling.
Turn off virus scanners, internet messaging, 'watcher' programs, and the
like. Increase the amount of RAM in the computer to help it swap out less
data.
4) Break up your music into smaller files. If you have music that plays for
100 slides, it is almost guarantied that it will be out of sync by the end.
But, if you break it up into smaller music files (10 files for 10 slides
each) that fade in & out, you will have created re-starting points for the
audio/video sync. You will need an external audio editing program to make
these files. You may also want to make them fade in & fade out, since
PowerPoint only plays the sound you hand it. And you want to time each of
the clips so that the music ends before the next clip starts (on the fastest
machine it will run on).
5) Reduce your presentations dependency on synchronization. This is, by
far, the ugliest solution. PowerPoint is a can-do program for almost
everything, but sync. Artistically, this hampers your options. You need to
choose different music, go for a different presentation feel, and in general
dumb down the show. I guess you have to ask, "Is it worse to have a cymbal
crash that is two seconds before the WOW screen, or worse not to have a WOW
screen at all?" This is the question you have to answer until MS addresses
the whole sync thing in PowerPoint.
Forgive the long answer to your question.
B
--
Please spend a few minutes checking out
www.pptfaq.com This link will
answer most of our questions, before you think to ask them.
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