Documentation for Confluence 4.1.x. Documentation for earlier versions of Confluence is available too.

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Below are some ideas on how your wiki page can include information from a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

On this page:

Option 1 — Office Connector for Confluence

The Office Connector provides the most straightforward way to display PowerPoint slides.

To attach and display a PowerPoint presentation in Confluence:

  1. Attach the presentation to a Confluence page:
    • View the Confluence page where you want to display your presentation.
    • Open the 'Tools' menu and select 'Attachments'.
    • Browse for your PowerPoint presentation and upload it to the Confluence page.
      You will find detailed instructions in Attaching Files to a Page.
  2. Now you can display the document embedded into the Confluence page, using the View File macro.
    Refer to the detailed instructions for the View File macro.

The Office Connector is shipped with Confluence 2.10 and later. The Office Connector plugin is supported for Confluence versions 2.8.0 and later.

Option 2 — Gallery or Slide Show of JPEG or PNG Images

  1. Convert your PowerPoint pages into JPEG or PNG images, using 'save as' from PowerPoint (slide1.jpg, slide2.jpg...).
  2. Upload the image files as attachments to your Confluence page. To upload in bulk, use the WebDAV plugin.
  3. Use the Gallery macro or the Slideshow plugin to render the images as a slide show in Confluence.

(tick) Optionally, you could create a page template or a user macro that uses the Slideshow plugin, so that you do not have to code this into the wiki page each time you create a new show.

The Slideshow plugin is not supported by Atlassian. Please weigh up your options carefully before deciding which way to go.

Option 3 — Convert PowerPoint to HTML

You can convert the PowerPoint file to web page format and embed the page inside your Confluence document.

If you accept page edits or comments from untrustworthy users, you should not attempt this process, due to a risk of malicious user attacks via the html-include macro.

  1. Review the risks associated with enabling the html-include macro here.
  2. If you decide to proceed, follow the instructions to enable embedded HTML pages using the macro.
  3. Select an PowerPoint converter. There are at least two applications that can convert PPT to HTML:
  4. Download and install your chosen converter.
  5. Follow the converter documentation to perform the HTML conversion. An Internet Assistant conversion guide can be found here. The conversion process will create a small collection of HTML pages. Each slide will have its own page, plus an index page with buttons to let you switch between slide pages.
  6. If you wish, you can test the HTML presentation now by loading the index page in your browser.
  7. Place the HTML files into their own directory, named uniquely by the title of your presentation.
  8. Find a suitable location to host these files within your web server. Confluence hosts all files within the <my-install-directory>/confluence/ directory, so a good example location for Confluence distribution users is to go to <my-install-directory>/confluence/pages/ and create a subdirectory called powerpoint.
  9. Move the HTML directory into the PowerPoint folder, e.g. <my-install-directory>/confluence/pages/powerpoint/<my-presentation-name> containing index.html, slide01.html... or similar.
  10. Edit or create the page where you wish to embed the PowerPoint presentation. Add the HTML Include macro pointing to the index page of your slides. Remember that URLs are case sensitive.
  11. Save the page. The index page to your slides should now appear.

Related Topics

Working with the Office Connector
Working with Attachments

Take me back to Confluence User's Guide

20 Comments

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  1. Jul 25, 2006

    Martin Cleaver [blended perspectives]

    Hmm. Two observations:

       1 PowerPoint is the staple communication format in most organisations, used by executives, sales people and consultants alike.

       2 They will hate your solution as it is a) involves more than one step, b) is too complicated c) demands technical knowledge d) demands external tools.

     It needs confluence to be able to designate a topic to be exclusive to a single attachment, and have the topic attachment placeholder updated whenever the attachment is updated.

    See http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DISC/MS+Office+Integration?focusedCommentId=182208#comment-182208

     

    1. Oct 15, 2007

      Anonymous

      I totally agree with this comment.

      1. Sep 10, 2008

        Boots Wang [atlassian]

        Update: The first option on this page addresses your concern - technical knowledge, simplicity, etc. You can now use a straightforward way to display PPT on Confluence pages using the Office Connector.

        It involves 1) attaching the PPT, and 2) write {viewfile:ExampleFileName.ppt}.

        Easy!

  2. Jan 02, 2008

    Iain Donald

    I seem to be able to link to a powerpoint presentation that is saved as an attachment?  Is there a way, without installing a plugin, to return to the confluence page after a slideshow has finished?

    1. Jan 03, 2008

      Ming Giet Chong

      Hi Iain,

      Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way to perform the above action. Hence, I would suggest you to raise a feature request at the issue tracker at:

      Regards,
      MG

      1. Jan 03, 2008

        Iain Donald

        OK thanks MG I will raise this, in the interim I'll just add a hyperlink to the ppt.  Thanks.

    2. Mar 04, 2008

      Mark Malinoski

      Iain, maybe I'm missing something.  But I'm routinely linking .ppt attachments.  At the end of the presentation, I hit the browser back arrow and I'm in the page I launched the presentation from.  Does that not work for you?  Also, when I'm in the presentation, I can right click and enter normal powerpoint with full edit functions.  I can't save changes directly back to the attachment, but I can save them to a normal windows folder. 

  3. Aug 02, 2008

    Anonymous

    Which option is easiest(question)

    1. Aug 04, 2008

      Tony Cheah Tong Nyee

      Hi there,

      I believe this is a debatable question and it really depends on your own preference. Some users might think option 1 is easy and safe. There might be other users prefer option 2 instead. The reason being is, it only involves a few steps and a plugin. However, please be aware that some plugins suggested in the documentation are not supported by Atlassian and it is developed by third party. Hence:

      Please weigh up your options carefully before deciding which way to go.

      Cheers,
      Tony

  4. Aug 02, 2008

    Anonymous

    what's the safest way?

    1. Aug 04, 2008

      Tony Cheah Tong Nyee

      Hi there,

      This seems to be a debatable question too.
      Some users might prefer option 1 as it does not involve using unsupported/external plugin in Confluence. Where some users would choose option 2 or 3 as they might have tried it in their local instance without any issue.
      Perhaps, some feedback from other participants could be helpful here.

      Cheers,
      Tony

  5. Jan 03, 2010

    Bob Klemen

    I have been trying in vain to apply automatic grading to my tests in PowerPoint. What I wnat to accomplish is when the presentation is completed and the person interacting with the PPT has satisfactorily completed the test then the test will automatically send me an email that the person who just completed the training has passed or failed. Do I need to set everything up in Excel first or can I do everything I want within the PPT environment?

  6. Feb 27, 2010

    Anonymous

    I would like to commend Martin Cleaver for giving substantive insights about the wonderful things on how to enhance powerpoint presentation and it was so helpful to me as a trainer in one BPO compay where I am currently working .

  7. Feb 27, 2010

    Anonymous

    thanks. i will keep those in mind next time i will do presentations. here's another simple tip we all can use and share which i got from another great site. they also offer free templates for sharing. cool!

    http://www.free-power-point-templates.comppt template tutorials

  8. Feb 27, 2010

    Anonymous

    thanks. i will keep those in mind next time i will do presentations. here's another simple tip we all can use and share which i got from another great site. they also offer free templates for sharing. cool!

    ppt template

  9. Feb 27, 2010

    Anonymous

    i tried the ppt template and i also found out that you can use this for a deeper link. thank you so much for sharing the ppt template and now i would like to share an add on music for your ppt :)

    ppt template music

  10. Jul 08, 2010

    Anonymous

    If it was easier to work with multiple pages in Confluence - compare the task of creating new pages and editing different pages in Confluence versus Powerpoint - I wouldn't use Powerpoint at all. Now I have this huge Powerpoint (100+ slides) that I would really like to be in Confluence where each slide was a separate wiki page. A daunting task.

  11. Aug 18, 2010

    Anonymous

    Hi, i just used this and i have a ppt which automatically goes to the next sheet after five seconds. The viewer only displays the first page and not the animation. It is a office 2003 ppt presentation.

    Any idea?

    1. Aug 23, 2010

      Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]

      Unfortunately, the macro does not support animation in PowerPoint slides yet. You may wish to vote for CONF-15546. Also, learn about our Implementation of New Features Policy.

  12. Dec 01, 2010

    Anonymous

    I have embedded several 2007 PowerPoint presentations within our Confluence 3.3.3. Although it "works" it appears that any sort of drawings that were created in PowerPoint do not render properly in confluence. The arrows don't match up with boxes, some arrows don't show at all, text boxes are not in the correct position, etc...Is this a known issue? Is there anything else I can do besides creating JPEGs of the slides?