#1 2008-11-18 17:10:37

**_Daniel_**

Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

Hi,

I am really enjoying Presenter's professional output. If I was more knowledgeable about some of the apparent bugs, would be even happier. Often, animation schemes do not seem to function properly. Keep redesigning animation schemes because once the file is published, the text or pictures or whatever will load all at once. Probably overlooking the obvious - are there basic settings to be aware of? Example is here in the first slide: http://trp.na3.acrobat.com/useyourhead/

The other slides work just fine.

Have also noticed that Presenter seems to recognize certain font sizes, though not others. Slide transitions that work in PPT do not seem to work in a published file. Some animations work, some don't. We updated to 7.0.2, though we have not noticed any changes as far as the above. We are using PPT 2007. Any updated info on what works and what doesn't so we know what not to do?

Thanks a lot.

Daniel

**_Jorma_at_RealEyes_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

Most animations are supported or substituted for a similar animation. Here is the KB article, the animation support hasn't changed since this document was released http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_18774. As to the slide transitions, they have never been supported. Font's have been known to be an issue, if you are using PPT 07, try saving the presentation as a PPT 03 and see if that helps, 7.0.2 was intended to resolve many of the PPT 07 issues.

As to that presentation, that first slide is a whopper. Have you considered breaking that into 3 or 4 slides? That may resolve the issue by just having less going on per slide. Also, make sure you animations are "on click" so that you can use the synchronize audio tool to control when they happen.

**_paresh_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

You may find the list of unsupported PowerPoint shapes/effects and suggested workarounds KB article below useful

http://www.adobe.com/go/kb404325

**_dyun_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

Just to clarify what Paresh posted, all animations except the ones outlined in the KB article he posted are supported in Presenter.

So this is where you should go to see if your animations are supported in Presenter 7:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewCon … &sliceId=1

Also as Jorma mentioned, we have never supported slide transitions. 

Best,
David

**_Daniel_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

Thanks to all - very helpful information. Jorma's idea re: breaking up the first slide is good. However, the second slide in that presentation has an animation scheme 3x as large as the first, and much longer audio too. So, it does not make sense to me that a more complex slide works while a relatively simpler slide does not. Unless I just got lucky that the complex slide works.
Daniel

**_Chris4471_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

I'm really, really unsatisfied with this product, and I feel like Adobe is misleading on its website when it promises that Presenter will, "preserve all of your animations".  If you're on this forum, chances are you've found out that this is far from the truth.  All kinds of pptx slides will have to be altered a great deal to get even simple animation sequences to function.  Complex slides are totally out of the question.  Adobe doesn't tell you this until after you've shelled out 500 bucks, then they direct you to a three page list of "workarounds".  Give me break.  There's got to be a superior product out there.  Adobe Presenter has been a huge disappointment, and for our small business, a huge waste of money.  So, I guess my advice for users experiencing difficulties would be simple, "Lower your expectations."  I'm shopping around for something better, although I doubt Adobe will let me post when I find it.

**_roysdenc_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

Chris4471,
         Unfortunately you are not alone in your problems and dislike for Presenter.  We use Presenter and Connect, and spend far more than $500 and are probably just as disapointed in the product.  The issue of the day for us (and any day we use the product) is simply getting fonts to show correctly (Arial Narrow size 18).  I know they still haven't figured out Smart Art, but the fonts thing is getting annoying.  From what Adobe has told me, they don't even know what fonts are supported, so when I find a proble I should call them.  Too bad Arial Narrow is a common font, you think they would at least have that one down.

         All that and all my dislike for the product being said, I have not found a better solution.  With Adobe Connect and Presenter we can do far more than with any other package I have found, both on the live presentation, recording, and training end.  Adobe was smart when the bought Macromedia, but from what I have seen, the product has suffered because Adobe doesn't listen to their customers.

-Chris

**_jameslloyd_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

Wow, I'm a pretty vocal critic of Adobe, but Presenter has actually worked extremely well for us.  We do extensive amounts of text and motion graphics using PowerPoint animation - things like molecular interactions and chemical processes.  While PowerPoint is a less-than-ideal editor(!), Adobe Presenter has 99% of the time faithfully converted our very intricate designs.

I should mention that we are still using PPT 2003 - perhaps many of these issues are endemic to the 2007 versions (which we will receive in the next 6 months).

Roy, aren't font issues completely dependent on the fonts installed on the Connect server which is not really within Adobe's control?

**_roysdenc_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

I haven't been able to isolate what is causing our font issues.  In PP everything looks great.  I publish with Presenter and some things work and some things don't, even with the same font/font size.  I haven't seen anything specific that could cause the issue, only that with most every presentation we publish, we have to spend 30 min to an hour tweaking things to make the text show correctly (which usually ends with this is still not to my liking but I can at least read everything).  What ever it the cause is, the problem happens when Presenter converts the files and publishes them to our Connect server.

I am working with Adobe to see if it is something we are doing that is causing the problem, but it looks like a long road ahead with little insight as to what the cause is.  I have no doubt that it probably has something to do with Office 07 and Presenter 7, but not sure exactly what.  When MS released Office 07, Adobe had a lot to do to make things work.  It seems like there has been some progress, but most all of our font problems started when 07 came out (even if we weren't using 07).  Adobe started changing things to make 07 work, and some where something just doesn't like us. 

I can also tell you that my Adobe support contact has been able to see the problem occur when he publishes my presentation locally on his end, so that took the server out of the equation, but the problem still occurred.  Now we (me and my Adobe support contact) just need to collect enough information/examples/testing to convince their engineering that they need to spend some time supporting their customer and help resolve my issue.

**_jameslloyd_**

Re: Presenter and Powerpoint - what works?

oh, wow.  Thanks for posting on the forum about this.  I'll definitely be prepared once our company upgrades to office 07.

Good luck solving the issue.