Guide to the Remote PowerPoint Presentation Tool

Guide to the Remote PowerPoint Presentation Tool Yuan (Eric) He University of Kansas [email protected] Kennith A. Bishop University of Kansas kbishop@ku...
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Guide to the Remote PowerPoint Presentation Tool

Yuan (Eric) He University of Kansas [email protected]

Kennith A. Bishop University of Kansas [email protected]

Guide to the Remote PowerPoint Presentation Tool by Yuan (Eric) He and Kennith A. Bishop Copyright © 2002 by University of Kansas Permission is hereby granted to use, reproduce, to redistribute copies to others, and prepare derivative works. Any use or publication of the material shall acknowledge the copyright of University of Kansas in an appropriate manner which shall include the legend "(c) 2002 by University of Kansas, includes materials developed by and/or derived from the Access Grid project (http://www.accessgrid.org).

Revision History Revision 1.1.1 July 11, 2003 Minor changes to support rendering to pdf via docbook2pdf Revision 1.1 November 13, 2002 First publication

Table of Contents 1. Overview .....................................................................................................................1 2. Basic System Requirements.....................................................................................3 3. RPPT Installation.......................................................................................................5 4. Running a Distributed Presentation Session.......................................................7 Starting the RPPT Server and a Presentation Session ......................................7 Connecting the RPPT Master to a Presentation Session..................................7 Starting and Connecting a Client to a Presentation Session ...........................9 5. Presentations with Animations.............................................................................11 6. Contacts......................................................................................................................13 A. Appendix ..................................................................................................................15 Best Practices........................................................................................................15 Troubleshooting...................................................................................................15 Glossary of Some Important RPPT Concepts .................................................15

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Chapter 1. Overview The Remote PowerPoint Presentation Tool, or RPPT, provides a mechanism by which a presenter can control a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation at multiple sites from a single machine. The development of RPPT was inspired by Bob Olson’s (Argonne Futures Lab) simple but reliable Distributed PowerPoint (DPPT), which has been used widely in the Access Grid community. RPPT was created to fulfill some wishes that many AG operators have had for a long time: •

Single point control of a presentation session using the master



Simplifies operations on the master



Minimizes operations on the client (unattended mode)



Allows the use of animated PowerPoint slides, or embedded animations and sound



Additional presentation features, such as an emulated laser pointer, presenter’s identity, the smart control on the appearance of a slideshow, etc.

The current downloadable version of RPPT is 2.0 Beta 1, which is ready for publictesting. The addition of new features has been frozen in order to get ready for AG 2.0. However, comments and bug reports are highly appreciated. The RPPT application was developed on the latest Win32 platform. Two keystone technologies that RPPT is based on are OLE/COM and group communication on TCP/IP. The entire application was developed using C++. Three components participate in an RPPT session: server, master, and client. An RPPT session is initiated by the server. The server is a multi-threaded process that listens to a Socket port, handles connection requests from the master and clients, and establishes message communications between the master and clients. RPPT session activities are controlled by the master. During a presentation, the master invokes PowerPoint through OLE/COM to view a presentation, sends captured mouse events and slide-change events to the server; the server forwards these events to the RPPT clients. PowerPoint presentations that are planned for a session are controlled by the presentation list created by the master. One or more clients at remote locations invoke PowerPoint in order to view the presentation, and listen to slideshow events from the master. The client program controls the local PowerPoint to display the same content that the master is currently displaying by simulating mouse events and other slideshow events. The client program is also able to display a presenter’s laser pointer. RPPT allows distributed presentations in a true group communication mode; a typical distributed presentation session is illustrated in Figure 1: •

Masters (speakers) from different sites may connect to an RPPT server in a sequence that is scheduled by an AG meeting, to allow clients to watch presentations from different speakers without changing settings. In Figure 1, Master 2 is currently connected to Server 2 and is controlling the presentation session, while Master 3 is waiting for a connection to Server 2.



Clients may switch among different servers in order to view different presentations being given at the same time.

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Chapter 1. Overview Figure 1. The Remote PowerPoint Presentation Tool (RPPT)

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Chapter 2. Basic System Requirements The following list describes the basic system requirements: •

Windows 2000/98/ME/ NT. Windows 2000 is recommended.



PowerPoint 2000, or 97 with service pack 1 for office installed



TCP/IP network protocol enabled

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Chapter 2. Basic System Requirements

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Chapter 3. RPPT Installation The following list indicates the URL at which the software may be found for downloading. It also contains suggestions that may be found helpful. •

The RPPT package can be downloaded http://plainsman.engr.ku.edu/AG/RPPT/rppt.zip

from:



Executables and the dll must be extracted and placed into a single directory.



***_nt.exe files are executables for running on NT 4 systems only (they accommodate to NT 4’s lack of reliable support for multiple display cards/desktop spanning).



Creating shortcuts for executables on your Windows desktop is recommended.



Sample files are included in the zip.

Notes 1. http://plainsman.engr.ku.edu/AG/RPPT/rppt.zip

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Chapter 3. RPPT Installation

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Chapter 4. Running a Distributed Presentation Session Starting the RPPT Server and a Presentation Session A distributed presentation session is initiated by starting an RPPT server. There are two ways to start the server: Use the command line parameter: 1. Open a DOS window: Start | Accessories | Command Prompt 2. cd [the RPPT folder where the ’rpptserver.exe’ is] 3. rpptserver [port number] Or, run RPPT server by double-clicking ’rpptserver.exe’ in a Windows Explorer window, enter the desired port number for the session, then click "restart". See figure 2. A port number that is >= 15000 is suggested. To reset a RPPT server during a presentation session, press the "restart" button. By default, all previously connected master and clients will reconnect to the server after a short period. The connecting/disconnecting of the master and clients during a presentation session can be logged by the server. The contents of the log file are useful for developer-level debugging and for administrative-level data gathering. To generate a session log: 1. Enter the log file name at ’log file’ input line. If this is an existing file, new records will be appended at the end with the current date and time. 2. Press the ’Start Logging’ button 3. Stop the session log by pressing the same button again

Figure 2. Start a Session

Connecting the RPPT Master to a Presentation Session To start presentations, an RPPT master must be started and connected to a RPPT server. The master controls the progress of a presentation session, and it runs on the presenter’s computer. See Figure 3 and 4. Steps for configuring and starting an RPPT master: 1. Create a presentation list: a. Use the ’Add’ button to add the URL that is typed in the top input line. If the input line is blank or contains a name that is already in the list, a ’file-open’ dialog-box will pop-up, which allows you to browse and add local PowerPoint files. b. Use ’Replace’, ’Delete’, ’Clear All’ to edit the list. c. Use ’Save list’ to save the current list to a text file. d. Use ’Import list’ to retrieve an existing text file of a presentation list. 7

Chapter 4. Running a Distributed Presentation Session 2. Define the screen area for slideshow with the ’Drag and Define’ function (if appropriate). 3. Type in the identity of the master site or the presenter (if appropriate). 4. Set other Slideshow options (if appropriate): a. Check ’Let my mouse be a remote laser pointer’ to enable the RPPT remote laser pointer function. b. Check ’Auto-reconnect if the server is rebooted’ to enable the option that allows the master to periodically query the server and automatically connect back to the server, if the connection has been broken during a presentation. c. Check ’Allow other masters to take over the control of this session and start a new presentation series’ to enable the option that allows the smooth transition of the session control to a new master. Only one master may have the session control at one time. 5. Connect to an RPPT server: a. Enter the DNS name or IP address of the machine on which the RPPT server is running. b. Enter the port number that the RPPT server is using. c. Press the ’Connect’ button. d. If the server is running on the same machine, you may press ’Default’ to retrieve the DNS name of this machine. 6. Switch from Setup mode to Presentation mode? by clicking on the ’Setup Complete -- Start Presentation’ button. 7. Run the show by double-clicking an item from the presentation list, or by pressing the ’Start Presentation’ button.

Figure 3. The Master in Setup Mode

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Chapter 4. Running a Distributed Presentation Session

Figure 4. The Master in Presentation Mode

Starting and Connecting a Client to a Presentation Session Steps are: 1. Define the screen area for slideshow with the ’Drag and Define’ function. 2. Locate the folder where the downloaded PowerPoint slides are stored by pressing the ’Locate the directory . . . ’ button and then selecting a local directory in the pop-up ’Browse files’ window. 3. Set other slideshow options (as appropriate): a. Enable/disable the RPPT remote laser pointer emulating function. b. ’Auto-reconnect if the server has been rebooted’. Enabling the option allows the client to periodically query the server and automatically connect back to the server, if the connection is broken during a presentation. 4. Connect to a RPPT server: a. Enter the DNS name or IP address of the machine where the RPPT server is running. b. Enter the port number that the RPPT server is using. c. Press the ’Connect’ button. d. If the server is running on the same machine, you may press ’Default’ to retrieve the DNS name for this machine. 5. After a client has connected to an RPPT server, the client operates in an unattended mode by default. It automatically switches between the presentation mode (when a presentation is running) and the setup mode (when a master or the server has disconnected or errors happen. If there is an error, you should fix the problem according to the error message, and manually switch back to the presentation mode by pressing ’Setup complete’ button or ’Connect’ button). 6. About the option ’Block messages from the server’: If the RPPT client detects errors that stop PowerPoint from loading slides in the presentation mode, it will enable this option to block server/master’s messages. A user may also enable the option in order to pause watching a presentation. See figure 5 and 6.

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Chapter 4. Running a Distributed Presentation Session

Figure 5. The Client in Setup Mode

Figure 6. The Client in Presentation Mode

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Chapter 5. Presentations with Animations Animated slides are commonly used to enhance PowerPoint presentations. An animated slide contains one or more following special features: •

Group I features: Animated texts or objects (including graphics, diagrams, charts, etc): the texts or objects with a special visual or sound effect. For example, a text bullet point can fly in from the left, one word at a time, or hear the sound of applause when a picture is uncovered. These features work as expected when displayed using RPPT.



Group II features: Embedded multimedia clips: the movie (.mpg, .avi, etc.) or sound (.wav, .mp3, etc.) media files that has been inserted into a PowerPoint slide. These features work to limited degree when displayed using RPPT.

Group I features may be triggered by a mouse click or movement over the animation object, or by pressing PgDn on the keyboard. Both Group I and II features can also be played automatically as the animated slide shows on the screen, or triggered by a timer - played automatically after a short period of time when the animated slide shows on the screen. The following guidelines explain how to use RPPT to perform a distributed presentation with animated slides. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with slide animation techniques in PowerPoint. •

RPPT only supports animations that involve the mouse. The reason is that RPPT captures mouse events from the master computer and emulates them on the client computers in order to trigger animations.



RPPT supports Embedded Movies and Sound when the PowerPoint properties are set to ’auto-start’ or ’timer-triggered’ mode.



A set of slides that contains an embedded movie or sound must be included in a presentation list as a local file, as opposed to a web link. The reason is that PowerPoint only saves local links to media files in animated slides.



In order to establish the path to the linked object that has been stored with downloaded slides, you must run though a slideshow WITHOUT using RPPT, and then save the slides, before the displaying them with RPPT.

Example of Running a RPPT Session with Animated Slides Assume we have two animated slides, as shown in Figure 7:

Figure 7. An Example of Animated Slides Master operator: Assume the set of slides in Figure 7 is in a file named ’animation.ppt’, and the embedded AVI movie file is a file named ’reactor.avi’. Both files are saved in the folder ’c:\ag\slides\ meetingMay31\’. 1. Create a presentation list, add ’c:\ag\slides\meetingMay31\animation.ppt’. 2. Save the presentation list. 3. Upload the slides and to a web-server, and request that the remote sites download them. 4. To ensure the path to the AVI movie is correctly stored in the slide as ’c:\ag\slides\meetingMay31\reactor.avi’, you must run a slideshow from the folder ’c:\ag\slides\meetingMay31\’, as follows: a. Open the Windows Explorer; b. Go to ’c:\ag\slides\meetingMay31\’; 11

Chapter 5. Presentations with Animations c. Double-click ’animation.ppt’ to bring up PowerPoint; d. Start slideshow by pressing F5 key; e. Run though all the slides; f. Save the slides and exit PowerPoint. 5. To begin the presentation during the meeting, double-click on the entry: ’c:\ag\slides\meetingMay31\animation.ppt’ in the presentation list. 6. Use the mouse to forward slides or trigger animations. In this particular case, the slideshow starts from slide 1 with only the title text ’Slide 1’ visible. After clicking mouse once, anywhere on the slide, the animated text flies out from left to right. After clicking the mouse again, anywhere on the slide, the slideshow goes to slide 2 and the embedded AVI movie starts automatically (possibly after a programmed delay.) Client operator: 1. Download the slides and the embedded AVI movie file to a local directory, say ’d:\meetingMay31’ 2. Run a slideshow to ensure the path to the AVI movie is correctly stored in the slide as ’d:\meetingMay31\reactor.avi’ (rather than as ’c:\ag\slides\meetingMay31\ reactor.avi’): a. Open the Windows Explorer; b. Go to ’d:\meetingMay31\’; c. Double-click ’animation.avi’ to bring up PowerPoint; d. Start slideshow by pressing F5 key; e. Run though all the slides; f. Save the slides and exit PowerPoint. 3. Connect to the RPPT client to the RPPT server at the start of meeting, and watch the animated slideshow. No further local action is required.

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Chapter 6. Contacts Comments and bug reports can be sent to Yuan (Eric) He ([email protected])1 and Ken Bishop ([email protected])2.

Notes 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected]

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Chapter 6. Contacts

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Appendix A. Appendix Best Practices •

Do not run two servers on the same machine.



Do not run two masters, two clients, or one master and one client on the same machine.



Create and save a presentation list before a conference.



Use web-based slides whenever possible.



Complete slideshow configurations before connecting to the server.



Disable auto-reconnecting by pressing the ’Disconnect’ button if the master or the client has been trying to reconnect to the server for a long time but has failed.



Check our website for the latest version: http://plainsman.engr.ku.edu/AG/rppt/download.html

Troubleshooting 1. An RPPT client stops flipping slides. •

Check the directory of downloaded PowerPoint slides.



See if the server’s messages are blocked.



Re-drag the display area.



See if the server or master is connected.



You may need to restart the client, the master or the server.

2. PowerPoint is not started by RPPT. •

Unblock the server’s message.



Try to restart the master or the client.

3. Animation doesn’t work. •

Are you using a mouse?



Have you downloaded all the movies/sound files that come along with the slides?



Have you run a slideshow after downloading and SAVED it?



Do you have the appropriated CODEC installed?

4. Remote Laser Pointer doesn’t work. •

The problem is most likely caused by the malfunction of the mouse event capture of the master.



Try doing a "drag and define" using the master.



If it still doesn’t work, restart the master.

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Appendix A. Appendix

Glossary of Some Important RPPT Concepts •

Control of a Presentation Session The session control consists of a presentation list, the current slide’s contents, the remote laser pointer and the presenter’s identity.



Drag and Define This is a mouse operation that defines the PowerPoint slideshow area: 1. Click the ’Drag and Define’ button. 2. Click and drag the mouse button from the upper left corner of the desired slideshow area on your display screen. 3. Release the mouse at the lower right corner of that window area. 4. Coordinates that defines the dragged area will be automatically filled into the RPPT slideshow configuration section. 5. Repeat step 1-3 if you want to setup a different slideshow window frame. You may also use the entire screen for slideshow by clicking the ’Full Screen’ button. In Windows multi-display configurations, "full screen" means the entire display area of the specific display card whose area contains the upper-left corner coordinates that you set in RPPT.



Folder where the downloaded PowerPoint slides are stored This is the folder in which the RPPT client searches for a local PowerPoint presentation file. When a presentation list that contains local file names is sent to a RPPT client from the master, all local directory information is deleted; because the disk drive name and directory structure varies from computer to computer. Therefore the RPPT client needs to know where you actually stored those local/downloaded PowerPoint files.



Presentation List A presentation list is composed of PowerPoint file names, which may be URLs that begin with ’http://’ or local file paths.



Remote Laser Pointer The remote laser pointer is a red dot that shows on RPPT client slideshow windows. When the ’remote laser pointer’ option is enabled in both the RPPT master and the client, the mouse in the master/presenter’s slideshow window controls the movement of the remote laser pointer.



RPPT Distributed Presentation Session An RPPT distributed presentation session consists of a server, a master and several clients, which run on different computers connecting to the AccessGrid or other TCP/IP networks. The server creates the presentation session, and establishes communication between the master and the clients. The master organizes the presentations in a session by creating and distributing a presentation list. The master synchronizes the slideshow at client sites by sending out PowerPoint file name, slide number, mouse actions, etc.

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Appendix A. Appendix •

Setup Mode and Presentation Mode Both the RPPT master and client have two running mode. In the setup mode, all the configuration parameters can be changed, and an RPPT server can be connected or disconnected. The presentation list is also created at the Setup mode of a master. In the presentation mode, only the presentation list and the status of session connection are shown on screen. This prevents altering the setup of the presentation unintentionally.

Notes 1. http://plainsman.engr.ku.edu/AG/rppt/download.html

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Appendix A. Appendix

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