Slow PP Presentation Download

[Jim Hank]

I have a PowerPoint presentation that I am displaying on my website. This is
a very large presentation that is only suitable to be viewed using a
high-speed, broadband connection. The problem is that during the 15 to 30
seconds while the browser is downloading the slide show presentation, the
complete screen on the monitor is blank and the word "Done" is shown in the
status bar. (To see problem, go to http://www.jhbarnes.com and click on
Quick-View link 7.)
BTW, there is no hour-glass or progress meter showing that the download is
in progress.) This is very confusing to users and they frequently abort the
download before it is completed.
Is there any way of displaying a message to users informing them that the
presentation is being downloaded to the browser? (I also posted this problem
on the PP newsgroup.)
Any help will be greatly appreciated,
Jim

 

[Steve Easton]

<imho>
At 8.2 mb I can see why people give up. It took "awhile" and I'm on a good DSL connection.
Anyone stuck behind a 56k dial up would be frustrated to no end.

Excuse me for being a little "direct" but:

If you're demonstrating web design features / capabilities, why do it with a PowerPoint
demo.
Why not simply create a page for each theme and let the page display a screenshot that has
been optimized with an image editor.

Then use the same navigation style in a regular page to display the theme pages in a frame
or iframe.

That way you're not forcing people to sit through an 8+mb download, and you only get a
bandwidth hit for the pages the visitor actually views.

How many people will look at 1 or 2 themes and then close the demo?? There goes 8.2mb of
bandwidth down the drain.

</imho>

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer

 

[Steve Easton]

Additionally.

Your home page never completely loads for some reason. The progress bar never completes
and the throbber never stops spinning.
( I think their called throbbers because some of them give you a headache )

;-)

Also, your using vml images ( word art ) which only display correctly in Internet
Explorer,
and you're using JAVA applets. JAVA ( not to be confused with javascript ) is not
installed
on new XP machines with IE 6, and it will not be a part of IE 7 and / or Windows Vista.


Sorry if I'm sounding too critical, I realize you put a lot of work into your site, but
I'm really trying to help.



--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer

 

[Jim Hank]

Steve,
You are certainly not being to critical. I appreciate your candid remarks
and will redesign this function to elimiate PowerPoint presentations from the
site. I realized that it was large download and would require a HS connection
but PP presentations are great for things like this. BTW, This presentation
was initially developed to be shown as a slide show presentation on a laptop
and I simply published it to the web. Will not make that mistake again.
Will also take a look at the other problems you noted.
Thanks again.

Jim

 

[Steve Easton]

Now I understand why you wanted to try using the PowerPoint demo. ( that name doesn't
abbreviate very well does it )

I sometimes use word art to create graphics, but I then take a screenshot and convert it
to a gif or jpg ( depending upon the color depth ) and then use the image on the page.


hth


--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

I'm curious as to why you would bother creating an 8 mg ppt of themes that
are readily available in FrontPage...whats the point when you can just open
Frontpage and check them out?