When constructing web pages, you may find a time when you want to
include PowerPoint presentations as an option in your web site. One
appropriate place for a PowerPoint link would be when you go to a conference
and give a presentation. People who want a copy of your presentation
could get a paper copy that you provide, or you could place your presentation
on the web site and give them the address. Another possibility would
be if you created a special presentation for a school meeting or a lesson
and wanted to make that available to students, teachers, and parents
on the web. Presentations are not appropriate for all web sites,
but are presented here as one possiblity you may consider.
There are some special situations to be aware of when coordinating a specialized program like PowerPoint with the restrictive environment of the Web. Be aware that some versions of PowerPoint may work differently with certain versions of Composer but the information presented here should work as a general (and consistent) approach. We assume that you have the basics of links and saving web pages before completing these steps.
In PowerPoint:
1. Create your presentation. Save it normally as a PowerPoint file.
2. When it is ready to go to the web, pull down the FILE
menu to Save As HTML (This is on the FILE menu beneath
SAVE AS . . ., not within the SAVE AS... window).
This will create a folder and within that folder will be a set of web pages that duplicate your presentation.
3. A "wizard" will open allowing you to click through the various
options to create that folder. Some options need to be considered.
If you want your email address included (or want no address at all), change or remove information in the fifth screen.This fifth screen also allows a user to download your presentation file, if you so desire.
The ninth screen determines where the presentation folder will be stored. Here, you need to save your presentation folder that PowerPoint will create either into your existing web site folder or into the Desktop so you can find it easily. Click the Select button (Macintosh) or the Browse button (PC) and give the FOLDER a name- use no spaces- letters and numbers only are safe.
Then click the FINISH button.
In any case, you MUST move the folder inside your web site folder before
you make a link to it.
4. QUIT PowerPoint
You have told PowerPoint to create a folder for your presentation and within the folder you will find a file called index.html. That page will hold certain information about your presentation and the other files in the folder will contain each slide and image that is part of your presentation.
In Composer:
5. Now open the Composer page where you want the link to the presentation to appear.
6. Type the text or keyword(s) for the presentation, highlight them, and click the link button. Browse to the presentation folder you created above, and open it, selecting the index.html file.
7. SAVE and Preview your page. When you click on the link to your presentation, you will go to the index file that was created for you from information you gave the wizard.
The index page or other presentation pages can be edited just like any
other web page, using Composer or another web program. You may want
to add other links or information, but when you save them, they become
Composer documents, rather than PowerPoint files.
8. The index page offers two possibilities:
On PCs and with some versions of Netscape and PowerPoint on Macintoshes,
you can save the PowerPoint file as a normal "Presentation" and if you
follow the file name with .ppt your
users will be able to download the file and open it from within PowerPoint,
rather than see it as a set of web pages. When users
click on this link, they will get a "Security Hazard" warning and can either
save your file to disk and open it later or can open it in PowerPoint at
that time. If they open the file, they must have PowerPoint on their
computer and they will leave their browser and begin running another program
(PowerPoint).
There are advantages and disadvantages to either approach. Saving as a file, they get the transitions and automatic settings as you set them when you created the presentation. However, they must have PowerPoint on their computer and they must have enough memory to open both a browser and PowerPoint at the same time. If viewed as a web page, the presentation must be clicked on to advance, but issues with fonts, memory needs, and what happens once you finish the slide show become minimal, as you are staying within the browser.
