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PowerPoint and AutoPlay Media Studio
Covers PowerPoint 2003 Viewer and AutoPlay Media Studio 5
by Geetesh Bajaj
Introduction
Requirements
Install the PowerPoint Viewer
View Hidden Folders
Install AutoPlay Media Studio 5.0
Output Presentations from PowerPoint
Create a New Project
Prepare A Layout
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Introduction
Let's look at a typical corporate scenario. Your company has PowerPoint
presentations that have to be burned on CDs and distributed. PowerPoint
2003 has an amazing Package to CD feature but how do you burn 15
presentations to a CD and provide a well designed interface to
the recipients of the CD?
Ideally, you'll want your created CD to autorun in any CD or DVD
drive. You'll also want the audience to be presented with a professional
menu splash screen which makes selecting options to view particular
presentations as easy as clicking a button. The splash screen also
has to reflect the corporate identity of your company. The buttons
themselves should react to clicks and:
- Run individual presentations
- Provide text information
- Provide live links to websites
- And more...
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:
- Microsoft PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2002 or 2003 to create
the presentations. (or readymade presentations) - you can also
use PowerPoint presentations originally created on PowerPoint
for the Mac.
- Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2003 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.
Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2003
- AutoPlay Media Studio 5 from Indigo Rose. For more information
and to download a trial version, follow this link:
AutoPlay Media Studio
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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 2003
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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 XP - other versions of Windows may slightly
differ):
- Open Windows Explorer - click Start | All Programs | Accessories
| Windows Explorer.
- Select Tools | Folder Options.
- You'll be presented with a dialog box consisting of several
tabs - choose the 'View' tab.
- 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 Media Studio 5
If AutoPlay Media Studio 5 or later is not yet installed on your
system, install it now.
AutoPlay Media Studio is from Indigo Rose - a Winnipeg, Canada
based company that also creates several other products including
Setup Factory, Style Workshop and Liquid Cabaret. To learn more
and to download a trial version of AutoPlay Media Studio, visit
the Indigo Rose site...
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Step 4 - Output Presentations from PowerPoint
You now need to place all your presentations within folders with
some help from PowerPoint 2003 or the free PowerPoint 2003 Viewer.
For PowerPoint 2003: Use Package for CD and place all contents
within a folder rather than a CD. You'll find more detailed info here...
For PowerPoint 97, 2000 and 2002: You'll have to manually
replicate the step automated by PowerPoint 2003 using
this tutorial...
Whichever way you do it, you get the same results.
I took four of my presentations and output them with linked files
and the Viewer in four separate folders that I named 01, 02, 03
and 04 - so I had four separate presentations within the four folders.
I could have copied them all in the same folder but it is probably
simpler to put them all in their own separate folders.
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Step 5 - Create a New Project
Here's how you could proceed:
- Open Autoplay Media Studio and opt to create a new project.
- Name the project 'PowerPoint Autorun' and use the Blank template.
Then click the button called 'Create New Project'.
- Choose Project | Window Settings and opt for the Small page
size preset. Keep other options unchanged and click OK.
- Choose Page | Properties and choose either a solid, gradient
or image background. I chose an image background. Autoplay Media
Studio comes with several nice image backgrounds that you can
use royalty free. Click OK.
- Click File | Save and exit Autoplay Media Studio.
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Step 6 - Prepare A Layout
Within your My Documents folder, you'll find a folder called Autoplay
Media Studio 5.0 Projects or similar. Within that folder will be
a folder with the same name as your project - for instance we named
our project PowerPoint Autorun. Within the PowerPoint Autorun folder,
I discovered another folder called CD_Root. That's the same folder
which Autoplay Media Studio will use to burn within the root of
the CD that we'll burn in the end - so anything that's placed within
this folder will become part of the final CD.
I copied all my presentation folders: 01, 02, 03 and 04 to this
folder.
Your directory structure should appear similar to this screenshot
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