Putting the same list of Attachments in many Presentations

Jun 23, 2011

Jeff ("JP") Redman
By Jeff ("JP") Redman

I'm putting the semi-final touches on a series of 13 courses and this has come up.

Over the course of putting this series together the client and I have worked up a rather long list of Attachments (27 actually). The client want them all listed, in the same order, in every one of the courses.

As far as I know the only way to attach Attachments is to type them in one at a time into each course. And that would be 13 courses X 27 attachments X 3 columns = 1,053 fields to enter.

I'm just being lazy really, but the time I don't have to spend drudging on this project  is billable time I can spend doing something creative and interesting on the next.

Is there a way to import/transfer/sneak a list of Attachments from one presentation into another by, for example, copying and pasting some XML or other code from one obscure file in one presentation into the same file in another presentation?

Enquiring minds want to know.
OK, one enquiring mind wants to know.

4 Replies
Jeff ("JP") Redman
almost 13 years ago06/24/11 at 8:22 am (UTC)

I was hoping there was some way to do it by copy and paste and you have confirmed that there is POST publication, but sometimes you experts are funny. You say things like "Publish one course then copy the node of the presentation.xml into all the other published courses... along with the "downloads" folder too." so very casually. As if everyone knows what that bit of computer jargon means.

But me I'm not an xml expert. I don't know what your reply means (YET) so I must trouble you for a bit more explanation.
1) What IS "the node of the presentation"?
     (Indeed, what, in this context, is a "node"? I know what a nematode is and what a nodule is, but I don't know what a "node" is.)
2) Where is "the node of the presentation" found?
3) What does "the node of the presentation" look like? Does it have opening and closing tags?

BTW - Weeks ago I thought of and recommended the webpage solution. Unfortunately, the dear client does not "like" it. They want the presentation to be "self-contained." Hey! They're the client.

Jeff ("JP") Redman
almost 13 years ago06/24/11 at 9:22 am (UTC)

Mr. Kingsley's reply may turn out to be the workaround, but I am still wondering if there is any way to replicate the "Attachment" list WITHIN the Powerpoint / Articulate interface.

The project I'm working on, will be perenial. That is, it will get revised and reused semi-annually for several years, which means that in the end someone else will be doing at least some of the future revisions. Despite the fact that I write very detailed instructions, I have found that post-publication modifications have been hard to "hand off" to others, so I'm looking for a way to do the Attachments replication within the software with which people are already familiar. 

I am quite good at writing up Procedure documents. I have to have them to remind myself of what to do when I re-open a project I last worked on or thought about 2 years ago. But somehow, even with that written help, people who have never seen a project find post-publication modifications using XML particularly confusing.   

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.