PowerPoint to flash

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vincent Pozon
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Vincent Pozon

Dear MVPs:

Google coughs up an impressive array of software that promises to covert
PowerPoint to flash, which makes it smaller to distribute, more reliable
regardless of recipient's PC make-up, etc.
Just wondering: (1), do you think the group, or anyone of the MVPs could
suggest, recommend, or direct me to the software that is considered best?
Saving me the trouble of going through them?
(2) why aren't there more people interested in the group in converting PPT
to flash? Is there something I am missing? Are there huge trade-offs in
terms of quality?

I do not know if the Group is allowed to "push brands" or recommend, but it
would really be appreciated.

Thanks,

Vincent Pozon
 
I prefer to only recommend things I have actual experience with, though if I
have heard positive things about a product from someone I trust, I will
mention it in that context. I have used Camtasia Studio and it does a very
nice job of doing a screen capture of a running Slide Show and writing it to
AVI. Then you can use the included Studio tool to convert the AVI to Flash.

Also, I have heard that Articulate, at the high end of the price scale, does
a beautiful job of generating Flash files.

Other folks will volunteer their experiences too, I'm sure.
--

Sonia, MS PowerPoint MVP Team
http://www.soniacoleman.com
(Tutorials and Autorun CD Project Creator)
PowerPoint Live! - Featured Speaker
Tucson, AZ; October 12-15, 2003
 
Vincent Pozon said:
Dear MVPs:

Google coughs up an impressive array of software that promises to covert
PowerPoint to flash, which makes it smaller to distribute, more reliable
regardless of recipient's PC make-up, etc.
Just wondering: (1), do you think the group, or anyone of the MVPs could
suggest, recommend, or direct me to the software that is considered best?
Saving me the trouble of going through them?
(2) why aren't there more people interested in the group in converting PPT
to flash? Is there something I am missing? Are there huge trade-offs in
terms of quality?

I do not know if the Group is allowed to "push brands" or recommend, but it
would really be appreciated.

Thanks,

Vincent Pozon
Click to expand...
I may be wrong as I've only just started to muddy my toes with it, but I
believe Flash itself will import PowerPoint files. Have a look at
www.macromedia.com & see. I just downloaded the Flash MX trial & I'm
working my way through the tutorials.

Flash seems fine as a distribution format, but lacks the ease & speed of
editing on-the-fly we need for actual shows. Warts & all, PPT still
rules.

Phill
--
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http://Phill.Power.com
tel +44 (0)1722 501084
mob +44 (0)7718 207715
fax +44 (0)1722 500739
 
Vincent- you asked "why aren't there more people interested in the group in
converting PPT to flash? Is there something I am missing? Are there huge
trade-offs in terms of quality?"

Your question is technically interesting but about a year ago I looked at a
lot of different ways to work around the cross-platform problems in
PowerPoint- PC to Mac, Mac to PC. These included some specialty software
products- none of which were either economically feasible or performed as
advertised. I also looked at Flash, Director, Authorware, etc. At that time,
Director would only import PowerPoint 4 and the way a number of elements
were handled was a nightmare. Importing was not an option in Flash and I
have seen nothing in Macromedia documentation about it having been added.
Authorware now has an XML import, but a special plug in is needed for the
web and if it is anything like the Director import... In the end importing
and going through all of the machinations to get the presentation to run
correctly, replacing non-supported features with a Macromedia equiv., etc.
simply defeated a lot of the design capability in PowerPoint.

In the end, and after many months, my conclusions were that Flash is a
wonderful tool for web animation and PowerPoint remains the king of the
presentation packages. PowerPoint offers more flexibility and more
"editability" for the presentation arena and, when run within its
parameters, is extremely reliable. PowerPoint is also a lot easier to use
and more intuitive than the other packages meaning more concentration on
content and design.

As Dennis Miller says, "That just my opinion, I may be wrong."

Oh yeah, the cross-platform solution- use the html capabilities in
PowerPoint.
 
Phill Power said:
I may be wrong as I've only just started to muddy my toes with it, but I
believe Flash itself will import PowerPoint files. Have a look at
www.macromedia.com & see. I just downloaded the Flash MX trial & I'm
working my way through the tutorials.
Click to expand...

Phill the Power...as I live and breathe...how the devil are you?
Flash doesn't import PowerPoint:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/presalesfaq.htm#pp
although, if you're prepared to work at it a little you can export
PowerPoint slides as WMF files and import them into Flash. This then gives
you all the objects on the slide to animate within Flash. Some things may
not import correctly but it works well for most stuff (perhaps there's a
clue here as to why it's difficult to find a genuinely accurate conversion
program) and at least you have a working .fla file that you can edit and
tweak.
Flash seems fine as a distribution format, but lacks the ease & speed of
editing on-the-fly we need for actual shows. Warts & all, PPT still
rules.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...but I guess Vincent's concerned with distribution, which is probably
PowerPoint's biggest, hairiest wart...
 
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