Creating slides with PowerPoint is similar to creating them with Showcase. However, PowerPoint comes with many more example slide templates than Showcase does. There are also not the aspect ratio issues that were discussed in the Showcase section. PowerPoint automatically assumes that slides have a 3:2 aspect ratio.
Although PowerPoint runs on both the PC and the Mac, there is one crucial difference between the two versions, leading to the following recommendation. If you are using PowerPoint on a PC, it is strongly recommended that you transfer the PowerPoint presentation file to the Mac before creating the file for the slide maker. This is because the PC version of PowerPoint will not export a Mac Scrapbook file, which is the most convenient representation for slides.
Once your slides are created and transfered to the Mac, they must be saved in a format that the slide making software understands. There are two possibilities here, either a Scrapbook file, or a PostScript file.
The only time to use a PostScript file is when the slide to be imaged
contains a PostScript image. For example, you may have imported a
PostScript image from another source, such as Matlab
. To create the PostScript
file, select ``Print...'' from the file menu, and print to a file.
The best way to export from PowerPoint is to save your slides in a Scrapbook file. This is a simpler format than PostScript, and therefore tends to produce smaller files. Therefore, slides image faster, and an additional bonus is that a preview is available. To save the Scrapbook file, select ``Save As...'' from the ``File'' menu. Save as a Scrapbook instead of a presentation, but be careful not to overwrite your presentation! Please save your Scrapbook in the ``To Image'' directory on Mariana. This makes cleaning up easier.
If you created your presentation directly on Mariana with PowerPoint, it is strongly recommended that you transfer your presentation file to somewhere else (either to a floppy disk, or to your SGI account). Disk space is very tight on the Mac, so please clean up after yourself. Save any files that you want to keep somewhere else, and delete any files you created on the Mac.