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Blackboard learning system/powerpoint

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Update: This also applies to Word files. For office 2007, there is a new PDF plugin for Word you can download from microsoft.

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PPT to Blackboard learning system CE

Recommended practice is to convert raw PowerPoint files to the Portable Document Format ("PDF") before posting to the Blackboard learning system. PDF files take up much less space and are easier for students to download. Also the students do not need any special software to view the files. Students can also print right from the PDF window, including printing multiple sheets per page.

For Macintosh, PDF capability is built into the "Print" function. For Windows and PowerPoint 2007, the "Save As..." command includes an option for PDF format. For other versions of PowerPoint on Windows, there is a free PDF utility.

Macintosh

For Macintosh, the built-in "Print" dialog box can create PDF files from any printable document. From the File Menu, select Print. In the box that appears, click on the PDF drop-down in the lower-left corner. Select Compress PDF. Then use the following "Save as..." box to save the PDF in the normal manner.

Note that "Compress PDF" can reduce the size of your file by as much as 95%. For example, a PowerPoint with 75 large images required 108MB; after "Compress PDF", the resulting file was 5MB!

Windows

PowerPoint 2007

You can save a PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file using the "Save As..." command.

Click on the "Office Button" in the upper-right-hand corner of the PowerPoint window. Image:ppt2pdf_Office_button.png
A menu drops down. Click on the "Save As..." command. Image:Ppt2pdf_Save_as_button.png
A list of format options appears. Click on "PDF". Image:Ppt2pdf_Pdf_on_menu.gif
A dialog box "Publish as PDF or XPS" opens. This is similar in function to the "Save..." dialog box in PowerPoint and other applications.
  1. Make sure the file is going to an appropriate folder.
  2. Choose a name for the PDF file.
  3. Choose "Minimum size" if this file will be used online and is not intended for professional printing.
  4. Options include specifying a selection of slides to print, whether to print multiple slides per page, etc.
  5. Click "Publish" to create the PDF file on disk.
Image:Ppt2pdf_Publish-500.gif

PDFCreator - Free Utility

PDFCreator does not work with the Vista Operating system. Use the microsoft plugin instead. According to the project home page, "PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program. Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application." PDFCreator is free and open-source.

To install the PDFCreator utility
  • Go to PDFCreator page in the Sourceforget.net website and get the latest version of PDFCreator software. 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator
  • As of Sep 2006, the latest version is v0.9.3. Download the zPDFCreator-0_9_3-AD_DeploymentPackage-WithoutToolbar.msi. This version can be downloaded directly from here: 
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796&package_id=53473&release_id=442172
  • Double-click the newly downloaded zPDFCreator-0_9_3-AD_DeploymentPackage-WithoutToolbar.msi file to start the installation. Follow the instructions on the screen to finish it.
  • Once installed, go to "Printers and Faxes" on your Windows machine. You should be able to see a printer called PDFCreator there.
To create a PDF file from Powerpoint slides
  • Open your powerpoint file in Microsoft Powerpoint.
  • Go to File menu | choose Print.
  • In the Print screen, choose the printer name PDFCreator.
  • Click OK to continue.
  • In the PDFCreator screen, put in a Document Title. This will be the name of the pdf file going to be created.
  • Click Save to proceed. When prompted, choose a location to save that pdf file.


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