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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT face=Verdana
color=#0000ff size=2>Is the problem that you have a lot of existing ppt you want
to deploy in the flash player, or is the problem that you are looking for a tool
non-technical users can use to create content simply?</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT face=Verdana
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT face=Verdana
color=#0000ff size=2>If it's the former, then a license for something like
FlashSpring would cost you much less than the cost of your time to make a
converter - you'd have to live with the resulting swfs, but you could be up and
running tomorrow. If it's the latter, then consider Xerte's templates - think AW
Knowledge Objects, but with a wizard that is much easier to make. You could also
make your own xml editor for creating and editing the xml the templates consume
if you wanted a fancy / custom one.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT face=Verdana
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT
face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT face=Verdana
color=#0000ff size=2>Are you concerened about the image output because of the
file size / bandwidth requirements? </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff
size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=565123213-13122007><FONT face=Verdana color=#0000ff
size=2>J</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Ari
Doucette<BR><B>Sent:</B> 13 December 2007 12:18<BR><B>To:</B> Xerte discussion
list<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Xerte] Just installed, a few
problems?<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Well, I've looked at it and decided that it is too daunting for now. I
thought it might help me get the job done faster, but it would take me
(much) longer to make a converter than to just take screen caps of the ppt
slides and insert them into Xerte. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>From what I looked at:</DIV>
<DIV>The simplest would be to just save the PowerPoint as images (file ->
save as -> other formats) and then write a script that makes a
Xerte page for each PowerPoint slide.</DIV>
<DIV>I looked at a number of PPT -> Flash converters yesterday. All of the
products I looked at simply converted the PPT slides into image files and then
made a swf from the image files.</DIV>
<DIV>I also looked at a few different flavors of PPT XML. The one made by
OpenOffice is the simplest, saved as an sxi file, unziped, and then looked at
the xml. Trouble is, it also turns the ppt slides into images! The MS XML
is, as one would guess, not easy to read or understand. I guess all the info
must be there, but I wouldn't know how to parse it. Too bad. </DIV>
<DIV>You are certainly correct when you write that it "would not be a
trivial undertaking". I guess the way to go would be an xslt transformation
from ms office xml to some flat xml that Xerte can then parse and make into an
rlo. </DIV>
<DIV><BR>Regards,</DIV>
<DIV>Ari<BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Dec 13, 2007 4:02 AM, Tenney Julian <<A
href="mailto:Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk">Julian.Tenney@nottingham.ac.uk</A>>
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Ari,<BR><BR>I'm
not too sure - I haven't looked into them too much. I've not found a<BR>good
free one yet. If you do, please let me know about it. <BR><BR>Of the
commercial ones, the one I like best is FlashSpring, which<BR>integrates
really nicely into PowerPoint. I've played the resulting swfs<BR>in Xerte
with no problems, but I didn't pay too much attention to the <BR>resulting
file size, so I'm not sure how it gets graphical elements out<BR>to flash. I
would hazard a guess that almost certainly the file size<BR>will be smaller
if the objects are drawn with code.<BR><BR>If you really want to explore the
ppt - xerte option, then there would <BR>be quite a lot of work to do I
think. I don't know much about ppt's xml,<BR>so I don't know how hard it
would be to create some sort of transform to<BR>get that into a form Xerte
could play. Broadly there would be two <BR>approaches you could take: try
and get from ppt to directly to an rlo<BR>file and play that directly, or
get from ppt to an xml format that you<BR>can read in in xerte and use as
the basis for a dynamic template. I<BR>think the first would be the hardest.
If you could get ppt to export<BR>some xml, and a directory of images,
sounds and video used then you<BR>ought to be able to use that xml as the
basis for a template. Xerte can<BR>then load that xml, and you can then
create the rlo file at runtime. It <BR>would not be a trivial
undertaking.<BR><BR>There is a document in the web site that outlines the
basics of creating<BR>dynamic templates - have a read of that. It takes you
through developing<BR>a simple dynamic quiz, and has all the info you would
need to start <BR>developing your own xml based templates.<BR><FONT
color=#888888><BR>J<BR></FONT>
<DIV class=Ih2E3d><BR>-----Original Message-----<BR>From: <A
href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk">xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</A><BR>[mailto:<A
href="mailto:xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk">
xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk</A>] On Behalf Of Ari
Doucette<BR></DIV>
<DIV class=Ih2E3d>Sent: 12 December 2007 16:47<BR>To: Xerte discussion
list<BR>Subject: Re: [Xerte] Just installed, a few problems?<BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=Wj3C7c>Thanks Julian. I'll look into the gradient fills that you
mentioned.<BR><BR>> There's no ppt - xerte converter I'm afraid. There
are some good ppt<BR>to flash converters - then you can play the flash back
in Xerte, <BR><BR>Do you happen to know if these PPT -> Flash converters
bring in the<BR>PPT drawing objects as native Flash drawing objects instead
of as<BR>images? If so, then is there a way to figure out the commands in
flash <BR>to make them?<BR>If these are the case, then I would be strongly
tempted to build my<BR>own ppt -> xerte converter for this
project!<BR><BR>Thanks again,<BR>Ari<BR></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
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