TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
John Cornellier wrote:
>
> I'd like to take an image, say a JPG, associate it with a sound, say a WAV
> file, then embed the two together into an executable. Ideally with the
> viewer / player embedded too, so I don't need to worry about what the end
> user has installed in the way of graphics / sound viewers. I'd like images
> to be played in sequence, like a slideshow. Something like a Powerpoint
> presentation without PPT.
>
> Anyone know a way to do this cheaply?
>
John,
Use your page layout/word processing/graphics package of choice to lay
out your slides (choosing a custom page size with the 4:3 aspect ratio
of a monitor or projector--for example 8 inches by 6 inches).
Then print the output to a PostScript file (using a color printer
driver); Distill; and use Exchange to add in sounds, movies, animations,
etc., at will. You get fewerchoices of slide transition effects than
with PPT, but you get a more compact file. And you can distribute the
viewer (Acrobat Reader plus plug-ins) for free.
Another possibility is to go ahead and use PPT and point users to the
free PowerPoint Viewer that MS offers on their web site.
