Thanks for your reply/advice. I downloaded the .exe file which should
create a viewer for my PC-equipped friends. If I burn it on a CD along
with a PP slideshow produced on a Mac with OS X, they ought to be
able to view the show.
So long as the CD is in PC-readable format, yes. They'll need to be told to
install the viewer and what file to doubleclick to start the show. Or you
could create the CD as an AutoRun for PC users w/o affecting the functionality
for Mac users, I'd think:
Make an AutoRun CD
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00037.htm
I'd also have a look here for things that go bump in the night between Mac and
PC
PC to Mac and Back
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00281.htm
Is there a similar viewer for Mac users? I couldn't
find one.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page and you'll find a link to the PowerPoint
98 viewer for Mac:
Download Free PowerPoint Viewers
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00153.htm
Alternatively, is this the best way to share slideshows across platforms?
I suppose I could convert my PP slideshows to a .pdf format and simply
burn them onto CDs. I'd guess that almost everyone on any platform
has a fairly current version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Is that be a
preferred way to accomplish what I'd like to do?
Each method has strengths and drawbacks. PDF doesn't support animations at all
and has no user interface for setting individual transitions on pages/slides,
though it does support page transitions. Most methods of creating PDFs leave
your action settings and links back in PPT. They don't arrive in the PDF as
live links (Adobe's PDFMaker for PowerPoint Windows does a halfway job).
On the plus side, font embedding works, security settings are available and
don't entirely lock out users of older Acrobat readers, you *can* manually
recreate links in Acrobat if they don't arrive alive in the PDF in the first
place (or if using a PC to create the PDF is an option, our Prep4PDF addin will
do all of the work for you - demo at
http://get.pptools.com )
Other than animations, I'd say PDF is a pretty good alternative.
