Standalone Presentation Questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter GitarJake
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GitarJake

I'm trying to put together a presentation that automatically plays with
sound when double clicked.

I've seen this many times in emails I've received. All I have to do is
open them, and they run.

I tried the "Pack and Go" option but it wouldn't play the music, the slide
transitions were off by about 2 to 3 seconds, and the opening prompt to
unpack the presentation/s throws all but our most "guru-ish" user.

Isn't there something out there that will allow me to distribute a
presentation that can be viewed and heard intact by pc's that may or may not
have PowerPoint installed on their system?

Thanks a bunch in advance for all responses,

Jenny
 
Although it doesn't seem like it, there are a lot of different questions
and issues in this post, Jenny. Comments inline.
I'm trying to put together a presentation that automatically plays with
sound when double clicked.

I've seen this many times in emails I've received. All I have to do is
open them, and they run.
Click to expand...

The presentation creators probably sent you a PPS file. That's a PPT
file which has been saved as "powerpoint show." The "s" on the end of
the PPS file tells the presentation to open in show mode and play
automatically.

They also probably embedded the music. Only WAV files can be embedded.
Before you insert a WAV using Insert/Movie and Sound/Sound from file, go
to Tools/Options and put 50000 in the box for "link sound files greater
than xxx kb." This means that any WAV under 50MB will be embedded in
your file. Then you can send just the PPT/PPS file, and the music will
be included.

Also, you probably have either PowerPoint or one of the PPT Viewers on
your computer. One of these is necessary in order for the PPT/PPS file
to play when you open it. Include a link to the free PPT Viewer
downloads if you think your recipients may not have PPT or the Viewer
already.

Use the Viewer which matches your version of PPT. If you're using PPT 97
or 2000 to create the presentation, give them the link to
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...8E-5513-46C4-AA4F-058A84A37DF1&displaylang=EN
If you're creating the presentation in PPT 2002 (aka PPT XP) or 2003,
give this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...27-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&DisplayLang=en
I tried the "Pack and Go" option but it wouldn't play the music, the slide
transitions were off by about 2 to 3 seconds, and the opening prompt to
unpack the presentation/s throws all but our most "guru-ish" user.
Click to expand...

It's possible the music didn't get included for some reason when you
packed the file. Or it unpacked in your temporary folder, which can
break the links from PPT to the music file. Better to embed a WAV and be
done with it. That way you only have to send the PPT/PPS file and not
the two files Pack and Go creates.

Slide transitions may be off a few seconds in your presentation
regardless of pack and go, though. Timing is not PPT's strong suit, so
avoid "tight" timing in your presentation. For example, don't try to
make the fireworks animation happen at exactly the same time as the
drumroll...
Isn't there something out there that will allow me to distribute a
presentation that can be viewed and heard intact by pc's that may or may not
have PowerPoint installed on their system?
Click to expand...

Yes, include the links to the PPT Viewers and let your users download
them.

You can also experiment with using Save As Webpage and choose MHT, which
is a one-page web archive file. It works just like HTML, but all the
slides and sounds and everything are in one file which your users would
view in a browser. That might be an option. John Langhans often posts
information about using MHT, so you might look for his posts.
 
[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 Jenny,

For many presentations, the answer might be a simple as saving your
presentation as a "PowerPoint show (*.pps)". 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:). 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.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm
 
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