Talk:Import PowerPoint

MDL 10513 comments

This is a hack that imports a series of images into a Lesson as branch tables. So far I like this hack. Spent a few hours testing it on a 1.8 localhost with 5 images. In my first test, I used OOimpress to create my 4 images, then added an image and deleted all non jpg files. In my second test, I exported an OOimpress file as a webpage to a folder. Then zipped the folder and imported it with the hack just fine. It took only my 4 images in the right order.

The beauty of this approach is that it inserts a single image(screenshot of each slide) and does not care about bullets, multiple images, page numbers or whatever. Everything is there in there, no translation required, so toss the KISS rule out the window and go for it. The downside is that you can not edit the text in Moodle. Instead you must edit the image (that is why I used OOimpress, I edit that, then export it again, then delete the wrong image in the course files, then upload the new image with the same name.

Anyway I could not find a working version of my hack and decided to try this. This is "more better", easier to use and I think more flexible because of the way it imports in some sort of order that does not require an index file like my previous hack. --Chris collman 13:14, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Importppt.php notes

The Lesson/Importppt.Php says

 //This is a very rough importer for powerpoint slides
   //Export a powerpoint presentation with powerpoint as html pages
   //Do it with office 2002 (I think?) and no special settings
   //Then zip the directory with all of the html pages 
   //and the zip file is what you want to upload
   // supports book and lesson

Note from chris: Moodle 1.6 from 6/7/06 onward has latest importppt.php. I am able to use this function when I created a new lesson. It works with most versions of MS PowerPoint. It has limitations in its current form but it will import a basic presentation. It is not designed to work on other programs like OO Impress (yet). --Chris collman 21:43, 8 June 2006 (WST)

Another note from chris: I did get my ImportOO hack to work and created over 600 branch pages spread out in 6 lessons. Each page contained the equal of a jpg screenshot of a OOImpress presentation page.--Chris collman 03:50, 11 August 2006 (WST)

Todd Luger said this in ImportPPT in Lesson Forum on June 12, 2006. "This is very cool and it worked perfectly for me using Mac OS 10.4 and Powerpoint 2004. I imported a text only version of a ppt I had set up as a storyboard for a case based simulation game." Decided I (Chris) would summarize his storyboard experience as an example. --Chris collman 03:10, 14 June 2006 (WST)

I just tried doing the same with Openoffice impress >save as html >zip> import and it failed in 1.7dev 4June6 CVS. I understand market size but starting with products (OSS) that do more to help the institution of education over the institution of profit(M$) is more noble, IMHO. --Dennis Daniels 11:47, 8 June 2006 (WST)

Amen! I think importing OO Impress web based files might be easier, because they are simplier. Have you checked the file structure of the folder you zipped? Very different than the higher priced product. I don't think it creates seperate objects for each image on the page. Looks to me as if there is text and an html image for each page. We strip all the files except the jpgs and insert those one at a time into a branch or question page.

About 4 weeks ago I did a real UGLY maul/hack on importPPT.php. The short of it was I had to create a fake file for the slide order using old DOS tricks and change some string parameters in the code. I had a simple 10 page presentation, I was able to import the last page's image 10 times in a lesson automatically! That was the old importppt problems. The latest tweak got rid of that old problem, so I may go back to see how I hacked it. --Chris collman 21:43, 8 June 2006 (WST)