The World Wide Web has become a fixture in our lives. Everyone wants either to receive or to publish information via the Web. PowerPoint makes it easy to convert your presentation into a format that Web browsers can view. Before doing so, however, consider the following:
After you determine that you really want to publish your presentation to the Web, you next need to be sure that the slideshow is well designed for Web use. Consider the following:
CAUTION Be careful to understand and follow copyright laws and guidelines when publishing your slideshow to the Web. If any of your material, including images and sounds, is copyrighted by someone else, you might be required to limit access to the material or not use it at all if you don't first get permission. Saving a Presentation as a Web PagePowerPoint not only lets you save your work directly in HTML format, but also lets you open your HTML slideshows directly into PowerPoint, edit them, and save them again in HTML. As you will see, this is not only easy, but it also saves a lot of time and space because you don't have to keep an original PowerPoint show and convert it each time. Publishing your show to the Internet involves two steps: saving the presentation in HTML format and transferring the resulting files to a Web server. If you're lucky enough to be connected directly to your Web server over a company network, you don't even have to worry about transferring files because you can save the show directly at the Web site. To save a slideshow as a Web page, follow these steps:
NOTE If you know that PowerPoint's Web options are set the way you want them, you can save time by choosing Save. By default, this gives you a frame-based Web page that includes an outline, navigation buttons, and other tools, along with the slide. The file is also optimized for use with Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. If you want to customize the way you present your slideshow as a Web page, follow these steps:
Customizing a Web PresentationThe many options for saving your presentation as a Web page let you tailor your Web page to match the needs of your viewers. For example, some browsers won't be able to view animations, whereas others can. To customize a Web presentation, first decide exactly what you want to publish to the Web: the entire presentation, selected slides, a custom show, or speaker's notes (refer to Figure 16.15). You can also optimize the Web presentation for browsers that audience members are likely to use by selecting the following options under Browser Support:
The Web Options button opens the Web Options dialog box (shown in Figure 16.16), where you have many other options. Figure 16.16. General Web options determine how the Web page is to be laid out and whether animations will be active.
On the General tab, you can set several appearance options, including the ability to add slide navigation controls, show slide animation while browsing, or resize graphics to fit the browser window. NOTE The options on the General tab affect only slideshows prepared for and viewed by Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. However, navigation control color options, even when turned off, do affect the navigational outline in Web pages targeted for Internet Explorer 3.0 and Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later. On the Browsers tab (see Figure 16.17), you can choose the browser your viewers will use. Figure 16.17. Set the optimal browser viewing options on this tab.
The earlier the browser version you choose, the smaller your Web pages will be. However, an earlier browser version might not support all PowerPoint's functionality, such as animations. You can also set a browser preference in the Publish as Web Page dialog box. Based on your browser selection, the Options check boxes have the following default options selected:
Click the Files tab in the Web Options dialog box to access file-naming and location options. Here you can specify to organize supporting files in a folder, use long filenames, and update links on save (see Figure 16.18): Figure 16.18. File options let you specify how files will be named, how they'll be organized, and whether you can edit the resulting HTML files in PowerPoint.
The Pictures tab lets you target monitor screen size. If you have chosen the Internet Explorer 4.0 Browser Support and the Resize Graphics to Fit Browser Window options, changing this setting has no effect. However, if you publish your presentation for use on older browsers, this option lets you specify how large the slides should be. TIP Using a screen size that matches the target browser screen setting usually results in a slide that is too small for the available screen. If you want to fill up the browser window with a larger slide, select the next-highest resolution (for example, select 1024x768 if the target screen is 800x600). Finally, the Encoding and Fonts tabs let you modify the output for use in browsers that support other languages. For more information on the use of other languages in your presentations, see Chapter 22, "Using PowerPoint's Foreign Language Capabilities," p. 473 . Transferring Your Web Page to a Web ServerTypically, you create your presentation and save it as a Web page on your local hard disk. Working offline saves time and, in some cases, dial-up connection charges. When you're finally ready to make your presentation available to the rest of the world, you must transfer your files from your own computer to the Web server that will host your Web page. If you are connected to a company intranet, you might be able to publish your Web page directly to the Web server. Check with your network specialist to find out whether this is possible and how to do it. If you aren't connected directly to your Web server, you have to transfer files to it following the instructions provided by your Internet service provider (ISP) just as you would any other Web site or pages. Testing Your Web PageMore likely than not, you will test your Web page as you go. At the bottom of the Publish as Web Page dialog box, you can check the Open Published Web Page in Browser option so that each time you publish your presentation, your default browser starts and displays the page using files saved on your local computer (see Figure 16.19). If you find something wrong or want to try other options, simply return to PowerPoint and publish the presentation again. Figure 16.19. A Web page published for Internet Explorer 4.0 or later includes an outline, the slide, and several navigation buttons.
After you transfer your files to your Web server, you should again test your presentation in your browser over the Internet. Some things you should check for are the following:
NOTE If everyone in your audience uses the same browser and has the same type of computers (for example, in a corporate intranet setting), you might not need to perform such extensive testing. If you have a wider audience and you want to look good on a wide variety of computer screens (for example, in a university setting), you can't assume that everyone uses the same computer and browser that you do. Ultimately, because you have only so much time, you might have to decide to test only certain combinations of browsers, screen resolutions, operating systems, and so on. If you do, tell your audience before they try to view the presentation. Modifying or Updating Your Web PageIf you find during testing that you need to change your Web page, or if at a later date you want to update the information in your presentation, you can still use PowerPoint to edit the presentation. The easiest way to edit a PowerPoint Web page is to open the main HTML page directly into PowerPoint. Because it uses XML and other advanced processes, the HTML page retains all PowerPoint's special features, including animations and other multimedia objects. TIP You don't need to keep both a PowerPoint (PPT) and an HTML version of your presentation on your local computer. Keep only the HTML copy, which you can open, edit, and play just as you do any regular PowerPoint presentation. After you make the changes you want, save the presentation again as a Web page and transfer the resulting files to your Web server, if necessary. |