PPT->Flash

According to the reviewer's guide the Powerpoint equivalent from Corel's Office 11 can export to SWF (Macromedia Flash file format). Why Microsoft has not yet done this is a mystery to me, there is a huge demand for this today:

http://www.articulateglobal.com
http://www.corel.com (Corel presentation can import PPT and save as SWF)
http://www.iceweb.com (I think)
http://www.macromedia.com/ (breeze is just the rebranded presedia solution)
http://www.presentationpro.com
http://www.presedia.com (now acquired by macromedia)
http://www.wanadu.com (was partnered with macromedia before presedia acquisition...)

And probably a few more I can't remember off the top of my head.

13 Comments

  • The reason is because Flash does not do XML well. If you get a chance check out SVG. It's much better at integrating with external data (because it is after all, just XML). Don’t get me wrong, Flash has its place and is very good at what it does, but it isn’t good at being used as a template, and then slightly modified by some data within it. There are even free PowerPoint to SVG conversion tools. In the next version of Office Visio has SVG abilities, and I can’t see that Powerpoint will be that far behind.





    Don XML


  • Of course you are going to recommend SVG :-)





    The problem with SVG for this type of thing is:





    1) Scripting support


    2) Audio


    3) Video


    4) Rendering Speed


    5) Bandwidth

  • PS: I don't know if XML support is a big deal for the PPT team... PPT still doesn't really have any real XML support like some competing products (Apple's stuff and Star Office come to mind).

  • LOL, what did you expect? This comment should wind up in a blog soon, so that I can better dismiss the perceived issues (but not sure I should post it on DotNetWebLogs).





    1) Scripting Support is not an issue. The spec requires ECMAScript, but you are also allowed to add other engines. Adobe’s Viewer can use either the MS ScriptHosting engine (as part of IE) or their implementation of the Mozilla Scripting Engine (for non-IE browsers). And the SharpVectors project will be added .Net Scripting support to our viewer (soon I promise ? ).





    2) Audio – The Adobe Viewer has audio support. But in the future the browser should be using SMIL for all audio and video. On the to do list for SharpVectors





    3) Video – RealPlayer and QuickTime but support SVG and Video (but Adobe does not). Also, see comment 2.





    4) Rendering Speed – Is an issue with the viewer not the language. Right now SharpVectors uses GDI+ (decent performance), but we have plans to add DirectX 9.0 Support. Combine that with .Net Scripting and it will beat anything Flash can do.





    5) Bandwidth – Not a problem with gzip (which is a part of the spec). Depending on how the SVG created (if it uses symbols) the gzip version of SVG is about the same size as a similar Flash file.





    Don XML


  • Some cool bits in there I wasn't aware of. IMO, Flash still beats this out though on account of this:





    1) Complexity of solution with SVG (XML, SMIL, RealAudio, etc.). Lots of little technologies to work with rather than one. Not a big issue if you are determined to get the job done, but it will deter a lot of casual developers from creating a solution over the weekend :-)





    2) Plug-in size / Ubiquity of Flash player. Especially if you are going to have audio or video, this is a big deal. For your proposed solution you need to download:





    a. Browser / Viewer supporting SMIL


    b. SVG plugin


    c. ReadAudio or Quicktime





    Your user can easily rack up 50 MB of downloads before they even get to watch the stinking 500kb presentation.

  • Hey Jesse,

    This blog is cool. I was wondering - most of these desktop solutions - are they as robust as something like Breeze or Wanadu? Both of these currently allow insertion of Flash objects so one can insert Flash demos into a Flash presentation



  • Yes, most of the desktop solutions have similar functionality. The stuff from Articulate also lets you insert quizzes, web objects, references, etc.

  • That is just a rehash of Articulate's stuff (came out after this post was written).

  • Hi,



    You can export PPT to SWF using OpenOffice.org.



    Works perfectly.



    Cheers



    Alinna

  • Yes, we can export PPT to SWF using openoffice.org. But the result not retains the animations of every slide.



    Cheers

    Jordi

  • Thanks Alinna!



    Your comment on using OpenOffice is very usefull, thanks alot!!



    Isaac

  • You apparently don't stay up on Powerpoint, the latest version of PowerPoint allows you to create custom animations.


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