Putting Your PowerPoint Presentation On The Web

You've created a PowerPoint show. You've presented it. Now what?

Most PPT presentations have a longer life than one showing. Your show can become a valuable 24x7 multi-media marketing and communications tool for if you publish it on your Website. This article looks at the four ways to achieve this, and considers the pros and cons of each.

1. Upload as a PowerPoint file

This the easiest and simplest way. However, there are a few catches. One, the viewer needs PowerPoint on their computer to open the file and view it. Two, large presentations can take a long time to open, and so you run the risk of your visitor clicking away. Lastly, anyone can download the file and alter it as they wish, so it's not secure.

2. Convert to PDF

This is a better option because virtually everyone will have the software to read the PDF, and it will be secure. However, PDF files can be quite large, too, and so the problem of making the visitor wait too long is still there.

3. Convert to Flash

There is software available that will convert PowerPoint to Flash automatically. At Presentation Tree, we use FlashSpring Pro, which costs about $200.

Flash files are small, so they will open quickly. They are secure, and most visitors will have the software to open and view the file.

Here is an example of a 128-slide presentation for Smarter Growth in Washington D.C. that Presentation Tree converted to Flash.

 4. Rebuild in HTML

This option is the most labor-intensive, but it is also very user-friendly and can result in an extremely engaging presentation from your Website.

The basic idea here is to create a screenshot of each slide. Then, a separate page is created in HTML format that includes the slide. Here is an example, created by Presentation Tree for the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition:

Note that there are links for the next and previous slides. Also note that we included some text under the slides. When you choose this option, you have a lot of flexibility.

Overall, each approach has it's pros and cons. You need to decide what works best for your situation. But one thing is clear, you will get a lot more mileage from your PowerPoint presentation if you make it available on the Web.

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