Importing a PowerPoint presentation into Flash

In my Putting Flash animation in PowerPoint tip, I explain how to bring a Flash movie into PowerPoint, but how about bringing a PowerPoint presentation into Adobe Flash? You can’t do it directly, but you can save the files in WMF format and import them into Flash.

This method does not preserve any animation or transitions. However, you can, of course, add animation in Flash.

Here’s how:

1. In PowerPoint, choose File > Save As. (In PowerPoint 2007, click Office button>Save As.)
2. In the Save as Type drop-down list, choose Windows Metafile (*.wmf) and click Save.

Note: WMF is a vector format, which means that the images are defined by equations rather than dots. WMF images can be resized without losing their resolution. Flash uses vector graphics.

1. You see a message asking if you want to export every slide or just the current slide. Click the Every Slide button.

1. You see a message stating the folder where the slides were saved. PowerPoint creates a subfolder in the current presentation‘s folder.

1. Open your Flash movie and click the first keyframe where you want to start.
2. Choose File > Import>Import to Stage. Find the files in the folder and click the first one. They’ll be named slide1.wmf, slide2.wmf, and so on. Click Open.

1. Flash asks you if you want to import the entire sequence; click Yes.

1. Flash imports each slide onto consecutive frames and makes each frame a keyframe. Save the file. Because you’re importing a vector format, you can edit all the objects and the text in Flash!

1. To make use of your Flash movie, you’ll need to make some changes. Remember that Flash defaults to 12 frames a second and you don’t want your slides to go by that quickly! You can change the frame rate to create the equivalent of a timed PowerPoint presentation. For example, to display each frame for 4 seconds, set the frame rate to .25 fps. To do so, double-click the framerate box at the bottom of the timeline to open the Document Properties dialog box.

1. However, a more common technique is to add a button on each frame linking to the next frame. You can also add buttons to link to the previous frame and the first frame, thereby providing a navigation system to the user. The instructions for doing so are beyond the scope of this tutorial and will vary based on the version of Flash that you’re using.

Geetesh Bajaj of Indezine has elaborated on this tip on his Web site. You can read his version here.