Digital Workshop

just to confirm - there is no way to import a PowerPoint presentation into Opus except pasting images into jpegs and making a slideshow?

or is there another (free?) tool which turns Powerpoint into video which is what I'm trying to achieve?

If you open the PowerPoint file in OpenOffice, I believe you can then save it as an SWF. You can also do something like this is you use a tool called Wink. You use Wink to capture your PowerPoint show and then export it out as a SWF. Wink is an awesome tool and is freeware, as is OpenOffice.

Wink: http://www.debugmode.com/wink

There are some other tools that convert PPT files to SWFs as well. Some are cheap, some are not. I believe the one from the makers of SwishMax is around $100.

Hope this helps.

I have only just started with this programme but if you put the DocView Frame icon onto your toolbar (View -> toolbars -> customise -> commands -> insert docView frame) and then drag onto toolbar.

You can then draw a frame and insert any MS file including Powerpoint. I had to use this fairly recently and it works fine (you do need appropriate eg ppt programme on the host computer though. It is very easy to do and you don't need to copy any files.

Just another thought, I use Dreamweaver and have Studio 8 which includes 'Flashpaper' I just tried this with a powerpoint presentation and it is excellent when imported as a 'Docview' into Opus.

You get a flashpaper/pdf toolbar that appears on PPT so it is literally just one click to produce a .swf or .pdf file to import into Opus.

Flashpaper is avaialble separately from Macormedia ($79) although I guess there are cheaper sources.

Flashpaper (.swf) looks the neatest imho.

I attach a short .swf file made directly from ppt so you can see it in an Opus publication. Just use DocView Frame to import

I have rebuilt many PowerPoint presentation using OPUS.

I open OPUS in one window/monitor and PowerPoint in another. I can COPY and PASTE even several text objects in seconds. Same with graphics (which I use PSP to capture and name). This takes a little bit longer, but you have complete control over Transitions, Animations, and all the "fancy" stuff you can do with OPUS which is way beyond PowerPoint.

I use Camtasia which has an add in for PowerPoint with a record button - the video quality is excellent and the output options include flash, wmv, avi etc.

In Power Point if you use "Save as" and save as HTML you get the images saved seperatly for you, without having to use PSP.

Regards

Brenden Knifton