Audio/Video converters for Mac

[Nigel Sellars]

I'm a college professor using PowerPoint in my classes. I'm using a
Mac at home & a PC at the office, but I have the same problem with
both. How do I get RealAudio/Real Media & ASF clips to play in
PowerPoint?
I know I can use format converters, but I would like some suggestions
as to the best ones for either operating system, with a prefernce for
those that convert to mpegs or mp3.


Nigel Sellars
Asst. Professor of History
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, VA 23606

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi

I don't think there's an easy way to accomplish this. You can try using the
Movie toolbar (View > Toolbars > Movie) if you have a RealPlayer movie file.
There's a slim chance this will work, however.

PowerPoint uses Apple QuickTime to display movies. If QuickTime has a codec
for RealPlayer then it will work. AFAIK QuickTime does not currently support
RealPlayer, but I could be wrong.

The next best thing is to simply use a hyperlink in your presentation to the
content.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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[M. Katz]

The next best thing is to simply use a hyperlink in your presentation to the

content.

How do you guarantee that the hyperlink created on computer A will
work on computer B? How can you arrange the files and folders so that
PPT documents are truly portable?

If Quicktime supported Real's content, I'd be amazed.
If PowerPoint supported RealPlayer I'd be floored.

BTW, don't assume that putting a Quicktime movie into a Powerpoint
presentation will work on a PC.
Experts, what are the strategies to be sure it will work?

See this page for PowerPoint
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/produc...Y/tips_tricks/officex/pp_crossplatformtip.xml

and its parent page for more info.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/resources/compatibility.aspx?pid=compatibility&spid=how_to

IMHO "cross-platform" is false advertising for Office products.
Sure it's "cross-platform", but it depends on how you define
"cross-platform."

M. Katz

 

[Jim Gordon]

----------

The next best thing is to simply use a hyperlink in your presentation to the
content.

How do you guarantee that the hyperlink created on computer A will
work on computer B? How can you arrange the files and folders so that
PPT documents are truly portable?[/QUOTE]

If you place all documents in the same folder at the same directory level
(not in a subfolder) then you can create "relative" path name hyperlinks as
opposed to "fully qualified" path name hyperlinks.

A "fully qualified" hyperlink could be something like this:
My Hard Driveocumentsresentations:A Nice Presentation:MyReal1Document

A "relative" hyperlink to the same document would simply be:
MyReal1Document

You can use a relative hyperlink only if the document you are linking to is
in the same exact folder as the Presentation at the time that you create the
link. Otherwise you have to use the entire file path, which is almost
certain to be different on every computer so it will fail. You must
distribute the presentation with the linked content files in the same
folder, otherwise you links will fail.

If Quicktime supported Real's content, I'd be amazed.
If PowerPoint supported RealPlayer I'd be floored.

Although PowerPoint doesn't support RealPlayer inside a presentation, you
can always link to it or to any other unsupported file type as long as the
computer trying to open the content has an appropriate application for the
content.

BTW, don't assume that putting a Quicktime movie into a Powerpoint
presentation will work on a PC.
Experts, what are the strategies to be sure it will work?

Each version of PowerPoint has a help file that lists the file types
supported internally by that version. Once you know your audience's needs
choose a file type supported by all the versions you are dealing with. On
the Mac side you can use any format supported by QuickTime. QuickTime Pro
can save QuickTime movies as .avi files which PowerPoint for Windows
supports, as does QuickTime. That's sometimes a good work-around.

This article has details about PowerPoint for Windows ability to handle
movies:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;291934

For Windows PowerPoint 97 additional details are here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;178291

For Windows PowerPoint 2000 check this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;266983

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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Thanks.

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