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PowerPoint Hell

djberg96 on 2002-12-07T18:28:50

I've just now realized that if you save an MS PowerPoint presentation in html format, it will only be readable by IE. Or, I should say, I can't read it with Mozilla.

So, what are my options now? I'm hoping someone out there has a conversion program or something. Anyone?

Try OpenOffice.org

jbisbee on 2002-12-07T18:35:58

Try opening the presentation with the OpenOffice.org presentation component and save as HTML there. I have no idea if this will work, but it's worth a try.

Re:Try OpenOffice.org

djberg96 on 2002-12-07T18:54:08

That worked! I never used OpenOffice before. I think I'm a convert.

Thanks!

PowerPoint Versions

ziggy on 2002-12-07T18:46:51

What version of PowerPoint? What options do you have set in Mozilla?

I've created HTML versions of PowerPoint presentations before, up to PP2000 I believe. They change the HTML output every so often; the original conversion (PP95? PP97?) rendered a set of JPEGs with just enough HTML to link the images together. A newer version of PowerPoint used the same kind of CSS hackery that Word uses to generate more native HTML in a frameset to mimic the outline/slide/notes view.

I wouldn't be surprised if PP XP hacked the HTML output further, but I hesitate to believe that Microsoft made it viewable only with IE. PP XP was developed during the monopoly suit, released after the findings of fact and way before the slap-on-the-wrist ruling. I doubt they would have been that brazen given the circumstances.

Re:PowerPoint Versions

djberg96 on 2002-12-07T18:56:48

PP 2000. While porting to OpenOffice and back worked, it's not as nice looking. If there's an option I can set within Mozilla that'll let me view the original HTML, please let me know! I messed around in preferences, but didn't see anything that stood out. However, IANAME (I Am Not A Mozilla Expert).

Re:PowerPoint Versions

ziggy on 2002-12-07T19:13:13

Ctrl+U shows source in Mozilla for X-Windows. Probably the same key combination in Windows.

Re:PowerPoint Versions

djberg96 on 2002-12-07T20:17:54

Oops. I meant, "view the html originally created by PowerPoint within the browser, correctly", not "view the source". Sorry for the confusion.

HTML cleanup tools

bart on 2002-12-08T21:44:25

Well, you appear to have found a solution in case where you do have the original Office file. But in cases where you don't:

There are some HTML cleanup tools floating around. Some of them are specifically intended to clean up the "HTML" as produced by MS-Word, or at least are reported to work well for these; but it might work well with the output of any MS-Office program.

Try PDF

Odud on 2002-12-09T11:50:31

If you have access to Acrobat you could try converting it to PDF. The output looks fine and should be viewable by most people.