Published slide looks different

Mar 20, 2012

Leah Peabbles
By Leah Peabbles

Hi Everyone - 

I'm having a problem where the published version of my module looks different than it does in PowerPoint. The most noticeable issue is that some slides have text that looks traced over, or like there's a copied text box placed just off-center over it. I've attached a screenshot of one of the slides so you can see what I mean. Here's some info:

- I have checked, there aren't duplicate text boxes on top of those ones (which is kind of how it looks)

- I'm using PPT 2007 and Presenter '09

- On each slide where this has occured, the text has been part of a Smart Art graphic that is animated

- I checked my DPI, and it's 96

- I also checked the size of my slides (per another thread on this forum) and it's set to the default

Any tips? This is the most glaring issue I've had, but I've also been having it kick the last letter of a word down into another line (only when published, not visible in PPT). 

Thanks!

-Leah

8 Replies
Leah Peabbles
12 years ago03/20/12 at 8:59 am (UTC)

Hi Phil - 

Yes! They are grouped. Is there any way around this? I have them grouped because I want the shape and the text to be together in the animation, but it seems to be causing a lot of problems. I've attached a screencast of the most recent issue I've had. Each of the boxes in my most recent screenshot were also grouped (but just one text box to one shape, the whole thing isn't grouped), and then each group has it's own animation (they appear as I say them in the narration). 

Let me know if you know if a fix for this! Thanks for your help, 

-Leah

Phil Mayor
12 years ago03/20/12 at 9:08 am (UTC)

For your second picture, can you add the text into the shape instead of using a shape and textbox combined?

For the first problem, you can save the grouped shapes out as images (not ideal) or ungroup and time your animation to look like they are grouped.

It is best practice to add the text to the shape instead of adding textbox and shapes together

Not sure if this will help

Phil

Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro
12 years ago03/20/12 at 9:16 am (UTC)

Hi Leah and Phil,

I'm also interested in this question/resolution. Interesting to learn that grouped images can cause problems.

But regarding saving the grouped images out as one shape (png) why is this not ideal? I recently watched a Tom Kuhlman Screenr Create two PPT files for elearning course: one for graphics & one for course content (http://bit.ly/U5nZT) where he describes doing exactly that. Or does it not work in this particular course?

Thanks to you both.

Phil Mayor
12 years ago03/20/12 at 9:23 am (UTC)

Its not ideal if you put text on a shape because that then gets converted to an image and can look awful. 

I like to use Studio to render text instead of bringing it in as an image, it can be alot clearer this way

I dont use two ppts (because I am lazy.  If I do create images I hide the slide in ppt (not articulate) because the hidden slides in ppt dont publish.  This also means when I come back to a course I can see my source files and dont have to search for another ppt (because I am really bad a t file management)

Leah Peabbles
12 years ago03/20/12 at 9:30 am (UTC)

Ok, looks like we've worked out a solution. It seems like I had 2 problems - the grouping and the Smart Art (which is automatically grouped, so maybe it's only one problem). So here's what I did - 

- Removed all the Smart Art and just recreated it with each of the pieces (Insert > Shapes). They're all created from shapes anyway, so it's pretty easy to recreate them and it really didn't take me very long. 

- Phil was right, having the text box over the shapes was a bad choice. I removed the text boxes and just typed directly on the shapes. I added the animation to the shape, and everything seems to be working fine now. 

Thanks for your help!

-Leah

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