Animation speed inconsistency when viewing a PPT saved as HTML

[JeremyBarnes]

Hello,

As a "poor man's alternative" to Flash I've created some product demos using
PowerPoint. The demos have fairly complex animation, as well as hyperlinks
objects on the pages to enable a degree of navigation.

I've used the Save as Web Page function to generate HTML from the
slideshows, and I believe have used all of the correct settings (show slide
animation while browsing etc.)

On my own workstation (as well as all of the others I have tested on), the
demo displays perfectly--animation is smooth, timing is correct, everything
works great. However, occasionally I receive feedback from a visitor that
they have opened the demo and the animation and slide transitions were going
haywire, and everything flew by too fast for them to read or watch any of it.
I've questioned these people about browser versions and settings, and nothing
was reported back that seemed out of the ordinary. I'm at a loss for what
might be causing this problem for some visitors yet not for me.

Has anyone else had a similar experience while leveraging PPT content in
this manner, or any suggestions about what might be causing this behavior?

 

[Kathy J]

Jeremy,
PPT is not known for repeatable timing (or at least not EXACT repeatable
timing). It is too system dependent. Add in the differences involved in
different bandwidths when downloading from the web and the problems get
worse. That's not to say it can't be done, but that is to say that you
probably want to take this into consideration before you go much further
with the project.

My guess is that there isn't a browser setting that is causing the
differences. It is more likely to be based on the speed of their connection,
what else is running on the machine, and whether the page has been cached or
is just running straight from the web. (Just to confuse the matters: I am
pretty sure that the people seeing the speed problem you are referring to
have a slow connection. IE is trying to keep the slide timing the same as
you set it, but having problems downloading the pages quickly enough. So,
when the pages do finally load, the animations happen all at once.)

Having said that, it is much easier to help with these kinds of problems
when there is a link to the problem pages. Can you provide one?

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[JeremyBarnes]

Hi Kathy,

Thank you for your insight. It makes sense regarding the connection speed.
I'm positive that at least one of the users who reported this behavior was on
a DSL connection however, and I would think that should be able to handle the
content.

If you have an opportunity to take a look at the demo, you can access it by
clicking the "Guided Tour" link on this page: www.opentext.com/new-in-95 (in
the Downloads box in the right column)

Thanks,
Jeremy.

 

[Kathy J]

Jeremy,
I think you need to slow down the animations. I am on a broadband connection
(cable modem), but I didn't get many of the graphics downloaded before the
slides changed. In fact, on one slide, the arrows hadn't even downloaded
before the page changed You might want to check and see if the graphics
are optimized for web use. One possibility might be that the graphics are
larger in size than they need to be for the window in which they are
playing.

I had another thought... it is possible that the slow down is on your
server? Check your usage stats and see if your bandwidth usage is high -
that might affect things too.

Have you thought about doing some kind of interactive recording of the
presentation instead of just running the presentation? It might work
better....

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived