I was scheduled to participate in a wooden instrument makers program at our local chapter of the National Woodworkers’ Association on Thursday night, along with a violin/mandolin maker and a guitar maker. Our blizzard cancelled that and I never got to show the Powerpoint presentation I had prepared. It’s not totally self explanatory without my narration, but I thought that some people here might want to see it anyway. Is there any way I can post a PPT on this forum?
How about putting the file in Box.net or something similar and linking to it? That should work. 
You could always upload the ppt file to a file sharing location and link to it from here on C&F, just as benhall.1 suggests.
I am by no means a Powerpoint expert these days. I retired years ago and have not exactly kept up with Microsoft’s Office products. I moved on to using Open Office some years back. But even in the old days there was a way to publish a Powerpoint complete with narration, It was not really tough to do either. I am sure the current product has more built into it these days to help the process along - automating slideshows has to have improved for internet sharing.
Anyway, here is what I used to do. You save the pages of your Powerpoint as JPEGS - in other words as pictures. You record the narration as an audio file pacing the narration as you would in a live presentation. You then take those files and import them into a program like Movie Maker. The audio need not be edited, just import it and let it run. The pictures are imported in the order of your presentation. You then can stretch the duration of each image to match the narration. Save it as a movie and upload that to the net - YouTube, Photobucket, etc. Then link to it from there.
I am sure there is a better way to do it now but that’s how this old dog used to do it in the old days.
Feadoggie
brewerpaul, I’d love to see your presentation so please find a way. I love wood.
Paul, not sure what version of Powerpoint you have used but I will offer to turn the slides into a movie file for you if I can open the ppt file. PM me if that would be a help.
Feadoggie
I’m interested in seeing your material. Given how strongly I feel about powerpoint, you should take this as a very sincere form of flattery.
brewerpaul,
One route I’ve taken is to save the slides as a single PDF file. I think its under the “File” menu, either as “save as” or “export as PDF”. This way, the viewer doesn’t have to have any version of Powerpoint or OpenOffice. The Acrobat reader is pretty ubiquitous.
This doesn’t address the audio part. It just improves portability a little.
I’ve added text narrations to slideshows. The process I use is to format a standard textbox (size, color, location on slide) and simply copy the blank box over and over to all the slides. Then, I go slide by slide, and add a few words.
Ditto on a file host per benhall.1.
And of course, brewerpaul, I’d like to say that your offer to share is a very kind and generous gift on your part !
trill
Thanks for all of the ideas. I don’t have audio for this-- I was planning on ad-libbing using a laser pointer to demonstrating different parts, especially the areas in which my machine lathe work is different from the usual wood lathe turning that most of the woodworkers would have been familiar with.
Let me work on this later today.
It’s later. This is a PPTX file, if that helps. I can’t how to save it as a PDF, but if someone thinks they can do it, I’ll be glad to send the file.
[ Paul, did you mean to post a link to the PPTX here? - Mod]
You could play the powerpoint on your computer, while recording the screen and your voice to get the narration.
The “convert to PDF” option should be one of the choices on the “File” pull-down menu, AFAIK. If you don’t see it there, go to “Save As” and look through the options in the “Save as type” pull-down box under the file name box for a PDF option.
If that does not work out you can send the file to me if you like. I can probably open it with Open Office and save it in different formats. I’m happy to help.
Feadoggie