Yes I could but then what?
The only way I've been able to get PPT back into Vegas is to export it to PDF, drop that into PS and bring the PSDs back into Vegas. Everything else ends up as a mess because PPT's text to raster conversion is tragic.

But then again you might be onto something.

I could use PPT to prototype the page layout. Then export the PPTs to PDF and use PS to convert from that into PSD. It will do a batch convert I think. Then I can use the PSDs as page backgrounds in DVDA.

I'll try that tomorrow, thanks.

The other way would be to finally bite the bullet and buy Acrobat, sigh.

Bob.

Here is some software that does something similar to what you want, but with photographs instead of text:

http://www.outerspace-software.com/bixphotobook.html

Thanks but that makes a book with turning pages, nothing like what I need. I need to make a DVD that's like an eBook, with chapters. It doesn't have to look pretty, just be easy to navigate and have proper typesetting.

Bob.

all I could say is format it in word so the text looks like it should @ 640x480, hit printscreen & use the image. I've never heard of an automated process.

Maybe I'm completely mistaken but I seem to remember a page turning view of some kind in the newer word version. IF that's the case then why not do a screen capture while flipping the pages.

With Camtasia Studio you can record a PPT (from inside PowerPoint) as an AVI, bring the AVI into Vegas to set up chapters for the DVD.

I save a PPT slide, as a PNG, & use it in the timeline in vegas....

Bob,

I hope I'm remembering correctly about a program I used quite a while back called Omni Page Pro. I'm pretty sure you could take text documents and generate jpgs, pngs, tga etc files from the pages.

I'm not at that computer, but I'll check tonight and see if I'm remembering correctly. I used to use it for some of its other features when I was doing a number of newsletters for different organizations. I used it primarily to grab text from scanned documents.

Best approach is to rasterize a pdf document into multiple .jpg files and then add them as a slideshow in DVDA. Have a look at pdf to psp: http://pdf2psp.sourceforge.net/. Not that you will be putting them on a PSP though and will probably require some tweaking of the Word document to get readable text.

Bob,
In Powerpoint, you can export pages as JPEGs or PNGs.
We do this for conference work all the time. Will the lower resolution not work?

what if you used the video out on the video card to your camera?

It works but looks woeful. Not just me saying this, there's others saying the same thing. For some reason the code within PPT that does the raster convsersion doesn't do the anti-aliasing, maybe because that's done on the graphics card when you send a PPT to a projector, I don't know for certain.
What I do know is if you get PPT to Save As PDF and open that in PS the outcome is way better as PS does do AA when it rasterizes.

You might not notice it with chunky graphics and large fonts but the smaller or more detailed stuff can turn into a mess in interlaced video.

Bob.

I don't know the details of your project, but could you use a command marker in Vegas to link the DVD to a web site that contained all of the text, formatted for the web? You should be able to export or import the Word file with html markup.

This wouldn't work for the stand-alone DVD player, I suspect, but should work well for the DVD on a computer or on a player connected to cable.

Jack

Bob, In Word, if you print to the "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer" it "prints" your document to a TIFF file. Quality is good, but as far as I know this can only be gray scale though.

Jerry

If it's already set up for the screen size, including safety margins, why not copy and paste each page into a Vegas Text section on the Vegas timeline?

I know...... too tedious. Just another suggestion.

Bob,

Following up from Spot/DSE 's suggestion about Power Point,would I be out of line thinking
aloud about DVD PixPlay from xequte.com

I have no affiliation with it other than coming from the “Shaky Isles”.

Although only using VMS Plat 8, I have been reasonably impressed when converting the projects
created by DVD PixPlay to avi's imported into VMS Plat 8 . Appears to quite artefact free at first glance.

I don't have Professional Edition of DVD PixPlay version

“How can I output a PowerPoint presentation to DVD so I can play it on a DVD player?
The steps are as follows:
1.Run DVD PixPlay
2.Select File>Open Project, browse to your PPT file and click OK
3.Edit the project further if desired (e.g. add background music using Edit>Slideshow Properties, Background Music)
4.Click "Burn Disk"


Note: This procedure requires the Professional Edition of DVD PixPlay “

Might the program be worth a glance? Seem to remember a Power Point/software query-musing some weeks ago in one of your postings.

Ironically, I found out about Sony Vegas in their Smart Pix Manager forums 4/5 years ago.
I draw inspiration from your tenacity and generosity of the 25 hr day you donate to the Vegas cause.

michael

Thanks for the kind words.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, very much appreciated, every idea helps get the old grey cells working. To say the least I have overlooked the obvious simplicity of this task.

What I Have:

A DVD with 30 titles showing how to play games. The DVD is a Play All / Play Each Title effort.

What I need to add:

Four pages of further teaching aids as text to each of those titles e.g. "What this game teaches", "Equipment Needed", "Skills" etc. Each one of those pages is to be accessed via icons beside the button to play the video of the game.
That's 120 pages at least. That really spun me out however it ain't that bad.

There's only 4 types of page layouts. I can create those 4 page layouts in DVDA as boilerplates and as such keep copying them. That will carry over the text formatting for the headings etc. It is a LOT of copying and pasting and dead boring work however it's also simple and simple to make changes to as the clients inevitably want once they see the finished work.

Bob.

Bob,

My experiment worked, and I've PM'ed you.

Check your email.

Tom

I've been trying to email you back however it seems the email address in your profile is wrong as my emails bounce.

Bob.

I've sent you 2 alternative emails.

Did you just do a "reply to"? I checked my profile, and the email address is correct, but for some reason, Comcast and overseas emails sometimes don't like each other.

Hope you get those ok.