PPT2HTML Updates and Revision History

PPT2HTML Updates

PPT2HTML is a work in progress. We're constantly improving it and adding new features. This Revision History lists the changes we've made lately.

You can always update your current copy of PPT2HTML to the most recent version at no charge.

To update, visit the Downloads page, follow the instructions there to download and install the latest version. That will update PPT2HTML automatically. You do not need to uninstall PPT2HTML first or re-enter any registration information. Just run the installer and you're updated, whether you have a demo or fully registered version.

Revisions are listed by date, most recent changes first.

Revisions that affect all PPTools add-ins

Fall 2007

Discussions with WebEx should result in a fix for the problem their software was causing PPTools add-ins. If you encounter problems with PPTools add-ins when WebEx software is in use, contact WebEx tech support for several effective workarounds or updated software.

Summer 2007

New image export routines in PPT2HTML, Protect and ImageExport give much higher quality images than was previously possible when using PowerPoint 2002 and up.

28 November, 2006

Added a workaround for a problem caused by some WebEx software (on starting PPT you see repeated error messages). With the workaround, you'll see the error messages ONLY the first time you start PPT after installing the WebEx software; they'll stop after that. We're working with WebEx to correct the problem that causes this.

PPT2HTML Revision Log

03 Jan, 2009

Fixed bug that caused slide numbers to move slightly in exported images

18 Oct, 2008

Fixed: If you added new slides after using PPT2HTML on a presentation, it would sometimes, under special circumstances, fail to output the entire new presentation.

Fixed: PPT2HTML switches to Slide view while creating HTML; it now switches back to your original view when done.

01 Oct, 2008

Corrected bug that caused PPT2THML to pick up links from slide master on title slides rather than from title master if it exists.

Added provisional support for "scripted" links: in PPTools.INI, [PPT2HTML] section, use PrependToLinkString and AppendToLinkString to "surround" hyperlinks with any text you like (javascript code, for example).

20 Jun, 2008

PPT2HTMLBatch now automatically processes PowerPoint 2007 file types (PPTX, PPSX).

Fixed a number of other minor bugs in the batch version.

You can use AUTO on the command line to start PPT2HTMLBatch in Watched Folder mode.
It will open directly on the watched folder it was watching the last time it was invoked (ie, manually)
and start waiting for files to appear. Using this command line switch simply bypasses the normal
startup dialog box and forces PPT2HTMLBatch to begin processing files immediately.

Now copies FLASH and MOVIE files to output directory along with HTML.

26 Feb, 2008

Help/About dialog box now distinguishes between regular and Batch versions

16 Dec, 2007

Improved sound file handling (exports more sounds to HTML output folder)

Added special case code to handle bugs in image exports from PPT 2002 SP1

Added ability to let user control javascript that plays sounds:
SoundShapeAction=[javascript code]

You can Ctrl+Click the MakeHTML button to view most recently made HTML

8 Nov, 2007

Fixed several bugs that affected image map links when PPT2THML is set to link to new browser window

17 Oct, 2007

All new image export feature gives MUCH higher quality images from PowerPoint 2002 and up.

PPTTextToEntities feature (see below) now applies to notes text as well as other text.

Opening links in new window(s) now works correctly when URL includes a named destination
( for example: http://www.somedomain.com/file.html#Destination )

Image map links are now created in reverse order, because of differences between HTML and PPT's concept of ordering.
Or in English: if one link is atop another in PPT, the "upper" link obscures the lower one. And now it works the same in PPT2HTML's HTML output.

FIRST/LAST/PREV/NEXT hyperlinks weren't working correctly. Fixed.

26 April, 2007

New feature to prevent hangs in Batch version
When PPT opens a password-protected file, it displays a dialog box asking for the password.
And waits. And stops any running batch process dead in its tracks.
There's no way to test the file before opening it, so PPT2HTML can't simply skip it and move along.
We're now distributing a small file called WindowWatch.EXE along with PPT2HTMLBatch.
If it's present in your PPTools folder, PPT2HTML will launch it just before attempting to open each PP file and tell it to look for the Password dialog and when it appears, dismiss it. This will allow PPT2HTML to move along to the next file.

Please see the entry "Using WindowWatch" in the main directory, in the PPT2HTML Batch section for more detailed information.

28 Mar, 2007

Enhanced support for Chinese/Japanese text support and proper rendition of "true quotes" and other characters that don't render correctly in HTML ordinarily.

Add this line to [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.ini
PPTTextToEntities=YES

Now when you generate HTML each character in the text will be converted to the equivalent numeric character code (your HTML will look weird if you edit it, but the text will look correct in the browser when you and others view it).

02 Feb, 2007

Added support for movie files (similar to existing Flash support)
See Embedded movies / videos for details.

25 October, 2006

More reliably copies linked movie and sound files to the output folder
You can now type in a non-existent output folder path in the Prefs dialog box and PPT2HTML will offer to create it for you when you click OK. If it can't create the folder for some reason (drive unavailable, bad characters in path, insufficient permissions, etc.) it will tell you so and return you to the Prefs dialog box so you can correct the problem or cancel.
Minor changes to the Help/About dialog box to accommodate changes to our web site

25 May, 2006

AutoDeAnimate feature. PPT2HTML can now automatically "de-animate" your presentation. That is, it converts build sequences into a series of static slides so that when you go from one slide to the next in the HTML version, the slides appear to build in much the same way they would in a PowerPoint Show.

To have PPT2HTML automatically "de-animate" your presentations, add the following line to the [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.ini:

AutoDeAnimate=YES

Note that this will make extensive changes to your presentation. Please save a copy of your file to a new name before invoking this feature.

You can now add shapes to the beginning and end of the image map that PPT2HTML produces.
If you have :Nav.Map: in your template, PPT2HTML will produce clickable links from each button/action setting and hyperlink on each slide. But what if you want to add a clickable full slide link to each slide so the user can simply click to advance?

You could do it in the PPT presentation by adding a full slide rectangle with a Next Slide action setting, but you'd have to do that for each presentation. Instead, you may prefer to control ALL converted presentations directly from the template. Now you can.

Here's an example of adding a full-slide NextOrNothing link to each slide in the HTML presentation:

Locate the [PPT2HTML] section of your PPTools.INI file and add this directly beneath it:

; Prepend/Append shapes to image map.  Make sure there are no linebreaks!
;PrependToMapShapes=
AppendToMapShapes=<area shape="rect" coords="0, 0, :Slide.Image.width:, :Slide.Image.height:" href=":Nav.NextOrNothing:" ALT="Next Slide">

You can add anything you like to the beginning or end of the image map that PPT2HTML generates for the presentation. This adds a full-slide-image sized link to the next slide in the presentation. By putting the full slide shape after any other shapes, the other links will still work. If you add the full slide link to the beginning of the map (ie, prepend instead of append), it will disable the other links on the slide. Of course you can add shapes that are smaller than full slide. The syntax used is identical to standard HTML image map syntax. Consult an HTML reference for details.

24 May, 2006

Optional "shadow" index file
Normally PPT2HTML creates files with names like Slide001.htm and so on.
After you upload its html files to a server, users have to use a URL like

http://www.yourdomain.com/somefolder/Slide001.htm

to view the presentation.

If you prefer that they simply use

http://www.yourdomain.com/somefolder/

add the following line directly below the [PPT2HTML] line in PPTools.INI

IndexFile=index.html

Substitute your web server's default index file name for "index.html" above. It might be default.asp or anything else you prefer.

When it sees this entry, PPT2HTML makes "Slide001.htm" as usual but also makes a copy of it as "index.html"

When you upload both to your server, visitors can use the simpler URL to view the presentation, but all of the links to the first slide still work.

19 May, 2006

Several ALT Text problems fixed:

Normally both PPT2HTML and PowerPoint add ALT text. You may prefer to have no ALT text at all; normally users don't see ALT text unless they've specifically turned the feature on in their browser. If they have it on, it's probably because they have a visual impairment and need the ALT text to help them use your web pages. For that reason, we don't recommend disabling ALT text. But if you must do so, add the following to the [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.INI:

NoALTText=YES

Some PowerPoint versions automatically add ALT text to shapes that have text. This always begins with "Text Box:" followed by the text of the shape itself. PPT2HTML detects and removes this "Text Box:" if present. But in non-English versions of PowerPoint, the wording will be in the local language.

In the [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.INI, add this:

LocalTextBoxString=Text Box:
; Replace "Text Box:" above with whatever appears at the beginning of your unwanted ALT text.  
; Please include the punctuation also.

For example, if you use a German-language version of PowerPoint:

LocalTextBoxString=Textfeld:

UPLOADED 8 March, 2006

8 Mar, 2006

Added new experimental "accessibility proofing" feature to Accessibility Assistant. This allows you to cover each shape that has Web Text with a rectangle containing the web text. It's a quick, easy way to ensure that important elements of your presentation include web/alt text. We're looking for comment on this feature. We may expand it to allow you to hide any slide elements that do not have either text or web text (ie, that would not be accessible).

Fixed a problem with the "links to all" feature that caused the links to run together
Made the HTML generated by links to all a bit more legible by adding line breaks
Changed the HTML generated by links to all so that it's XHTML compatible (lowercased it)

17 Feb, 2006

Fixed problem with Accessibility Assistant (no longer errors in PPT2002/2003 when thumbnails are active)

16 Dec, 2005

Fixed several bugs with Asian text handling

02 Oct, 2005

Fixed: When using SingleHTMLFile feature, PPT2HTML no longer includes multiple closing body/html tags from template.

09 May, 2005

Prevent PPT2HTML from adding Alt/Title text - new, still in testing but,

Add this to the [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.INI:
DefaultAltText=NO

PPT2HTML will not add Title/Alt text to the image maps it creates. Note that depending on browser and browser settings, the browser may still display the link target as a tool tip and/or text in the status bar.

07 May, 2005

The way PPT2HTML creates TOC or Link Lists is now highly customizable. See Customizing the List of Links

07 February 2005

Further improvements to Hooks; added %iheight and %iwidth to enable using the height and width of slide images as a command line parameter as when using external app to resample thumbnails - see Ragged text when using PowerPoint 2002/2003 for specifics.

04 February 2005

MakeThumbnails feature now allows you to override the default TN_ prefix with one or your own or none at all (by setting it to NONE). If NONE, then the thumbnail overwrites the normal slide image. This can be handy as a workaround to PowerPoint 2002/2003's nasty-looking text in images. You'd set the slide image to be whatever size you normally need, say 800 x 600, then set the thumbnails to produce a much higher resolution file, 2000 or 3000 pixels wide and to overwrite the slide image (ie, prefix of NONE). Then you'd batch downsample the high rez thumbnails down to the final 800x600 resolution, and your images will look better in HTML.

See Generating thumbnail images for more about Thumbnails.

Improvements to Hooks and Hook command line logging. Hook replacement parameters are now more useful and better documented, and whenever a hook is executed, PPT2HTML records the entire command line to the log for easier debugging of problems.

See PPT2HTML "hooks" to external applications for more about hooks.

29 January 2005

Noted that alt text applied to placeholders on master could override alt text applied to the actual shapes that fill the placeholders on slides. PPT2HTML now ignores the alt (web) text of placeholders on master slides. It continues to pick up lt text from other shapes on masters and from all shapes on slides.

Some browsers don't display alt text in some or all situations. You may prefer to use "title" rather than "alt" text.
PPT2HTML now allows you to use "alt" or "title" or any other name you like for alt text it applies to the clickable image map.
To use this feature, add this line to the [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.INI:

MapAltText=title

If you don't want the alt (or title) text to display at all, use this instead:

MapAltText=xxx

The browser won't know what xxx="your alt text" means, so it will ignore it. The alt text will not appear.

12 January 2005

PPT2HTML now picks up action settings and links on shapes within groups

10 December 2004

Added default alt text override as partial means of eliminating default alt text
To disable default alt text, add to [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.ini:

DefaultALTText=NO

6 December 2004

PowerPoint sometimes converts inserted pictures into Placeholders, so routines that are looking for pictures don't "see" them.
Added routine to convert all "placeholder-ized" pictures back to plain pictures just prior to exporting HTML from each slide.
This should be harmless but it does alter the original presentation. If you prefer that it not do this, add this line to the [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.INI:

FixPlaceholders=NO

29 November 2004

Demo version now adds "Demo" instead of "X" to extracted text

23 October 2004

No longer produces Type 13 error when using the Diagnostics template

September 2004

Various changes to make PPT2HTML's HTML more XHTML-compliant

August 24, 2004

Added search and Replace feature - to activate it:
Add this to [PPT2HTML] section of PPTools.ini:

SRFile=c:\program files\rnr\pptoolsv2\somefile.txt

That is: SRFile=full path to the file that contains your search/replace strings

The file itself should be plain ascii text (ie, created in Notepad or the like).
It should be a series of lines with the text to be searched for on the left of an equals sign, the text to replace it with on the right side.

searchtext=replacetext
this=that
something=nothing

PPT2HTML performs each of these replacements on the HTML it creates from each of your slides.
This feature only works in PowerPoint 2000 and up; it's disabled in PowerPoint 97.

As with any search and replace, you have to be a bit cautious about what you ask for. If you include this:

men=women

the search/replace will turn "men and women" into "women and wowomen" (it sees the 'men' part of 'women' and replaces it as well).

In some cases you can work around this with an S&R file that includes something like this:

men=women
wowomen=women

Other changes

Now uses lowercase/xml compatible list item and other similar tags
No longer creates blank list items if user has forced a blank line in body text - creates a blank line instead using <br> or the alternate HTMLBreak text you've defined in PPTools.INI
Now adds a blank line if the user has forced a linebreak (using Shift+Enter)

August 20, 2004

Added safety check to PPT2HTMLBatch version
PPT2HTMLBatch.EXE only requests it to convert PPT or PPS files but user-written procedures might accidentally include other file types in the "to be done" list in AUTOFILE.INI
PPT2HTMLBatch addin now tests file extensions and skips all but PPT/PPS files

August 3, 2004

Now forces 24-bit PNGs when shapes exported to PNG

August 2, 2004

New features added to Export Shapes:

In PPT2HTML section of PPTools.INI you can add:

SlideShapesBGColorR=255
SlideShapesBGColorG=255
SlideShapesBGColorB=255

to set the B/G color of the images exported.

You can also use:

HTMLBeforeExportedShape=any text or html code
HTMLAfterExportedShape=any text or html code

to have PPT2HTML add text/html before or after images exported from shapes.

July 22, 2004

Added Get Chart Data button to Accessibility Assistant

If an MSGraph chart is the currently selected shape in the Assistant, you can click Get Chart Data to have the Assistant extract the title, if any, and data from the chart and add it to the chart as Web/Alt text in linearized table format.

The free Demo version does one chart at a time.
The registered version allows the user to extract data from just the current chart or all MSGraph charts in the presentation at once.

June 25, 2004

Added support for hyperlinks like

javascript: OnClick('parameter', 'parameter', 'parameter');

PPT2HTML passes this through into the image map untouched.

Added support for hyperlinks like:

PASSTHROUGH:Anything you like - anything at all

PPT2HTML passes everything to the right of "PASSTHROUGH:" directly into the image map code, as is.

Note: The terms "javascript:" and "PASSTHROUGH:" aren't case sensitive.

June 23, 2004

MULTIPLE MASTER support - in versions of PPT that support multiple masters.

June 22, 2004

Added support for links to file.ext#target ... for example links to MyFile.XLS#NamedRange
These become clickable links to the file.ext#target (that is, the path is removed).

June 19, 2004

Added support for inserted movies; these now become clickable links to the movie file itself, which is automatically copied to the output folder along with the HTML and image files PPT2HTML creates.

June 18, 2004

Added more types to list of shape types exported

May 30, 2004

New Feature: ability to convert entire presentation into one single HTML file composed of multiple slides.
See Entire presentation as one single HTML file

May 28, 2004

New Feature: ability to export individual shapes on slide as images (ie, pictures, charts, etc.)
The Plain Text with Exported Shapes template example page explains how to use this feature.

May 27, 2004

Fixed: Problem that caused PPT2HTML to delete previously made HTML files when sending output to a new folder. Only occurs when original PPT file and previously made HTML files are in the same folder when outputting to new folder.

May 20, 2004

Accessibility Assistant includes alt text editor, reading order editor and other useful features.

Alt Text editor; PPT2HTML has made use of PPT's Alternative Text feature for quite some time but this feature's only available in PPT 2000 and up, and is tedious to use if you have a lot of text to add. Now you just select the shape(s) you want to apply alt text to, click the Alt Text button and type your text. PPT2HTML can convert the Alt Text you apply this way, even if you use PowerPoint 97.

Mid-February 2004

Extracts Linked/embedded sounds
Allows User-settable link paths to externally linked files
Can Make Table of Contents-style links to the other slides in your presentation

UPLOADED 18 December, 2003

8 December 2003

Fixed: Wasn't converting hyperlinks to external files (word DOC files, etc.) into html hyperlinks
Fixed: Was converting PPT links to HTML links ONLY if the link was to a PPT with more than one slide

30 October 2003

Several Newly added placeholders
New: :Notes.Ph.BodyText_NoBreaks: produces notes text with no linebreaks added
:Notes.Ph.BodyText_CodedBreaks: produces notes text with "coded" line and paragraph breaks

New "De-Animate" feature can Turn animated slides into a series of slides with animation steps

Improved diagnostics template
The Diagnostics template is now three tables, one for placeholder values and one each for built-in and custom properties.
To get all the custom properties, you have to generate a new diagnostics template for each presentation you use it with so that it picks up the custom properties for that particular presentaton.

FLASH! PPT2HTML does it!

Alternate image output formats let you export images in other than JPG/GIF/PNG formats

Can PPT2HTML Give my files extensions other than HTM? You bet.

Last Slide Viewed links now get converted
PPT2HTML now converts Last Slide Viewed links into the equivalent Back action in the browser
To do this, it uses javascript:history.back()
If javascript is disabled in the browser, this feature won't work

PPT2HTML can Add text to end of HTML and image file names

Get correct HTML from accented/special characters

Fixed: in two-column text slides, PPT2HTML didn't pick the second column up correctly and also overwrote the first column's text with the contents of the second column.

Fixed: Was ignoring action settings and hyperlinks applied to placeholders

Fixed: Was passing quotes in ALT text directly into ALT text in HTML, causing problems; now passes quotes as HTML entities

[Previous] [Home] [Next]

Menu:

Latest news:

Links: