Powerpoint and Linux

[D***@index.cmx]

OK, Vista is the last straw and I'm not a Mac, so I'm thinking about
moving to Linux. But...

I need powerpoint. Love it or hate it, despite all its flaws and
shortcomings it is the de facto standard academic presentation
package. When you show up anywhere to make a presentation, you are
expected to have a powerpoint show on your flash drive. Your
organizers or hosts are set up for powerpoint, use it themselves, and
are simply not capable of accommodating anything else. Obviously, we
are not talking about computer science here.

Can it be done? I've seen lots of "can I show ppt in linux?"
discussed, but little on "can I create ppt in linux?"

[Michael Fierro]

Post by D***@index.cmx
Can it be done? I've seen lots of "can I show ppt in linux?"
discussed, but little on "can I create ppt in linux?"

You have two ways of doing this in Linux. First, use a presentation program
to create the presentation, and then save it as a Powerpoint file
(OpenOffice.org's Impress can do this without a problem). Second, use wine
to run Powerpoint, if you have a copy.

I strongly recommend the first. Impress makes very good presentations, and
exporting to Microsoft's format is a breeze.

[Brian Fristensky]

Post by Michael Fierro

Post by D***@index.cmx
Can it be done? I've seen lots of "can I show ppt in linux?"
discussed, but little on "can I create ppt in linux?"

You have two ways of doing this in Linux. First, use a presentation program
to create the presentation, and then save it as a Powerpoint file
(OpenOffice.org's Impress can do this without a problem). Second, use wine
to run Powerpoint, if you have a copy.
I strongly recommend the first. Impress makes very good presentations, and
exporting to Microsoft's format is a breeze.

I have had a lot of success with OpenOffice Impress and Powerpoint
presentations, and highly recommend it. There is a 3rd alternative,
however, that can be a good backup.

On Linux, create your presentation in Impress, and export to PDF.
This is a foolproof backup.

Actually, there is yet a 4th approach, for those bold enough
to try something new. Do a web-based presentation. That is, create
your presentation as a series of web pages, rather than slides.

The latter approach has many advantages, aside from working with
any web browser. If you give people the URL to your presentation,
they can always get to it whenever they wish to find out more
about some specific detail. You can include links in the presentation,
either to visit during the presentation, or for your viewers to
visit if they want to know more. After you return from the conference,
instead of telling someone "you should have seen my talk", just
give them the URL so they can see for themselves.

For some examples of web presentations, see

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/%7Efrist/Seminars/Seminars.html

[Rob]

Post by D***@index.cmx
OK, Vista is the last straw and I'm not a Mac, so I'm thinking about
moving to Linux. But...
I need powerpoint. Love it or hate it, despite all its flaws and
shortcomings it is the de facto standard academic presentation
package. When you show up anywhere to make a presentation, you are
expected to have a powerpoint show on your flash drive. Your
organizers or hosts are set up for powerpoint, use it themselves, and
are simply not capable of accommodating anything else. Obviously, we
are not talking about computer science here.
Can it be done? I've seen lots of "can I show ppt in linux?"
discussed, but little on "can I create ppt in linux?"

Download the Linux version of Openoffice

http://www.openoffice.org/

In Openoffice.org Impress you can create presentations and save them as
Powerpoint.

You can read and write Powerpoint presentations with Openoffice impress.

Give Openoffice.org a try. I am sure you will be impressed. Try the
Windows version if you have not moved to Linux yet.


One problem Microsoft have deliberately made Office 2007 (Hence
Powerpoint 2007 incompatible with previous versions) to force people to
upgrade. If you get a 2007 Powerpoint file get them to save it as an
earlier version so that you can read it.

[Brian Fristensky]

Post by Rob
One problem Microsoft have deliberately made Office 2007 (Hence
Powerpoint 2007 incompatible with previous versions) to force people to
upgrade. If you get a 2007 Powerpoint file get them to save it as an
earlier version so that you can read it.

That by itself sounds like an excellent reason for abandoning
PowerPoint altogether.

[Walt L. Williams]

I have used the OpenOffice "Presentation" to generate all
the "powerpoint" like presentations I have done in college work
so far. It ports to the powerpoint format just fine so long
as I don't use any unique bullets in my presentations.

Why Academia hasn't picked on the fact that they can download
on install OpenOffice on all the school computers is not known.
A wild shoot guess is that their M$ license restricts them
from loading a different office suite along side of MS office,
or just simply discourages this practice. A college could
save thousands (tens of thousands) of dollars on licensing
fees.

Post by D***@index.cmx
OK, Vista is the last straw and I'm not a Mac, so I'm thinking about
moving to Linux. But...
I need powerpoint. Love it or hate it, despite all its flaws and
shortcomings it is the de facto standard academic presentation
package. When you show up anywhere to make a presentation, you are
expected to have a powerpoint show on your flash drive. Your
organizers or hosts are set up for powerpoint, use it themselves, and
are simply not capable of accommodating anything else. Obviously, we
are not talking about computer science here.
Can it be done? I've seen lots of "can I show ppt in linux?"
discussed, but little on "can I create ppt in linux?"