Powerpoint issues cross platform.

[John Gibson]

OK,

Mixed enviornment here. Macs and PCs. Our creative department builds
presentations on a Mac, and gives them to our sales group that is PC.
Usually works well, but lately we have been using lots of Videos.

We have been using visual hub to translate quicktime files to WMV
files and inserting them on the PC.

However when we have to go back to the Mac and do major edits on
slides, the Mac application decides to change the presentations so
they are using Quicktime.

We don't need to view the presentation on a Mac, we simply need to
make the edits.

When we did this we started getting the error that a decompressor was
needed.

So.. any thought on how to do this without running into these
problems? I know what would be so peach king.... it would be to allow
the Mac to embed WMV files, and have them work cross platform, but my
guess is that will never happen.

I am open to your suggestions (and no... taking the creative group to
PC is not an option) and helpful hints.

Thanks for all your help.

John Gibson

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

So.. any thought on how to do this without running into these
problems? I know what would be so peach king.... it would be to allow
the Mac to embed WMV files, and have them work cross platform, but my
guess is that will never happen.

Flip4Mac offers solutions to view (free) and encode/transcode
(shareware) WMV files straight in QuickTime.
With he Flip4Mac codecs installed you can play WMV files in PPT. With
the Pro version you can edit them as well.
Give it a try, it might just be what you are looking for,

Corentin

 

[John Gibson]

Flip4Mac offers solutions to view (free) and encode/transcode
(shareware) WMV files straight in QuickTime.
With he Flip4Mac codecs installed you can play WMV files in PPT. With
the Pro version you can edit them as well.
Give it a try, it might just be what you are looking for,

Corentin

I will check this out... but my problem is that when we go back to PC
I need to make sure the video's work.

John

 

[John Gibson]

I will check this out... but my problem is that when we go back to PC
I need to make sure the video's work.

John

Ok... here is a strange one...

ON the Mac with Flip4mac installed, I can't insert the WMV files...
Just won't allow me.

If I change the name to .mov, then I get an error that file is not the
right type.

So... if you are using flip4mac, what do you do in order to put your
movies into Powerpoint if they are WMV?

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I will check this out... but my problem is that when we go back to
PC I need to make sure the video's work.

If the video is still in WMV, there is no reason why it shouldn't work,

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Ok... here is a strange one...

ON the Mac with Flip4mac installed, I can't insert the WMV files...
Just won't allow me.

Can you play the file in QuickTime player?

Corentin

 

[John Gibson]

Can you play the file in QuickTime player?

Corentin

Yes, they do play in Powerpoint.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Can you play the file in QuickTime player?

Corentin

Yes, they do play in Powerpoint.
[/QUOTE]

??? I'm lost... I guess you meant QuickTime player (or I don't see
what the problem is). I played around with this. It appears to be a
stupid restriction on the PPT side. The application cehckes the file
extension and claims it is not supported - yet is I rename the file
and replace the .wmv with a .avi, I can import the video in a slide
and play it without any problem. That's simply ridiculous :-< I made a
test back in Windows vista with PPT 2007 and everything played jsut
fine with the video renamed as .avi. The problem is that if I do that,
the PPT file becomes useless in Windows. Windows PPT 2007 asks me for
a QuickTime decompressor (and WMP for Windows complains that the file
type and content type don't match since we now have a WMV file with an
AVI extension).
The only workaround I found was to keep the video in WMV and insert it
in the PPT presentation from Windows. I transfered the two files (PPT
and WMV) back on the Mac and then I see the video when I open the
presentation.

Corentin

 

[John Gibson]

??? I'm lost... I guess you meant QuickTime player (or I don't see
what the problem is). I played around with this. It appears to be a
stupid restriction on the PPT side. The application cehckes the file
extension and claims it is not supported - yet is I rename the file
and replace the .wmv with a .avi, I can import the video in a slide
and play it without any problem. That's simply ridiculous :-< I made a
test back in Windows vista with PPT 2007 and everything played jsut
fine with the video renamed as .avi. The problem is that if I do that,
the PPT file becomes useless in Windows. Windows PPT 2007 asks me for
a QuickTime decompressor (and WMP for Windows complains that the file
type and content type don't match since we now have a WMV file with an
AVI extension).
The only workaround I found was to keep the video in WMV and insert it
in the PPT presentation from Windows. I transfered the two files (PPT
and WMV) back on the Mac and then I see the video when I open the
presentation.

Corentin

Yeah... I meant Quicktime....

Sometimes my brain doesn't work...

The only solution at this point is to simply use the PC systems to do
the edits.

One of these days there will truly be a X platform solution where this
**** doesn't happen.

John

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

One of these days there will truly be a X platform solution where
this **** doesn't happen.

Well when PPT 2004 came out, there was no solution to offer support
for WMV in QuickTime. PPT entirely relies on QT on MacOS X to display
graphics and media so I understand that this situation wasn't
supported.I wish an update had taken care of this issue since then
though :-\

Corentin

 

[ArtDirectorC]

John,

Do you think you can help me? I just had purchased student and teacher
for a presentation I needed to get done. I completed the project that
starts w/ a little sound and has a few animations. I want to know how
to export it so that, when I make it to a simple .mov, all timing will
be on point and animations will simply function when they're suppose
to. I've ran into some problems when simply trying to make a .mov so
that I can start copying this presentation to other CD's to distribute
to my sales people that predominately work on PC's without having
PowerPoint on their machines. Please advise how to make my movie
simply export to a timely quicktime file? Thanks...

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that. If it doesn't work when
you "Make Movie" under the "File" menu, your best option is probably to use
a tool like Snapz Pro <http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/> to
capture the presentation as you play it and then save it as a QuickTime
Movie.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

A popular method to accurately convert PowerPoint presentations for playback
is a program called Impatica.

-Jim

Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that. If it doesn't work when
you "Make Movie" under the "File" menu, your best option is probably to use
a tool like Snapz Pro <http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/> to
capture the presentation as you play it and then save it as a QuickTime
Movie.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

From Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office2004/using.aspx?pid=usingoffice2
004&type=howto&article=/mac/library/how_to_articles/office2004/of_xplatform.
xml

From the MVPs:
http://pptfaq.com/index.html#name_Cross-platform_Compatibility

-Jim

Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee that. If it doesn't work when
you "Make Movie" under the "File" menu, your best option is probably to use
a tool like Snapz Pro <http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/> to
capture the presentation as you play it and then save it as a QuickTime
Movie.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info