Hi all,

Very quick query for you. Does anyone know if it is possible to use the presentation tool in OpenOffice.org to display a looped slideshow seamlessly?

I work in a small insurance brokers and have installed Slackware on an obsolete PC so I can use it to run a slideshow in the reception area advertising our services. My office manager has produced a Powerpoint presentation for this purpose, which I'd like to display in a permanent loop. Currently, when the presentation reaches the end, it pauses and shows a blank screen for a few seconds before returning to the start, which isn't ideal!

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I'll be posting a similar query on the OOo forums as well.

Here's what I found in the OO.o help file. I could not succeed in getting a slide show to run automatically, however! I probably was doing something wrong. But it looks like a "zero" pause setting might create the seamless effect you're after--if it will work for you.

The information relates to the "Slide show > settings" function on the presentations menu.


"Auto
Restarts the slide show after the pause interval you specify. A pause slide is displayed between the final slide and the start slide. Press the Esc key to stop the show..
Duration of pause
Enter the duration of the pause before the slide show is repeated. If you enter zero, the show restarts immediately without showing a pause slide."

OK, I got it to work, and it DOES repeat seamlessly.

Edit your presentation using "slide view" selected on the object bar. You can select all the slides shown using CTL+A (easy way) and deselect any you wish; you can change the timing on any or all of them--just be sure that "automatic" is selected all the time. You can have some of the slides be manually advanced, or all automatically advanced. I played around and got all the slides in a 34-slide presentation to automatically display at one-second intervals, with zero pause between repeats of the show. When you get the show the way you want it, save the presentation in OO.o format (in case it's a Microsoft presentation you're working with--in order to display it right, it must be converted to OO.o format). It works! Have fun.

Thanks for that. I have already been through the help files, but I must admit I was in a hurry at the time... I've been given a deadline of the end of the week to get everything up and running so I'll have a play around tomorrow and see if I can't get it working.

If I can... another small victory for Free software... Yaay!

You may have a little trial-and-error like I did, but once you get a little practice it should be pretty easy to get exactly the effects you want. I was very favorably impressed with the presentation I experimented with (it was a demo of T9 text entry for mobile devices that I'd downloaded from the Web some time ago).

The slide show went very smoothly and repeated without a hitch. You can also select fancy transition effects if you want them.

Good luck! Please post back with your results...

Oh, and don't forget to SAVE the presentation when you get it right, otherwise all your work will be for nothing.

Well... like so many problems, the solutions is blindingly obvious when you know where to look! There's a box in the slide show settings menu for setting the delay between repeats of the presentation. Set that to zero, and you're away!

The only other thing I had to do was drop a bunch of Windows fonts onto my Slackware box, as the office manager created the presentation in Powerpoint and it wouldn't have rendered quite right otherwise.

Many thanks for the assistance jonr - if there ever was a case for saying RTFM, this was it, but somehow you resisted... cheers for that!

Very glad your presentation was a success!

As for the RTFM angle...I've never liked that approach, or being told it myself, so it's a case of "Do unto others..."

Besides, I had to go read it myself!