With PADS you can playback Microsoft PowerPoint presentations in several ways. Full screen or resized in a window. For this you have to link the PowerPoint presentation to your PADS presentation and make sure that certain options (in PowerPoint as well as in PADS) have been configured properly.
We recommend you to install the full version of Microsoft PowerPoint on every PADS Viewer PC. As an alternative the free available PowerPoint Viewer software can be used, but in that case you will face some limitations. These are described further on.
PowerPoint settings
In Microsoft PowerPoint you have to verify that a number of settings have been set correctly for your presentation. The settings listed here are based on PowerPoint 2007 and may slightly differ from other versions.
- Start PowerPoint and open the required PowerPoint presentation.
- Select from the Slide Show menu Set Up Slide Show to open de Set Up Show window.
- Select as Show type Browsed by an individual (window).
- At Show options switch on Loop continuously until ‘Esc’.
- At Advance slides select Using timings, if present.
- Select OK to save the changed settings.
Next make sure that the slides of the PowerPoint presentation will follow up each other automatically after x seconds.
- Select from the View menu Slide Sorter to go to the Slide Sorter view.
- Select all slides with the keyboard combination [Ctrl] + A.
- Select from the Animations menu Advance Slide Automatically After: and enter the required number of seconds.
PADS Designer settings
In PADS Designer you can insert your PowerPoint presentation using the web page element or the plug-in element.
If the PADS Viewer PC contains the full version of Microsoft PowerPoint you can best have the PowerPoint presentations played back by the web page element. With the web page element you can playback PowerPoint presentations full screen as well as in a window.
When you only have the disposal of the PowerPoint Viewer application you have to use the plug-in element. With the plug-in element you can only playback PowerPoint presentations full screen.
To insert a PowerPoint presentation using the web page element:
- Place a web page element on the page of your PADS presentation.
- Select the element and from the Edit menu select Properties.
- Go to the Playlist tab page.
- Click on Insert… to link the PowerPoint presentation (.PPT or .PPS) to the web page element.
To insert a PowerPoint presentation using the plug-in element:
- Place a plug-in element on the page of your presentation.
- Select the element and from the Edit menu select Properties.
- Go to the Type tab page.
- Choose the option Executable.
- As File name enter the file name of the PowerPoint Viewer application. In most situations this will be ‘C:\\Program Files\\Micorosoft Office\\PowerPoint Viewer\\PPTVIEW.EXE’.
- As Arguments enter the file name including the full path of the PowerPoint presentation. If the path or file name contains spaces you have to put everything between double quote marks (“). Add /s to suppress the splash window of PowerPoint. So a possible value could be: “C:\\PADS\\Content Files\\example.pps” /s.
PADS Viewer settings
If you use the plug-in element you have to modify the program settings for each PADS Viewer:
- Start the PADS Viewer application.
- Right click and from the context menu select Settings.
- Go to the Style tab page.
- Switch off the Always on top option.
IMPORTANT: With the web page element as well as the plug-in element you have to be aware that you only link the PowerPoint file. This means that the PADS Viewer application must be able to find the PowerPoint file at the specified location. For this you can use the automatic content synchronization features of PADS.
