view a powerpoint presentation in a small window

[Guest]

I have a presentation I have put on CD that my organization uses to
distribute the documents we publish. The presenstation looks great, and it's
working perfectly, however, our publications are in pdf format. I have links
to the publications from the presentation. The links work fine, but sometimes
the PDFs open in front of the presentation and other times they open behind
it. I am trying to find a way to get around this. I either want to find a way
to ensure that all links will open in front of the presentation, or I want to
run the presentation in a window that doesn't take up the full screen so that
if the PDF opens behind the presentation, the user will still be able to see
it. (alt + tab isn't an option here because most of our users are not very
comfortable with computers). Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have a presentation I have put on CD that my organization uses to
distribute the documents we publish. The presenstation looks great, and it's
working perfectly, however, our publications are in pdf format. I have links
to the publications from the presentation. The links work fine, but sometimes
the PDFs open in front of the presentation and other times they open behind
it. I am trying to find a way to get around this. I either want to find a way
to ensure that all links will open in front of the presentation, or I want to
run the presentation in a window that doesn't take up the full screen so that
if the PDF opens behind the presentation, the user will still be able to see
it. (alt + tab isn't an option here because most of our users are not very
comfortable with computers). Any ideas? Thanks.

People report this problem from time to time but I've yet to be able to make it
happen here; what versions of the software (PPT, Windows, Acrobat/Reader) do
you use and does it appear to be limited to just some software setups?

Is there any pattern to which PDFs exhibit this and which don't?

Have you considered converting the "front end" PPT into a PDF so that the whole
thing plays back in Reader?

 

[Guest]

People report this problem from time to time but I've yet to be able to
make it

happen here; what versions of the software (PPT, Windows, Acrobat/Reader) do
you use and does it appear to be limited to just some software setups?

PPT 2003, XP Pro SP2, Acrobat 5.0.5
I will try it with Reader 7 and see if still gives me the same problem.

Is there any pattern to which PDFs exhibit this and which don't?

No, in fact the same PDF will open in front of the PPT sometimes and behind
it others.

Have you considered converting the "front end" PPT into a PDF so that the whole
thing plays back in Reader?

I have considered it, but I'm not exactly sure how to do the conversion, and
I'm also a little leary of that because this PPT is to be distributed on CD
to our clients who tend not to be very computer saavy, and I want to make it
easy for them to install Reader if they don't have it already, and right now
there is a button in the PPT to install it, but if they have to open the PDF
to get to that link, that obviously won't work. How would I convert it to PDF
and do you have any suggestion for a work around to make installing Reader
easier? Thanks.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

PPT 2003, XP Pro SP2, Acrobat 5.0.5

I will try it with Reader 7 and see if still gives me the same problem.

Good plan. First, be sure to let Reader update itself. If you don't have at least
7.0.1, links from PPT to PDFs won't work at all.

No, in fact the same PDF will open in front of the PPT sometimes and behind
it others.

How about patterns in the way it's opened/closed. For example, are you/the users
consistently closing Acrobat/Reader after viewing the PDF, closing just the file but
leaving the app open, or just clicking back to PPT?

In a perfect world, it shouldn't matter.

I have considered it, but I'm not exactly sure how to do the conversion, and
I'm also a little leary of that because this PPT is to be distributed on CD
to our clients who tend not to be very computer saavy, and I want to make it
easy for them to install Reader if they don't have it already, and right now
there is a button in the PPT to install it, but if they have to open the PDF
to get to that link, that obviously won't work. How would I convert it to PDF
and do you have any suggestion for a work around to make installing Reader
easier? Thanks.

Some versions of Reader can run off the CD directly so no need to install at all.
Have a look here

http://www.yeardley.demon.co.uk/pdf.html

The same techniques may apply to later Reader versions.

There are a number of ways of converting PPTs to PDF. If you don't have too many
links to convert, the simplest is just to print to the AdobePDF driver (or
Distiller, depending on which version of Acro .... oh .. 5.5, right. The Distilller
driver it is. Or use Adobe's PDFMaker tool that should have been installed into
your copy of PPT when you installed Acrobat.