some powerpoint viewer questions

[doerz]

i am in the process of turning back projects to my 5th and 6th grade
students. home usage runs the gamut from office xp to no computer at home
to everywhere in between.

i decided to burn projects to cdr [i can easily fit all students in a grade
level on a single disc] and include the powerpoint viewer.

the projects were done using PowerPoint 97.

when i run the projects with the PowerPoint 97 viewer, the shortcomings
include number style bullets that don't translate and appear as generic
bullets, and animated cliparts that appear stationery.

when i run the projects with the PowerPoint 2003 viewer, the number and
animated clipart problems clear up, but then i get certain fonts that
display letter on top of the next rather than a string of characters.

i know there are documented shortcomings with the viewers.

also, i have students that attached .midi music files (from the included
sound gallery) that don't play using the viewers (i know this is
documented) -- is there a way to work around this short of creating my own
..wav files?

are there work arounds to any/all of these issues?

any help greatly appreciated.

regards,

jd

 

[Echo S]

There's no easy way to overcome the 97 Viewer's lack of animation support.

For the MID(I) sounds, if you put the sounds in the folder with the
presentation *before* inserting them in the presentation, the sounds should
play. I'd guess that your students actually did that, though, since the
sounds play for you on a different (I assume) computer.

So it could be an issue with the way the PPT 2003 Viewer handles sounds
inserted in previous versions. You'd have to reset the sounds using PPT 2002
or 2003, though. See the bottom of
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/powerpoint_2003_viewer.htm
for info. You don't have to create your own WAVs, though.

However, you're still having issues with font displays and the PPT 2003
Viewer. My guess is that this is a hardware acceleration issue, but I'm not
positive that changing hardware acceleration will fix the display issue on
all systems. How to set graphics hardware acceleration back
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00129.htm Updating the video driver is
also a good thing to try, but again, I don't know that that will fix the
problem on all systems. Unfortunately, this particular issue seems to be one
of those random display problems with no easy resolution.

Maybe the best option would be to save the files as HTML so they'll run in a
browser window? You'll need to include the animation run-time for those
users who don't have PPT 2002/2003 on their systems, though. This allows the
animations to run in the browser the way they're intended.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4033A84A-24C7-40B2-
8783-D80ADA33CFF8&displaylang=en

If you go this route, you'll probably still have some issues with sound
files, especially sound across slides.
http://www.powerpointanswers.com/article1018.html

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

i am in the process of turning back projects to my 5th and 6th grade
students. home usage runs the gamut from office xp to no computer at home
to everywhere in between.

i decided to burn projects to cdr [i can easily fit all students in a grade
level on a single disc] and include the powerpoint viewer.

the projects were done using PowerPoint 97.

when i run the projects with the PowerPoint 97 viewer, the shortcomings
include number style bullets that don't translate and appear as generic
bullets, and animated cliparts that appear stationery.

when i run the projects with the PowerPoint 2003 viewer, the number and
animated clipart problems clear up, but then i get certain fonts that
display letter on top of the next rather than a string of characters.

i know there are documented shortcomings with the viewers.

also, i have students that attached .midi music files (from the included
sound gallery) that don't play using the viewers (i know this is
documented) -- is there a way to work around this short of creating my own
.wav files?

are there work arounds to any/all of these issues?

any help greatly appreciated.

regards,

jd

 

[doerz]

thanks for the suggestions echo....

There's no easy way to overcome the 97 Viewer's lack of animation support.

For the MID(I) sounds, if you put the sounds in the folder with the
presentation *before* inserting them in the presentation, the sounds
should
play. I'd guess that your students actually did that, though, since the
sounds play for you on a different (I assume) computer.

So it could be an issue with the way the PPT 2003 Viewer handles sounds
inserted in previous versions. You'd have to reset the sounds using PPT
2002
or 2003, though. See the bottom of
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/powerpoint_2003_viewer.htm
for info. You don't have to create your own WAVs, though.

However, you're still having issues with font displays and the PPT 2003
Viewer. My guess is that this is a hardware acceleration issue, but I'm
not
positive that changing hardware acceleration will fix the display issue on
all systems. How to set graphics hardware acceleration back
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00129.htm Updating the video driver is
also a good thing to try, but again, I don't know that that will fix the
problem on all systems. Unfortunately, this particular issue seems to be
one
of those random display problems with no easy resolution.

Maybe the best option would be to save the files as HTML so they'll run in
a
browser window? You'll need to include the animation run-time for those
users who don't have PPT 2002/2003 on their systems, though. This allows
the
animations to run in the browser the way they're intended.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4033A84A-24C7-40B2-
8783-D80ADA33CFF8&displaylang=en

If you go this route, you'll probably still have some issues with sound
files, especially sound across slides.
http://www.powerpointanswers.com/article1018.html

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

i am in the process of turning back projects to my 5th and 6th grade
students. home usage runs the gamut from office xp to no computer at
home
to everywhere in between.

i decided to burn projects to cdr [i can easily fit all students in a grade
level on a single disc] and include the powerpoint viewer.

the projects were done using PowerPoint 97.

when i run the projects with the PowerPoint 97 viewer, the shortcomings
include number style bullets that don't translate and appear as generic
bullets, and animated cliparts that appear stationery.

when i run the projects with the PowerPoint 2003 viewer, the number and
animated clipart problems clear up, but then i get certain fonts that
display letter on top of the next rather than a string of characters.

i know there are documented shortcomings with the viewers.

also, i have students that attached .midi music files (from the included
sound gallery) that don't play using the viewers (i know this is
documented) -- is there a way to work around this short of creating my
own
.wav files?

are there work arounds to any/all of these issues?

any help greatly appreciated.

regards,

jd