Free cross-platform PowerPoint viewer

[Chris Nokleberg]

Hi,

This might be of interest to some of you:
http://tonicsystems.com/products/viewer/

It will run on any platform with Java 5, including OS X and Linux (which
of course do not have official viewers). Free for non-commercial use.

There is also more information here:
http://www.indezine.com/blog/2006/05/free-java-based-powerpoint-viewer.html

We look forward to feedback regarding which features we should add in
future versions!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Chris

For the 1st version it's pretty impressive.

It's the 1st cross platform ppt viewer I've ever come across.

I ran it on windows XP (sp2) with this version of Java
Version 1.5.0 (build 1.5.0_06-b05)

It didn't display a few 'fancy' things properly
- (graduated autoshapes),
- and animations are none existing
- the odd font 'wrapped' at a different place to what powerpoint would
display
but that's just a few niggles

New Features
- Display graduated autoshapes properly
- Give a "full screen" display as an option (no windows)
- Allow 'timings' per slide if they are present in the file
- Mouse wheel support

Keep up the great work.

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints, tips and more...

 

[Chris Nokleberg]

It didn't display a few 'fancy' things properly
- (graduated autoshapes),

Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with what "graduated" means in this context. If you
point me to or email me an example presentation that doesn't display
properly I'd really appreciate it.

- and animations are none existing

Yes, it is the #1 requested feature, and gives us nightmares

- the odd font 'wrapped' at a different place to what powerpoint would
display

At some level this will be impossible to completely avoid, as even if the
font metrics are just a little off it can really throw off word wrapping.
But we have *some* improvements underway which will probably get into a
bugfix release sometime next week.

- Give a "full screen" display as an option (no windows)
- Allow 'timings' per slide if they are present in the file
- Mouse wheel support

For mouse wheel support I assume you mean flipping through slides while
the mouse is over the main view?

Thanks for the feedback, it is very helpful.

Chris

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with what "graduated" means in this context.

Graduated - as in 'fading from one color to another - eg. from dark red to
yellow.

The file can be downloaded from here
http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com/t...rounds-dot-com-cool-powerpoint-animations.zip

The 1st and last slide have a text box that has a 'graduation'. The text box
is a rounded corner autoshape. It displays as a rectangle with a graduation
and not a rounded corner rectangle. This is also the same slide where the
text (white text) does not wrap correctly.

I'm really impressed though - consider this is all reverse engineered.
It's very fast too.

For mouse wheel support I assume you mean flipping through slides while

the mouse is over the main view?

Yes

- Give a "full screen" display as an option (no windows)

What's the chances of this ever appearing?

Cheers
TAJ

 

[Chris Nokleberg]

The 1st and last slide have a text box that has a 'graduation'. The text box
is a rounded corner autoshape. It displays as a rectangle with a graduation
and not a rounded corner rectangle. This is also the same slide where the
text (white text) does not wrap correctly.

Thanks. Actually that is a placeholder which has been changed into a
round rectangle, not an autoshape per se. I'm not sure we've seen an
example like that before, so it was good to get a hold of. It will be
fixed in the next version. The text wrapping for that slide is also fixed
in our development version.

I'm really impressed though - consider this is all reverse engineered.
It's very fast too.

Glad to hear it

What's the chances of this ever appearing?

I'd say the chances are 100%, probably in version 1.1. Animation and
transitions will take longer, but a basic full screen mode is a
high priority.

Chris

 

[Chris Nokleberg]

- the odd font 'wrapped' at a different place to what powerpoint would
display
- Display graduated autoshapes properly
- Give a "full screen" display as an option (no windows)
- Mouse wheel support

Hi TAJ,

We just released version 1.1. It adds simple mouse wheel support and fixes
the bug you discovered with the round-rectangle placeholder. We've also
improved the word-wrapping to better match PowerPoint. If you still have
the viewer installed it should auto-update next time you run it. Full
screen mode is in the works. Thanks again for your feedback!

Chris
http://tonicsystems.com/products/viewer/

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Chris

Version 1.1 - Much better...

A quick response to the little niggles too.
- Mouse wheel works for me (to change slides)
- Text wrapping (appears OK for me)
- Placeholder/round rectangle issue / Graduations (OK for me now)

It installed automatically over the old version 1.0

So what is next in the pipeline?

Cheers
TAJ

 

[Chris Nokleberg]

Version 1.1 - Much better...
So what is next in the pipeline?

First, a vacation ;-)

We don't have a long list of planned features. Ideally people will
clamor for something so that we know it will be used. The only definite
items are
- fullscreen mode
- support for other presentation formats, including PP2007
Of course these two alone are not trivial.

Some other possibilities are
- ability to copy text from presentation to clipboard
- notes view
- outline view
- tabbed interface (view multiple presentations at a time)

Because we have a good knowledge of the file format, there may also be
an opportunity to provide tools which can do things like repair corrupted
files, strip embedded fonts, or even design custom autoshapes. I don't
have a good idea of what people need in this area yet.

Thanks,
Chris