Hi Craig I don't think you can weary me :-) or wear me out - or what the correct expression might be.. If I was to convince someone to use TW as an presentationTool - I would first show them how TW works as a simple notedatabase - and then show them how easy it is to turn the notes into a presentation.. TW's strength is not just beeing a container for content made in another fundamentally different tool - it's the workflow and the ability to create individualized systems which sets it apart from anything else - especially PowerPoint...
*If* I however should introduce a radical improvement compared to Powerpoint - which is almost embarrassingly obvious - yet very digestable for someone who is used to Powerpoint (I believe..) - I would make a showcase with VUE (Visual Understanding Environment) http://vue.tufts.edu/ Here's a truly great tool which combines simple mindmapping and slidepresentations in a way that makes Powerpoint look hopelessly primitive - and incapable of delivering even the simplest overview of context... TiddlyWiki has it's own way of delivering context - web2.0'ish in conduct - tags - fields - tables etc - But it needs to be fed - and customized for effective use. VUE is a finished solution for making presentations in a way that affects every aspect of making presentations - even the research and collection of images is implemented in a way that makes it stand out... Its OpenSource and very worth while looking into - You need much time to get the idea of how it works and the learningcurve is *very very* low, (and short...) VUE has all sorts of student/professorfriendly exportformats - so why not make a total switch? - be radical - change the workflow and turn everything upside down... Again my opinion is (I might be wrong of course...) TW's strenght is *not* just beeing a container for what is made in another program - It's the nonlinear linking, web2.0'ish behaviour that makes people think differently and change perspective (make systems with tags and links)- the notes you make *can* turn into "pure gold" when you discover that you can make the document into a presentationtool as well - but to compare it with Powerpoint ---- ? I wouldn't try to convince someone who hasn't discovered TW's great advantages (compared to a simple Word-document) - of it's presentationabilities - especially not - if they are used to a "closed" environment as Powerpoint - which sole point is to power up a series of slides.... nothing more. Try VUE - it's different. http://vue.tufts.edu/ Regards Måns Mårtensson On 5 Okt., 20:34, Craig in Calgary <[email protected]> wrote: > Måns, > > All your suggestions are excellent if I only want to view the PPT > content within a TW context. However, what I am trying to do is create > a turnkey method of converting PPT content into TW-editable content. > Why? This goes hand-in-hand with my post on Scientific Research > (http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki/t/7ea2c7a6f43e58b0?hl=en). > I haven't finalized permission from my professor but I believe my TW > research is going to focus on the benefits of students and faculty > using TW instead of PowerPoint as a delivery mechanism for lecture > content. I hope to be able to conduct a trial with several different > professors in different academic disciplines where they will present > one lecture as they normally do and another lecture through a TW. > After the students are tested on the material from both lectures I > will survey to determine if retention was improved by the use of TW as > an editable resource. > > The easier I can make it on myself to migrate content to TWs, the > broader my trial and survey will be. The window of time is just a few > weeks and I need to reduce the workload as much as possible. > Additionally, at the conclusion of my research, if my findings are as > positive as I believe they will be, it is likely some of those > professors might consider adopting this strategy more widely. For > *their* sake I need to find or craft an automated solution. > > In tinkering with PowerPoint 2007 with a 26-slide sample PPT I have > determined that the PDF and MHT formats (Save As...) accurately > reproduce the look of each slide. The MHTs render poorly in Firefox > (my preferred browser) and render nicely in IE *if* I place the MHT > file in the root directory or a directory with no spaces or special > characters in the path. The Publish --> Create Handouts in Microsoft > Word option did a tolerable job of creating (too) small images of each > slide and adding speaker notes beside or below each image. If I chose > "Outline only" I get all the slide text but no images of the slides or > embedded images, no speaker notes, and no formatting or layout of the > slide text in a way that could be easily combined with the other > Publish method (small images and speaker notes). There is even a > Publish --> Publish Slides options which creates a PPTX for each slide > in the deck. I haven't experimented with these files yet but I > wouldn't be opposed to constructing a batch process against all the > PPTXs in a directory. > > In tinkering with OpenOffice.org's Impress application, the same > sample PPT imports flawlessly. Export... --> File format: HTML > Document yields the same results as File --> Preview in Web Browser: > it generates an HTML file with an embedded image for each slide and a > second HTML file with the slide text for each slide, excluding the > slide titles. These render well enough, except: > * The text HTMLs don't have the slide titles. This is where I would > cut/paste the text from so the missing titles is a problem. However, > if my solution requires grepping and schlepping content amongst HTML > files, then grabbing the slide titles from the <title></title> tags > will not be an issue. > * The text HTMLs have a bug. The first paragraph of slide text is > pushed into the highest <h> tag on the page. For example, a page with > only several bullets (<ul><li></li></ul>) has the first bullet of > content pushed into an <h2></h2> or <h3></h3>. Again, if grepping and > schlepping must occur, cleaning up the content will just be another > step in the laborious process. > * The image HTMLs have a navigation bar at the top of the page for > First page, Back, Continue, Last page, Overview, and Text. The text > HTMLs don't have the same icon bar. They just have hyperlinks. Boring > and inconsistent. Possibly not relevant if I don't use the HTMLs > unmodified. > * There is no option for exporting just the embedded images within > slides, not the entire slide as an image. > > I suspect my solution might involve each tiddler containing an image > of the original slide and the editable text. This will provide the > student a reference point for the original content after they have > modified the text to suit themselves. > > Other possibilities > > I uploaded the PPT to Google Docs. It looks fine there but the only > "Download presentation as" options are PDF, PPT, TXT. The TXT is > useless. > > Moving beyond the conventional to the extreme, I have access to many > different applications, e.g. SnagIt, FAR (Find and Replace), numerous > editors for any imaginable content type, that might contribute to a > multi-step solution. I hope to avoid such complexity but here is my > plan-of-action as of this moment. I'm mostly thinking out loud here, > subject to change: > > With an instructor-provided PPT I will craft a process that: > 1. Imports the PPT into Impress. When Impress opens a PPT it converts > it automatically so there is actually no work for me to do here except > pass the filename and -o parameter to the Impress executable at the > command line. > 2. Exports all slides to HTML specifying a destination directory and > pre-defined design. > - Future refinement: Create destination directory if it doesn't > already exist. > - Future refinement: Warn if destination directory already contains an > export. > - Future refinement: I haven't found a command line option to run the > Export process automatically so I will need to create a macro or > explore the API Project (http://api.openoffice.org/). The solution > will need to also allow for the selection of one of several pre- > defined designs. I expect every instructor will want their tiddlers to > look "just so" so I'll likely have maintain several designs (CSS, > icons, etc.) choices. My ultimate goal is to not have to interact with > the Impress UI at all. > - Future refinement: Embed the instructor's name, course name, course > ID, and date/timestamp of the original PPT into the content (for > versioning). At the least this information should be embedded in the > tiddlers as non-editable. Integrating it into each image would be > better. Both would be best. > 3. Identify the TW that will receive the content. For now that will > have to be a single TW per PPT. > - Future refinement: Option to download the latest/greatest TW > fromhttp://tiddlywiki.com. > - Future refinement: allow multiple PPTs to import into a single TW so > the all the course content can reside in one TW. > 4. Create one tiddler per slide, embedding the slide image and > wikifying the slide text. I suppose it is possible for a TW plugin to > be able to digest the HTML files (drag & drop) but I do not have the > time to develop that solution right now. I will have to do some > grepping to push content around and into tiddlers. I've done mass HTML > updates before so the learning curve will be shorter. In my > "automation" process this is the step that will bog me down the most > initially but yield the greatest ROI in time savings once the solution > works. > 5. Close, test, and distribute the TW. > > An alternative to steps 2-4 could involve having PowerPoint publish > PPTX files for each slide and me manipulate the content from that > source instead of the Impress HTML files. > > Måns, I've gone on and on here not to weary you but to have a single > place where my brain dump can reside. > > Any and all suggestions, corrections, enhancements, or any other type > of adjustments are welcome from all comers! > > Thank you! > > Craig > [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
