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This guide will cover several options for incorporating information from a Microsoft PowerPoint^® presentation into a SoftChalk lesson. Basically, you can transfer data from your PowerPoint^® file into a SoftChalk lesson or you can link to a viewable PowerPoint^® file.
Please see the options below. 

1. Save your PowerPoint^® file as a series of images and import these images into the SoftChalk Photo Album Activity or the SoftChalk Slideshow Activity. For details, see the section Save PowerPoint^® File as Images and Place Images into a SoftChalk Activity.
2. Convert your PowerPoint^® file (.ppt or pptx file) into a flash animation (.swf file). If you have animation and audio, then the animation and audio will be preserved in the .swf file. Then insert this .swf file into a SoftChalk lesson. For details, see the section Save PowerPoint^® File as a SWF File (iSpring).
3. Save your PowerPoint^® file as a viewable file. Then in your SoftChalk lesson, you can provide a link to this viewable file. For details, see the section Save as a Viewable File.
4. Save your PowerPoint^® file as a file in a Rich Text Format. Then you can open this file and copy text that you can paste into your SoftChalk lesson. For details, see the section Save as Rich Text Format. (This option does not export the text for the notes. Option 5 below exports the text for the notes.)
5. Publish your PowerPoint^® file into separate images into a Word file. Then in your SoftChalk lesson, you can paste these images. This publishing option allows you to copy and paste the text of notes. For details, see the section Save Images in a Word File.
6. Purchase a software program that lets you convert a large PowerPoint^® file into a compressed viewable file(s). Then in your SoftChalk lesson, you can link to this compressed viewable file(s). For details, see the sections and Use Impatica or Articulate Presenter and Use Adobe Presenter.

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You can save your PowerPoint^® file as a series of images and import these images into SoftChalk as a Photo Album Activity or Slideshow. If you have PowerPoint^® 2007, you can do the following:

1. Within PowerPoint^® 2007, open a presentation.
2. Choose Save As.
3. At the bottom of the window for the Save as type, select JPEG (*.jpg).
4. Click Save.
5. At the next window asking what to export, click Every Slide.
6. A folder will be created with each slide appearing as an image.
7. Quit PowerPoint^®.
8. Start SoftChalk.
9. Choose Insert/Activity/Photo Album (Or Slideshow).
10. Click Select Folder.
11. Select the folder with the slide images you created earlier. Click Open.
12. Click OK to close the Photo Album (or Slideshow) Activity window.

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You may want to investigate the following free program which allows you to convert your PowerPoint^® presentation to a flash file (.swf format) that will include animation and audio (if you put animation and audio into your PowerPoint^® presentation). (There is a Pro version of iSpring with more features.)
http://www.ispringsolutions.com/products/ispring_free.html
(Click Free Download)

1. Install the iSpring program (see above for the link).
2. Start PowerPoint^®. Once you install the application above, iSpring Free appears as a top menu item within your PowerPoint^® program.
3. Click iSpring Free. Then click Publish to produce the .swf file. Notice that you can browse to select a place to save your published presentation. [The default location creates a Presentations folder under My Documents (or Documents).] Within this Presentations folder is a folder named for your PowerPoint^® file. Within this folder is your .swf file.)
4. Start SoftChalk.
5. Choose Insert/Media.
6. For the File Type, select Flash and click Select file.
7. Navigate to where you saved your presentation in step 3 above. Select the .swf file you created and click Select. IMPORTANT: Notice that you can adjust the width and height dimensions for your Flash file.
8. Click OK to return to your main editing window.
9. Save and preview your lesson. If you want to change the dimensions of the .swf you inserted, follow the steps below.
10. Within your SoftChalk lesson, right-click on the Flash Movie Placeholder and choose Modify Media. Then change the height and width dimensions. Click OK.
11. Save and preview your lesson again.

IMPORTANT: As with inserting images or other media into SoftChalk, a copy of the .swf is put into your lesson folder when you save. (The original .swf remains in its original location.) If you modify the PowerPoint^® presentation, you will need to generate another .swf following the steps above. Then within your SoftChalk lesson, right-click on the Flash Movie Placeholder and choose Modify Media. Then select the revised .swf. Click OK.

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If you have purchased iSpring Pro from http://www.ispringsolutions.com (this is the purchased program that has more features), then follow the steps below.

1. Install the iSpringPro program (see above for the link).
2. Start PowerPoint^®. Once you install the application above, iSpring Pro appears as a top menu item within your PowerPoint^® program.
3. Click iSpring Pro. Then click Quick Publish to produce your published Powerpoint presentation.
4. Let's say your original Powerpoint file is called brain anatomy. After you publish with the Quick Publish method mentioned above, you have a folder called brain anatomy. [The default location creates a Presentations folder under My Documents (or Documents).]
5. Just fyi, within this brain anatomy folder is another folder called data and three files called fixprompt.js and index.html and presentation.xml.
6. Start SoftChalk and create a lesson. Save the lesson with a name such as unit1.
7. Quit SoftChalk.
8. Copy the brain anatomy iSpring presentation folder and paste this folder inside your SoftChalk lesson folder (e.g. unit1).
9. Start SoftChalk again and open your unit1 lesson.
10. Select some text and choose Insert/Hyperlink.
11. In the URL or selected file box, type brain anatomy/index.html. (Be sure to delete any http:// or https:// in this box.)
12. Select the checkbox Open a link in a new window. Click OK.
13. Save and preview your lesson.

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You can save text from your PowerPoint^® file into a file with a Rich Text Format. Then you can copy text from this file.

1. In PowerPoint^®, choose File/Save as (or go to the ball in the top left corner of your PowerPoint^® window and choose Save as/Other Formats).
2. From the Save as type drop-down menu, choose Outline/RTF.
3. Click Save.
4. Notice that you have two files – your original PowerPoint^® file and your new file with the extension .rtf.
5. Double-click on your new .rtf file. It should open in Microsoft Word.
6. In Word, copy all the text. [You can select all the text using (Ctrl+a) and then copy the text.]
7. Start SoftChalk and choose Edit/Paste.

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The following method allows students to bring up the PowerPoint^® presentation within PowerPoint^® in a Read-Only mode. However, with this method, students can choose File/Save As to save the presentation with another name on their computers.

1. In PowerPoint^®, choose File/Save As (or go to the ball in the top left corner of your PowerPoint^® window and choose Save as/PowerPoint Presentation).
2. At the drop-down Save type as menu, choose PowerPoint^® Show (.pps). For PowerPoint^® 2007 users, we recommend that you NOT choose the .ppsx version for compatibility reasons with older web browsers. Rather choose PowerPoint 97-2003 Show (.pps).
3. In SoftChalk, select some text that you want to use as the hyperlink to your PowerPoint^® file.
4. Choose Insert/Hyperlink.
5. Click Select file and navigate to your PowerPoint^® file .pps file.
6. Once you've selected your file, click Open.
7. If you want your students to view the PowerPoint^® file in a new browser window, then select the checkbox Open the link in a new window.
8. Click OK to return to your main lesson window.
9. Choose File/Save.

When you save your lesson, SoftChalk automatically places a copy of the linked PowerPoint^® viewable file into your lesson folder. That way, when you are ready to move your lesson folder to another computer or package your lesson all the files are in one folder.

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You can publish your PowerPoint^® slides as images (with a .jpg format) into Microsoft Word. Then you can copy and paste these images from Word into your SoftChalk lesson. Since you are converting the images rather than the animation, no transitions or effects from PowerPoint^® will appear in SoftChalk.
This publishing method allows you to copy and paste the text for the notes.

1. In PowerPoint^®, open your slide show. Choose File/Send To/Microsoft Word. In PowerPoint^® 2007, choose the ball in the top left corner of your PowerPoint^® window and choose Publish/Create Handouts in Microsoft Office Word.
2. Choose Notes below slides if you want to have the largest size images.
3. Click OK. PowerPoint^® converts each slide to a jpg file and then automatically opens a Word document and places each of the slide image files into the Word document.
4. In Word, copy all the text. [You can select all the text using (Ctrl+a) and then copy the text.]
5. Start SoftChalk and choose Edit/Paste. All the slide images and notes will be pasted into your SoftChalk lesson for further editing and enhancement.

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According to the Adobe website, Adobe Presenter allows you to "create professional Flash presentations and self-paced courses complete with narration and interactivity."
The following steps explain how you can incorporate two Adobe Presenter videos into a SoftChalk lesson.
The first produced Presenter video is in a folder called test1 which includes the following files:
breeze_manafest.xml
components.swf
index.html
loadflash.js
viewer.swf
viewerlite.swf
The second produced Presenter video is in a folder called test2 which includes the following files:
breeze_manafest.xml
components.swf
index.html
loadflash.js
viewer.swf
viewerlite.swf

1. Create a SoftChalk lesson called tutorials.
2. Quit SoftChalk.
3. Copy the above two folders (test1 and test2) into your tutorials lesson folder.
4. Start SoftChalk and open your tutorials lesson.
5. Type Test1 Video and select this text.
6. Right-click and choose Hyperlink.
7. In the URL box, type test1/viewer.swf.

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