How do you prepare a powerpoint presentation for a strange machine?

Hello Geert,

Arg - how frustrating! I am going to go out on a limb here and point out that if the grant committee is not prepared to look at art that requires the net, you may be barking up the wrong tree.

That being said - I have been down this road before - and I did not see a way around building a local mini version of my site by hand coding html. Following are some notes from my experience…

The home page of my CD site describes the software that ought to be installed, which browsers on which platforms are recommended (and have been tested on), and links to install what might not be. I put the files in order of most likely to suceed — simple html pages with images first to quicktime video, java applet, etc… last. Given how prolific you are (I regularly enjoy your work), I would think that you would do fine with the pieces that do not require flash alone.
When I included files that required server side scripting, I posted a warning message on the local page with a link to the www page and hoped for the best.

Some tips you might find useful:

I am assuming that you want to show a subset of your website, if this is the case you can always give the look and feel of your site with hard links instead of server side scripted pages. A quick and dirty way to generate this is to lift the html source out of your browser, and then do a search and replace on the file paths.

Speaking of file paths, if you put the homepage in the root folder of the CD, you can use relative paths without concern to where the drive is (at least on Macs and Windows machines you can).

If you absolutely need to simulate animation there is always the "refresh" meta-tag.

May the www be at your back,
Jason Van Anden

<jasonvananden id="www.smileproject.com" />

Thanks a million, Jason! I'll follow your "images first" tip, thanks
for that. And – I don't suppose I can get around building a mini-
nznl.com. Will do that, too.

Geert
http://nznl.com


On 27-aug-2005, at 12:36, Jason Van Anden wrote:

> Hello Geert,
>
> Arg - how frustrating! I am going to go out on a limb here and
> point out that if the grant committee is not prepared to look at
> art that requires the net, you may be barking up the wrong tree.
>
> That being said - I have been down this road before - and I did not
> see a way around building a local mini version of my site by hand
> coding html. Following are some notes from my experience…
>
> The home page of my CD site describes the software that ought to be
> installed, which browsers on which platforms are recommended (and
> have been tested on), and links to install what might not be. I put
> the files in order of most likely to suceed

geert,

don't know much about keynote or powerpoint. both probably too limited to small, by-the-
book variations of the manual's examples. you are probably doing a lot more than they are
capable of.

for specifying local and http files interchangeably, flash will do it. but it's only slightly less
by-the-book. director (especially with the file io xtra, but isn't required for what you
describe) is an ideal bet, but only if you have it and if you have used it enough to be
comfortable (fast).

one obvious choice, is for the CGI-type scripts to run locally. every platform CAN run Perl,
PHP, Python, etc, but doubt this committee would have any installed.

much of what you may want to do to use local and web files can be done with javascript. it
even does some CGI-type things like reports the referring page or IP address (which may
only be 127.0.0.1, but you can use it as a test, to tell the script if things are local or
networked and from where)

good luck.




On Aug 27, 2005, at 4:39 AM, Geert Dekkers wrote:

Hi list

I have a problem that someone might be able to help me with.

I am currently working on an application for a grant, and here in the Netherlands, this implies
preparing a powerpoint presentation for a arts board committee on a strange machine, done
by someone you don't know and can't speak to. Worse, the committee can't garantee an
internet connection during the presentation!

I'm using Keynote to build my presentation. I can link to webpages on my site from within
Keynote (I'll export the presentation to powerpoint in the end) so I can show my php and
other serverside work as well as link directly to swf and javascript-enabled webpages.

But, obviously, this will only work if there is an internet connection. So, the other day, I
thought I might link directly to a local file on the CD I plan to send to said committee. But
alas! Keynote will not link to a local webpage. Nor will PowerPoint! (even if you use the file://
/ protocol, AND figure out what the path on your CD will be…)

So, is there any other way?? How do you guys present net.art work (barring, of course, giving
the committee the url) ??? I would like a compact and most importantly, a fool-proof
presentation. And yes, I will build a complete local website including all clientside stuff. But
I'd rather link to the files directly.

Hope you can help

Cheers
Geert
http://nznl.com
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___________________
PLASMA STUDII
501©(3) non-profit
stage * galleries * web
POI Box 1086
Cathedral Station
New York, NY 10025
http://plasmastudii.org

java'd work too. make an applet.

most stuff assumes everything's a relative address, like "../folderNextDoor/file.txt",
sometimes you can work around what you're saying by simply never specifying a literal
address ("http://server.com/folder/file.txt" may be the same as "file://account/desktop/
project/folder/file.txt")


___________________
PLASMA STUDII
501©(3) non-profit
stage * galleries * web
POI Box 1086
Cathedral Station
New York, NY 10025
http://plasmastudii.org

Thanks for this. I'll try getting Keynote or PowerPoint to link to a
local file using the file: protocol.

But I'm beginning to realise that I need to build a mini nznl.com to
go along with my presentation.

Geert
http://nznl.com

On 27-aug-2005, at 16:19, Plasma Studii wrote:

> java'd work too. make an applet.
>
> most stuff assumes everything's a relative address, like "../
> folderNextDoor/file.txt",
> sometimes you can work around what you're saying by simply never
> specifying a literal
> address ("http://server.com/folder/file.txt" may be the same as
> "file://account/desktop/
> project/folder/file.txt")
>
>
> ___________________
> PLASMA STUDII
> 501©(3) non-profit
> stage * galleries * web
> POI Box 1086
> Cathedral Station
> New York, NY 10025
> http://plasmastudii.org
>
>

I am certain there are better ideas out there and I am super curious about how others have gone about this. I tried to take the most cautious route - which was to make the code as vanilla a possible.

Since posting this morning, I looked at the code and found something I left out - a file that causes the home page to auto start off a CD when it gets popped into a Windows box.

Here is what you do:

1.) Create a text file named "autorun.inf"

2.) Put these two line in it:

[autorun]
open=start start.htm

3.) change "start.htm" to whatever your home page is called.

4.) copy this and your home page to the root of the CD.

After doing minimal research into how to do this on OS X I gave up - either it was not as straight forward or I was mistyping something over and over again. I put instructions on the CD label that the user should double click "start.htm" to begin the presentation, so either way I was covered (including if auto open was turned off on the Windows box).

Jason Van Anden
<jasonvananden id="http://www.smileproject.com/chewy"/>

Hi Geert,
The main thing to keep in mind in such situations is that the
committee is going to receive a lot of applications and that the time
they are willing to give to yours is limited. I've had to do just
what you're doing. make the application as low tech as you can and if
they like the short version, they'll give you more time and be
willing to add the extra effort of exploring links you provide. The
power-point file shouldn't include more than screen-shots and short
descriptions. Label your screen-shots the way a traditional work of
art would be labeled, i.e. Title, year, materials used (php, html,
javascript, etc.). If they begin to look at your application and
something, anything goes wrong, they're likely to stop there. Oh, and
just for the record, my power-point application was created on a
Linux laptop using nothing but open-source tools. Of course, I tested
it widely before sending it though. Ran it on Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 and
Windows.

And ps. If they say they want a power-point file, I wouldn't assume
that means that they'll also accept any other type of file on a CD
(as others have been suggesting).

Pall

On 27.8.2005, at 04:39, Geert Dekkers wrote:


> Hi list
>
> I have a problem that someone might be able to help me with.
>
> I am currently working on an application for a grant, and here in
> the Netherlands, this implies preparing a powerpoint presentation
> for a arts board committee on a strange machine, done by someone
> you don't know and can't speak to. Worse, the committee can't
> garantee an internet connection during the presentation!
>
> I'm using Keynote to build my presentation. I can link to webpages
> on my site from within Keynote (I'll export the presentation to
> powerpoint in the end) so I can show my php and other serverside
> work as well as link directly to swf and javascript-enabled webpages.
>
> But, obviously, this will only work if there is an internet
> connection. So, the other day, I thought I might link directly to a
> local file on the CD I plan to send to said committee. But alas!
> Keynote will not link to a local webpage. Nor will PowerPoint!
> (even if you use the file:/// protocol, AND figure out what the
> path on your CD will be…)
>
> So, is there any other way?? How do you guys present net.art work
> (barring, of course, giving the committee the url) ??? I would
> like a compact and most importantly, a fool-proof presentation. And
> yes, I will build a complete local website including all clientside
> stuff. But I'd rather link to the files directly.
>
> Hope you can help
>
> Cheers
> Geert
> http://nznl.com
> +
> -> post: [email protected]
> -> questions: [email protected]
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/
> subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/
> 29.php
>
>
>

I was thinking the same thing - it is dangerous to assume that a committee is willing to accept another format on a CD. I think a savvy group would be impressed by screen shots and content and interested enough by the work to visit your links later whether there is an internet connection or not….
keep it simple.
that's the best way to show off your work.
MJ

Pall Thayer wrote:

> Hi Geert,
> The main thing to keep in mind in such situations is that the
> committee is going to receive a lot of applications and that the time
>
> they are willing to give to yours is limited. I've had to do just
> what you're doing. make the application as low tech as you can and if
>
> they like the short version, they'll give you more time and be
> willing to add the extra effort of exploring links you provide. The
> power-point file shouldn't include more than screen-shots and short
> descriptions. Label your screen-shots the way a traditional work of
> art would be labeled, i.e. Title, year, materials used (php, html,
> javascript, etc.). If they begin to look at your application and
> something, anything goes wrong, they're likely to stop there. Oh, and
>
> just for the record, my power-point application was created on a
> Linux laptop using nothing but open-source tools. Of course, I tested
>
> it widely before sending it though. Ran it on Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 and
> Windows.
>
> And ps. If they say they want a power-point file, I wouldn't assume
> that means that they'll also accept any other type of file on a CD
> (as others have been suggesting).
>
> Pall
>
> On 27.8.2005, at 04:39, Geert Dekkers wrote:
>
>
> > Hi list
> >
> > I have a problem that someone might be able to help me with.
> >
> > I am currently working on an application for a grant, and here in
> > the Netherlands, this implies preparing a powerpoint presentation
> > for a arts board committee on a strange machine, done by someone
> > you don't know and can't speak to. Worse, the committee can't
> > garantee an internet connection during the presentation!
> >
> > I'm using Keynote to build my presentation. I can link to webpages
> > on my site from within Keynote (I'll export the presentation to
> > powerpoint in the end) so I can show my php and other serverside
> > work as well as link directly to swf and javascript-enabled
> webpages.
> >
> > But, obviously, this will only work if there is an internet
> > connection. So, the other day, I thought I might link directly to a
>
> > local file on the CD I plan to send to said committee. But alas!
> > Keynote will not link to a local webpage. Nor will PowerPoint!
> > (even if you use the file:/// protocol, AND figure out what the
> > path on your CD will be…)
> >
> > So, is there any other way?? How do you guys present net.art work
> > (barring, of course, giving the committee the url) ??? I would
> > like a compact and most importantly, a fool-proof presentation. And
>
> > yes, I will build a complete local website including all clientside
>
> > stuff. But I'd rather link to the files directly.
> >
> > Hope you can help
> >
> > Cheers
> > Geert
> > http://nznl.com
> > +
> > -> post: [email protected]
> > -> questions: [email protected]
> > -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/
> > subscribe.rhiz
> > -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> > +
> > Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> > Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/
> > 29.php
> >
> >
> >
>
>