Month: July 2007

Powerpoint to DVD

Karen

I had a goal, a dream: transfer my PowerPoint slideshow to DVD so my dad and aunt could have a copy that could be easily viewed. It all started after I returned from a trip to Germany that I had taken with my dad. We had gone together to see the town where he grew up. I had about 130 pictures on my digital camera, so I decided to put them in a PowerPoint presentation and burn it on a DVD for him to watch on TV. My aunt wanted a copy too, and I knew PowerPoint to DVD would be the simpliest way for her to see the pictures. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

Things were going along nicely as I made my PowerPoint presentation, although the process of enhancing and cropping each image and putting it in the slide show was extremely time consuming. When I was about 7/8’s of the way through I thought to myself, “You know, self, I’ve never put PowerPoint on a DVD to view on the TV. I wonder how one does that.” Much to my horror, my Google search turned up nothing but discouraging news. “It can’t be done,” they said on all the best forumns. “Use product X.” Oops, not made for a Mac. “Turn each slide into an image and put it into iMovie.” Crappy resolution, and I don’t know how to use iMove. Besides, I had just done all my image work– I didn’t want to have to do it again. When I tried to learn about iMovie, I got conflicting and convoluted advice about some mysterious Ken Burns process and the “jaggies” which, surprisingly enough, has nothing to do with the PBS special about the Civil War. I tried to use iDVD. How the heck do I switch to a template that doesn’t play circus music ad naseaum? I went to bed at three a.m., no closer to my goal.

The only glimmer of clairty I had found was from this website from Mr. Daniel Slagle: Importing a Powerpoint Presentation. But when I tried to follow his suggestions, I created a movie that stayed on my first slide until the one minute and twenty-three second midi file was done playing. Clearly not what I had in mind. So using Mr. Slagle’s advice as my starting point, I waded through the muck and finally produced a PowerPoint movie that plays music and can be seen on my DVD player. The steps I went through to make this masterpiece go from PowerPoint to DVD are given below. In addition, if you save things regularly as you go along, you’ll end up with a PowerPoint Presentation, a QuickTime movie, and a DVD movie. Remember, since a TV has a screen with a lower resolution than a computer monitor, you won’t see the same crisp images on your TV that you have on your computer. However, I think you’ll be very happy the results. This process worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you as well.

Software Used:

  • PowerPoint 2004
  • Photoshop Elements
  • iMovie
  • QuickTime Pro
  • Toast Titanium

    • I worked on an iMac G5, so all the software is for OS X. I’m sure you can use other versions of some of these software products to produce similar results in order to get your PowerPoint presentation to a DVD.

    1. Set-up the PowerPoint Presentation [PowerPoint 2004]

    Suggestions:

  • Use a black background.
  • Don’t use custom animations.
  • Don’t choose an effect for slide transitions.
  • Set slide transitions to advance after four to five seconds. Apply to all.
  • Don’t add music or sounds to individual slides. We’ll add a soundtrack later.

    • 2. Prepare Photos [Photoshop Elements 4]

  • Crop and adjust jpegs from your digital camera or scans.
  • Change resolution to 150 dpi.
  • Resize pictures so that none are greater than 8″ in width or 7″ in height so they fit on the slides.
  • Select all, copy, and paste images into slides. Or you can save the images and use the Insert Pictures from File option.

    • 3. Add text to PowerPoint

    Suggestions:

  • Use a simple, sans-serif font.
  • Make text bold, size 30 – 32, and in white.
  • Adjust text and picture placement so that there is about 1/2″ of empty space all around the edge of the slide. If the text or photo gets too close to the edge, the curvature of the TV will cause images and text to be cut-off.
  • Time the slideshow to see how long it is when it runs by itself.
  • Save as a presentation.

    • 5. Create wav file of your music [QuickTime Pro]

    I tried to use the .mov soundtrack file in my presentation, but it didn’t work. I don’t know why. Also, a .wav file is smaller, but the quality of sound is still great, so my final product was smaller using a .wav file v.s. a .mov file for my soundtrack.

    6. Make a Movie in PowerPoint

    7. Create the file for your DVD

    8. Burn your PowerPoint to DVD [Toast Titanium]

    List of Links that Helped Me:

    Daniel Merriam Art for Sale

    Karen

    As many of you may know, I am in love with the artwork of Daniel Merriam. If you haven’t seen his amazing paintings yet, then please visit is web site (but be sure to come back!)

    A while ago I received an email from a woman who has a giclee by Mr. Merriam that she is desperate to sell because of a “precipitous financial situation.” She asked me to help her out, and so I’m going to try to do what I can to help her find a good home for “Serenade,” shown above.

    Of course, Gail has an interesting story to go along with her painting. It seems that she had been following Daniel Merriam’s work for several years in the ads in Art & Antiques magazine. Finally, they did a feature article on Daniel in the December 2003 edition. Gail took the article to Dan Fiorini, a gallery owner and friend and told him how much she wished she could get a print of “Serenade” – her favorite of all Merriam’s pictures. Dan vowed that, if there was a way to find one, he would do it.

    After some correspondence, Mr. Fiorini found a colleague at another gallery who was a personal friend of Merriam’s, and she volunteered to contact him and see if he might have kept back a print that he would be willing to sell. (The original limited edition had been sold out long ago.) Merriam responded that, while he had not retained a copy for himself, he had never issued a print numbered “13” (13/100). So, it was arranged that he would issue a #13, add a remarque, and ship it to Fiorini Gallery & Frame, in St. Petersburg, Florida. A couple of months later, in early 2004, Gail brought her “monnkee” home.

    The Certificate of Authenticity is from Monarch Editions, Daniel Merriam’s publisher. It is signed and numbered by the artist, as is the giclee itself. Gail says, “I suppose you could say that I bought it from the artist, since it really did not come from one of the galleries that sell his work.” She goes on to say, “It was my first adventure in buying ‘real art,’ and I had adored this particular work from the first time I saw it. I’ve always referred to it as me monnkee (think Jamaican accent) and it is breaking my heart to let him go – you should see his lips! The background is filled with faces – some easy to make out, some not. There are penciled-in lyrics to the ‘Garden Song’ that Merriam has him singing while he plays his ornate piano. Every time you gaze awhile, you see more in the scene. Wonderful!”
    Gail is asking $3200 or best offer for this artwork.

    You can contact Gail by sending an email to dibblegail at yahoo.com.