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Impatica for PowerPoint—How-To

Impatica for PowerPoint is a conversion tool. You still need to use PowerPoint to create your presentation, and if you'd like, add any narration. When your presentation is complete, you use Impatica to convert, or "impaticize" it into a Web-based format.

There are four main steps involved in creating any presentation with Impatica for PowerPoint:

1. Create a PowerPoint presentation.
2. Add narration in PowerPoint (optional).
3. Impaticize the presentation.
4. Upload the Impatica files.

Each of these steps is described below. Detailed instructions can be found in the UMUC DE Oracle: Create a Slideshow Presentation Using Impatica.

If you have additional questions, please contact UMUC Technical Support at www.support.umuc.edu or 1-888-360-8682 between 7:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. After business hours and on weekends, limited help is available from WebTycho Support. Contact infomation (phone, e-mail, chat) is available from http://tychousa.umuc.edu/wtdocs/wthelp/html/contact_us.html.

Additional Resources: The Impatica Web site includes a Quick Start Guide to Impatica for PowerPoint. It also includes a helpful User's Guide and several FAQs where you can find information on how to use the program. The more comprehensive User's Manual (PDF 2.1Mb) contains detailed documentation.

1. Create a PowerPoint presentation.

Impatica for PowerPoint requires a basic familiarity with Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don't know how to use PowerPoint, visit the FAQs for information and resources.

Additional Resources: The Impatica Web site provides a tutorial that describes how to embed a picture into your PowerPoint presentation.

2. Add narration in PowerPoint (optional).

If you wish to create a narrated presentation, you must add the narration to the original PowerPoint file. In order to narrate PowerPoint files, you must have a microphone and be able to record sounds on your computer. The general steps for narrating in PowerPoint are:

1. Click Slideshow, then click Record Narration.
2. Speak into your microphone. This will add narration to the slide you are viewing.
3. From the File drop-down menu, select Save.
4. Continue for each slide that requires narration.
   
   

   Additional Resources: The Impatica Web site provides more options with accompanying tutorials for adding sound to PowerPoint presentations.

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3. Impaticize the presentation.

The basic steps for impaticizing a PowerPoint presentation are as follows:

1. Open Impatica for PowerPoint.
2. Click Add to add your PowerPoint file in the main window.
3. Click Include Playback Controls to provide user functionality (leave other default settings as they are).
4. Click Impaticize.
5. Click Preview to view the converted file in your Web browser.
   
   

   Additional Resources: The Impatica Web site also provides an overview of how to "impaticize" a PowerPoint presentation.

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4. Upload the Impatica files.

There are three main ways to distribute your Impatica files.You can:

1. Upload the "-imp.jar" file as an attachment in WebTycho.
2. Upload the ".html", "-imp.jar", and ".jar" files to a Web server.
3. Send the "-imp.jar" file as an e-mail attachment.

The easiest way to upload Impatica files is to upload the file that ends in "-imp.jar" into WebTycho as an attachment. Doing so means that class members will view a downloaded, rather than streamed, version of your presentation.

Additional Resources: The WebTycho Orientation explains how to attach a file in WebTycho; scroll to the end of the page for step-by-step instructions.

You can also upload Impatica files to a Web server.

• If you are familiar with FTP, you can simply use your standard FTP program to upload the three relevant files (extensions are .html, -imp.jar, and .jar).
• If you are not familiar with FTP, you can use Impatica for PowerPoint's built-in FTP utility to upload the correct files.

After you upload the files to your Web server, you must provide a URL, or link, to the presentation (the .html file); this link can be e-mailed directly to class members or posted anywhere in the WebTycho classroom. This upload method allows recipients to view a streamed version of your presentation.

Additional Resources: Refer to the FAQ on the Impatica Web site for quick directions on how to use Impatica's built-in FTP utility.

You can also e-mail your translated presentation as an attachment. To do so, follow these steps:

• Select the "new Impatica file format (-imp.jar)" on the Output Files tab. Impatica for PowerPoint will  write out your impaticized content into a single, self-executing .jar file. 
• Attach the resulting "-imp.jar" file to an e-mail message. 

When recipients of the message wish to launch the presentation, they need only double-click the -imp.jar file attachment, and a downloaded version of the presentation will play automatically.

Additional Resources: The Impatica Web site provides an overview of how to e-mail an "impaticized" presentation.

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