how to convert powerpoint to flash (or another format) on linux

Written by: daniel

October 22, 2009

Importing a powerpoint presentation into a web application has been always a huge headache for a web developer, especially if your everyday environment is labeled with a penguin. I have seen dozens of converters for windows desktop, but they could not be used in our case.

Unfortunately, the old friend OpenOffice combined with some open source technologies come to rescue!

OpenOffice opens and stores documents in many formats and it can be started in a service mode, which works perfect for servers and these scripts from the JODConverter project make the job very easy.

The only thing I miss is to be able to add some parameters to the output format, for example autoplay for presentations instead of having to click at each frame to go on.

Links:
JODConverter
More info on installation

Note:
It seems it’s also possible to use Google Docs API for this purpose.

Posted in linux