Autorun Multiple PowerPoint Presentations With AutoPlay Menu Studio

Covers PowerPoint 97 and 2000 - look here for a newer version...

by Geetesh Bajaj

Introduction
Requirements
PowerPoint Viewer
Hidden Folders
AutoPlay Menu Studio
Virtual CD ROM
WinZip
Prepare A Layout

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Introduction

Let's look at a typical corporate scenario. Your company has fabulous PowerPoint presentations - and now you want to burn them all on a CD and distribute.

Ideally, you'll want to place the created autorun CD in any CD or DVD drive and be presented with a splash screen. The splash screen is designed with the corporate look of your company and there are hotspots to click, which:

• Run Individual Presentations
• Read Information
• Visit Website
• Exit

Actually, it's an easy task to accomplish. Just follow this step-by-step tutorial and you'll have created an autorun CD with all your PowerPoint presentations in no time. The same procedure can be followed for a single presentation as well.

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Requirements

You'll require the following software:

1. Microsoft PowerPoint 97 or 2000 to create the presentations. or readymade presentations)
   
   
2. Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer to play the presentation on systems with or without PowerPoint installed. This is essential since the whole autorun principle is based on allowing the PowerPoint Viewer to run directly from the CD without any installation. 
   
   There has been no release of a PowerPoint 2000 Viewer - Microsoft suggests you use the PowerPoint 97 Viewer. You can download the viewer from this link:
   
   Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer
   
   
3. AutoPlay Menu Studio 3 from Indigo Rose. For more information and to download a trial version, follow this link:
   
   AutoPlay Menu Studio
   
   
4. WinZip 8 from WinZip Computing or a similar zip extraction program.
   
   WinZip Download

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Step 1: Install The PowerPoint Viewer

If PowerPoint Viewer is not installed on your system, install it straightaway. Download the latest version from the Microsoft site. The link below will lead you to the download page:

Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer

After installation, don't delete the PowerPoint Viewer installation file (ppview97.exe) - we'll need it later in this tutorial.

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Step 2: View Hidden Folders 

By default, Windows Explorer does not display all files. Some file extensions are designated as hidden. These include DLL files.

To enable viewing of all files, follow instructions, as under (these are for Windows 98 - other versions of Windows may slightly differ):

1. Open Windows Explorer - click Start -> Programs -> Windows Explorer.
2. Select  'Folder Options...' from the 'View' menu.
3. You'll be presented with a dialog box consisting of three tabs - General, View and File Types. Choose the 'View' tab.
4. You'll find options to enable viewing of hidden files. View the snapshot below and apply identical changes to reflect as under:

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Step 3 - Install AutoPlay Menu Studio 3

If AutoPlay Menu Studio 3 or later is not yet installed on your system, install it now. There are a lot of benefits in integrating AutoPlay Menu Studio with your autorun CD ROM layouts even before creating your first presentation.

AutoPlay Menu Studio is from Indigo Rose, the same company which creates Setup Factory. To learn more and to download a trial version of AutoPlay Menu Studio, visit:

AutoPlay Menu Studio

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Step 4 - Create A Virtual CD ROM

Create a new folder and give it a name. If you want to follow this tutorial strictly, you could name it "cdrom".

Open AutoPlay Menu Studio and choose 'Create A New Project' from the opening splash.

You will be presented with the 'Project Template Gallery'. Choose 'Cancel' to dismiss this dialog box. You're now presented with an empty project.

Right click on the project screen and choose 'Project Settings'

You'll be presented with an option to create a Virtual CD ROM - I chose the 'cdrom' folder as my Virtual CD ROM.

Back in the Project Settings window, don't touch the other options presently. Press 'OK'.

Save your project and exit AutoPlay Menu Studio.

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Step 5 - Install WinZip

If WinZip is not already installed on your system, you can download a trial version from the WinZip Computing site. The current version is 8, but could be newer by the time you visit.

WinZip can be downloaded from:

WinZip Download

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Step 6 - Prepare A Layout

Navigate to the 'cdrom' folder using Windows Explorer and create a sub-folder called 'pprun'. Create further sub-folders of the 'pprun' folder and name them 'installer' and 'setup'.

Copy the PowerPoint Viewer installation file (ppview97.exe) you downloaded from the Microsoft site to the 'installer' folder.

Your directory structure should appear similar to this screenshot

Right click 'ppview97.exe' and you should be presented with a few options, including 'Open With WinZip'. Choose this option.

WinZip opens an instance with all archived files listed - among them is a file called 'PPView1.cab' Double-click this file. The associated application (Windows CAB Viewer or WinZip) will open displaying the contents of the CAB file.

Select all files and copy/extract them to the 'Pprun' folder of the 'cdrom' folder.

Navigate to the 'pprun' folder and delete these three files:

• Acmsetup.exe
• Acmsetup.hlp
• Mssetup.dll

From within the 'pprun' folder, move the 'ppview.dll' file to the 'setup' sub-folder.

Within the 'pprun' folder, create another sub-folder and name it 'present'.

Your folder tree should look similar to this:

cdrom
+pprun
++installer
++setup
++present

The 'pprun' sub folder will contain 25 files in addition to the three sub folders. 

The 'installer' sub folder contains a single file - ppview97.exe

The 'setup' sub folder contains a single file - ppview.dll

The 'present' sub folder contains nothing.

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