Is there some format that I can convert a PowerPoint presentation to that will work on an IPad as well as a PC? I maintain my churches website and am currently using iSpring to convert a PowerPoint presentation to flash. This works well on PCs but I would also like the website to display on an IPad. I'm MS Expressions to maintain the site. Since the PowerPoint changes weekly I need something that's quick and easy to use.
Thanks

PowerPoint will display on the iPad without any conversion. Apple's Keynote app is compatible with .ppt and .pptx files - and can play embedded audio and video too. Although it struggles with very complex formatted documents it's generally very capable.

I use it a lot for professional (business) presentations and have not found any problems with it.

Tim

The only other challenge with PowerPoint on the iPad (or between any Apple and Windows computer) is fonts. Not all fonts are shared. Using Verdana is a safe bet if there's an issue.

Another possibility would be to convert your PowerPoint to PDF - you can do that from within the PowerPoint program, just do a 'Save As' and choose PDF. The iPad can read PDF documents using the in-built iBooks app.

Tim

Thanks for your advice. Earlier I had rejected PowerPoint because a lot of Windows users don't have any version of Office on their PC. I had rejected PDF because it's slow loading, especially with a dial-up connection and some people seem to have trouble with Adobe Reader. Flash seemed to be the best because of the small file size which made for faster loading and most people seemed to have it. For now I think I'll just go with PDF and hope a better solution comes up in the future.

Originally Posted by adavis

Thanks for your advice. Earlier I had rejected PowerPoint because a lot of Windows users don't have any version of Office on their PC. I had rejected PDF because it's slow loading, especially with a dial-up connection and some people seem to have trouble with Adobe Reader. Flash seemed to be the best because of the small file size which made for faster loading and most people seemed to have it. For now I think I'll just go with PDF and hope a better solution comes up in the future.

FWIW folks don't have to have MS Office (or any other office app) on their computer if you send them the file as a PowerPoint Show. More here:

Create and distribute a self-running PowerPoint presentation - PowerPoint - Office.com

I haven't tried importing a PowerPoint Show into Keynote or the other office apps I have on the iPad. I'll give it a try later to see how it goes.

Tim

Can you tell me how to import ppt or pdf to kenote on my ipad. I followed all the instructions and when it comes to 'open with' there is no Keynote option to open it to.

Cheers

Bob

Originally Posted by Bobsummit

Tim

Can you tell me how to import ppt or pdf to kenote on my ipad. I followed all the instructions and when it comes to 'open with' there is no Keynote option to open it to.

Cheers

Bob

Hi Bob, I think I can help you with this. First, you can only transfer files into apps that can use them. A PDF file cannot be opened in Keynote (the same as it couldn't be opened in PowerPoint or Word or Pages, etc.). If you wanted to, you could insert a PDF into a PowerPoint slide prior to importing it into Keynote on your iPad. Otherwise PDF files can be opened GoodReader or Adobe Reader for iPad and other apps. Keynote or PowerPoint presentations can be opened in Keynote.

To transfer your files to any file sharing app:

1. Connect your iPad to your computer.
2. Open iTunes (if it doesn't open automatically).
3. Click on your iPad in the left-hand column.
4. Click on the "Apps" tab at the top of the page.
5. Scroll down to the File Sharing/Apps area at the bottom of the page.
6. Locate and click on the app you want to use (listed in the left-hand column).
7. The right-hand panel changes to "[name of app] Documents".
8. Drag and drop your files into that area or click on the "Add" button at the bottom and locate the files you want to use.
9. Finish by clicking on the "Sync" button at the bottom of the page and the files will be transferred to your iPad.

Subsequently you can move files from your iPad to your computer using the reverse.

This example is for another app, but it's the same for any file sharing app:



Of course you have to have the app on your iPad. Did you buy Keynote for your iPad?

Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by adavis

Is there some format that I can convert a PowerPoint presentation to that will work on an IPad as well as a PC? I maintain my churches website and am currently using iSpring to convert a PowerPoint presentation to flash. This works well on PCs but I would also like the website to display on an IPad. I'm MS Expressions to maintain the site. Since the PowerPoint changes weekly I need something that's quick and easy to use.
Thanks

Hi Bob! I thought about your post when I was asked by our church to find a way to include presentations and some videos on their website. After working through some details I found a combination that will allow anyone with a Mac, PC or iPad to view the videos on the church website. Rather than a Flash file the presentation will be MP4 so folks with iPads can view them as well.

The setup consists of these elements:

• Presentation software. In our case I'll be using weekly slide shows created in Apple's Keynote ($19.99) but the exact same thing can be done using MS PowerPoint ($169 up).
• Conversion software. I'll be using TechSmith's Camtasia for Mac ($99) or Windows ($299). I've been using Camtasia for about 10 years. It's very robust, intuitive to learn and using it for this kind of project is very simple.
• Web hosting. I'll be using TechSmith's Screencast to host the weekly presentations. They offer a 2GB account for free and you can upgrade to Screencast Pro's 25GB's for a fee. When you upload your presentation from Camtasia to Screencast you're given the HTML code to embed it in your website.

So the process flow would be:

1. Create the presentation (PowerPoint or Keynote)
2. Convert the presentation using Camtasia
3. Upload the presentation to Screencast with Camtasia
4. Embed the Screencast HTML code in the church website

That's about it!

Camtasia has numerous tutorials available for free. These two cover converting presentations and uploading them.

Record a PowerPoint or Keynote Presentation

Share Over the Internet with Screencast.com

There's also a very good iPad-specific tutorial here:

Need an Excuse to Buy an iPad? - Screencast.com Blog

Besides PowerPoint or Keynote slides you can easily include video and/or audio files throughout the presentation...add voice overs and much more in Camtasia.

Since you already have PowerPoint, the only cost for this setup would be for Camtasia. As you can see if you have a Mac the cost is considerably less (and the options more robust).

Hope that helps and let us know if you take this path and how it works out for you.

I don't know if those presentations needs to be viewed offline, but since you talked about flash, I assumed that's for online content.

The way I would do it would be to create a Google App site (or whatever similar services). It's really easy to setup and update, no HTML knowledge needed. So your presentations would be new pages in a form of blogs, or wiki. For embedded videos, just upload your content in a YouTube account, and insert the video in your page.

Thinking about it, probably you could create your presentation using Google Docs, and have your documents embedded in your pages. And for a small fee 10$/year, google will give you a domain name for your Google App site.

This way, everything will be available of any devices that needs to display those presentations. And at the same time, you will avoid the task of converting to a compatible format since Google/YouTube will take care of that.

My 2 cents...

VicoPad addict!