What are the guidelines for creating slides using PowerPoint?
From Avacast Support
What are the guidelines for creating slides using PowerPoint?
Whenever you upload a PowerPoint slide set in the Administrator, it is automatically converted to Flash for use within Avacaster. Please follow these rules to ensure your slides will convert properly.
Note that failure to follow these rules can result in missing or misformatted slide content, or in a slide file that does not finish converting (in which case the upload process appears to freeze or hang). If you encounter the latter situation and have followed all the rules outlined here, the following article offers some troubleshooting tips: Why aren't my PowerPoint slides uploading?
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Guidelines for creating slides using PowerPoint
- 1) Do not allow 'Fast Saves' in your PowerPoint preferences.
- To disable on Windows: In PowerPoint, select Tools->Options, select the "Save" tab, and uncheck the "Allow fast saves" box.
- To disable on Macintosh: Select Preferences from the PowerPoint Application menu, select the "Save" tab, and uncheck the "Allow fast saves" box.
- 2) If possible, request that PowerPoint be installed on the Avacaster server. Some Microsoft Office objects do not convert without PowerPoint to help out. Contact your Avacaster Administrator to request that PowerPoint be installed, or to verify whether it is already installed.
- 3) Do not use animations- they will not display.
- 4) Do not place large amounts of text in a slides' Title field. Instead, use Insert -> Text Box and enter your text there. The Title field is intended for a short amount of text.
- 5) If you want to use an image for your slide background, do not use the "Background" feature to define it. Instead, place the image as a regular object on the slide and use Draw->Order->Send to Back to move it behind all other objects.
- 6) Grouped objects will not convert correctly, so ungroup them. Right click on the group and select Grouping -> Ungroup. You may need to do this multiple times to eliminate multiple levels of grouping.
- 7) If an embedded document object does not convert (e.g. Excel spreadsheet, Word document, equation, etc.), you can try several things.
- A. Try converting it to a drawing object as follows. Make a copy of the PPT, open the copy in PowerPoint, right click on the object, and select Grouping -> Ungroup. When you see a dialog saying "This is an imported object, not a group. If you convert it to an MS Office drawing object, embedded data or linked information will be lost. Do you want to convert the object?", select "Yes" (you still have your original PPT preserving the original object). Resave the PowerPoint and upload this new version.
- B. If option A does not work, see if it is possible to export/save the object as a graphic (e.g. a GIF or JPEG) within the original program, then import that graphic into PowerPoint.
- C. Finally, you can check the "convert all slides to JPEG" option in the Upload window. Note that there can be disadvantages to burning all slides to JPEG; it often creates a larger download for your users (the more slides, the bigger the download) and it can decrease the image quality, particularly if the slides are enlarged (whether by the layout or by the user enlarging the Player window).
- 8) Generally, you can only use standard fonts in your PowerPoint slides, including Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, and Courier. You may be able to use other fonts if they are installed on the Avacaster server. Contact your Avacaster Administrator to find out what fonts are available on your server. If your PowerPoint file contains a font that is not on the server, it will be subsituted with another font.
- 9) Watch the file size of any image you embed; remember that users will be downloading this entire presentation via a web connection. Before inserting a picture, check its file size on your hard disk (no single file should be over 100k, but even that is pretty large by web standards). You should resize a large picture in an application such as Photoshop to fit the desired physical dimensions in PowerPoint, rather than resize the photo after placing it onto a PowerPoint slide (which does nothing to reduce the file size of the image).
- 10) Only a limited set of autoshapes will convert correctly If you find that certain autoshapes do not convert, replace them with a clipart image, if possible.
Note
Unsupported features: Note that some PowerPoint features not currrently supported include builds and animations, transitions, embedded audio or video, and multiple masters. In most cases, these items will simply be dropped during conversion. In other cases, the conversion may not complete (it will appear to hang), or the resulting slides may not turn out as you would expect. In one of the last two is true, the best solution is to remove or change the unsupported feature.
FlashPoint
We have a newer PPT to SWF converter if you are still having issues. It requires PowerPoint to be installed. Download it, install it, and try using it instead if your slides will not convert correctly with the standard, built-in converter.
See also
Categories: General | Customization | Admin | Slides
