Simple and easy tricks when using Powerpoint for online presentations

                                                                                         

According to Microsoft estimates, at least 30 million PowerPoint presentations are made every day. Now that is a lot of information and ideas which will be communicated with the help of these presentations. Most of them will be delivered from a PC or notebook and PowerPoint assumes that you will be delivering it as an on-screen presentation with a beamer or overhead and creates a PPT file containing all of the code needed for the presentation.

Even though PowerPoint files are normally used in live presentations, they are extremely common on the web. But the normal PPT format that PowerPoint generates, cannot be used online without using a lot of bandwidth and extra software to make it work. Although there are ways to improve the accessibility of PowerPoint files, the only way to ensure that a PowerPoint presentation is truly accessible is to create an HTML alternative instead of or in addition to the PowerPoint file.

People who use screen readers will need to have the slides in HTML format in order to access them. Online presentations using VOIP conference solutions will also need the presentations in HTML to enable the moderator to run the presentation easily.

In my experience, the one major consideration I had to make when hosting PowerPoint HTML files on my own server, was the bandwidth needed to serve the presentation to the viewing audience. This adds up quickly when you have 50 or more people attending an online seminar. If your server only has a limited amount of bandwidth available every month, you can end up with your server not being available at all, simply because the bandwidth has run out. This is not only annoying, but does cost you money to upgrade your available bandwidth not including any loses made through lost sales because the website was not reachable.

One alternative to using the HTML version of your PowerPoint presentation is to make screenshots of each slide and convert the image to a graphic file.

You simply reduce the image size to a smaller format, like for example 600 x 480. You save the file to png or jpg format and experiment with the image compression to reduce the file size and save on needed bandwidth. You now just embed the graphics onto HTML page, add a bit of code to change the page with one click to the next in the series and you are up and running.

Of course, the only problem with this is the fact that the presentation is now static and does not scale to the required page size. But, I believe this is a small price to pay to have a fast moving presentation and much less bandwidth than using the HTML generated from PowerPoint.

Regardless of which method you use, the major problem with generating a HTML presentation suitable for the Internet is, not only must the HTML files be generated, but they also have to be uploaded to a server to be available for use online. Although most people can make their own presentations with a little practice, the technical side of publishing a presentation for use online is beyond the majority's capabilities. Usually this means you have to get the IT department to upload the presentation or at least get someone who is Internet savvy to do it for you.

Let's face it, PowerPoint is a wonderful software for presenting your works, but for some uses you need to have the right tools to make it perfect.

About the author:
Michael Holdcroft is an online trainer and runs Conferentia, a web conference provider. He recommends that trainers and marketers use simple tools to host and convert their Powerpoint presentations.

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