Convert multiple Jpegs to impress slides?

[willfriedwald]

Is there any way to batch convert whole groups of images into IMPRESS or PPT slides, all at once?

Thanks!

W

[acknak]

Check the extension website, there's at least one that does this ...

For example: http://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/photoalbum

[willfriedwald]

thank you - I tried it and everything seems to work, but this is kind of odd:

when I make a slide show the old fashioned way, one slide at a time, then save it, clearly all the images are embedded in the document. one slide show I made frame by frame has 50 images and is 13.6 MB, which is what it should be.

then I used the photo album extension to make a slide show out of 160 images, and it's only 100 KB or so - clearly the actual images are NOT being saved within the document. if I were to put this on someone else's computer, I imagine that the images would be there.

is there anything I can do with the photo album extension to insure that the slide show it generates can be saved with the actual images embedded?

thanks!

will

[acknak]

With documents that include a lot of images, I generally prefer to link to the image files rather than embed the image data in the document. Linking keeps the file size manageable and seems to be safer. I guess that's what the extension has done (maybe there's an option for it?)

It does make things a bit more complicated when the presentation has to be moved, as you've noted. However, if the images are all in the same directory (folder) with the presentation, or all together in a sub-directory alongside the presentation, then it's quite easy to put everything into an archive (zip for example) and move/unpack that.

The links should still work fine after it's unpacked, although it's worth a test run first as some folks report problems after moving/unpacking. It's always worked for me.

I always export my presentation to pdf and take that along as a backup--the pdf gets the images as optimized and embedded, all in one file.

You can also convert linked images to embedded using Edit > Links > Break Links. You could save that as one bog document and carry that file around. I would still keep the linked version just in case.

[RoryOF]

If you have a target device (say a Projector of known resolution) you can then use Presentation Minimizer (built in to OO 4.0.x) to minimize the presentation for that device; this will reduce the embedded slide sizes to the optimum for presentation on that projector.

A quick research (not exhaustive) suggests that one needs to individually break the links if one does not want the slides embedded.

[willfriedwald]

thank you Acknak - now I need to know - what's the best way to do this :

I want to make a presentation on my Mac desktop (not portable!)

I need to make it with the images embedded - so that there's only one file.

I don't necessarily care how big it is - 100, 200 MB is fine - I'm going to transport it via flash drive (not eMail or the cloud)

But I will probably have to convert it to PPT. I'm going to actually "play" it on a laptop which probably doesn't have OpenOffice / Impress. It may even be a windows machine!

what are the advised steps for this? (I guess I could actually invest $20 in Keynote, if need be... -that wouldn't be the end of the world!)

w

[aye]

Check the extension website, there's at least one that does this ...

For example: http://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/photoalbum

I've been successfully using the indicated extension now for quite some time, however, the recent upgrade to OpenOffice 4.1.0 seems to have "broken" it. The extension seems to require updating for the latest version of OpenOffice, but I don't see any way to contact the extension developer. Any thoughts? Thanks!

[RoryOF]

A possible work around: I haven't inspected the code, but usually the underlying code for extensions will work correctly. What has changed is the interface to the toolbars. So if you can call the underlying code (perhaps by directly executing it as a macro) the extension should work.

[aye]

A possible work around: I haven't inspected the code, but usually the underlying code for extensions will work correctly. What has changed is the interface to the toolbars. So if you can call the underlying code (perhaps by directly executing it as a macro) the extension should work.

Thank you very much for the quick reply and suggestion! Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with OpenOffice macros or analyzing the code of its extensions. I'm not at all uncomfortable taking a look into your suggestions if you would be kind enough to provide some limited guidance, but I don't have even the slightest experience with how to begin. If you have the time to take a look, can give me some limited guidance to start me off, and/or point me to a website that might help me out, it would certainly be very greatly appreciated! Thanks again for the reply, and any further assistance you might be able to offer.

[John_Ha]

If you have the time to take a look, can give me some limited guidance to start me off, and/or point me to a website that might help me out

Try something like Tools > Macros > Run Macro. This brings up a navigation box. Now comes the trial and error bit - you try and find the extension!

This is Test Fonts which didn't work under 4.1 for exactly the reason Rory suggested. You now click the routines named on the right to see which one "sets off the program". With Test Fonts it wasn't Test Fonts, but Test Fonts Faces which ran the extension. I contacted the author and he updated Test Fonts so it now works with 4.1.0.

You can view the source code of the extension by Tools > Macros > Organise macros > OpenOffice Basic. You may find that the extension is commented and the comments help to understand how it works - the basic idea is that there is one - lets call it master - which calls all the others as needed. You need to start Master. When testing you may start one of the "sub-programs" and funny things may happen and it will probably exit or crash.

As an aside, IrfanView has an excellent batch tool which will resize, rename, reformat etc files.

[aye]

Thank you John_Ha for your wonderfully detailed and helpful post! It was exactly what I needed, and more than I could have imagined. I greatly appreciate the time you spent trying to help. Unfortunately, trying to review the code and running the macro directly as your directions indicated weren't able to help out. OpenOffice kept crashing, freezing, and returning messages that the number of parameters were incorrect, depending upon which action I took.

The suggestion of InfranView is greatly appreciated. I am aware of the software, and have previously used it, but my goal is actually to create a photo album type of document which auto-numbers each photo on it's own page of a document to be printed (actually 4 photos to a page, all individually numbered), and leaving space under each photograph for me to provide a narrative describing the photograph. InfranView is capable of producing on-screen photo album, but not able to produce the type of editable reporting document I am seeking to produce (at least not that I could figure out how to do).

In case anyone finds this chain of posts with a problem similar to what I am having, I was able to install LibreOffice as a portable application (so that I could keep a functional copy of OpenOffice installed as my default application), and use the built-in (no extension required!) feature Photo Album to accomplish exactly what I was using the PhotoAlbum extension for in OpenOffice. I then save the newly created Photo Album document, open it in OpenOffice, and then I can edit it, save it, mark it up, etc. directly in OpenOffice while writing the associated report documents I need to prepare in other OpenOffice windows.

Thanks John_Ha and RoryOF for your attempts to help me out. Hopefully the paragraph above will be of help to someone else with the same problem I was having until such time as the extension developer is able to update the extension itself.