[kwlug-disc] .ppsx to .pdf (oh the misery)

[unsolicited]

Johnny Ferguson wrote, On 09/25/2010 5:35 PM:
> I've been given .ppsx files (supposedly some kind of play-only slideshow 
> format from microshaft). I'd really like to turn them into PDFs.

- the form of the name calling isn't helpful to your cause, reflecting 
more on you than anything else.
- as other threads have noted, in some senses this is just good and 
profitable business practices by Microsoft.

> I've tried all the solutions on the OOo site, and none of them seem to 
> work (at least not for .ppsx (which is never listed explicitly as a 
> supported format)).

This is likely PowerPoint 2007 or 2010.

Download powerpoint viewer from MS, write to pdf printer, under 
Windows. Bite the bullet - such is the nature of the world. Oops - I 
forget whether or not the viewer will let your print.

Or find a file conversion web site.

Or try Google Apps - up as powerpoint, down as openoffice? Not sure 
about that for power point. I've used it for Excel and Word.

> Anyone know of some well-hidden solution to what I imagine is a common 
> problem? Failing that, might I suggest the next FLOSS fund donation go 
> towards the development of a 200 petawatt laser cannon to burn Redmond 
> off the face of the earth?

If it were that easy, it would be done already. This is a very common 
problem - occurs with Project and Publisher a lot too.

> I guess if no solution is available, I'll have to beg my instructor to 
> click 2 extra buttons to make some PDFs (though I tried it with another, 
> and he was resistant to the point of flat-out refusing).

I've had success with this more often than not, at least with 
Conestoga instructors.

If this is Conestoga, then you should also have access to their 
computers, at least long enough to open the power point, and print to 
a .pdf printer, perhaps via a web site.

I've seldom not been able to get the prof to do this - the winning 
argument always seeming to be that not everyone has MS Office, let 
alone the later versions.

A similarly useful and usually successful argument is to have the guy 
save as a PowerPoint version you can use (Open Office can take .ppt, 
up to 2003?) The argument being not everyone has the latest Office. At 
least once I've got in in OpenOffice I've gotten where I needed to go, 
in the past.

If anything, the reverse has been true - there is a perception that 
.pdf is less copyable, and frequently I can't get the original slides 
- so I can print them 2 up, duplex.

Often they will print (export?) the slides to 2 up, but the slides are 
really small with the useless lines on the side for making notes with.

I've had some success with referring the instructor to 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/ (the problem usually being 
the instructor has no way to make .pdf's, unlike OpenOffice), or 
http://products.softsolutionslimited.com/ - IIRC, the latter has both 
a local and a web conversion facility.

There is an argument here to keeping a Win vm kicking around, if you 
want to get on with your day. Perhaps with a student version of MS 
Office for $10 - if you can arm-twist Conestoga into selling it to 
you. I was never successful - and it took 2 years to get anywhere with 
MS Project.

Good luck.