So why on earth would any Business PowerPoint user want to do such a thing?

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!

So then, you’re one of the lucky/unlucky ones (delete as applicable) and have a shiny new copy of Office 2007 on your desktop - the envy of the office no doubt… until you try to send them a PPT file. Of course they can’t open it - nor can the client you’ve just sent it to either. Two phone calls / emails (delete as applicable) in the space of 5 mins as they anxiously try to get into your fine presentation work.

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.

The first method of conversion from PowerPoint 97,2000,2003 (.ppt) or PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) in our PowerPoint convert zone is aimed more at users who are likely to save PowerPoint files (or any other Office document types for that matter) as .PDFs on a regular basis.

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

The first method of conversion from PowerPoint 97,2000,2003 (.ppt) or PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) in our PowerPoint convert zone doesn’t involve any installed software - always handy in the corporate environment or for when you’re using someone else’s PC. The wonders of cloud computing now extend into the world of file conversion and providing you have access to an email address can get hold of conversions in seconds, for free (always a good thing!).

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…