103 Turn a Presentation into Online Web Pages

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Instead of a roomful of people, why not give your presentation to the world? You can by turning your Impress presentation into a set of Web pages. After converting your presentation to Web content, you must upload your pages to a Web hosting service (which will probably be the same service, either in-house or out, that hosts your Web site currently) and link to the presentation. When your site's visitors click the link for your presentation, they can enjoy your presentation from their Web browser. If the presentation is manual and not automatic, they can click forward and backward to watch the presentation.

Before You Begin

81 Create a New Presentation

82 Open an Existing Presentation

See Also

104 About Giving Presentations

Impress makes it surprisingly easy to convert your presentation to an online presentation. The most difficult part of the process is uploading the online presentation and linking to it ( neither of which is Impress's role but rather tasks you must do outside Impress ”or you can find someone who has the knowledge to upload and link to your presentation for you).

KEY TERM

Web hosting service ” A company you hire or an inside computer support center that provides disk space where you can store Web pages and other online content. You might even host your own Web pages from your own computer if you have the knowledge and system software to do so.

Request the Export

Once you finish designing and reviewing your presentation, select File, Export to display the Export dialog box, where you can export your presentation as a Web page.

TIP

Impress actually supports three Web formats: HTML, Macromedia's Flash format (perhaps best if you use a lot of special effects), and PDF files (for documents you want to look the same on any computer that displays them). All three can be displayed inside a Web browser, although only HTML works with all Web browsers without requiring extra add-in products. Most browsers these days, though, are equipped to display PDF or Flash files without trouble. Plug-ins are available from Macromedia.com to play Flash and display PDF files.

Save as an HTML File

Select a location in which to save the online presentation from the Save in drop-down list box at the top of the Export dialog box. Type a filename in the File name field and make sure HTML Document is selected in the File format list box. When you click Save , Impress converts your presentation to HTML code and stores the resulting Web pages, with a starting Web page named the same as your File name field and with each page in your presentation being saved as a separate Web page linked to that one.

Once you start the export, Impress opens the HTML Export dialog box.

Select a Design

The first page of the HTML Export dialog box requests that you select a design or create a new one. When you export your first presentation, you won't see any designs to choose from. As you save presentations in an online format, following through with the rest of the HTML export process, you will be able to save various Web site designs from the selections you make, keeping you from having to reselect them when you want to create similar Web presentations. For example, when you finish the process of exporting your first presentation to HTML, you then can save the HTML exporting options you chose so you later only need to select that name when another online presentation is to take on the same characteristics. Click Next to continue specifying the characteristics for this online presentation or Create if you decide to choose from an existing design.

KEY TERMS

HTML ” Abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language and refers to the code needed to make Web pages display properly inside a Web browser.

Flash ” The name for an animated file format developed by Macromedia, Incorporated to give Web sites the capability to display animation using very little bandwidth.

Select the Type of Online Presentation

You now must select the type of Web page to create ”either a standard HTML format or one with frames . If you select the framed Web site, Impress creates Web pages in a main frame with a table of contents to the left of the frame that contains a list of hyperlinks to the rest of your presentation. As you select from the Publication type options, the preview and related options change depending on your choice. For example, if you choose to create an automatic online presentation, Impress displays options that determine how long each slide is to be viewed before moving to the next slide (your own slide duration times will be in effect unless you specify a different duration setting here).

NOTE

In spite of the advantages that a framed Web page seems to bring, such as the automatic table of contents, framed Web sites are generally frowned upon today due to the difficulties users often have bookmarking them. Table-based Web pages are simpler to maintain and maneuver.

The Automatic option creates an automatic presentation where the slides advance online, just as they do in automatic presentations that you generate on your PC (see 100 Make an Automatic Presentation ). Reserve the WebCast option for when you have advanced server capabilities or can work with someone who does. You can use a WebCast presentation to control the presentation from your desk while teleconferencing with others who view your presentation, as you might do on a teleconferencing training call. For example, you could develop a presentation about reading stock charts and teach a phone class to a conferenced group of students around the world who would log in to your server's Web pages and view your presentation as you change slides and speak on the phone.

Finally, check the Create title page and Show notes options if you want a title page and your speaker notes generated for your online presentation. Click Next to continue exporting the online presentation.

You must now specify the type of graphics (such as GIF or JPG ) that you want your presentation graphics saved as. If you choose the JPG option, you must specify a quality value. The closer your selected value is to 100% , the more accurate your graphics will look, but the longer they will take to display in your users' Web browsers. Unless you know the kind of hardware most of your users will have, as you might if you were developing an in-house, online training presentation, select the Low resolution (640 x 480 pixels ) option so your presentation loads as quickly as possible for everyone who views it online. Click Create to generate your online presentation. Impress asks you for a name to give to your Web page design. This name is little more than a collection of HTML Export dialog box settings you've given so far that you can choose from in the future instead of having to specify them again for this kind of presentation. If you did click to select Save , you can opt out of naming the design by clicking Do Not Save instead of entering a name and clicking Save .

TIP

You can review your online presentation from within a Web browser without uploading the files to a Web hosting service. Start your Web browser, select File, Open , and browse to the folder with your online presentation. Select the starting page, and your presentation begins inside your browser.

Impress now generates your Web pages, creating JPG or GIF images and HTML files as needed. The name of the starting page, or the home page of your presentation, is the name you gave the HTML file when you first began exporting the presentation. This is the name you'll link to from other sites, once you transfer the generated online presentation files to your Web hosting service.

Test Your Online Presentation

Once you or someone you have help you transfers the generated files to the appropriate Web hosting service, and once you link to the files from within your Web browser (or type the address of the online presentation directly into your browser's Address box), your presentation is ready for you to review. Anyone viewing your presentation, even if it's an automatic presentation, can click the traversal links across the top of your presentation to move forward or backward throughout the presentation.

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