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You
are all ready to make an Autorun CD, which uses the PowerPoint Viewer,
and you have just learned that it doesn't support animated GIF's, yet
your heart is set on using all of those cool animations you
found. Don't despair. Just convert them to .avi file
format.
GIF version
 AVI
version ![]()
Optimized AVI ![]()
(The Gif loops,
the AVI's don't. To see them play again you will have to Refresh
this page - - don't blink or you'll miss them.)
Might as well
tell you the ugly part, right up front! In the case of a
transparent GIF, as above left, where the background was
intentionally designed to blend in with every background it was
placed on, it won't work the same when saved as AVI. The
AVI format does not support transparency.
You'll have
to do some work on the individual images of your animated GIF to
ensure that the background will blend in with, or match, your
slide background! You need to optimize your GIF for the
AVI format and change the background to a color that will best
match your slide background. In Animation Shop (see below)
there is an easy Wizard to help you with this. Once the
GIF is optimized just save it with an .avi file extension and
you're done.
In PowerPoint
you will have to open your presentation and delete the old GIF
file and insert the AVI file as a movie. Then use Custom
Animation settings to play the AVI to your liking (the AVI file
will not have the built-in looping feature that the GIF had so
you will need to set the object to loop.)
There
are two easy program recommendations that I can think of, and
I'll add more as I find them.
Programs You Might Use
There
is a shareware product called GIF Construction Set which will convert
a GIF file to AVI, but does not give you the opportunity to change the
black background if the GIF is transparent. However, it has lots
of other fun things too, that the other products don't have, so it is
definitely worth considering for only $20! It is a very popular
product.
You can find it at
http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/announce/66405199.html
If you are a user of
Paint Shop Pro
(a very fine graphics image editor and creator) you probably also
installed Animation Shop when you received it, and Animation Shop will
do the job with ease. For a tutorial on using Animation Shop see
http://www.jasc.com/tutorials/anishop.asp.
Animation Shop is sold separately for $39. Paint Shop Pro with
Animation Shop is a fabulous product suite for the price of $99.
This comes from the mouth of a devote Photoshop user. I have
both PSP and Photoshop - - at all times.
Another product is
GIF Movie Gear.
There
is a fully functional nonrenewable 30 day trial version
available. After that, if you decide that you must have this
product, the price is $39.95.
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