swf do not display in PowerPoint

[andy kirk]

Hi,
I have uploaded single swf files using Flash movie upload in Presenter. This embeds fine and in preview mode or running slideshow all appears well. when I close the ppt and reopen to work on later the slides in question do not appear either in the presenter panel or the slide, making it a bit tricky to continue editing.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Andy

[David Anderson]

Hey Andy -

Yeah, that's just how PowerPoint handles the Flash object. It's not a problem when your entire slide is a Flash file but when you're combining Flash with other content it can be tricky.

Are you trying to sync graphics and animations with your Flash file?

[andy kirk]

Hi David,
thanks for getting back, yeah I have figured out that if I have the ppt slideshow running on one screen I can figure out what sits where on the other!

The flash files in question are interactives such as callouts and drag and drop bit n pieces, interspersed with other pages such as jpegs and text.

One thing I am trying to figure out btw is if in ppt or with Presenter functionality I can overlay text boxes or shapes on top of flash files. I suspect not and I don't have Engage to play around with.

Cheers for the reply

Andy

[beeneeb]

Hi Andy,

Be sure and check out the Flash Best Practices page here: Flash movie best practices – Articulate Presenter ‘09 Knowledge Base

You'll likely find an answer to why the SWF isn't displaying.

Also, what method are you using to import the SWF file? Are you importing via the Articulate menu > Flash movie or are you importing through PowerPoint's functions? See the link below for more information:

Adding a Movie – Articulate Presenter ‘09 Help

[David Anderson]

Hey Andy,

Good question about overlaying objects. You can't overaly graphics over Flash in Presenter but you can in Quizmaker:-)

Quizmaker has layers (similar to Flash) and you can position elements above and below each other. Great option there:-)

Engage doesn't have that option, only Quizmaker due to its layers.

I guess you could do it in Flash if you have that option but most times we see Flash files either as single object in slide or to the side/above PowerPoint objects and graphics.

Hope that helps.

David

[@robkennedy3]

Andy, you could also try Dave Moxon's approach for "layering" in Presenter: Create a Background Animation

[andy kirk]

Yes that does help David, thanks. I also raised a ticket with the helpdesk and they got back. All in all a good online community here as I feel I am piling lots of questions at people!

[David Anderson]

Cool, thanks for circling back Andy. Yeah, good group here. Everyone seems to share same interest in learning and helping one another.

@Robert - great call on Dave's post. Surprised we don't see more of that used.

[@robkennedy3]

Hey, my post disappeared. I'm still subscribed to it but I don't see it :-). Oh well. At least David saw it. So it counts :-D

[David Anderson]

LOL! I still see it though: swf do not display in PowerPoint