[CRITICAL UPDATE - If you are using Office 2003, you should install this
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
Hello Betty,
For many presentations, the answer might be a simple as saving your
presentation as a "PowerPoint show (*.pps)" and then using the "File ->
Send to -> Email recipient (as attachment)" command. For the native (full
fidelity) PowerPoint slide show format (*.ppt, *.pps) the recipient will
still have to have some kind of application which knows how to open/view
the slide show file (PowerPoint or the PowerPoint Viewer). If the
recipients don't have PowerPoint or the PowerPoint Viewer the Viewer can be
downloaded from the internet.
However, for some presentations, simply saving the presentations as *.pps
files will not be sufficient because the presentations contain links to
supporting files (movies, some sounds, etc.). So, if you just distribute
the single *.pps file, none of the linked content will display/play when
the presentation is viewed by the recipient.
However, everybody (?) has a web browser on their computer, so a workaround
(for the broken links to supporting files scenario) is to distribute your
presentations as single file web pages (MHTML
before using the "Send to
-> Email recipient (as attachment)" command. This is a feature of both
PowerPoint 2002 and PowerPoint 2003. Now you have a single file that can be
sent which, when the recipient opens from e-mail or Windows, will display
an HTML version of the PowerPoint slide show in the default browser for
that system. Of course there are limitations and differences between
PowerPoint HTML presentation slide shows and native *.ppt/*.pps
presentation slide shows viewed using PowerPoint. If, however, the
recipient opens the MHTML file using PowerPoint (2002 or 2003), the show
will display in full native fidelity. So, with this workaround you get the
benefits of single-file distribution, but you don't get the "automatically
start in slide show mode" experience and there is loss of fidelity if
viewed in a web browser (only you can decide, for your presentations,
whether the benefits offset the disadvantages).
If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that PowerPoint should
provide a way of distributing a presentation (with all it's supporting
content) as a single file which, can be viewed in it's full fidelity, with
an option to start as slide show, and without permanently
installing/copying any software on the destination computer (whew!!!),
don't forget to send your feedback (in YOUR OWN WORDS, please) to Microsoft
at:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
As with all product suggestions, it's important that you not just state
your wish but also WHY it is important to you that your product suggestion
be implemented by Microsoft. Microsoft receives thousands of product
suggestions every day and we read each one but, in any given product
development cycle, there are only sufficient resources to address the ones
that are most important to our customers so take the extra time to state
your case as clearly and completely as possible.
IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions)
John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows
For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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