Re: Hyperlinks from PowerPoint Viewer 2003

From: Lon (sobel_at_entertainmentlawreporter.com)
Date: 12/10/04 

Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 02:22:33 GMT

Steve,

Wow! PPT2HTML is exactly the tool I have been looking for. It makes
PowerPoint more than a presentation program. It makes it an authoring and
publishing program too! It solved all the problems I complained of in my
last post, and then some.

Here's what I like about PPT2HTML so far. (I say "so far," because I haven't
yet read the instructions on how to use it, or the description of all of its
features. I'm one of those "If all else fails, read the instructions" types.
The reason I haven't read the instructions is that PPT2HTML is so intuitive,
it worked for me the first time I tried it, without my having to read
anything.)

I like that:
- It picked up all of my presentation's hyperlinks (there are hundreds of
them), and all of them work perfectly from the html pages it created. In
fact, PPT2HTML even picked up and properly converted hyperlinks I had
attached to small and perfectly horizontal arrows.
- The links it created from html page to html page execute faster than
the links from slide to slide in PowerPoint itself.
- When the html version of my presentation (created by PPT2HTML) links to
an external website, I can return to the same slide of the presentation
(i.e., the slide from which I linked out) simply by clicking my browser's
"back" button. When I used PowerPoint's own "Save as Web Page" feature, I
couldn't return to the same slide (from which I linked out). Instead,
clicking my browser's "back" button took me back to the first slide of my
presentation. That's (just) one of the reasons PowerPoint's "Save as Web
Page" feature was useless to me.
- The html code created by PPT2HTML is clean and neat, and I can easily
find which html page corresponds to which PowerPoint slide. This is
important to me, because eventually I'm going to insert some additional code
into the html pages (code for Microsoft Agent character animations). This
additional code will be different for each html page, and the code has to
correspond to what's on the page (because the character animation will
discuss what's on the page). I couldn't do that with the html pages created
by PowerPoint's "Save as Web Page" feature, because PowerPoint's html pages
are incredibly complicated, and are numbered differently from the slides to
which they correspond. As a result, I couldn't even find the html page that
corresponds to each PowerPoint slide. Also, I can open PPT2HTML's pages in
Microsoft FrontPage, but FrontPage choked and froze on the html pages
created by PowerPoint!
- The images PPT2HTML creates are sharp and clear, even though my slides
contain lots of small (10 pt) type, small rectangles and thin lines.
- PPT2HTML's html pages don't produce annoying virus warnings.
- It's fast. It took just 3 minutes to convert a 207 slide presentation.

One of PowerPoint's unique features is that automatically scales slides up
or down, so they perfectly fit the user's monitor. Html pages can't do that
(not even those produced by PPT2HTML). On the other hand, PPT2HTML does
create html pages for any desired monitor resolution. Since I'll be using it
as a publish-to-the-world tool, I'll simply use PPT2HTML to create several
sets of pages, each for a different monitor resolution; and I'll let my my
users select the set of pages that matches the resolution of each of their
monitors.

The only thing PPT2HTML doesn't do (I gather) is pick up PowerPoint slide
transitions and object animations. I don't use those Power Point features,
so it's no loss to me. In any event, since I'll be using my presentation in
a university setting -- where many students use Macs and even Linux
computers -- the ability to create html pages that can be viewed on all
operating systems -- even Linux -- more than offsets the lack of slide
transitions and object animations.

Congratulations, Steve, on a terrific piece of software. You're familiar,
I'm sure, with the line of computer books called "The Missing Manual." Well
PPT2HTML is the "Missing Module" that everyone who wants to "publish"
PowerPoint presentations should have.

-Lon

Lionel S. Sobel
Editor and Publisher
Entertainment Law Reporter
www.EntertainmentLawReporter.com
Professor & Director of UK Summer Abroad Program
Southwestern University School of Law (Los Angeles)

"Steve Rindsberg" <abuse@localhost.com> wrote in message
news:VA.00000e52.450901f5@localhost.com...
> Lon,
>
>> Yes, you're right. And when I posted my comment that "newer versions
>> aren't
>> always better," I had the same good-natured attitude that I read into
>> your
>> post.
>
> We read each other right. ;-)
>
>> Now, though, I'm feeling real frustration with Viewers.
>
> You're not alone.
>
>> Viewer 97 is better than Viewer 2003 in two respects:
>> 1. It does not produce virus warnings when website links are clicked.
>> 2. It does recognize bookmarks in the linked to web pages.
>> But . . . Viewer 97 does not recognize or respond to the hyperlinks I
>> attached to arrows. The arrows are just dead, as though no hyperlinks had
>> been attached to them at all.
>
> This set off an interesting burst of quality playtime here. It seems that
> Viewer97 does recognize hyperlinks attached to arrows, but only if the
> arrows
> are at least the tiniest bit off horizontal or vertical.
>
> Another trick is to draw another shape atop the arrow, assign it the
> hyperlink,
> then give it no fill, no outline so it's invisible. It still works as a
> link,
> at least in the 97 Viewer. Only the outline will behave as a link in the
> 2003
> viewer (but of course there it warns you of the evil things that will
> befall
> you if you click on it. And casts out the named destination.)
>
>> So, I'm wondering whether you or anyone in this newsgroup has:
>> 1. a solution to my problem, or
>> 2. knowledge of a superior PowerPoint viewer created by someone other
>> than Microsoft that deals with these problems.
>
> Saving as MHT (Single-file HTML) preserves the named destinations and
> works
> even with horizontal/vertical arrows. But only the outlines of
> unfilled/unoutlined shapes are live as links.
>
> If you don't need animation and want to consider using HTML and a browser
> instead of PPT files, have a look at our PPT2HTML add-in
> (http://html.pptools.com). It handles everything we've discussed so far
> well
> except for perfectly vertical/horizontal arrows and lines. How do you
> like
> that, you've discovered a bug in software you've never even heard of. ;-)
>
> I think I can fix that one fairly simply.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
> PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
> PPTools: www.pptools.com
> ================================================
>
>

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