Opening PPT slide convered to HTM...

[celoftis]

BACKGROUND:
I have some PPT slides that have been converted to HTM (ensuring that
the show slide animations while browsing checkbox is checked). The
original HTM slides have custom animations to allow movie (wmv)
playback on mouse click. (All animations have been verified to work
when viewing slides in ppt.) Further, I have ensured that the converted
HTM file(s) contain only relative file paths.

SITUATION #1
When I open the converted HTM file in my web browser everything works
fine except the wmv file never appears to load. When I hover my mouse
over the region on the page where the movie should appear the mouse
cursor changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a hand pointer -
but when I click in this region nothing happens!

I have verified this behavior on my local web server as well as my
team's development web server (two different machines) with the same
results (thinking that my local server may have some odd settings)
Also, I did verify that the MIME type mapping for wmv files existed on
my web server, "video/x-ms-wmv")

SITUATION #2
Using VS 2005, ASP.NET (and frames), I developed a web app that opens
the converted HTM file. When the navigation completes, none of the
images (little red x's appear instead) or the video get loaded... only
the text and background color of the converted HTM file are correctly
loaded. Again, when I hover my mouse over the region on the page where
the movie should appear the mouse cursor changes (as expected) from an
arrow pointer to a hand pointer - but when I click in this region
nothing happens!

SITUATION #3
Next, I was able to develop (using VS2003, VB.NET) a simple windows
based application that has an active-x web browser control - when I
navigate this web-browser to the converted HTM file, it opens correctly
and loads & plays the movie with out any problems. Works as designed!


Anyone have any idea why SITUATION's #1 and #2 fail to load properly?
The conversion of the PPT to HTM creates a diretly full of objects...
the main page that gets opened in the sub-folder has uses javascript to
control the media playback... could this be the source of the problem?

MORE BACKGROUND
What I am trying to accomplish is to migrate a windows based app
(VB.NET) to the web (ASP.NET). The windows based app, briefly described
in #3 above, simply has a tree view control docked (on a slider) to the
left hand side of the form and a web browser control filling the
remaining space in form. As the user clicks nodes in the tree view, the
app navigates the web-browser to different web pages. I thought
converting this to ASP would be a snap... another tree view control and
a couple of frames... but as you can tell I'm just having trouble
getting the converted PPT to HTM files loaded into a regular browser.

Any feedback/thoughts would be appreciated!

-celoftis (hzgt9b)

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

See comments inline:

BACKGROUND:
I have some PPT slides that have been converted to HTM (ensuring that
the show slide animations while browsing checkbox is checked). The
original HTM slides have custom animations to allow movie (wmv)
playback on mouse click. (All animations have been verified to work
when viewing slides in ppt.) Further, I have ensured that the converted
HTM file(s) contain only relative file paths.

SITUATION #1
When I open the converted HTM file in my web browser everything works
fine except the wmv file never appears to load. When I hover my mouse
over the region on the page where the movie should appear the mouse
cursor changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a hand pointer -
but when I click in this region nothing happens!

I have verified this behavior on my local web server as well as my
team's development web server (two different machines) with the same
results (thinking that my local server may have some odd settings)
Also, I did verify that the MIME type mapping for wmv files existed on
my web server, "video/x-ms-wmv")

Consider what happens when you view an HTML file. The browser downloads it to
a local temporary directory and opens it from there. You click the link to a
WMV and since there's no path, it'll look for it in the same local folder as
the HTML file. And of course it won't be there.

And since PPT won't let you link to a movie file on the net, you can't force
the link to point to your server (other than possibly by manually editing the
HTML after PPT's made it and changing the link paths).

SITUATION #2
Using VS 2005, ASP.NET (and frames), I developed a web app that opens
the converted HTM file. When the navigation completes, none of the
images (little red x's appear instead) or the video get loaded... only
the text and background color of the converted HTM file are correctly
loaded. Again, when I hover my mouse over the region on the page where
the movie should appear the mouse cursor changes (as expected) from an
arrow pointer to a hand pointer - but when I click in this region
nothing happens!

What file are you opening? Individual slide files or the main HTML file?

 

[celoftis]

Steve,
Thanks for the reply. Stick with me... on this.... I respond to your
post below - but first I need to clarify my original post:

I was a bit off in my first message regarding SITUATION #1:
I placed the converted HTM (and associated sub-folder) in two places:
(1) my local machine's web server (C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\) and (2) my
team's development server. Next I tried opening the files two ways: (A)
double click on the HTM in the file system (launches ie) and (B)
navigate my web-browser to each web site and manually type the name of
the page ("http://localserver/myConverted.htm", etc.). Here are the
results I got from these tests:

1A - My machine, open the HTM by double clicking the HTM
First, I get the ie "To help protect your security, Internet Explorer
has restricted this file from showing active content that could access
your computer. Click here for options...". After choosing "Allow
Blocked Content" and answering "Yes" on the Security Warning dialog
box, the page beings to load. All the images, text and background
colors load as expected. The first frame of the movie appears on the
screen and when I hover my mouse over the movie image the cursor
changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a hand pointer - but
when I click on the movie nothing happens!

1B - My machine, open the HTM navigating ie to the web site
("http://localserver/myConverted.htm")
When navigating to this page on my local web server, I get no security
warnings. The page loads and all the images, text and background colors
load as expected. The first frame of the movie does NOT appear on the
screen - but when I hover my mouse over the movie image the cursor
changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a hand pointer - again,
when I click on the movie nothing happens!

2A - Development machine, open the HTM by double clicking the HTM
When opening, by double clicking, on the HTM on my team's development
server, I receive no security warnings. The page loads and all the
images, text and background colors load as expected. The first frame of
the movie appears on the screen - and when I hover my mouse over the
movie image the cursor changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a
hand pointer. Finally, when I click on the movie PLAYS! Everything
works as expected in this situation!

2B - Development machine, open the HTM navigating ie to the web site
("http://localserver/myConverted.htm")
When navigating to this page on my team's development web server, I get
no security warnings.
Exact same results 1B from above.

I'm baffled - four (4) test cases; three (3) different results: one (1)
pass, two (2) fail with no movie image being loaded and no playback on
click, one (1) fails with the first frame of the movie image being
loaded but, again, no playback on click. Any idea what's going on here.
I'm curious about the security errors occurring locally but not from my
team's development server but they are not my real concern (unless
that's the source of the problem). The real problem for me is that the
movie will not playback... any ideas on how to get this to work? In my
final application I'll have hundred's of HTMs and WMVs - so manually
modifying the HTM is not too appealing. I suppose I could script
something if necessary...


Here's how I created my PPT and converted it to HTM:
The PPT file that I am converting to HTM contains only 1 slide, with a
couple of images, some text and an embedded MWV file that has custom
animations for play on click. Here's how you can create one: Open a new
PPT presentation. From the View menu select Master | Slide Master.
Copy/Drag a couple of JPEG images into the master slide for the header
and footer, then close the slide master. Next add some sample text.
Finally select Insert | Movies and Sounds | Movie from File... choose
some WMV file - when prompted with "How do you want the movie to start
in the slide show, click "When Clicked". Now save and test the PPT
presentation. You should be able to start and stop the movie by
clicking on it. Next choose File | 'Save as'. In the 'Save As' dialog,
change the 'Save as type' to be "Web Page (*.htm, *.html)"; click
"Publish", then "Web Options", ensure that the checkbox beside "Show
slide show animation while browsing" is checked (I believe that
choosing this option ensures that all the java script to handle the
movie playback, "custom animation", is included in the HTM that gets
created). Finally, Click Ok, then Publish.

The conversion process creates a main HTM and a folder with the same
name as the original PPT presentation + "_files". Place a copy of the
WMV file in this sub-dir. Next open this sub-folder - you will see lots
of files. There should be one named like "slide####.htm". Open it and
change all the WMV file references to point to the current directory
(i.e. remove everything except the file name).

Consider what happens when you view an HTML file. The browser downloads it to
a local temporary directory and opens it from there. You click the link to a
WMV and since there's no path, it'll look for it in the same local folder as
the HTML file. And of course it won't be there.

Good point... but can you explain the four (4) different results (3
failures, 1 pass) that I'm getting from my testing in SITUATION #1?

And since PPT won't let you link to a movie file on the net, you can't force
the link to point to your server (other than possibly by manually editing the
HTML after PPT's made it and changing the link paths).

As noted above, after converting my PPT files to HTM I do indeed modify
the path to the WMV... I change the absolute file path to a relative
one... in fact, I assume that the MWV file will always be in the same
(sub)folder as the HTM file that is being opened.

What file are you opening? Individual slide files or the main HTML file?

I always open the main HTM file. That main HTM file uses java script to
verify that the browser is supported, if so (which is my case), the
browser opens another HTM file in a sub-dir created during the PPT->HTM
conversion. This sub-HTM contains all the slide layout (in VML),
renders all the images, movies and all java script to support the movie
playback.

Let me know what you think...

celoftis

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve,
Thanks for the reply. Stick with me... on this.... I respond to your
post below - but first I need to clarify my original post:

Thanks for this. *Very* thorough work. Bear with me as I work through this. I'm
answering it bit by bit and (later) realize that you've already beaten me to some

I was a bit off in my first message regarding SITUATION #1:
I placed the converted HTM (and associated sub-folder) in two places:
(1) my local machine's web server (C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\) and (2) my
team's development server. Next I tried opening the files two ways: (A)
double click on the HTM in the file system (launches ie) and (B)
navigate my web-browser to each web site and manually type the name of
the page ("http://localserver/myConverted.htm", etc.). Here are the
results I got from these tests:

1A - My machine, open the HTM by double clicking the HTM
First, I get the ie "To help protect your security, Internet Explorer
has restricted this file from showing active content that could access
your computer. Click here for options...". After choosing "Allow
Blocked Content" and answering "Yes" on the Security Warning dialog
box, the page beings to load. All the images, text and background
colors load as expected. The first frame of the movie appears on the
screen and when I hover my mouse over the movie image the cursor
changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a hand pointer - but
when I click on the movie nothing happens!

1B - My machine, open the HTM navigating ie to the web site
("http://localserver/myConverted.htm")
When navigating to this page on my local web server, I get no security
warnings. The page loads and all the images, text and background colors
load as expected. The first frame of the movie does NOT appear on the
screen - but when I hover my mouse over the movie image the cursor
changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a hand pointer - again,
when I click on the movie nothing happens!

So in both cases, the browser "sees" a link in the HTML (you get the pointing hand
cursor) but probably isn't finding the linked file. What path is shown in the
status bar? In the example file set I sent you a link to, when I open the HTML
from the local file system and hover over the movie link, it tells me
file:///X:/folder/folder/../folder/blah.mpg

The path matches the path to the html file.

I get the same result (different paths but both match) when I point at the version
on the web server.

Both as expected because there's no path to the movie, just the filename itself,
in the HTML. Also, it's a simple file link to the movie file, no javascript
involved.

View Source on the file and search for the name of your movie in the PPT-generated
HTML. You'll probably find that the movie is launched by a complex bit of logic
and javascript and that the link points to the original source directory of the
movie file, NOT a pathless link to just the file.

Not sure of this as I don't run a web server, but the browser should see a
different view of the file system when accessing a file from the web server; it
shouldn't have access to any files "above" web root. IOW, even though your
computer may still have access to the file along the full path to the original,
I'm not sure the browser will see it; that'd be an interesting one to test.

As to why you get an image of the first movie frame in one case and not the other,
I'm not sure. Actually, at the time we're talking about, it's not a movie frame
in the sense that the browser's extracted something to show you; it's a frame
that PPT extracted when you placed the movie in the first place, and that it
exported as a PNG or JPG file. Look in the folder of supporting files it created
and you'll see the images there.

Speculation A: You get a security warning and OK it in the first instance; no
warning in the second instance. Possibly your security settings for the second
zone are set to prohibit active-x (movie player) objects rather than to ask for
permissions. Yeah. I agree. Doesn't seem likely. And if the settings are the
same as on the dev box, we can throw that one out altogether.

Speculation B, incomplete: Under various circumstances, clicking on a PPT-made
HTML file may open the html in the browser or it may open it back into PPT, or
possibly even into an instance of PPT hosted in the browser. Try the various
tests again and have a look at the menu bar in the browser. If it inherits any new
commands/buttons that smell oddly of PPT, let's look into this further.

2A - Development machine, open the HTM by double clicking the HTM
When opening, by double clicking, on the HTM on my team's development
server, I receive no security warnings. The page loads and all the
images, text and background colors load as expected. The first frame of
the movie appears on the screen - and when I hover my mouse over the
movie image the cursor changes (as expected) from an arrow pointer to a
hand pointer. Finally, when I click on the movie PLAYS! Everything
works as expected in this situation!

From the dev machine, do you also have access to the file along the full path to
the original movie? That'd explain this.

2B - Development machine, open the HTM navigating ie to the web site
("http://localserver/myConverted.htm")
When navigating to this page on my team's development web server, I get
no security warnings.
Exact same results 1B from above.

Again, *if* my speculation about access to the file system from a page hosted on a
web server is correct, this makes sense.

I'm baffled - four (4) test cases; three (3) different results: one (1)
pass, two (2) fail with no movie image being loaded and no playback on
click, one (1) fails with the first frame of the movie image being
loaded but, again, no playback on click. Any idea what's going on here.
I'm curious about the security errors occurring locally but not from my
team's development server but they are not my real concern (unless
that's the source of the problem). The real problem for me is that the
movie will not playback... any ideas on how to get this to work? In my
final application I'll have hundred's of HTMs and WMVs - so manually
modifying the HTM is not too appealing. I suppose I could script
something if necessary...

Might be ... I thought for a moment that converting the links to pathless ones in
the PPT would force them pathless in the HTML but unfortunately not. PPT simply
substitutes the hardcoded path to wherever it's able to find the movie file.
Pretty braindead. [FYI, since you're looking at it, PPT2HTML makes the links
relative for you and also pops a copy of the movie file in with the HTML files so
you don't have to go chasing all over for them.]

Here's how I created my PPT and converted it to HTM:

[ snipped since it's pretty much a dead match to what I'm doing here ]

The conversion process creates a main HTM and a folder with the same
name as the original PPT presentation + "_files". Place a copy of the
WMV file in this sub-dir. Next open this sub-folder - you will see lots
of files. There should be one named like "slide####.htm". Open it and
change all the WMV file references to point to the current directory
(i.e. remove everything except the file name).

Hmmm. Linked OLE objects in PPT itself *require* a full path. Since PPT's html
treats the movie as an object, I wonder if the same requirement's true. Try
changing it from no path to the path as seen from the browser viewing the file.

Rightclick/Properties on one of the imaages; that may give you an idea of the
correct path.

 

[celoftis]

[ snip ]

So in both cases, the browser "sees" a link in the HTML (you get the pointing hand
cursor) but probably isn't finding the linked file. What path is shown in the
status bar?

None. In all four test cases the status bar text does not change when I
hover my mouse of the region where the movie link is...

[ snip ]

View Source on the file and search for the name of your movie in the PPT-generated
HTML. You'll probably find that the movie is launched by a complex bit of logic
and javascript...

Exactly -- this is why the status bar text on mouse over for the
movie...

...and that the link points to the original source directory of the
movie file, NOT a pathless link to just the file.

Well, actually, I changed all references (checked all the files in the
sub-folder created in the PPT->HTM conversion) to the original WMV to
be relative to the currect folder.

[ snip ]

From the dev machine, do you also have access to the file along the full path to
the original movie? That'd explain this.

See previous comment...

[ snip ]

Might be ... I thought for a moment that converting the links to pathless ones in
the PPT would force them pathless in the HTML but unfortunately not. PPT simply
substitutes the hardcoded path to wherever it's able to find the movie file.

I had the same thought and realized the same, disappointing truth.

[ snip ]

Hmmm. Linked OLE objects in PPT itself *require* a full path. Since PPT's html
treats the movie as an object, I wonder if the same requirement's true. Try
changing it from no path to the path as seen from the browser viewing the file.

When I replace the pathless link to the WMV with the fully quialifed
path (from the file system or web servers perspective) the results are
the same... no movie playback.

Any other ideas?