Creating a Data CD

[Guest Big_Mack1]

I'm posting this in the XP forum because most of the people who will be

getting my CD are still using XP, and I want the Data CD to be able to open

and play on most of their machines.

 

Setup for my question:

I created a Data CD which contains:

(1)400 wedding photos,

(2)a Powerpoint 2007 slideshow of the wedding, reception, and honeymoon,

(3)and 3 mp3 files that were played during the ceremony, which are also used

in my Powerpoint slideshow.

 

My question:

How do I get my Powerpoint 2007 creator to use the ->user's<- CD-rom as the

"default" disk when searching for a music file which is embedded in the

slideshow?

 

The problem I'm having is that the CD plays the music on my machine just

fine (because the original mp3 files still reside on my hard drive), but when

I insert it into my wife's laptop, the music doesn't play during the

slideshow because the Powerpoint tries to locate the mp3's on her ->hard

drive<- instead of the CD.

 

When I tried to go into the creator to change the filename using a wildcard,

or by using "..\" as the first characters in the filename (like

"..\songname.mp3", the program wouldn't let me save it in that format.

 

How do I force Powerpoint to use any user's CD-Rom as the default location

when searching for a file? If I just put "F:\songname.mp3" as the filename,

other people who play the CD may not have the CD-Rom with a device name of

"F:"-- it may be D:, or E:...

[Guest Big_Al]

Re: Creating a Data CD

 

Big_Mack1 wrote:

> I'm posting this in the XP forum because most of the people who will be

> getting my CD are still using XP, and I want the Data CD to be able to open

> and play on most of their machines.

>

> Setup for my question:

> I created a Data CD which contains:

> (1)400 wedding photos,

> (2)a Powerpoint 2007 slideshow of the wedding, reception, and honeymoon,

> (3)and 3 mp3 files that were played during the ceremony, which are also used

> in my Powerpoint slideshow.

>

> My question:

> How do I get my Powerpoint 2007 creator to use the ->user's<- CD-rom as the

> "default" disk when searching for a music file which is embedded in the

> slideshow?

>

> The problem I'm having is that the CD plays the music on my machine just

> fine (because the original mp3 files still reside on my hard drive), but when

> I insert it into my wife's laptop, the music doesn't play during the

> slideshow because the Powerpoint tries to locate the mp3's on her ->hard

> drive<- instead of the CD.

>

> When I tried to go into the creator to change the filename using a wildcard,

> or by using "..\" as the first characters in the filename (like

> "..\songname.mp3", the program wouldn't let me save it in that format.

>

> How do I force Powerpoint to use any user's CD-Rom as the default location

> when searching for a file? If I just put "F:\songname.mp3" as the filename,

> other people who play the CD may not have the CD-Rom with a device name of

> "F:"-- it may be D:, or E:...

 

You might want to post to microsoft.public.powerpoint newsgroup, if you

get no good answers here.

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Creating a Data CD

 

"Big_Mack1" <BigMack1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:52E4AF39-B542-4D83-9C1C-9FF41560DA86@microsoft.com...

> I'm posting this in the XP forum because most of the people who will be

> getting my CD are still using XP, and I want the Data CD to be able to

> open

> and play on most of their machines.

>

> Setup for my question:

> I created a Data CD which contains:

> (1)400 wedding photos,

> (2)a Powerpoint 2007 slideshow of the wedding, reception, and honeymoon,

> (3)and 3 mp3 files that were played during the ceremony, which are also

> used

> in my Powerpoint slideshow.

>

> My question:

> How do I get my Powerpoint 2007 creator to use the ->user's<- CD-rom as

> the

> "default" disk when searching for a music file which is embedded in the

> slideshow?

 

It actually sounds like the music isn't embedded. *References to

locations* of audio files are embedded.

 

There's a large and very important difference.

 

You have provided an "absolute" reference, complete with drive letter and

full folder and file name.

 

You need to change that to a "relative" reference, which doesn't provide a

drive letter or full folder name.

> The problem I'm having is that the CD plays the music on my machine just

> fine (because the original mp3 files still reside on my hard drive), but

> when

> I insert it into my wife's laptop, the music doesn't play during the

> slideshow because the Powerpoint tries to locate the mp3's on her ->hard

> drive<- instead of the CD.

 

This means that your PowerPoint presentation has an absolute reference to a

hard disk location. You need to change this so that the music files are

referred to as either in a relative location, or in the same directory.

 

For example, as it is, your PP file identifies a piece of music as being

specifically as, say,

 

"C:\documents and settings\user\my

documents\powerpoint\wedding\music\music.mp3".

 

You need to change this to reflect where, exactly, the music is on the CD,

without providing an exact reference to a drive letter.

 

The simplest way to do this, and it isn't necesssarily the best, is to have

the powerpoint and the music *in the same folder*. Then, the example music

would be referred to as simply,

 

"music.mp3".

 

This kind of reference tells the OS to look in the current folder, then any

place on the system path.

 

You can also provide a relative location such as:

 

"\music\music.mp3"

 

with the "music" folder as a subfolder of the Powerpoint presentation

folder.

 

Of course, the music files do actually have to be on the CD. This leads

to licensing issues, but that's another topic.

> When I tried to go into the creator to change the filename using a

> wildcard,

> or by using "..\" as the first characters in the filename (like

> "..\songname.mp3", the program wouldn't let me save it in that format.

>

> How do I force Powerpoint to use any user's CD-Rom as the default location

> when searching for a file? If I just put "F:\songname.mp3" as the

> filename,

> other people who play the CD may not have the CD-Rom with a device name

> of

> "F:"-- it may be D:, or E:...

 

See above. You clearly realize that providing an absolute location is the

wrong thing to do, so you must provide an effective relative location.

[Guest Paul]

Re: Creating a Data CD

 

Big_Mack1 wrote:

> I'm posting this in the XP forum because most of the people who will be

> getting my CD are still using XP, and I want the Data CD to be able to open

> and play on most of their machines.

>

> Setup for my question:

> I created a Data CD which contains:

> (1)400 wedding photos,

> (2)a Powerpoint 2007 slideshow of the wedding, reception, and honeymoon,

> (3)and 3 mp3 files that were played during the ceremony, which are also used

> in my Powerpoint slideshow.

>

> My question:

> How do I get my Powerpoint 2007 creator to use the ->user's<- CD-rom as the

> "default" disk when searching for a music file which is embedded in the

> slideshow?

>

> The problem I'm having is that the CD plays the music on my machine just

> fine (because the original mp3 files still reside on my hard drive), but when

> I insert it into my wife's laptop, the music doesn't play during the

> slideshow because the Powerpoint tries to locate the mp3's on her ->hard

> drive<- instead of the CD.

>

> When I tried to go into the creator to change the filename using a wildcard,

> or by using "..\" as the first characters in the filename (like

> "..\songname.mp3", the program wouldn't let me save it in that format.

>

> How do I force Powerpoint to use any user's CD-Rom as the default location

> when searching for a file? If I just put "F:\songname.mp3" as the filename,

> other people who play the CD may not have the CD-Rom with a device name of

> "F:"-- it may be D:, or E:...

 

This doc, differentiates between embedded and linked multimedia content.

 

http://idea.uwosh.edu/nick/UsingMultimedia.pdf

 

This one mentions that Powerpoint 2003 has an option in the file menu.

 

http://t4.jordan.k12.ut.us/t4/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=31

 

"One wonderful feature of PowerPoint 2003 is the Package for CD (File menu).

If you forgot to do the instruction in the previous paragraph, it helps

simplify these file path problems by copying all the files to one location

(a CD or folder) with your presentation and updating all the links for

the media files - definitely the best way to proceed if you're

distributing or moving your presentation from your computer. It also

has the added advantage of copying the free PowerPoint player program,

so people who don't own PowerPoint licenses can still watch your

presentation!"

 

If the multimedia content relies on uncommon codecs, or the presence of

player applications, then it could still break. It would almost be

tempting to convert the presentation, into a movie of some sort,

or use an "unbreakable" multimedia format. Some format that

any Windows platform would support, for example.

 

You would want the file paths to be "relative" and not "absolute".

For example F:\songname.mp3 is an absolute pathname, and if the

CDROM is actually G:, it would break. If, on the other hand, the

path was ./songname.mp3, that would be relative to the current

directory. You would hope whatever magic the "Package for CD"

option is going to work, is going to set the paths relative, so

as long as the associated files are in the same folder as the

main PPT, it'll work.

 

Paul

[Guest Big_Al]

Re: Creating a Data CD

 

Patrick Keenan wrote:

> <snip>

> You can also provide a relative location such as:

>

> "\music\music.mp3"

>

> with the "music" folder as a subfolder of the Powerpoint presentation

> folder.

>

 

Not to nit pick, but don't you mean ".\music\music.mp3"?

 

"\music\music.mp3" would mean that the music folder is in root of the

current drive.

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: Creating a Data CD

 

"Big_Al" <BigAl@md.com> wrote in message

news:%23NisK%23wNJHA.728@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> Patrick Keenan wrote:

>

>> <snip>

>> You can also provide a relative location such as:

>>

>> "\music\music.mp3"

>>

>> with the "music" folder as a subfolder of the Powerpoint presentation

>> folder.

>>

>

> Not to nit pick, but don't you mean ".\music\music.mp3"?

>

> "\music\music.mp3" would mean that the music folder is in root of the

> current drive.

 

Yes, you're right, so that would be two different ways to lay out the

content on the CD.

 

-pk

[Guest Big_Mack1]

RE: Creating a Data CD

 

Thanks, guys.

 

To Patrick and Al, I tried using one dot, two dots, just a backslash, and

more, but when I went to save it, I got the dreaded "invalid filename" or

something like that. I eventually made another post in the Powerpoint group

and got a good answer there, too.

 

Basically, in PowerPoint 2007 (the version I said I am using), there is NO

SUCH "File" Menu. It's "hiding" in the Pizza in the top left corner. The

"Package for CD" Option is now concealed way down under the "Publish" Option.

 

Here's the link to the page where I answered a poster, and an explanation of

what I ended up doing:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.powerpoint&lang=en&cr=US

 

My post is titled "Changing default location to CD"

 

Again, thanks for all of your help, guys...

Mack