One way to deliver a presentation, especially one that viewers run themselves, is on a CD. You can include the PowerPoint viewer, so that even people who don’t have PowerPoint can view the presentation. This is ideal for sales presentations that you want to send to potential clients.

To burn the CD, you need CD burner software, which usually comes with your computer or CD-ROM drive. Of course, you also need a blank CD.

To copy a presentation to a CD:

1. Open the presentation that you want to burn to a CD.
2. Choose File | Package For CD from the menu bar. (In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office button and choose Publish | Package For CD.) You see the Package For CD dialog box, as shown in Figure A.
3. Enter a name for the CD in the Name The CD text box.
4. If you want to include other presentations, click the Add Files button, select the files, and click Add.
5. Insert a blank CD disk in your CD-ROM drive. Click the Copy To CD button.
6. At the message asking if you want to create another CD, click Yes or No.

Important: PowerPoint includes the PowerPoint viewer on the CD by default, as well as linked files. A problem that sometimes occurs is that linked movies and sounds don’t play. Be sure to put these files in the same folder as the presentation before inserting them into PowerPoint.

The process also creates an autorun file that starts the presentation automatically. Test the CD; when you insert it into the CD-ROM drive, the presentation should start automatically (unless you disabled the CD autorun features in Windows).

You can also click the Copy To Folder button in the Package For CD dialog box to copy the same files to a location on your computer. You can then use these files to create other CDs later or to distribute them using a different medium.

 

This tip was provided by Ellen Finkelstein. For more of her PowerPoint tips, go to www.ellenfinkelstein.com.

Filed under: Microsoft Office Tutor