Is There A Powerpoint Viewer For OS X?

[Paulie G]

I have several Powerpoint slideshows that I have produced using
Powerpoint for Mac OS X. If I burn these slideshows on a CD, as an
example, is there a viewer I can place on the CD with the slideshow
files so that another computer owner who may have a PC or a Mac
without Office X or Powerpoint can view the files?

[Steve Rindsberg]

Yup.

Download Free PowerPoint Viewers
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00153.htm

You'll probably want to supply instrux with the CD so the user knows that they
should run the installer (and how to do that) if they don't have PowerPoint.

--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com

[Paulie G]

Thanks for your reply/advice. I downloaded the .exe file which should
create a viewer for my PC-equipped friends. If I burn it on a CD along
with a PP slideshow produced on a Mac with OS X, they ought to be
able to view the show. Is there a similar viewer for Mac users? I couldn't
find one.

Alternatively, is this the best way to share slideshows across platforms?
I suppose I could convert my PP slideshows to a .pdf format and simply
burn them onto CDs. I'd guess that almost everyone on any platform
has a fairly current version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Is that be a
preferred way to accomplish what I'd like to do?

[Steve Rindsberg]

In article <082501c3faf9$78121ec0$a501...@phx.gbl>, Paulie G wrote:
> Thanks for your reply/advice. I downloaded the .exe file which should
> create a viewer for my PC-equipped friends. If I burn it on a CD along
> with a PP slideshow produced on a Mac with OS X, they ought to be
> able to view the show.

So long as the CD is in PC-readable format, yes. They'll need to be told to
install the viewer and what file to doubleclick to start the show. Or you
could create the CD as an AutoRun for PC users w/o affecting the functionality
for Mac users, I'd think:

Make an AutoRun CD
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00037.htm

I'd also have a look here for things that go bump in the night between Mac and
PC

PC to Mac and Back
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00281.htm

>Is there a similar viewer for Mac users? I couldn't
> find one.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page and you'll find a link to the PowerPoint
98 viewer for Mac:

Download Free PowerPoint Viewers
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00153.htm

> Alternatively, is this the best way to share slideshows across platforms?

> I suppose I could convert my PP slideshows to a .pdf format and simply
> burn them onto CDs. I'd guess that almost everyone on any platform
> has a fairly current version of Adobe's Acrobat Reader. Is that be a
> preferred way to accomplish what I'd like to do?

Each method has strengths and drawbacks. PDF doesn't support animations at all
and has no user interface for setting individual transitions on pages/slides,
though it does support page transitions. Most methods of creating PDFs leave
your action settings and links back in PPT. They don't arrive in the PDF as
live links (Adobe's PDFMaker for PowerPoint Windows does a halfway job).

On the plus side, font embedding works, security settings are available and
don't entirely lock out users of older Acrobat readers, you *can* manually
recreate links in Acrobat if they don't arrive alive in the PDF in the first
place (or if using a PC to create the PDF is an option, our Prep4PDF addin will
do all of the work for you - demo at http://get.pptools.com )

Other than animations, I'd say PDF is a pretty good alternative.

[anon...@discussions.microsoft.com]

I'll visit the websites you referenced.

I did see the PP 98 Viewer for Mac but was disappointed that it only
worked by booting OS 9 in Classic mode. I have a couple of friends with
new Macs which won't even boot in OS 9. Hopefully Microsoft will be
aware of this shortcoming and publish a new OS X viewer. After all, it
has been almost 5 years with the older one!

Thanks again.

[Mickey Stevens]

Be sure to send the suggestion to Microsoft. State your case clearly and
politely. In PowerPoint X, go to Help -> Send Feedback on PowerPoint.
Otherwise, click on this direct link to enter Mac Product Feedback:
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/feedback/suggestion.asp>

On 2/27/04 12:55 PM, in article 33e901c3fd63$43005230$a001...@phx.gbl,
"anon...@discussions.microsoft.com" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:

--
Mickey Stevens (Microsoft MVP for Office:mac)
PowerPoint FAQ featuring PowerPoint:mac: <http://www.pptfaq.com/>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>