Nested .swfs in powerpoint?

[Former Member]

In an effort to improve the memory usage of a large and complex Xcelsius model, I tried breaking it into several separate files each housing one screen from my model. I then made a master file with selectors to control dynamic visibility and inserted the individual .swf files into it using the image component. Since Xcelsius cannot embed .swf files made in Xcelsius, the program stuck all the linked swf files into a folder.

Now, I want to embed my presentation in Powerpoint. I assumed I could just export the main file to powerpoint and include the folder of linked swfs. But this does not seem to work.

Is there a method that allows you to embed a presentation into powerpoint when it contains nested Xcelsius presentations?

[Former Member]

Hi Owen,

Are you using 4.5? You certainly can export a nested dashboard to PPT. Can I assume you are running into problems, not when you view the presentation on your machine, but when you try to send the file to others? The most likely problem is that you are missing a file when you bundle the attachements. I created a simple nested dashboard in 4.5 and the following files are created when you export to PPT:

1) main.ppt

2) main.swf (this is probably the file you are missing when emailing)

3) folder named "main" containing

a) nested1.swf

b) nested2.swf

For exporting nested dashboards, I recommend using the File>Export menu rather than the buttons. This way you will be prompted to name the new PPT and you can create a new folder to export the file to. By exporting to a new folder, all of the required files are contained in one location.

One more tip that I can provide when emailing your presentation, would be to send the entire folder in a zipped format. You can then instruct the recipient to maintain the file folder structure and the presentation should work just fine.

[Former Member]

Amy, thank you for the reply. I should have said up front that I'm working with Xcelsius 2008.

I tried using the export menu instead of the button but it does not create a folder with the linked .swfs.

[Former Member]

As a follow up question, if we set up embedded Xcelsius .swf's inside another Xcelsisus document, what is the best way to host it online? Is there any way to alter the file paths that the master Xcelsius uses to look for the embedded .swfs?

The issue we are facing is that our client's webserver has URLs that don't neatly end in .swf, so we need a way to customize the file paths.