Addressing Publisher IFrame to link Power Point Slide Show for web

[LoriLee]

I have saved a 2007 PPT presentation as a webpage on my c drive hoping to
view it through a Publisher created website, so that I can test the site to
ensure it is working properly prior to posting the same on the web. I have
no problem addressing the Iframe to view an album created with Porta (I don't
like format), but I can't address it to connect to the PPT Presentation after
publishing the PPT as as webpage. My long term goal is to use the skin I
created to not only produce slide shows (photo galleries), but to also have
thumbnails I design work right along with the slide show. Please advise.

LoriLee

 

[DavidF]

I would suggest that you create a subfolder on your host server to contain
your PPT web files, and upload them. Then write the Iframe links as full
path, absolute links to the subfolder. Then you will be able to test without
uploading the new publisher web page.

For what it is worth, I would suggest that you try out JAlbum if you don't
like Porta. There are a zillion skins available and I suspect you will be
happier with the results than trying to use PowerPoint.

DavidF

 

[LoriLee]

David, thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I have checked out Jalbum and several
other products. However, I invested a lot of time on my skin, and I really
don't want to scrap it at this point. Certainly, I know enough to link
thumbnails to larger pictures within Publisher and creat duplicate pages to
create a slide show on my own. However, I don't know enough to have those
pages transition on their own when viewing the published site. If I did, I
certainly would scrap the thought of using Power Point entirely.

I also have my thumbnails placed into a set design within my site that I
won't be able to keep (at least not that I can tell) if I go to Jalbum, or
some other software. I am IT challenged in that I have had no formal courses
to teach me any of this. Hence, I don't want to invest money into a host
server until I know i can get this site off the ground and free host
providers such as Google create their own set of issues.

I do have a sub folder on my c drive for the power point presentation, yet I
don't see any file (index.htlm) that can be effectively connected to the
iframe.

 

[DavidF]

LoriLee,

There are lots of way to do things and if you want to pursue the use of PP,
then so be it. I just suspect that in the long run you are not going to be
happy with it. But then I use Publisher to build websites and most people
would say I shouldn't do that, so what do I know?

When I use an Iframe and import a slide show I use the following code
snippet:

<IFRAME src="http://www.mywebsite.com/Album/index.html"
width="700" height="600" hspace="0" vspace="0"
frameborder="0" scrolling="auto"></IFRAME>

I upload the slide show files to the 'Album' folder and by writing an
absolute or full path link to the files I can test the page on my local
computer...the slide show is imported from the server.

I don't use PP, so I don't know in what format the files are when you export
them as a web page, but I would assume that there is at least one *.htm or
..*html file in the group of files produced. Inspect the files, and double
click and open the .htm or .html files in IE or FF and then you will know
which file to point toward. If you can't see the file extensions then go to
your Control panel > Folder options > View tab > Advanced settings and
uncheck the option to "hide extensions for known file types". Then you just
write a link to that folder on your local computer. If your link is not
working then post it and perhaps someone else will help you proof it.

DavidF

 

[LoriLee]

From what you have just said, it sounds like I have done everything you have
suggested. In fact, I have tried to link the Iframe with every HTML doc
listed within that sub folder - just in case and without success. The code I
have been using is as follows:

<IFRAME src=c:/cpw/ppt1_files/outline.html width="700" height="500"
hspace="0" vspace="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto"></IFRAME>

PPT1_files is the subfolder that PPT created for the slide files, much like
the album file that was created with Porta. Outline is just one HTML file
that was within that folder that I attempted to connect with. It almost
seems like the file that would launch the presentation is missing.

My mail goal is to get my pictures to transition in the form of a slide
show, and to present thumbnails with those pics that I can link, and
transition together with the main pictures. No different than what you would
see in many of the slide shows you'd see created with Jalbum, except that I
want to use my own skin. I really don't mind ditching Power Point if I knew
of a way to do that to complete this task. I had hope Jalbum or some other
software would be user friendly to those of us with limited IT knowledge, but
so far I haven't found anything out there to do this. If you have any other
ideas, I would appreciate hearing them.

P.S.: Thanks so much for the time you have invested so far. I appreciate
your patience and time in trying to get me closer to my goal.

 

[DavidF]

Wish I had a good answer for you, but as I said I just don't use PP and
can't say how to use it. I don't know if it makes any difference but did you
try enclosing the src=c:/cpw/ppt1_files/outline.html part of your code
snippet in quotes? Reference my code snippet.

It may be that unless someone else comes along with an idea of how to use PP
html files in your Iframe you might have to give up on using your skins and
adopt something else. I have run up against some design walls myself and
simply had to go a different way when I wasn't able to figure out how to do
what I wanted to do.

Surely there is a skin that you like with JAlbum. Also I keep forgetting
that www.irfanview.com the photo editor has the capacity of producing a html
slide show as does other photo editors that you might have on your computer.

Sorry I don't have any more ideas for you...

DavidF

 

[LoriLee]

Okay, let's ditch the idea of using Power Point as I also tried the quotes,
and it didn't work. If I want to continue to use Publisher, is there a way
that I can insert the HTML code for page transitions and if so, how? I read
somewhere in previous discussions here that Publisher inserts the code when a
site is being published. So, is there a way to edit the code once it is
published to my local drive? As you said, there are a lot of ways to do
things, so instead of my trying to get someone else's program to work, why
not just write my own code? After all, there appears to be numerous codes
listed on the net that I might be able to use for these transitions.

 

[DavidF]

LoriLee,

If you want to ditch Publisher, and since you are still in the design and
build stage, go look at Serif WebPlus. It has a lot of built-in features
that are missing in Publisher and is about as easy to use. If I were to
start all over and didn't want to go with a full fledged code editor, that
is probably the program I would use. Publisher is primarily intended for use
with simple, small fixed width, and static websites. Maybe it is time to
look at other software.

I bring up the idea of switching because if you are now considering editing
the Publisher source code directly then you are opening another can of
worms. Don't forget that any edits to the source code will not be saved in
the primary Pub file. This would mean that each time you update your file
you would again have to edit the new html files produced. This just isn't
very practical in my mind.

As to doing you own coding, no offense, but if you can't get the PowerPoint
html files to work in an Iframe then I would suggest that trying to do other
hand coding is going to be even harder for you. You can do it though. After
you Publish to the web and produce your .htm files you can open them in
Notepad and edit them, but is that really what you want to do?

If you don't like the results from JAlbum or any of the other programs that
are specifically designed to do what you want to do, then Google for
"javascript slide shows" or some such. There is a lot of free javascript
that you can insert via the code fragment feature. Maybe they will give you
the simple transitioning images that you want. Some examples:
http://www.ricocheting.com/js/slide2.html
http://javascriptkit.com/cutpastejava.shtml
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14/index.html
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
Just do so trial and terror with the different scripts you find, and be sure
to test against FireFox and IE for cross browser compatibility.

Also there are many websites out there where you can post your pictures for
friends and family to view and some of those provide code snippets to insert
into a web page...

As far as coding things yourself, you are on your own. Sorry but my coding
skills are next to none (as I have demonstrated : -) and that is probably
true of most people that use Publisher.

DavidF

 

[LoriLee]

Thanks for everything David. I appreciate your assistance, suggestions, and
help. I'll check into the sites you suggest as I would like to make this as
easy as possible. However, know that I don't really think code is all that
difficult. It's trying to understand MS developer quirks that I find
difficult. Therefore, ditching MS might not be a bad idea. Best wishes, and
again, thanks for all your efforts!

 

[Spike]

David

Have you or anyone else tried making an image of each page of a power point
presentation and making a movie of them using Windows Mover maker? If so
then it could be converted too SWF or FLV and posted in publisher.

Spike

 

[DavidF]

Hey Spike,

No I haven't. I would think file size and loading time would be an issue,
but...

DavidF