Saving PowerPoint presentations as HTML files
The latest version of Microsoft Office (Office97) includes an option to save a file in HTML format. You prepare the presentation as you usually would in PowerPoint and when you save it as HTML, PowerPoint automatically converts it and inserts the HTML code. This works in Word too.
To do this, you must have installed Office97 with a full Custom installation, specifying in the options that you wanted the ability to save files as HTML. If you (or whoever set up your machine) did a standard installation of Office97, you cannot save files as HTML. To add the option, you must re-install Office97 from the distribution CD.
Important: this page refers only to the Office97 version of PowerPoint! Previous versions cannot save files in HTML format.
To convert a file to HTML:
- Prepare it as usual.
- As a safety precaution, save it in regular PowerPoint format (with the file extension .pps or .ppt).
- Choose "Save as HTML..." from the File menu. There is no icon or button, you have to use the menu command. A window will pop up with a "wizard" to guide you through the steps of the conversion process. Each item from here on in this list (items 4 through 13) corresponds to one screen of the "wizard". Click "Next" after making each choice, to proceed to the next screen.
- Choose a layout. The first time you do this, or if you have never saved layout formats, you have to choose "new layout". If you have saved layouts previously, you see a list of them and can choose "load existing layout" and choose the one you want.
- Choose a page style:
standard or frames. I don't advise frames for the following reasons.
Firstly, there are two many frames on the page: it looks cluttered.
More to the point, the navigation buttons for the frames work via Java scripts. The scripts only work in MS Internet Explorer and even they they work very slowly. .Microsoft maintains that MSIE Version 4 supports standard JavaScript, but PowerPoint apparently only support the non-standard Microsoft version. So in MSIE it's too slow, and in Netscape the buttons don't work at all and you get all sorts of error messages. Conclusion: you can't use this option for a public website. Perhaps on an Intranet where you know everyone is using MSIE. - Choose a graphics file
format.
If you used regular clipart, line drawings and icons, choose the GIF format
If you included photographs or half-tone images, choose JPEG
If your presentation included animation, choose "PowerPoint Animation". People will only be able to see it with the Powerpoint animation viewer, but if they don't have it, Microsoft is kind enough to put a link to download it right in your presentation. - Choose the screen
resolution to produce the graphics for.
Since most people still have the standard 640 x 480
pixel screens (VGA), that's what you choose. You can
only choose a higher resolution if, again, you're
writing a site for an intranet, such as a single
school, and everyone has nice new equipment. Even
then, don't go above 800 x 600 (SVGA). It's worth
remembering that Win95 automatically sets the screen
to 640 x 480 even if you have a much better graphics
card, and few people realise this or know how to
reset it if they do notice.
You also choose width of graphics at this step. The default is half screen size, which in my opinion is a little small: three quarters is also acceptable. - Enter your email address,
home page and any other information you want.
This screen also helpfully suggests that you might
want to add a button for downloading MS Internet
Explorer. None of this is required: if you don't have
an email address or don't want to give it, just leave
it out.
Another useful item is a checkbox to enable downloading of the original presentation in native Powerpoint format. Of course if you check it, you have to put the .pps or .ppt file on your server. - Choose a color sheme. You can accept the browser default or play around with the Windows color-picker.
- Select a button style. You have 4 to choose from, none of them very cheerful, let alone interesting.
- Choose which side of the screen to put the navigation buttons. If you opted for a framed site, you don't see this option since the navigation buttons go into the frames. I think they look best down the side, but it's up to you.
- Create a folder to store the presentation in HTML format. If you're sensible you'll create it as a sub-folder within the directory structure of your site, not elsewhere on your PC. Then it automatically becomes part of the site and you can upload it to the server along with the whole site. (Remember you'll have to put a link to the first screen, or the contents screen, from one of your site pages).
- Click "Finish"
to start the actual conversion. When it's done you'll
get a message. It could take a couple of minutes,
depending on the size of the presentation.
How well does it work?
PowerPoint does a better job than Word! It creates surprisingly small files and the result looks just like the original. It adds buttons that enable you to jump to the next slide, the previous slide, the start and the end of the list. (In the framed version, the buttons also enlarge or decrease the size of the slide, which is nice, but as said it's very slow and only works in Internet Explorer).
The option to save as an animated presentation works incredibly well (provided of yourse that the user has the viewer): you get a PowerPoint presentation, flying text, dissolving images and all, right in your browser. It even works as well in Netscape as in Internet Explorer!
The buttons PowerPoint adds are not very inspiring, to say the least. If you want anything prettier, you'll have to call up the html file that PowerPoint creates and replace them by graphics buttons of your own. It's a pity Microsoft didn't build this option right into the conversion process, it's so obviously needed.
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Written by J.
Koren for Unesco
©1998