Powerpoint and random images

[CortexRock]

I need some help or ideas please on how to solve the following problem:

Ingredients:

• fixed plasma screen in company reception
• list of meetings which change on a daily basis, prepared by non-technical user in Powerpoint
• selection of corporate images/slides with exciting facts and figures

The requirement is to randomly select and display a slide or image from a folder, between each instance of the meeting list, leaving each slide on screen for a pre-defined time, while presentation runs all day.

Plasma screen is connected to a thin client running XP with SharePoint 2007.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance folks

 

[ChicoWeb]

I'm sure you can write a nice PHP script that does all of this, and just do it all online. Powerpoint isn't quite dynamic enough, however you can probably do it all statically.

 

[CortexRock]

Thanks for the tip... *orders PHP for Dummies from Amazon*

I'll have to get one of our IT bods to look at that option... it's one of those projects that is close to the boss's heart so brownie points all round if I get it sorted quickly!

 

[Consultant]

Easier solution:

OSX screensaver: RSS Visualizer

Takes RSS feeds and display them. You might need to modify it so it'll refresh slower, or perhaps get a third party plug in.

 

[cdcastillo]

Even easier

As the title says: Make the presentation in Keynote instead of powerpoint (ANY non-technical user that can make a slide in powerpoint can make a slide in Keynote), intersperse the powerful images and facts slides between repetitive slides showing the meeting schedule.

Click on "File", "Export", "Quicktime". Choose "fixed timing" for Playback and choose something between 10-40 seconds on "Slide duration". Choose Loop on "Repeat" and check the "Enter full screen mode when opened" checkbox.

Click on Next and save your movie on the desired location.

Voilà, you have a movie that can play on any computer (running either Windows or MacOS) connected to the plasma screen endlessly showing your meeting schedule and the exciting facts and figures your company produces.

Besides this easy flowchart, you can create stunning presentations with the special effects that come included in Keynote.

 

[Consultant]

Actually Quartz Compositor
can create "programatically designed visuals that interact with feeds from external data source."

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ousands_of_macs_into_hotels_cruise_ships.html

 

[OutThere]

I'd agree with the web-based suggestion. A web developer could do this pretty easily in php/javascript, then you could just have it run in Firefox full screen.

 

[Jim Campbell]

I need some help or ideas please on how to solve the following problem:

Quick, dirty and very cheap solution.

Powerpoint user prepares slides. Powerpoint user exports each slide as a decent resolution/size JPEG into a folder called "Daily Slides" somewhere on the network, overwriting or deleting any redundant slides.

GraphicConvertor uses that folder as a full-screen slideshow with the "Random Order" option selected.

Cheers!

Jim

 

[CortexRock]

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks... plenty of options to consider!