Looking for different PowerPoint front end

[sbowman]

I'm looking for a way to produce PowerPoint slides other than the Microsoft PowerPoint program itself. I do a lot of work in PowerPoint, but the Microsoft user interface is frustrating crap (surprise?).

Is there any high-powered, customizable software that will generate PowerPoint (.ppt) output? I'm hoping there's something on the level of Macromedia or Adobe software that I can use to do real work.

Thank you,

Steve
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[sheila]

It is possible to produce slides in LaTeX (using a package called...Prosper? I could double check on that). I'm not sure if this is going to address the issues that you have...but the results would be viewable in Acrobat. The problem, of course, is learning LaTeX in order to produce the slides. Also, I think you would end up with files that were not .ppt files. Different type of format.

I've heard there is WYSIWYG editors for LaTeX, but I haven't tried any of those myself.

[PaulKroll]

Might wanna try StarOffice, http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/5.2/index.html, but how compatible it is with PowerPoint, I wouldn't venture to guess: I haven't used it in several versions, myself. (I'm stuck in MS Office at work, and don't particularly need the sort of office-suite software at home.)

Might wanna search Google for other such critters, or go straight to the Macromedia and Adobe sites and look. :)

[sbowman]

Thank you Sheila and Paul for your ideas.

I do need something that will output .ppt format. I create presentations that I then put on other people's computers to display. They need .ppt.

It's interesting that I've never heard of anyone but me complain that Microsoft has totally monopolized the presentation display market with PowerPoint. Nobody even tries to compete. And the result is they can get away with perpetuating this anemic, ill-planned software that insults the power user with its limitations. But if you make business presentations, there is no alternative.

Oops, sorry for the rant.

Steve

[PaulKroll]

Have you considered working in Flash instead? I'm not exactly a fan of Flash for web sites (it's more often a distraction (or an active annoyance) than something useful), but graphical presentation is pretty much its whole game. And, of course, it's not Microsoft. :)

<rant>And heck, if you're good at it, there's money to be made making abominable splash pages for sites that deserve to lose all their funding. :) </rant>

[JWM]

The interface to Powerpoint is an abomination that I've put up with for years. Unfortunately, if you plan to distribute your presentations in a business setting, there just really aren't many good alternatives. You could do them in straight HTML, but then you'd have to worry about browser compatibility problems, and in the end it's just easier to learn to work around the limitations in Powerpoint. At least, that's been my sad experience ~#



jim

[sbowman]

Will Flash output .ppt files? I'm not asking about website graphics (I posted my question here because I didn't know where else to ask). I'm talking about regular PowerPoint presentations projected during a speech.

Thanks,

Steve

[PaulKroll]

Will Flash output .ppt files?
Not that I know of, no. :(

[Mandi]

You might investigate what Powerpoint will import and convert; work in that other format and its preferable interface - and then simply use Powerpoint at the end of the game, to import and re-save as .ppt.

[sbowman]

Mandi,

Great idea. Why didn't I think of that?

Steve