I was wondering if anybody knew of a PIM/Information manager which is able to read MS Powerpoint presentations in, dissasembling them into their component slides so that they can then be viewed and, ideally, copied as slides so that they can be pasted to a new presentation.

Currently I can view my presentations as printouts in OneNote, but then I still have to go to the original file, open it, find the slide, copy it and paste it to a new presentation. I think there must be easier ways :-)

There seems to be slide library software around (e.g. www.slideboxx.com), but it is either web-based (not acceptable) or ridiculously pricey for a one-trick pony. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Graham

PS I know that Microsoft 2007 Office with Sharepoint has a library option - I don't have that Office version.

Hi Graham.

You know you can save a Powerpoint file as RTF file?

Franz

Thanks Franz. Yes. To be clearer: I'm trying to import slides as slides (not as another format, such as rtf) into a single data file (not multiple files), where I can view and search all slides from all presentations in one place .... I wondered if any PIM or similar had attempted this. There are specialist programs that do this, but I was rather hoping for a solution that had other uses as well.

Graham

Hi Graham,

For starters, check out MindView's integration with Powerpoint: http://www.matchware.com/en/products/mindview/features.htm#Integration_with_Microsoft

Note that it is optimised for using MindView as the starting point for the presentation, exporting to Powerpoint and then re-importing, in which case the special MindView styles are recognised.

Of more general interest: You might want to take a look at Steve Rindsberg's range of power powerpoint tools http://www.pptools.com/index.html as well as his resource site for programming Powerpoint with VBA http://www.steverindsberg.com/pptlive/

Sometime ago, David Tebbutt provided a Powerpoint macro to Brainstorm users for exporting files as tabbed text outlines based on Steve Rindsberg's guidance. I can ask David if it is still available somewhere.

Alexander

Graham,
SharePoint can do this, it's even called a "Slide Library". It provides custom metadata columns, (hierarchical) views and filters and maintains dynamically linked slides (i.e. even after you put slides into a presentation you can opt to fetch updates of individual slides from SharePoint). You can take the slide library offline by subscribing to it with Groove.

The downside: Obviously you need SharePoint 2007 for this, so I wouldn't call it a "single user" solution ...

Moritz (feeling privileged that we have those servers in our company ...)

Graham Rhind wrote:

Thanks Franz. Yes. To be clearer: I'm trying to import slides as slides (not as another
format, such as rtf) into a single data file (not multiple files), where I can view and
search all slides from all presentations in one place .... I wondered if any PIM or
similar had attempted this. There are specialist programs that do this, but I was
rather hoping for a solution that had other uses as well.

Graham

Thanks for the responses. I was aware of Sharepoint but (see the PS in my original post), I don't have that version of Office.

I didn't think I'd get anywhere with this request - but it was worth a stab :-)

Graham

Hi Graham,
another approach might be to export all slides as separate presentations, e.g. using this macro: http://skp.mvps.org/ppt00036.htm#2
To manage the resulting slides you have multiple options:
1. use a "power PIM" like Zoot or Ultrarecall to manage links to slides and add metadata to facilitate categorization, management and easier retrieval
2. use Windows Explorer (Windows 7 works best; Vista is good as well; forget XP) and configure metadata columns + use search. One advantage of using metadata (structured + Windows keywords) + search is that you could "file" slides into a hierarchical folder structure and Windows search automatically considers everything in the current directory node and below.
3. use an alternate file manager with views, filters, metadata and preview capabilities. I like Directory Opus (www.gpsoft.com.au), this could be used effectively in that fashion.
4. use Mindmanager (again with links to slide) for moderately complex collections.
5. (for big slide libraries) maybe Personal Brain could be a good solution as well (it has tagging and in the Professional version can fulltext index your slides)

All of these options will _not_ give you "dynamic" linking (as with SharePoint) but I have used many of those approaches myself with good results. Main difference with server based solutions really is when you have to collaborate with others on a common slide deck -- e.g. monthly business review presentation with 7 stake holders. In this case you have to go with an enterprise approach.

Moritz

Ah, that sounds like a plan! I'll try that - I have The Brain Pro, and I think this could work in that. Thanks Moritz :-)

Hi Graham.
Slidebank.com is a presentation management system that will do what you want (disassemble presentation slides so you can drag them into new presentations) plus much more.

The website is:
www.Slidebank.com.com

And a video demo of the software:
http://www.slidebank.com/Shortcuts/Complete_Tour/Complete_Tour.htm

www.slidebank.com

I think. Interesting, though.

Thanks Hugh. They're very coy about pricing ... which probably means it's aimed at rich corporates and therefore much too high. I wish I could find something like this at a reasonable price for the PC (not on the ' net ....)

Graham

Sorry, that should be thank you to Shaun as well!

Graham Rhind wrote:

They're very coy about pricing ... which probably means it's aimed at
rich corporates and therefore much too high.

As suspected, they have a minimum requirement of 10 users and that's GBP 28 per user per month! Prices per user go down as numbers go up, but at GBP 288 per month ... madness!

I wish they'd post this information on their site!

Sorry, I should probably stop typing today ... that's GBP 280 per month. Maybe I am entering my dotage after all.

And Shaun - I see now that you're from slidebank.com .... I think you need to be more open about your pricing on the website (and do something about the website that appears for your site if you use a browser like Opera - it's completely different to the one which appears with IE, with hardly any useful information, though I don't see why that should be). There's a huge need for this sort of software locally and for smaller scale users who don't have the means that multinational corporations have. Why not produce a stripped down non-SaaS version for the rest of the market?

Graham,

Maybe you would like to take a look at SmartDraw which includes the PowerPoint Builder. This is kind of a storybook where you can connect and re-use different slides and then finally compile them into a PowerPoint Presentation based on your template:

http://www.smartdraw.com/product/features/70-kinds-of-visuals/#/product/features/Presentation-Storyboards

Dominik

Thanks Dominik. I actually already have and use SmartDraw VP. However, what I want to do is to build a library of the slides from existing Powerpoint presentations (about 20) into a single library, which I can then reference, building a new presentation from existing slides. As far as I can see, SmartDraw allows for the creation and re-ordering of slides, then outputting them into a presentation - all things that Powerpoint itself does - but the creation of the library from existing presentations doesn't seem to be an option and what I'm really after. You might equate it with the many low-cost or free programs which browse through graphics - except I want to browse through Powerpoint slides instead.

Graham

I believe you'll find exactly what you're looking for at http://www.simplyzoom.com

It appears to be a little heavy on system resources but it does exactly what you (and I as well) require from a PPT slide gallery tool.

Greetings,

ZinaliLLC is the creator of the Slideboxx PowerPoint Library (http://www.slideboxx.com

Slideboxx performs all these functions as stated in the first post. It is not web-based even though it does launch in your web browser, everything remains local to your computer. I know this is a bit confusing but it enables a consistent interface between the desktop (Slideboxx Prime) and server-based (Slideboxx Workgroup and Slideboxx Enterprise) products.

Cheers,

ZinaliLLC

Thanks. I'll have another look at Slideboxx and investigate Zoom, and I'll let you know what I think.

Graham

Thanks again for pointing out both Slideboxx and Zoom. They do indeed both fit most of my requirements. For the sake of completeness, these are my findings after some initial testing:

- Zoom has a snazzy interface, but in creating that they've caused some issues with usability. Norton thinks it's spyware and at certain points it won't accept input from my Wacom tablet pen, so I had to install a mouse in order to test it.
- Slideboxx has an intrusive (and, I think, in this country illegal) registration procedure as to download the test version you have to subscribe to their newsletter. You can unsubscribe immediately afterwards, though.
- Zoom has a free version for non-commercial use, which is about as affordable as it gets!
- Both can cluster slides by similarity, both allow tagging, both have search, both allow the creation of new slides from old ones.

Search ended. Thanks to all who contributed to this thread!

Graham

Hi Graham,

Thanks for looking at Slideboxx again!

Regarding the download: it's not required for people to subscribe to the newsletter, one can download the Slideboxx trial from here: http://download.cnet.com/Slideboxx-Prime/3000-18483_4-10867597.html?part=dl-6310371&subj=dl&tag=button

Of course it would be great if people subscribe to the newsletter list. It is very low volume and we mostly send some tips about how to use Slideboxx during the trial and announcements of updates.

I'd love to hear if you have more feedback about Slideboxx, you can reach me at info@zinali.com

thanks again,

Zinali, LLC

Graham, are you happy with your choice of software after further use? As it happens I am in need of one such program myself now, and would be grateful for any further info.


Graham Rhind wrote:

Thanks again for pointing out both Slideboxx and Zoom. They do indeed both fit most of
my requirements.

Search ended. Thanks to all who contributed to this thread!

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Graham, are you happy with your choice of software after further use? As it happens I am
in need of one such program myself now, and would be grateful for any further
info.

Alexander,

Inevitably, after looking long and hard for a solution to this issue, economics dictated that I had to drastically reduce the amount of public speaking that I do, so I haven't had call to use the programs. I started Zoom this morning to check it, though, and it is demanding that I purchase a business license though when I installed it it was a free non-commercial version. That's a dirty trick on their part, so when things pick up I'll probably be looking for a different solution just out of principle!

Graham

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Graham, are you happy with your choice of software after further use? As it happens I am
in need of one such program myself now, and would be grateful for any further info.

I should add a big thanks to Moritz for the export marco proposal; in Powerpoint 2007 and beyond it is very easy to set up the macro. The added advantage for myself is that I can combine in a PIM the slides with other material to be used for the work.

Nevertheless, I am still looking for a Powerpoint-focused solution for other members of my team relying on this 'evil' program http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

Just started using a new tool today: "Business Slide Index" (www.slideidex.eu).
Doesn't allow for tagging, or any other advanced functionality -- but creates a very enjoyable graphical PowerPoint browser (with full text search filter).
Using it for my "working" library of 2000 decks.
The other 2 tools, Slideboxx and Zoom, both stopped indexing after the first 45 decks, which prevented me from exploring them further (they both looked nice and capable, but if the indexing isn't robust, that doesn't go very far ... it might have something to do with the fact that some of my decks are IRM encrypted).