Step 1: Open your presentation file in Slide Show mode to setup the exact time duration for each slide. There are two ways of doing this:

a) Use the “Record narration” feature if you want to include audio in your presentations. Record your voice as you move through the slides and click ‘yes’ when you are prompted to save the changes.

b) Use “Rehearse timings”  for silent PowerPoint videos. This option lets you define how long a slide should display on the screen before the presentation move to the next slide.

Enhance your ppt first of all

Step 2: To continue with the process, you will need to register (for free) at www.authorstream.com and upload the PPT file you saved in Step 1. AuthorStream is a hosting service where you can upload PowerPoint files as large as 1GB

Step 3: Once registered, click on the ‘Upload PowerPoint’ tab and follow the instructions:

authorstream upload screen

Step 4: Once uploaded, AuthorStream will convert the PowerPoint file into a MPEG4 video (mp4) that can be uploaded to YouTube or can be watched on an iPod.

This is not an instantaneous process, but depending on the file size, you will get an email notification as soon as your PowerPoint video is ready for download from the web.

Success!

Step 5: Log in to YouTube and upload your newly created MP4 file, ready for broadcasting and sharing with the world!

There will be instances where it would be useful to convert a PowerPoint file into Google Docs, or more specifically Google Presentation. This way the presentation would be immediately available to you (or anyone else for that matter) wherever you were in the world - you wouldn’t need a PC with PowerPoint on it to edit or view it.

In order to use Google Docs, you will need a Google account. They are freely available to everyone now and can be accessed here.

Having logged in to Google Docs, select “New” -> “Presentation”.

Google Docs

A new presentation will appear.

In order to convert your PowerPoint into this online format, select “File” and “Upload a file”.

Uploading

Select the file you would like to convert from your hard drive and then click “Upload a file”.

Types of files that you can upload:

Documents (up to 500KB)

HTML files and plain text (.txt). Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text (.rtf), OpenDocument Text (.odt) and StarOffice (.sxw).

Presentations (up to 10MB from your computer, 2MB from the web, 500KB via email)

Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps).

Spreadsheets (up to 1MB)

Comma Separated Value (.csv). Microsoft Excel (.xls) files and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).

PDF Files (up to 10MB from your computer, 2MB from the web)

Assuming the file’s on your hard drive, browse to it, give it a name and then Click “Upload File”

Uploading

Be patient with large presentations and don’t close down the screen or it will not import. It’s not entirely obvious anything is happening at this moment - but it is - your status bar at the bottom of the browser probably says “Waiting for ….” This is a good sign!

Once it’s loaded, the screen will refresh and the slides will appear (possibly slowly as they render out) and you should see an almost perfect PowerPoint presentation within Google Docs. There will almost certainly be some formatting differences that you should live with and amend manually.

The file’s now available to edit / share / publish - but that’s a whole nutha lesson!

What about converting the other way?

The issue that concerns some users the most when adopting trends of cloud computing is the compatibility of web applications with desktop software. Google Docs recently added a new feature to Google Presentations that will allow users to save Google Presentations as PowerPoint Files meaning you could start working on a presentation on the beach on holiday… get back to the office and export it onto your desktop.

To convert a Google Presentation as PowerPoint file, open the “File” menu in Google Docs and click on the new option “Save as PPT”.

I know - holiday’s are not for working but you get my drift.

Step 1

Create a new, empty folder “The big win” in “My Pictures”.

Step 2

Open the PowerPoint file you wanted to convert.

Step 3

Select “File” -> “Save As”. (in PowerPoint 2007 first select “Other formats”) In the file type drop down, select “JPEG”  and navigate to the “The big win” folder you’ve just created. Press “Save” and in the pop up box, “Export every slide.”

Your presentation is now available as JPG images in this folder.

Step 4

Head back to the desktop and Right click, select “Properties” -> “Screensaver” and select the “My Picture Slideshow” screensaver. Browse to the folder where you saved the PPT and hey presto - a great on-screen memory from that big day on your return from the coffee machine.

Why don’t you just copy the file to a disc and burn it?

Good question.

Simple answer is that you could - but it wouldn’t be the best way of doing it. The package for CD feature makes a much better job of it from within the application - let me show Business PowerPoint users how and why:

Package to CD

Select the “Package to CD” option (shown here in PowerPoint 2007. The following dialogue box appears:

Package to CD

Fill in the name of the CD with the presentation name.

Then click the “Add Files” button if you would like to package more than one presentation.

The “Options” button is useful too:

Options dialogue

Here is the power of the packager (versus simply copying the single file on to the disc) - in the “Viewer Packager” drop down, you can select for the presentation to play automatically. In addition, it will package onto the CD the PowerPoint 2007 viewer - which means that even people with lower versions of the application will be able to view it.

Make sure you include any linked files such as video or audio and add a password if the information is sensitive. Then press OK.

Insert a blank CD and then press “Copy to CD”.

Perfect for sending your latest masterpiece to those not online (yes there are still some people) and with older versions of PowerPoint.

PowerPoint 97, PowerPoint 2000

PPPCD is a FREE system that will let you turn any PowerPoint compatible presentation into an autorun compact disc. Simply add your PowerPoint 97/2000 (or compatible) presentation files to the specified directory, rename the main file and burn the system to a CD.

The CD will play your presentation when the user loads it into a CD player. If the user does not have PowerPoint, or the PowerPoint Viewer installed he, or she will prompted to install the viewer.

PPPCD is compatible with ANY presentation that will run in PowerPoint 97/2000, including presentation created using 3rd party tools such as StarOffice. This system does not require an uninstaller and makes no changes to the user’s system. Visual Basic 6.0 Run-Time is included in the package and MUST be included on each CD, but does not have to be installed on the machine for PPPCD to function.

To download the software click here.

You’ve just created a presentation masterpiece and presented it at a seminar. It really was quite good and many people in the audience came up to you afterwards and wanted a copy - which you could have sent them, however something in the back of your mind stopped you - why should you released your hard work to all in sundry to copy and claim as their own? That said - you would like it to be available for reference, and also, wouldn’t it be nice if you could control who sees it - with a login perhaps?

There are a number of ways of doing this - however being part of the ‘Being Smarter‘ network - we don’t like spending money - so how about we do this for free?!

“iSpring Solutions, Inc. is innovative software company focused on high end rich media software development for global markets” according to their site - and they do good stuff.

Firstly - visit the site - www.ispringsolutions.com/download.html.

Download the iSpring Free 3.5 package and follow the simple wizard to install it.

Open PowerPoint and the first thing you will see is the “iSpring Free” toolbar. Open the PowerPoint file you wish to convert.

iSpring in action

Step 1: PPT to Flash Conversion

The free PowerPoint to Flash converter creates web friendly Flash movies from your PowerPoint content keeping its visual parameters and animation effects.

The first time you use the software, I suggest that you use the “Publish” button to ensure the settings are correct. For subsequent conversions - you will be able to hit the “Quick Publish” button.

Select “Publish”.

iSpring main screen

Enter the title of the Flash movie you would like to create in the “Presentation Title” box.

Select the folder you would like it to be saved in and choose whether it’s a single slide or all slides.

I suggest that you leave the “Generate HTML” box ticked. This will ensure that you have a web page (.html) to display the Flash movie file (.swf) (NOTE It will also generate a tiny javascript file (.js) to control the presentation.)

Choose the remainder of the options and press “Publish”.

Depending on the number of slides, the software will then render each one into the Flash format and export the final two files.

It really doesn’t get much simpler than that - or “free-er” for that mattter. Great software.

Now - the Powerpoint convert zone has shown you how to do the conversion. What are the options for getting it online?

Step 2: Display online

There are a number of options for doing this. I’ll go through a couple:

i) FTP it to your web server

The files that iSpring has generated look like this.

Files saved

Simply upload those files to your webserver using your FTP program and provide people with the link to the index.html file which will then embed the Flash movie.

ii) Use a hosted service

If you don’t have access to a web server, and no tech friends who you can beg, borrow or steal from - then there are more and more hosted services coming online. iSpring offer their own service called Slideboom. The site looks like this:

Slideboom.com

You will need to join online - it’s free of course. You can then either upload your file via their website…

Uploader screen

Or - more conveniently, now you’ve signed up - you can use the iSpring application you’ve already installed by going back to the “Publish to Flash” dialogue box and then “edit account”. Type in your login and password.

iSpring Uploader

Next time you export the presentation, select Sideboom (rather than a local directory) and then press “publish”.

This dialogue box will appear:

Upload settings

Edit the various fields to reflect your presentation and assuming you would like this to be private access only, untick the “Allow public access” box.

Once it’s been uploaded to the Sideboom server, your browser will take you to that page. To share it with others - fill in the share via email box.

You can look at the example I’ve just created here.

Simple, quick, free and massively useful. I suspect you will impress your colleagues too!

You could of course send them to the PowerPoint convert zone right here on this site… or you could get smart and set your application up correctly… just like this in fact:

For Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007, if you use the following technique as soon as you install the Office 2007 software, you will ensure you never get that frustrated colleague on the phone.

Step 1: Click on ‘POWERPOINT OPTIONS’

PowerPoint 2007 options screen

Step 2: Select ‘SAVE’ from the sidebar.

Step 3: Select the top drop down - ‘Save files in this format’ and select ‘PowerPoint Presentation 97-2003′.

Being smarter by saving down

As an optional extra - another really useful box to check is the ‘Embed fonts in the file’ box. In Office 2007 there are a number of extra fonts included - Calibri being one, which are not included in Office 2003 and earlier. If you have been building a presentation in Office 2007 using Calibri and send it on to a colleague with Office 2003, it will not look as expected, as they do not have the font. Selecting this box will make the file a little larger, however it will ensure the presentation reads correctly.

Step 4: Select OK.

Point to note - when saving PowerPoint 2007 files (.pptx) down to PowerPoint 2003 (.ppt) there would be a minor loss of fidelity if you’ve used advanced features in the file - for example Smart Art. The file will look correct, however users of PowerPoint 2003 will not be able to edit that particular slide using the Smart Art functionality.

I’ve used this ’save down’ feature for about 18 months now - and it’s never caused a problem yet! Compare that with the number of times around the office have I heard frustrated Business PowerPoint colleagues with file version problems!

Being Smarter - it’s the name of the game.

It’s not well known or publicised (like so many things in life) that PowerPoint can save files as PDFs from inside the program, using FILE > SAVE AS. Unfortunately, unless you download the add-in (plug-in), it isn’t a piece of functionality which comes as standard (unhelpful or what?!)

This method will only work for Office 2007. Once the add-in has been installed, it will provide this conversion functionality in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Firstly, click http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA101675271033.aspx

It will take you to this office online page:

Office Online

Select the Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs link (don’t you just love Microsoft’s brevity in their product naming!)

It will then take you to a validation page to ensure that you are using a genuine version of Microsoft Office. If yours is not - then I suggest you leave here and go and buy a legitimate copy…

Click the ‘continue’ button. You may have to install a small piece of software if using Internet Explorer. You will then get a validation code to paste into the Step 2 box.

Press the download button and then I would suggest you select ‘RUN’ as opposed to ‘SAVE’ when the download box appears. The application will then download. Follow the simple wizard and it will install.

If you then open PowerPoint 2007, at first glance it’s not obvious that anything’s happened. Go to the ‘SAVE AS’ drop down… and lo and behold, you can now save to PDF, like any other file. Excellent - a really easy way to protect and distribute those Business PowerPoint presentations.

PDF add-in - simple, free and convenient

www.zamzar.com is a free online file converter (in beta - obviously - but don’t let that put you off - most things are.) I’m not overly sure about the chameleons, however the important thing is that it works! It really is as simple as following Steps 1>4:

There’s no need to login, and sadly for Zamzar - I’m really struggling to understand why you’d pay for any of the upgraded editions - so don’t be tempted to upgrade at this moment unless you see yourself becoming a power user.

In our example, we are converting a PPT or PPTX file into a pdf.

Step 1: Click the browse button and select the PowerPoint file you would like to convert. Depending on the size of the file, you will then see it uploading. Don’t navigate away from the page - or it will stop the upload.

Step 2: As soon as you select the file in step 1, the drop down in Step 2 changes to provide the ’sensible’ options for conversion. Select .PDF in our case.

Step 3: Enter your email address. I’ve had no cause to worry about spam - however if you’re worried - be careful with the address you use.

Step 4: Click ‘convert’. Not difficult really!

In my testing experience, the notification mail comes through almost immediately, although I suspect for larger files, it will maybe take a few minutes, depending on server load.

The email will look something like:

Simple as 1,2,3,4...

Simply click the long link at the bottom of the mail and hey preso - you’ve a nicely formatted PDF for distribution.

Simply. Easy. Free - the way I like it Business PowerPoint users will hopefully think the same.

Method #2 in the Powerpoint convert zone looks at installing software to do the same job…