+ 1 peter's suggestion....

however, i have had cases where the presentation was 'animated' (tacky!) and the client wanted to keep the animations AND sync'ed to the presenter. in those bygone days i simply taped the show on a lcd monitor and dropped in as video rather than either slides, or attempting to 'recreate' the animations in vegas - which was possible but would have proved too expensive.

Encore
You can also use a screencasting software.
You can choose framerate, resolution, codec, image cropping, as well as sound configuration (2 or 5 speakers) with freewares. I am sure you will also find expensive softwares to do the job.

I have already recorded a full hd video from a powerpoint file for a friend ... under Linux with free softawre. Result is perfect. You can use the file with Vegas Pro.

Personnaly, I do not use Powerpoint, but Scala Ic designer - it's still the best presentation software for me. I record videos (loosing non linear presentation) under linux too (with a full screen Xp virtual box machine.)

Checkout "Presto" from Red Giant. I use it, great (quick) piece of software for for putting PP into video presentations

Lee

+ 1 peter's suggestion....

You want high quality graphics to drop on the timeline.

If you need to record transitions or other animations, use a tool like Camtasia and just record the entire presentation by stepping through all of the charts one by one. Then include whatever video you need from that recording on your timeline as cut-aways.

~jr

Thank you all for your suggestions. I will look at all of these as I dig deeper. Some of the "slides" have musical accompaniment which needs to be carried into the final composite video. Presently leaning toward extracting the slides as separate video clips rather than as graphics. Hoping that the project would then be a straight forward video edit blending camera clips with PP clips on the Vegas Pro timeline.

Ed

Check your version of PowerPoint. I believe the most recent version will permit the entire presentation to be exported as an .mp4 video file. This can then be imported into Vegas if you want to retain the PowerPoint transitions.

I'm finishing up a project now for which I have had help from many here on the Forum. The project has 302 PowerPoint slides and 11 hours of video. I exported the PowerPoint slides as graphics, incorporated them into the video, rendered the project as .mp4, then used Drak, a utility recommended by John Meyer, to create a chapter/play list which can be accessed in QuickTime.

You can follow the entire discussion at http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=878132&Replies=24

Jack

You can follow the entire discussion at www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=878132&Replies=24

Thank you Jack. The discussion is enlightening indeed.

This topic has been discussed so many times on this board that some pretty good solutions have been discovered. Here are some links you should click on and read:

Screen Capture PowerPoint

Converting Power Point Files for Vegas

Using PowerPoint slides in Vegas?

What format for PowerPoint?

Liam's PowerPoint deconstruction program

PowerPoint and Vegas

Import Powerpoint presentation

Powerpoint to Video using Vegas

Power Point