Editing Alternative to Power Point?

[1parkpointer]

Hi,
My daughter is taking a science class, in which the students have a
assignment to make a power point presentation. The classroom compute
has the power point program on it, and the students share the compute
& program for their assignment. The teacher suggested the student
could do their work at home, but we do not have power point on our hom
computer.
Can Word be used in some way to make a presentation that can be save
to a flash drive and then inserted into the power point program tha
the students have assigned to them at school? Any help would b
appreciated!

 

[Tom Willett]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpower2k2/html/ODC_WordToPPT.asp

 

[1parkpointer]

Hi Tom,
Thank you! I suppose I should have said that the copy of Word we us
is Word97. After I copied the pages from the officehelp web site, rea
at the top of the pages that the article applies to MS Word 2002 & M
PowerPoint 2002. I do not know which version of PowerPoint is at he
school, and I don't know anything about PowerPoint myself. Our versio
of Word does have 'Outline view' as is requested in the answer, however
again I do not know anything about which powerpoint is at her school an
whether or not our Word97 is compatible with the school's powerpoin
program. Thanks again!

 

[Ann Scharpf]

MS Office is backwards compatible all the way to 97. This means that your
files will be readable to the current version of the software. I am running
XP so I am not sure whether Word 97 includes the funcitonality outlined in
the web page that Tom linked to. But, worst case scenario, your child can do
their work in Word 97 and have someone else (with a more recent version) do
the export to PowerPoint.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi 1parkpointer

You might also find it useful to download the free PowerPoint viewer from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...27-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&displaylang=en

That won't help you create or edit a PowerPoint presentation. It only lets
you view existing PowerPoint files. But if, for example, your daughter
brings home a PowerPoint file from school, she would be able to view it in
the Viewer.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day 1parkpointer,

Just as there is Microsoft Office, there is also Star Office by Sun
Microsystems.

The core of Star Office is a suite of Programs known as Open Office.

Now Open Office is FREE - yes FREE.

The suite consists of programs that have a VERY FAIR degree of
compatibility with Microsoft Office. These include:
Writer (Word)
Calc (Excel)
Impress (PowerPoint)

Using Impress, and 'Save As...' 'Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt)' wil
result in a
very reasonable PowerPoint Presentation.

(Similarly for Writer and Calc ...)

The suite is not as 'complete' as Microsoft Office, but you can (fo
example)
insert MS Clipart (you need to locate it on your PC), your ow
Pictures, charts
and various drawing shapes etc, just like PowerPoint.

I won't be giving up Microsoft Office anytime soon, but I always hav
Open
Office installed - I have a number of correspondents, clients an
students that
use Open Office/Star Office and I have inter-converted numerous Wor
docs
without any real problems.

Open Office also has an excellent 'Export as PDF ...' facility.

You can download open Office 2.04 at:
http://download.openoffice.org/2.0.4/index.html.

Good Luck!

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day 1parkpointer,

Just as there is Microsoft Office, there is also Star Office by Sun
Microsystems.

The core of Star Office is a suite of Programs known as Open Office.

Now Open Office is FREE - yes FREE.

The suite consists of programs that have a VERY FAIR degree of
compatibility with Microsoft Office. These include:
Writer (Word)
Calc (Excel)
Impress (PowerPoint)

Using Impress, and 'Save As...' 'Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt)' will result in a
very reasonable PowerPoint Presentation.

(Similarly for Writer and Calc ...)

The suite is not as 'complete' as Microsoft Office, but you can (for example)
insert MS Clipart (you need to locate it on your PC), your own Pictures, charts
and various drawing shapes etc, just like PowerPoint.

I won't be giving up Microsoft Office anytime soon, but I always have Open
Office installed - I have a number of correspondents, clients and students that
use Open Office/Star Office and I have inter-converted numerous Word docs
without any real problems.

Open Office also has an excellent 'Export as PDF ...' facility.

You can download open Office 2.04 at:
http://download.openoffice.org/2.0.4/index.html.

Good Luck!

 

[1parkpointer]

Hi Pat G.,
We will download the program and 'Read All About It' as soon as we can
Sounds like a great program that will be put to good use. Thank you
and you might get more mail as time goes on. Thanks Again

 

[1parkpointer]

Hi,
Guess more information on our problem is needed. Current OS softwar
is Windows 98/98SE; Word97 word processor, on a 1998 Dell xps r400 wit
128mb ram. The Open Office fix will not work on our computer. Olde
machine that continues to work the test of time.
Daughter is needing to use a PowerPoint type program for presentation
at school. Have been told by science teacher that editing can be don
using Word97 in Outline form, but saving it to a floppy and downloadin
at school doesn't seem to be working too well. Things get lost in th
translation.
We recently borrowed a flash drive and apparently the computer OS i
too old to understand what to do with the flash software/hardware a
the usb port.
With other needs for our family funds, a newer computer just isn't i
the cards.
Any other options out there would be welcome! Thank You

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi 1parkpointer

Two things:

1. Let's backtrack a bit. You have Word 97. Are you sure you don't also have
PowerPoint 97? It's possible that the machine came with just Word, but it
strikes me as marginally more likely that it came with all of Office 97. If
you can't see PowerPoint on the All Programs menu, try Start > Run. In the
box type POWERPNT.EXE and click OK. If you have PowerPoint on the machine,
that should open it up.

2. I've used a USB drive with Windows 98 and 98SE, but I also seem to
remember running into a case where one particular USB drive would not work
on one particular machine. So either (a) your machine needs the drivers that
will let it deal with USB drives or (b) it might be just an unhappy marriage
between your machine and the flash drive you have. Could you use another
flash drive? But the combination of Windows 98SE and flash drives is several
steps beyond my knowledge, so I'd suggest you post a question in an
appropriate Windows newsgroup.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[1parkpointer]

Hi Shauna K.,

I checked out the computer the MS office program that came with th
software is small business. It is missing access, powerpoint, an
front page, and there is no PowerPoint97 or any other version. Als
tried the usb again, and the computer still doesn't see the drive. Th
computer has two usb ports on the back and according to the operator
manual, they are version 1.1. Apparently it matters, because the onl
devices that they recognize are the printer and scanner.
We had a problem with the printer when we got the first one. For wha
ever reason, the first printer was replaced and the second one work
fine.
Her teacher says that she can use Word97 at home or simply do her wor
after school.
[I certainly wish the schools would give copies of the programs the
wish to see the students use. It is unfair of teachers to expec
parents to simply go out and buy software programs for every articula
class assignment that they expect their students to do.]
Thanks for your help.