MIRC Powerpoint Tool

PPT2MIRC is a Powerpoint plug-in that saves a Powerpoint presentation as a MIRCdocument on a MIRC site, allowing the presentation to be found through normal MIRC queries. It was written by Scott Keller, based on work done by Prof. Amilcare Gentili of UCSD.

PPT2MIRC requires Windows XP or better to run because it uses the system zip folder feature. It has only been tested on Powerpoint 2003, although it may run on older versions.

PPT2MIRC now only works with MIRC T33e or later. The reason is that in order to improve the performance when converting large Powerpoint presentations, it was necessary to change the structure of the zip file that is transmitted from the Powerpoint application to MIRC. Older versions of MIRC will reject this file because it contains a subdirectory.

PPT2MIRC creates a page-mode document containing standard MIRC elements (title, author, abstract, etc.), a link to the presentation itself, images of each of the slides, and an invisible section containing the text from all the slides and notes pages, allowing the presentation to be found by searching for any of the text on any of the slides or notes pages. The link to the presentation allows the user to retrieve the original Powerpoint presentation from the MIRC site.

1 Installation

After downloading the Powerpoint Tool zip file, open the file and extract PPT2MIRC.ppa.

Before it can be used, PPT2MIRC.ppa must be registered with Powerpoint as an add-in. The default location where Powerpoint looks for add-ins is C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns, where USERNAME is to be replaced by your actual username.

After placing the file in the AddIns directory, you must set the security level for macros and then enable the add-in.

To set the security level:

• Run Powerpoint.
• In the menu bar, select Tools / Options.
• In the Options dialog, click the Security tab.
• Click the Macro Security... button.
• In the Security dialog, click the Security Level tab.
• Click the Medium radio button.
• Click the OK button on the Security dialog.
• Click the OK button on the Options dialog.

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File:MIRC2PPTc.JPG

To enable the add-in:

• In the menu bar, select Tools / Add-ins.
• In the Add-Ins dialog, check the PPT2MIRC box if it appears; otherwise, click the Add New... button and navigate to the PPT2MIRC.ppa file.
• Click the Close button.

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2 Operation

To use PPT2MIRC, open a presentation in Powerpoint. In the Tools menu, select Convert to MIRC. A window will be displayed as shown to the right.

Set the MIRC Address field to point to the MIRC site to which you want to submit the MIRCdocument. The default setting points to a storage service named storage on a MIRC site running on your local computer (localhost) on port 8080. Change these parameters as required. (If you aren't sure what the values should be, go to the query page for the site, select the Submit Service for the desired Storage Service, and look in the browser's address bar.)

IMPORTANT: The MIRC Address field must include the ppt query parameter.

Next, fill in any of the fields you want. Pay special attention to these fields:

• Set the title, author and abstract fields so that the MIRCdocument reflects the presentation when it is included in query results.
• Set the three access fields to determine whether others can read, update, or export the document.

When you have set all the fields the way you want, click the Send button on the MIRC Address line.

PPT2MIRC will then create the MIRCdocument and the images of the slides and then challenge you for your username and password on the MIRC site. PPT2MIRC will then submit everything to the MIRC site. The result will be displayed in the "SendStatus" tab of the window as shown. You can click the displayed link to go directly to the MIRCdocument on the site.

Once the document is on the MIRC site, you will be able to edit the MIRCdocument using the author service.