New Laptop – what to do for projecting Powerpoints?

SteveB_001 · October 2013

The church laptop is broken and has to be replaced. This poor old computer used to work so well; it had Win XP, Powerpoint 2003, plus of course OpenLP and OpenLP projected our Microsoft powerpoints so very well during services.

The replacement laptop will be running Win8 (64 bit) and, if possible, I am keen to still project Microsoft Powerpoints from within OpenLP. What is the current state of play with OpenLP and Powerpoint and what is recommended ... should I purchase Office 2013 or should I use one of the free Powerpoint Viewers? Which would be the most reliable way of projecting Microsoft powerpoints from within OpenLP?

Alternatively, would it be better to press “D” in OpenLP “D”, to display the desktop, then run Powerpoint from outside OpenLP?

Any hints and tips on this matter would be gratefully received.

Thanks, Steve

alogan · October 2013

I use OpenLP on a windows 8 laptop with office 2013 and it all works fine for me.

Only issue i have is not being able to watch videos within OpenLP, but im not sure if this is a issue with the OS or openLP itself.

phill · October 2013

SteveB,

You could try out Power Point Viewer 2003 or 2007 (unfortunately Power Point Viewer 2010 does not currently work with OpenLP) before you purchase the full version.

Alogan,

Have you seen http://manual.openlp.org/troubleshooting.html#i-can-not-play-videos-or-other-media

Have you also looked at the VLC player ( http://manual.openlp.org/configure.html#media )?

SteveB_001 · October 2013

Many thanks for the tips. It is great to know that the Win8 + OpenLP + Office2013 work together.

Office2013 is expensive so I might try the 2007 Powerpoint Viewer first, although I suspect it will have limitations as Microsoft may be keen to sell the full version.

Alogan, are you using VLC as Phill said (as described in the manual)? VLC+OpenLP has always worked for me, with WinXP, Vista and Win7, I've never used Win8 though.

Thanks again for the Powerpoint tips

Steve

alogan · October 2013

Just to let you know, that since my previous post i have decided to reinstall windows(a lot of other things weren't working and i figured that would be easiest) and I can confirm that all elements of OpenLP, including vlc are now working on Windows 8.1 and Office 2013.

grb1961 · January 2014

Hi, just installed similar config to you, pc has office 2013. Run ppt standalone with ohp as second monitor works ok. But load ppt into openlp and then run as part of a sermon does not work, the slides are skewed half way across second monitor, did you encounter any issue, my laptop res is 1600x900, project using hdmi to vga out?

SteveB_001 · January 2014

To replace the broken laptop, my church purchased an Asus K55VD laptop as this seemed good value for money and included a dedicated graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 610M). The computer came with windows 8 (64bit) but we updated to 8.1 before installing any other software.

The laptop res is 1366x768, the projection res is 1024x768. Using standard VGA output, all is working well. OpenLP 2.03 + VLC 2.0.8 + Office 2013. Powerpoints work fine from OpenLP and videos run smoothly.

When we run powerpoints from Openlp, OpenLP hands over to powerpoint and powerpoint then runs in "Presenter View" which is great. To get back to OpenLP we just have to switch the computer's focus back to OpenLP, e.g. by clicking on OpenLP in the taskbar.

The only two little bugs I have noticed are these:

(1) If you’re in the habit of blanking the projector in OpenLP (by pressing “.”), do unblank it before going into a powerpoint presentation because it’s difficult to unblank it from within powerpoint. If you forget, use the task bar to get back to OpenLP, then unblank the projector within OpenLP (by pressing “.”), then go back into the powerpoint presentation.

(2) If you are in the habit of removing text in OpenLP (by pressing “T”), do pop the text back on before going into a powerpoint presentation because it’s difficult to pop it back within powerpoint. If you forget, use the task bar to get back to OpenLP, then pop the text back within OpenLP (by pressing “T”), then go back into the powerpoint presentation.

grb1961 · January 2014

Thanks for your update, I have an issue.
Run Powerpoint on its own, slides appear on external projector/monitor perfect!
Load Powerpoint file into Openlp, and then run as part of a sermon - the slides appear skewed, as if the positioning and resolution are in error. Have you heard of anything like this?

raoul · January 2014

We heard of an issue like this a few years ago, but I cannot remember what the problem was or what the solution was (if there was one).

Agape_English_Church · May 2014

I have the same problem with new Windows 8.1 and Powerpoint 2013 that when using ppt in OpenLP the image is skewed. On single screen laptop PPT in OpenLP it is fine. On extended Windows desktop in Open LP it displays the ext screen to the RHS. I tried 2 x different projectors and a monitor .... All at different resolutions and still does not work. any solutions ? .........If I use PPT on its own on extended desktop it works perfectly !! ...

Also as sidenote #1, VLC works beautifully in OpenLP ... But do remember to make it the first choice of video player in OpenLP settings.

Sidenote #2, on another thread someone was saying they did not have extended desktop in Windows. Some laptops come delivered with Windows 7 Starter Edition which as far as I know does not allow you to use the ext. desktop. Also some older laptops may not support two video displays ( screen and external display).

OpenLP team ... Keep up the great work !! ... Fantastic product !!

raoul · May 2014

Thanks for the info and the compliments @Agape_English_Church !

As for the skewed thing... we currently don't have anyone with PowerPoint 2013, so we've been unable to test OpenLP with it. I know it's not really a solution, but you could try using LibreOffice instead (it's free, so no loss if you download it and it doesn't work).

tgc · May 2014

Hi @Agape_English_Church and others

I have access to a PC with Windows 8.1 and Powerpoint 2013 and have tested OpenLP 2.0.4. I haven't noticed any problems regarding the presentation being skewed. I did however notice that the main Powerpoint window popped up and into focus whenever loading the presentation in the mediamanager and going to and from live/preview.

What resolutions are you using on your screens?

Did the powerpoint presentation include notes?

Could we get copy of the presentation to test?

raoul · May 2014

@Agape_English_Church would you be able to take a screenshot of the skewed presentation and e-mail it to our support team?

Agape_English_Church · May 2014

Dear all, Thanks for inputs.
Last Sunday we went to do screen shot of 2nd screen for you but everything worked perfect. We did not change anything at all. I can confirm there were no notes in the PPT. Also we tried several screen resolutions on the laptop output to both a monitor and a projector with no success previously. In closing we tried a few PPTs with no success previously. If the problem comes back I will let you know. thx for help !

tgc · June 2014

Hi all!

I just experienced the skewed powerpoint issue myself, and was able to find a solution!

The problem is that Windows 8.1 does some scaling to make things look their best, or at least what Windows 8.1 think is the best.

The good news is that this can be disabled! See a guide here: http://www.howtogeek.com/175664/how-to-make-the-windows-desktop-work-well-on-high-dpi-displays-and-fix-blurry-fonts/

I prefer the fix for a "Specific Application" as described a few paragraphs down.

I hope this can help some of you!

wmascarenhas1 · June 2014

:-B

New Laptop – what to do for projecting Powerpoints?

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