The following information pertains to Zoomifier users working with the Import PowerPoint function, and covers the recommended best practices to ensure content in a Zoomifier presentation most closely matches the original PowerPoint presentation.
Compress Pictures
PowerPoint features a tool to Compress Pictures, which generates new image files in the embedded PowerPoint file with adjusted image dimensions and file size. Using this tool is highly recommended before importing a presentation into CustomShow, especially in image-heavy presentations. As CustomShow resamples images that are resized, ensuring that image content in any presentation requires minimal resampling will greatly improve playback performance.
- Click File: Compress Pictures
- Click Email (96 PPI)
- While other options are available in this menu, we recommend using the 96 PPI option to create web-optimized pictures prior to importing the presentation from PowerPoint into CustomShow.
- Click All Pictures In This File OR Selected Pictures Only
- Official Documentation regarding this feature can be viewed on Microsoft’s Office Support Articles.
Fonts
Zoomifier will detect the fonts used in any PowerPoint file imported. When importing via the Customizable with Editable Text option, Zoomifier will match these fonts used with the fonts that are available for each Zoomifier group.
- Fonts used in PowerPoint that match the Default Font List supported by Zoomifier will import into Zoomifier as these same editable fonts.
- Fonts used in PowerPoint that are not part of the Default Font List should be added to Zoomifier prior to importing the PowerPoint file. After matching fonts are uploaded to Zoomifier, the fonts will be available for usage in the application. All matching fonts used in the PowerPoint file will be used in the Zoomifier presentation created from the import.
Text Boxes
When using the Import PowerPoint function, Zoomifier will attempt to convert specific elements in the PowerPoint presentation into matching Zoomifier elements when possible. Using the Customizable with Editable Text option, the import function will convert text boxes in PowerPoint into Zoomifier text boxes, making the text editable.
- Zoomifier import text boxes from PowerPoint into Zoomifier as editable text, but if a PowerPoint Effect or Style is applied to the text box then Zoomifier will process the content as an image instead.
- Currently, Zoomifier does not support using PowerPoint Effects or Styles with editable text. Therefore, if a text box must be editable in Zoomifier any such Effect or Style must be removed in PowerPoint prior to Importing into Zoomifier.
- Examples of Effects or Styles include but are not limited to: Glow, Reflection, Bevel, 3D Effects, Soft Edges, WordArt, and SmartArt.
Grouped Objects
Zoomifier does not currently support grouping multiple slide elements. Depending on how users wish to work with the Import PowerPoint function, grouping and ungrouping slide content will affect how Zoomifier creates imported content.
- If slide elements must be placed together and moved together as a single element, group multiple elements in PowerPoint prior to importing into Zoomifier. Grouped elements are imported into Zoomifier as a single image. Grouped text boxes are also imported as images, and cannot be edited as CustomShow text boxes.
- If slide elements must be edited individually, ungroup any elements prior in PowerPoint prior to importing into Zoomifier. This is especially important when importing text boxes, as only ungrouped text boxes can be edited in Zoomifier.
Presentation Dimensions
PowerPoint and Zoomifier create presentations and slides at differing dimensions by default. Before importing a presentation from PowerPoint to Zoomifier, ensure that the dimensions of the presentation closely match the desired size of the Zoomifier presentation.
- The default slide size in PowerPoint 2013 and 2016 is approximately 960 x 540 pixels at 72 DPI. The default slide size in previous versions of PowerPoint is approximately 720 x 540 pixels at 72 DPI.
- These slide sizes are labeled in Zoomifier at Widescreen (PPTX) and On-Screen Show 4:3 (PPTX) respectively, using the same naming conventions as used in PowerPoint.
- The Aspect Ratio of slides will determine how slides will scale to various screen outputs. Generally, any 16:9 slides will scale to standard monitors and devices regardless of the exact dimensions used.
- Example: 960 x 540 slides will scale in the same manner as 1280 x 720 slides, though the former slides may scale content to a larger degree on high-resolution displays.
The following are some of the most common examples of the desired CustomShow slide dimensions results, and the appropriate settings to apply to a PowerPoint presentation to create the desired result.
- Zoomifier Dimensions: 1024 x 768 px
PowerPoint Slide Dimensions: 14.222″ x 10.667″ - Zoomifier Dimensions: 1280 x 720 px
PowerPoint Slide Dimensions: 17.777″ x 10″ - Zoomifier Dimensions: 1920 x 1080 px
PowerPoint Slide Dimensions: 26.666″ x 15″