So recently I thought up an idea, now that my classes are back in session, and that’s to watch my teacher’s powerpoint presentations as a video. This is a classic idea, one that makes these kinds of software sell, but how about converting my teacher’s PPT/PPTX powerpoints to video, specifically, FLV, to carry around on my media player. Since my media player is a new one, as well as being great quality, it can handle all kinds of video formats, but for the life of it, can’t handle a simple PPT or PPTX to watch. I’m aware of no media players that can offer these functions, and if I ever run into one, I admit, I would be amazed. But this is a small price to pay seeing as it plays all of my audio/video files fine. The thing I had to keep in mind though, was the fact that there are some pretty bad PPT to Video converters out there on the market. Considering that I’ve tried Wondershare products before, I decided to try theirs first, which I must say, I’m pretty happy I did.
The first thing I’d like to point out when using Wondershare’s PPT2Video, is the fact that you must have a copy of Microsoft Office installed on your computer. It can not work with OpenOffice.org, unless you install it on a computer that has MS Office, and you bring a OpenOffice.org PPT to it to convert. Right off the bat, for a few people I know, this will not be useful. However, it makes up for this shortcoming by being extremely simple to use and an an extremely easy conversion system to understand.
It’s impossible to get lost in the menus… seeing as there are none.
Another thing that’s important to note is that while it is extremely user friendly, there is no loss of settings. Simply select the file that you want to convert, no matter if it’s PPT or PPTX, and set the custom settings, which I have taken a series of screenshots of below for you to see just how intensive the settings are. I’m aware some of them are indeed hard to read, but they do offer a frames-per-minute option, something I never expected to see on anything shy of a video converter or editor.
The settings this program offers is surprisingly a lot, more then I expected in a simple PPT2Video program.
However, nothing is ever perfect, and the PPT2Video program certainly has two important hitches I’ve noticed that are minor to me, but might be game killers to other users. Both glitches involve the video portion of a powerpoint presentation. The first case is when I’m adding a PPTX, and has a video in it, it throws up an error of “Failed to Import Presentation: Error Code = “0x8001010a””, however, removing the video will allow for PPTX to be converted without issues. The second bug comes with the normal PPT format and an embedded video, in that it doesn’t play automatically like it should when I’m watching it. However, seeing as my teachers do not use videos embedded in their powerpoint presentations, I’m not that worried myself. The Wondershare PPT2Video Pro that they also offer allows for automatic burning to DVD, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to try that one out, especially seeing as I know a fair amount of freeware that will allow to burning to DVDs from common video formats.
To show off how good Wondershare’s PPT2Video program is, I decided to create a quick powerpoint presentation that I could convert, which explains why it’s nothing really fancy. Had I had more time, I’m sure I could have made this look so much better. For optimal viewing of how good or bad it is, please make sure to watch it in 480p if your Internet connection is good enough. The link to the video is now here if you’re still interested in watching it.
Finally, I’d just like to say that this program is a real treat. Which is why I contacted Wondershare and asked them if I could provide a giveaway for the readers of Raymond.cc. Sure enough, they were kind enough to offer five licenses to me, which if you want one, you have to simply do one thing: comment on the blog. I’ll be randomly selecting the winner of the giveaway next week on Friday the 24th. I know this is now one product that I won’t be able to live without, for it will make it that much easier for my classes, and I’m sure if you’re a student, you’ll find the exact same thing. Best of luck to all whom enter!