POWERPOINT Timing Inaccurate

[eamc]

I have used PowerPoint to put together an "automatic" 20-slide show, where each slide is on for a specified number of seconds, and a single sound track plays for all. On both a Win2k dedsktop and a WinXP laptop, timing is so inaccurate and synchronization so bad that, in a 2.5 minute show, inaccuracies of 10 seconds occur between one "slide show" playing and the next. On both computers, slides set for 6 sec. will stay on for between 5 and 7.8 seconds, as timed by stopwatch. A friend has confirmed this, and claimed that selecting the first slide before clicking slide show view will help. I could not confirm this. Can anybody help? I will have to redo this on Adobe Premiere, which shows no such unpredictabilities in timing.

Edwin M.

 

[TAJSimmons]

eamc,

Powerpoint and timing/synching is not that great.

Hopefully these pages should give you a better understanding of what powerpoint is actually doing with regards to timing.

http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/synchronizing.htm

http://www.soniacoleman.com/FAQs/FAQ00087.htm

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc

http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com

 

[eamc]

Hi TAJSimmons - you're right: Powerpoint is essentially useless with a plus-minus 25% variation in all set times. Now MS has written a progrem "Producer" which is a free 5MB download. It starts with a Powerpoint file, but uses an Adobe Premiere-type parallel ribbon layout (ribbon for images, ribbon for audio. Synchronization is great, but the output is only .htm and can only be shown with a lot of extras (titles that scroll, Windows-Media-Player-type screens with abstract patterns pulsing with the sound track, etc. Adobe Premiere is probably best, handles both images and video clips, shows full-screen.

http://www.smoothshow

also seems OK.

Edwin M