There is another feature that I put into my Presentation Form so that Notes users could view the information correctly. When you export the slide information from the HTML file that PowerPoint generates into the SlideNotes field, it also imports the HTML needed to format it correctly for viewing on the Web. Since I didn't want my Notes users seeing these HTML tags, I created a Computed for Display field that Notes users see when reading the document that takes out all of the HTML tags and replaces them with Notes equivalents or nothing. The code I used is as follows:

You can see how the final result of how this looks to Notes users in Figure B.

FIGURE B


Notes users view the slides just like they would any other documents, one at a time. Roll over picture for a larger image.

For Web users, I created a view using HTML to format the slide information just how I wanted it. I put the slide number in a small cell on the left and then in the cell next to it I used the $File/filename?OpenElement URL string to display the GIF file attached to each of the slides. In the next row, I put the SlideNotes field that contains the HTML tags to format the slide notes properly so that they look good on the Web.

The Web Presentation View has three main columns. The first column is sorted and categorized by the PresentationName field. The second column is a hidden column that sorts the slides based on the SlideNumber field. And the third column contains the real meat of the view in the form of a custom HTML table. The view code is included in the listing at http://www.component-net.com/dp-extras/powerpoint-4.html.

The result of all of this coding can be seen in Figure C.

FIGURE C


This is how the presentation looks when viewed on the Web. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Remember to hide this alternate view by using parentheses and give it a synonym without spaces so it will be easier to refer to via the Domino URL syntax.

Also, you may have come to the realization that since we are displaying the slides on the Web using a view, we are in complete control of how many slides to display at a time. This is absolutely true and is one of the reasons that I'm excited about this technique. I can change how may slides my Web users see at any given time just by adding the "&count=x" argument in the URL. I can also jump into the slides at any point by using the "&start=x" argument. Here is an example:

To customize how presentations are displayed even further, you can copy the Web Presentation View and customize it for a single presentation. Just rewrite the View Selection formula so that only the presentation you want shows in the view. This also will help prevent confusion for the readers if you have many presentations that you are trying to post that are all appearing in one view.