Re: links to powerpoint files and students that don't have program

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From: Aron Roberts (aron@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 11 2003 - 10:02:57 PST

At 8:25 -0800 2003-02-11, Graham A. Patterson wrote:
>There are free download viewers for most Microsoft Office applications.
>The PowerPoint one is at
>http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/default.aspx?Product=PowerPoint&Version=95|97|98|2000|2002&Type=Converter|Viewers
>
>As far as I'm aware this only helps Windows users.

   Microsoft also makes a free PowerPoint viewer available for the Mac OS:

     "Microsoft PowerPoint 98 Viewer
     http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/office98/powerpoint98viewer.asp

   Of course, visitors using platforms other than Windows or the Mac
OS would not be able to use these viewers. A small fraction of
Linx/Unix users and users of mobile devices, such as PDAs and
Web-enabled mobile phones, might be running Windows emulation
software, viewer software (Documents To Go), or alternative office
productivity software (OpenOffice) that would allow them to view
PowerPoint presentations, but most probably will not.

   Downloading free viewer software also requires time and effort on
the part of your Windows- and Mac OS-using visitors, and software
installations don't always go smoothly. Also, there is always the
question of whether viewer software can successfully display all of
your presentations.

   To summarize and reiterate previous messages in this useful thread:
To help make PowerPoint presentations available to a wider audience,
you might consider:

   - Creating alternate views of PowerPoint presentations in HTML
     (checking to make sure they work with non-IE browsers -- there
     may be some export options to tweak), PDF, Macromedia Flash, or
     some other widely accessible format;

   - Providing links to free PowerPoint viewers. (One possibility is
     to offer such links on a "viewing resources" page on your Web site,
     linked from each of the places where you offer PowerPoint
     presentations for downloading.)

Aron

P.S. For a recent discussion about accessibility of Flash
presentations to your site's visitors, see the November 2002 Webnet
thread beginning at
<http://ls.berkeley.edu/mail/webnet/2002/0307.html>. (This may also
be a partial response to Lucas's query ...)

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