[WEB4LIB] RE: PowerPoint 2000 and Saving to the Web

[Richard Wiggins]

Powerpoint 2000's HTML save really is a very mixed blessing.  Although I think frames are a mistake generally, I wouldn't necessarily condemn them in all circumstances.  Powerpoint 2000 puts in a lot of extra XML tagging so that IE can do a good job of displaying the content, including resizing slide images within their frame automatically.  That, too, is a mixed blessing.  The HTML files are huge.  You also have to check a checkbox at save time to get Netscape to look decent.

I have been publishing presentations I give using this format for a while and haven't had complaints.  In the past I've had problems with people lifting slides from Powerpoint presentations that I put online in toto; this makes the process of stealing less convenient.  It also lets anyone with a halfway modern Web browser view the content. You can, via another checkbox, turn off the Notes pages' frame, which gets you down to two frames and a nav bar at the bottom of the window.  I actually think this is an appropriate use of frames.  

Here are examples to check out.  This is an online manual of sorts I did in Powerpoint for live presentation as well as for online consultation by occasional users.  The Notes portion was essential:

http://www.netfact.com/misitenet/

This is a recent presentation with Notes frame turned off and Netscape compatibility turned on:

http://www.netfact.com/rww/present/travel-oct2000/onetoonemarketing.html

A buddy of mine, Chuck Severance, writes software to synchronize video and audio of online lecture delivery with supporting Powerpoint slides.  (Tools are called Syncomat and Clipboard.) I believe he's into the API enough where he could probably write a tool that would give you a slides-only Powerpoint to HTML tool.  Do people think there'd be a market for such a tool?  (shareware or freeware probably)  Let me know and I will relay to Chuck.

At least for Powerpoint 2000, there is supposed to be backwards compatibility with Powerpoint 97.  You could keep an old copy of Powerpoint 97 around to do your HTML saves.  I know, blecch.

/rich



------Original Message------
From: "Gina Minks" <gina-minks at utulsa.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: October 18, 2000 4:08:18 PM GMT
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: PowerPoint 2000 and Saving to the Web


Hi Donald,

I was fighting with PP2000 earlier this month on this issue.  The only thing
I could find on the frame/no-frame issue was on the Microsoft Product
Support pages:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q237/4/02.ASP

Basically this states that "There is no way to disable the frame pages
layout for a Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Web presentation, as you can in
Microsoft PowerPoint 7.0 for Windows 95, or Microsoft PowerPoint 97." but
does offer a workaround that "hides the unwanted frames" but does not
disable them.

I hope this helps and if you do find a way to really get rid of frames
completely - please pass it on!!
-Gina

Gina L. B. Minks
Special Collections Librarian
McFarlin Library - University of Tulsa
2933 E. 6th
Tulsa OK  74104-3123
gina-minks at utulsa.edu
tel: 918-631-3133
fax: 918-631-5022

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Donald Barclay
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 10:41 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] PowerPoint 2000 and Saving to the Web


I recently installed Office 2000. Much to my dismay, I now find that when I
save PowerPoint presentations in HTML, PP2K automatically inserts frames.
I'm sure some <<Equus asinus>> at Microsoft considers this an improvement
over the earlier versions of PP, but I don't.

Anybody know how to save PP2K presentations as HTML without frames? I
checked PP help and looked at all the PP Web options but couldn't find an
answer to my question. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Donald A. Barclay
Houston Academy of Medicine-                         always the beautiful
answer
Texas Medical Center Library                         who asks a more
beautiful question
dbarclay at library.tmc.edu                                     --e.e. cummings
713-799-7120
Richard Wiggins
Consulting, Writing & Training on Internet Topics
www.netfact.com/rww         wiggins at mail.com
517-349-6919 (home office)  517-353-4955 (work)
Richard Wiggins
Consulting, Writing & Training on Internet Topics
www.netfact.com/rww         wiggins at mail.com
517-349-6919 (home office)  517-353-4955 (work)  
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