Issue 22147

Reassigned to Bettina.

I totally agree. It would be a nice addition. Maybe an Impress Viwer would be
nice too.

I think that issue 16492 issue 16808 and issue 22147 are all about the same
issue, aren't they? So 2 of them could be closed as duplicates.
Despite of that, I think this would be a nice feature for OOo.
Maybe an Impress Viwer would be nice too.

I think that maybe issue 28918 is also a duplicate.

I have read the other issues. I think they are more about OOo should have a way
to directly open them in view-mode.

What I here mean are self-playing presentations (exe-files in case of Windows),
that do not need an intalled OOo.

(This is a bit similar to selfe extracting (ZIP-)archives.)

*** Issue 26977 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

*** Issue 61635 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

If by "self-executing" you mean only that it should run without OOo, as opposed
to running at a certain speed without manual control, then I heartily vote for
this issue. My friend is in a situation that's a good example of where this
would be necessary. He has a part-time teaching job at a community college. He
makes occasional presentations for his class. He uses OOo because he can't
afford to buy and then keep upgrading MS Office or any other commercial package;
his school treats him essentially as an independent contractor, so they don't
pay for his software. Also, he can't install OOo (or any other software) on the
computers in the classroom. The laptop I had lent him just broke and he can't
afford another, so the only way he can now manage to run his presentations for
the class is to be able to bring in either a viewer program that runs without
being installed, or to have the presentation itself run without either needing
to be installed or having OOo on the system.

*** Issue 62703 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

I don't think it is too important if the viewer code is embedded in the
presentation, or if there is a separate viewer application, or if there is a way
to make OOo run a presentation without going into edit mode at all.  What
matters is a way to click on a presentation and have it run, then loop or exit
as appropriate.

The purpose of a presentation is to be viewed, not edited, and there needs to be
a way to run it, repeatedly, perhaps looping indefinitely, without the viewer
knowing that OOo exists.   

The competitor has a neat trick with changing the file extension to make a
presentation that will be run and displayed without menus or other design-time
features beinv visible.

*** Issue 22147 has been confirmed by votes. ***

In response to Bob Harvey's comment, I agree that it doesn't much matter how the
self-execution is accomplished. I would just like to make it clear that as far
as I'm concerned, the biggest requirement is that a presentation can be run from
removable media on a computer that does not have OOo installed (and on which it
cannot be installed--a controlled computing environment).

The export to swf etc do not work when there are embedded videos. This is very
important because when we want to use a presentation with videos/animations etc
are to be presented in a computer without OO or wish to put it in a CD/flash
drive that can be easily carried to a conference , it would be very useful and
"realworld"to have a pack and go feature.This is one of the reasons why open
office is not so popular  as it could be among those who are not computer savvy
and is important for many presenters to avoid hiccoughs. An open office viewer
would also be very useful.
If it is a question of proprietary fonts , these special fonts could be removed
in a warning and free font's of choice could be substituted.
If this is done my last obstacle to converting fully to openoffice would be
removed and this feature is precisely what most of my other friends (we are all
doctors) want on our wish list.
Dr prasanna Simha M

Sorry, continuing the above statement, this is the importance of a Pack and Go
or Package to CD equivalent that allows us to take a project anywere and present
it anywere without strugggling with file associations etc etc for videos etc

Yes, sometimes we would like to present using other computer in which Impress
was not installed

*** Issue 42864 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

*** Issue 31107 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

Portable OpenOffice alreadey exist and can be used to run presentation without
installing OpenOffice. 

"Portable OpenOffice already exists"

Yes, this is really an argument. I think since portable OOo this feature is not
needed anymore:
With portable OOo the user has the possibility to view AND edit his documents
everywhere.

We should consider to close this issue.

What do you mean?

Most probably OOo-portable doesn't resolve the issue.
Users would like to have minimal environment to play presentations.
Also please took into consideration ability to mail presentations
What difference for recipient to download and install OOo and OOo-portable?

Sometimes our firm send our presentation to another organizations, so we have 
to convert it to pps, because we can't say them "Please download OOo Portable. 
It is about 70Mb". 
This issue may be resolved for all OS by exporting to swf(now it works not 
correctly, for example, animations are lost with export, look http://
qa.openoffice.org/issues/
buglist.cgi?issue_type=DEFECT&issue_type=ENHANCEMENT&issue_type=FEATURE&issue_type=PATCH&component=Presentation&issue_status=UNCONFIRMED&issue_status=NEW&issue_status=STARTED&issue_status=REOPENED&issue_status=RESOLVED&email1=&emailtype1=exact&emailassigned_to1=1&email2=&emailtype2=exact&emailreporter2=1&issueidtype=include&issue_id=&changedin=&votes=&chfieldfrom=&chfieldto=&chfieldvalue=&short_desc=flash+&short_desc_type=allwords&long_desc=&long_desc_type=allwords&issue_file_loc=&issue_file_loc_type=fulltext&status_whiteboard=&status_whiteboard_type=fulltext&keywords=&keywords_type=anytokens&field0-
0-0=noop&type0-0-0=noop&value0-0-
0=&cmdtype=doit&newqueryname=&order=Reuse+same+sort+as+last+time&Submit+query=Submit+query).
 I think, when we'll get well-done export to ".swf" in OOo, this issue may be 
closed.

CORRECTION: PowerPoint does not create EXEs. Microsoft has long offered stand-
alone viewers for all of the Office applications. Users can download Word, 
Excel, and PowerPoint viewers. These are small "players" that allow people who 
don't want or own Office to read/share Office documents. This is similar to the 
Adobe Reader, which can read but not write PDF files. Right now, presentations 
created in Impress will play ONLY if you have the OOo suite installed. That's a 
show-stopper for many people who would like to move to Impress (like me), but 
need to share their presentations with others who don't have Impress -or- 
PowerPoint. The export functions are not sufficient, for reasons stated in this 
thread. The Flash export -could- be a great solution, -if- all the animations 
and effects were preserved. But the low-hanging fruit would simply be to adopt 
MSFT's approach, which is, create a version of Impress that uses conditional 
compilation to disable editing and writing functions, and only supports the 
player/playback code.

Creating an executable could be a problem because OOo works on different
platforms. I see tow solutions:
1- A lightweight Impress player (viewer) on each platform. It should support all
features supported when playing a Presentation from OOo.
2- A kind of self contained Java executable. Maybe an Applet that could be
embedded into a web page. There are still some differences from platforms when
packaging Java executable code, but its still easier that packaging native
executable code.

All that is needed is a small Java-powered Impress player. That solves the x-
platform issue.

Hi Christian, please take these issues into your ownership.

I take ownership and close this issue.

There are many ways to already achieve this. You can export your presentation to
flash, svg, html and pdf where there are free viewers available.
Mangling this into a binary that is only executable under one platform is a bad
thing.
Downloading OOo is for free. There are also OOo distros that run from a USB and
also from a CD.

closing

Disappointing that this issue was closed without fully considering (reading) 
this thread.

Export to Flash IS BROKEN. All the transitions and effects are lost. Not ONE 
export approach delivers the richness of the Impress presentation.

The comment about "one platform" is flawed as well, since the Impress Player 
could/should be a Java application that you write once, and run anywhere.

I agree cl that portable OpenOffice is enough.

> I agree cl that portable OpenOffice is enough.

Don't make me laugh. At more than 180 MB when installed, it takes ages to load
from a memory stick onto the target computer.

When I go to a conference, I expect to pull the stick out of my pocket and push
it into the target computer and run the presentation. This is currently NOT
possible with any Impress presentation.

If issue 79866 (see http://ux.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=79866) would
be solved, I would definitely go with html-export. But that issue isn't even
confirmed. (Some older issues similar to that, haven't got any attention either.)

If this Issue is closed, Impress becomes completely useless : 

- export to Powerpoint 2000 (the version still mainly used in conference
centers) is completely broken : no animations are exported (see Issue 82176)
---> Impress cannot be used to prepare working presentations for Powerpoint

- all animations specific to Impress cannot be used for Powerpoint 2003 exports

- most conference centers will not allow the installation of software on their
computers

- in flash export animations don't work (without animation I can go back to
overhead slides and not have any compatibility issues ...)

so what can you use Impress for : presentations at home on computers where you
can decide which software to install ??

I really like to work with Impress, its set of features and the way you can work
with it are largely superior to Powerpoint, however without seflexecuting
presentations all the effort that went into this great piece of software is lost

If the OpenOffice community (or Sun ) wants that Impress becomes in any way a
concurrent to Powerpoint, then self-executing presentations are the only way to
get people to see what you can do with Impress...

AS for myself, as long as this Issue remains closed, I will go back to
Powerpoint, as I have lost so much time in adjusting Impress produced
presentations to Conference computers with only Powerpoint installed, and so
many embarrassing moments when animations did not work properly (that's really
bad presse: "what happend there" "Oh I used OpenOffice Impress ...." )

Sorry 

Oliver

I totally agree impress should work the way powerpoint does with animations and 
sounds or music through out the presentation. This must be fixed inorder to 
compete with microsoft office. I hope someone makes this a priority and is able 
to fix this.

I've joined as an OOo forum member just to add my half-pence worth to this
issue. I do have MS Office available to me via my employer, but on my own
personal computers I have been sticking to Open Office on one and Star Office on
the other.

I'm not that keen on the new Office 2007 interface although I expect some like
it, but I do find it a relief to come back to the more 'traditional' standard
menu interface of OOo where I can easily find things. In short I have been
fairly well disposed to OOo recently.

I've just spend quite a few hours over the last couple of days putting together
a slide show in Impress with my daughter to email to various family members. 

BTW, I've noticed of late that more and more people use (Powerpoint) slide shows
for personal use communicating with friends and family. It is a powerful and
graphically rich way of communicating, yet easy to learn.

So I've got my Impress slide shown ready to send to various friends and family
members - what now. Almost certainly some or all of them won't have Open Office
instaled and may not even have heard of it. I've tried exporting to PDF but my
little bit of animation is lost, besides which a PDF document doesn't have the
same impact as a slide show.

Impress has an export to SWF feature, but an ".SWF" is no more use than ".ODP".
I have been hunting around for a free .SWF to .EXE converter but so far no luck.
Even if there is one I don't know whether the Impress animations woud be
retained. I found an .SWF to .AVI converter, but whoa, I've got better things to
do, I've finished the slides now I just want to email them.

Asking friends and family recipients to download and install OOo or OOo
Lite(ish) is not a serious option. It rather takes the spontenaeity away from
the Christmas/New Year slide show!

Having spent longer than I would have wished trying to find a practical way of
distributing my slide show, I now see only one practical solution: save it as
Powerpoint .PPT (and maybe then open it in Powerpoint and then save it from
there as a .PPS, Powerpoint show - effectively a read(show)-only .PPT.

As someone who has recently re-kindled their interest in OOo and was well
disposed I was disappointed to then find that, judging by this thread, after
four years of consideration not only have the OOo team not provided a solution
to what is IMO a show stopper, they still don't even 'get it'.

If the response were "yes we understand the need, but because of the way OOo /
Impress is structured we'd have to pretty well re-write all the Impress code and
we don't have the resources", that I could understand.

Come on guys, slide shows are a grea way of communicating with friends and
family. Impress is a great way of producing slide shows. You just can't send the
slides to anyone!!!

Think of an OOo Impress viewer as a way of getting an OOo foothold on lots of PCs...

1. Receive an Impress slide show from a friend, with an Impress Viewer download link
2. Install the Impress Viewer and view the slide
3. The Impress Viewer politely informs the user that they can download OOo for
free and create their own slides if they wish.

One in every <n> such personal users is also an IT decision maker who has just
got their first hands-on experience of OOo thanks to the Impress Viewer.

Anyway for now my recipients with have to receive Powerpoint slides (although
created in Impress).

I was  deeply hurt that theis issue is summarily "dismissed" by people
developing this open source project. The suggestion was made after discussing
with over 200 Docotrs who participate in conferences etc and the one thingwe all
felt "Lacking" in open office was the pack and Go equivalent in Power Point.
People talk of exporting to SWFetc little realizing that videos etc do not get
transferred. In a medical disucssion all these things become important and I bet
it is the same for others. Summarily dismissing it with a "closed and wont fix
is tragic and horse blinded in vision.
WE are not so good at computers to design such things but at least reasons as to
why such a thing cannotbe implemented must be given rahter than a summary
dismissal. I am extremely dissappointed 

I was  deeply hurt that theis issue is summarily "dismissed" by people
developing this open source project. The suggestion was made after discussing
with over 200 Docotrs who participate in conferences etc and the one thingwe all
felt "Lacking" in open office was the pack and Go equivalent in Power Point.
People talk of exporting to SWFetc little realizing that videos etc do not get
transferred. In a medical disucssion all these things become important and I bet
it is the same for others. Summarily dismissing it with a "closed and wont fix
is tragic and horse blinded in vision.
WE are not so good at computers to design such things but at least reasons as to
why such a thing cannotbe implemented must be given rahter than a summary
dismissal. I am extremely dissappointed 
Also how does "One person" take an issue and decide to "dump it" and close it.
That is so disappointing and out of synch with the real requirements of real
users. Not everyone is a computer specialist and one of the things for wider
implementation of a software is usability.

It is a shame that this issue is still not fixed.

I recently wanted to send a happy winter solstice ppt card to a huge number of
nerd friends. Turns out they don't all have Powerpoint so I send them the viewer
version. I was deeply disappointed to get a negative feedback. Some of them
where not able to open it because they use a Mac or a Linux thing. And some even
have Linux but called me on the phone and insulted me, why I dare to send them
an EXE. EXE is the best way for a virus to travel they told me.

I was shocked at first, but now I use OpenOffice. All my friend can download and
install it for free! It comes in so many languages, even friends who could not
install Microsoft office due to language issues can do so now! Even poor bob who
 could not even effort to steal a copy of Powerpoint can now enjoy full blown
office productivity! And all my cool friends with the Mac can now enjoy it.

And for the few that do not wish to download stuff for free, I just send a
separate mail with a ppt I renamed to pps so it automatically starts (those guys
at Microsoft are pure geniuses!).

I wish you all a happy new year!

*** Issue 86282 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

Impress needs to be able to play music and slides automatically. If not you 
might as well use picture viewer to do a slide show.

Impress is able to play music and slides automatically

I am very surprised this has been closed "WONTFIX".  

The work arounds suggested are laughable, and it can't surely be beyond the wit
of the authors of the various APIs and macro package to create a small runtime
that can be bundled into a presentation.

There are still 70 votes for this despite being spurned.

Number of votes could be much more than 70 if not "WONTFIX".
In 3-5 month it will be 30-40 I think, but it doesn't mean users think better of it.

Just like to add my to the mass of opinion which seems to indicate that this IS
an important issue.

If this feature is just TOO HARD, then please say so.

It is definitely an obvious feature that a presentation tool should have. 
Presentations by their very nature tend to be something that needs portability.

I'd like to be able to build a presentation and email it to clients, but don't
want to tell them they HAVE TO install Open Office for it to work.

I've been a bit of an OO evangelist in the last few months and have converted a
number of friends, colleagues and clients to using the suite, but I have to say
I am very disappointed by this omission.

Simply unbeliaveble.
Last time I attended to a congress, there were ~300 speakers, each with their
own Powerpoint presentation. There was no way to "install" any kind of software,
nor to plug in your pendrive and, of course, OpenOffice was not installed, so...
guess why all of the attendants used M$?... because there was no easy way to
guarantee that your Impress presentation was going to run smoothly.
Impress Viewer for president!

*** Issue 89265 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***

This is a must.
Have to be able (for example) to send out self contained mini-cd with a
presentation on, which the user can run whatever software was on their PC. I
have done this in the past with PP viewer, but no longer have M$ software
available to me.
Doesn't have to be a way of mangling the presentation into an exe, but a light
standalone viewer for each platform that can be included on the disk/usb drive.
Please re-open this issue.

Impress is honestly not an option for me without this feature.

What about making this a GSOC project? 

And integrating the presenter console extension would obviously be a very useful
addition, as this is one feature that makes Impress clearly better than PP, and
would make it much easier to evangelize OOo to others. Personally, I don't care
about self-executing presentations. A viewer would be just fine for me. 

Well, I digest this issue: users want to be able to run an ODP file in viewing
mode automatically.
Not need to create an EXE file or have a specific viewer, just add a new
extension like OD? (.odV for viewing or .odD for diaporama ?). 
The behavior of OOo would then automatically run this kind of ODx in
presentation mode.
So simple, isn'it?