Web/slide show software

[rich at richardwiggins.com]

Emily,

Your query made me chuckle, as this is something I've wanted since 1993, when I proposed that HTML ought to be extended to include support for "crawling info displays and slide shows."  At the time, Marc Andreessen expressed mild support for the idea.  Others thought it would clutter HTML unnecessarily.  Later we ended up with client pull and server push from Netscape.

http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/archives/WWW-TALK/www-talk-1993q3.messages/1015.html

So almost 8 years later we're still looking for the same thing.  :-) 

There are a number of tools for the distance education market that may satisfy your need.  Things to try:

-- RealPresenter 
-- www.interwise.com
-- www.syncomat.com

Are you sure PowerPoint doesn't do all you want? PowerPoint does let you change transition style and timings for EACH slide, as well as record narrations.  As a test, I created a small PowerPoint presentation with a number of varied transitions.  See: 

http://netfact.com/present/rww-powerpoint-slide-transitions-test.ppt

I made this in PowerPoint XP and viewed it natively and in IE 6.  

IE 5 and 6 can play "HTML" versions (talk about cluttered HTML!) saved out of Office 2000 or XP, including slide shows.  The advantage of this is you wouldn't need to install the PowerPoint viewer on the playing machine.  Results were fair.  Even though I saved this with optimization for IE, the transitions and timings were not as accurate and smooth as when played by native PowerPoint.  See for yourself:

http://netfact.com/present/rww-powerpoint-slide-transitions-test.html

Look for the little icon in the lower right corner of the screen.

So I would use native PowerPoint and the PPT viewer, not the HTML/XML version, if it were the tool of choice.


/rich

__________________________________________

Emily A. Soden (esoden at sps.edu)
Mon, 11 Jun 2001 06:49:30 -0700 (PDT) 

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I'm starting a hunt for a good, easy-to-use-when-crunched-for-time software
program that will allow me to assemble a web-based slide show-type program.
PowerPoint doesn't quite have all of the features we'd like. My dream
program would include:

- The ability to have slides fade in and out at variable times throughout a
music sequence (i.e., not the standard "every 3 seconds"-type option)
- The ability to be shown not only on the web, but to be projected like a
traditional slide show, as well (*essential)
- Either Mac or Win platform
- Wouldn't require a whole lot of training for folks to use


Any suggestions out there?


Thanks!


Emily

____________________________________

Emily A. Soden
Circulation Services Librarian
Ohrstrom Library, St. Paul's School
Concord, NH 03301