Changing your PowerPoint Presentations to Flash Files

We looked at two conversion programs that change PowerPoint presentation into Flash files. Why would you want to do this?  Because it solves a couple problems that come with distributing PowerPoint presentations. First, it makes it easy to email as an attachment and eliminates download issues. Second, it makes it difficult for the recipients to change or edit the presentation. And finally it allows you to share the presentation online to make it accessible and searchable.
The programs we looked at all have a free downloads and are available for an upgrade (called Pro versions) for a fee.

• AuthorPOINT Lite is a free PowerPoint to flash converter that outputs an SWF file as well as generates a link to the presentation on authorSTREAM’s server. This allows the user to share a url or an embed link to the presentation in flash format. To begin, download and install authorPOINT Lite here. You will be asked to have an account on authorSTREAM so you can join here. Once that is complete, you can enter your email and password into the Upload box in authorPOINT and sign in. Import your PowerPoint into authorPOINT Lite. Your presentation will be uploaded to your new account on authorSTREAM. During the import process, authorPOINT automatically outputs an SWF file to a designated location. In order for the presentation to play, though, one needs all of the files and folders associated with the index.swf file (except for the .js file) located in the same folder. Once the presentation is imported, the user can Upload the file to authorSTREAM’s website. There you can grab the url or embed link to share your presentation with others.
• E.M. PowerPoint Video Converter is an easy to use program that will easily convert PowerPoint presentations to video or image form. The free version will allow you convert to avi, wmv, mpg, bmp, or mp3 without a watermark. E.M. PowerPoint Video Converter functions independent from PowerPoint. The user can open or drag and drop a PowerPoint presentation into the square file list. The user then must choose the file format the presentation will be converted to. Then there are a few options the user can choose from. The user can add audio to the presentation, decided the transition time between each slide, and choose the size of the video for example. Then all you do is hit Convert and E.M. will do the rest. When the conversion is finished, the containing folder will open up and the user will be able to see the converted presentation.

We had previously been recommending the freeware program iSpring as a PowerPoint to flash converter but have since found out the free version is for private or personal use only. You can purchase the Pro version here.