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CIT
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Using PowerPoint in Online Courses
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PowerPoint and WebCT
PowerPoint and WebCT
This tutorial details and demonstrates the steps necessary to add PowerPoint slide shows to WebCT. The process involves five steps.
General Rules of Thumb:
• No illegal characters in file names (e.g., punctuation).
• Keep file names simple. It is best to keep file names short with no spaces.
• Use titles in your PowerPoint slides since they will be used as the titles for the Web-friendly version.
I. Converting PowerPoint slides to HTML
Since PowerPoint presentations are not saved as a web-friendly format with its default .ppt extension, you will need to export your PowerPoint presentations to HTML if you wish to place them in WebCT and enable them to be viewed with a web browser.
Fortunately, PowerPoint does have an option of saving the presentation as a web page with its associated GIF and JPEG images.
Although transitions will be lost during the conversion, the universality of HTML and GIF/JPEG image formats allows the presentation to be viewed using any standard web browser.
Follow these steps to save your PowerPoint presentation as a collection of web-friendly pages which you can upload to your WebCT course...
Note: These instructions are relevant to PowerPoint 2000 on Windows.
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Figure 1a: Saving your presentation as a Web page
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- In Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, select File from the menu bar and choose Save As Web Page...
The dialog box in Figure 1a should display.
- Click the Publish... button displayed in Figure 1a.
The dialog box in Figure 1b should display.
- The Publish as Web Page options window should appear as in Figure 1b.
If you need your speaker notes to display on the web version of the presentation, be sure to check the box next to Display speaker notes.
If you prefer to keep your speaker notes private, be sure to uncheck the box since they are enabled by default.
Click to view an example of a presentation with and without speaker notes.
Select Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later option under browser support.
You can change the title of the presentation by clicking the Change... button to the right of Page title:.
To preview the published web page output, check the box next to Open published Web page in browser.
Advanced output options are availabe by clicking the Web Options... button, but the default settings for the advanced options should be optimal in almost all cases.
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Figure 1b: Publishing your presentation to the Web
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- Once you are ready to publish, enter the File name and click the Publish button.
Please note that all files that are to be placed on the Web --including those destined for WebCT-- should not contain any illegal characters such as colons or slashes in the file name.
Any illegal characters in your file names will prevent the transfer of the converted PowerPoint presentation into WebCT.
In previous versions of WebCT spaces were considered illegal characters, and older computers or web browsers may not properly handle spaces in file names, so the use of spaces in filenames is also discouraged.
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Figure 1c
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- The publishing process will have created a file with the same name as your PowerPoint file, replacing .ppt with .htm as the file extension, and will have created a folder that holds the images and metadata of the presentation as shown in Figure 1c.
For example, if your PowerPoint presentation is called MyPresentation.ppt, the web page will be called MyPresentation.htm and the image and metadata files will be placed in a folder named MyPresentation_files.
If you have set up Drag and Drop access to WebCT, then you can drag and drop both the .htm file and the _files folder to your WebCT folder.
This also allows you to skip steps II, III, and IV and proceed directly to Step V.
If you haven't set up WebDAV Access to WebCT, then you must zip the .htm file as well as the folder that contains the images and metadata in order to properly place the presentation in your WebCT course.
Instructions on how to zip these files are locate in Step II.
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PowerPoint web example with speaker notes