CNET Editors' review
Let's face it: PowerPoint presentations can be pretty boring, especially if the presenter reads directly from the slides, one by one. But with iSpring Free, you can take your PowerPoint presentations up a few notches by inserting Flash files directly into your slides and even publishing the presentations themselves as Flash videos.
If you're familiar with PowerPoint's user interface, then you'll have no trouble navigating iSpring Free as it integrates itself into the Ribbon as an extra tab. The menu options are few, but they get to the point: Publish and Insert. As its name suggests, the Publish option gives you two options, Quick Publish and Publish, to publish your entire presentation as a Flash video. The Insert option let you insert Flash files and YouTube videos into your slides. We pulled up an existing PowerPoint presentation that we had saved, found a YouTube video, and very easily inserted the clip into a slide. We were able to drag and resize the video to any place we wanted on the slide. To view the video, we simply had to start the slideshow. Sure enough, it played right there in the presentation. Using the Quick Publish feature, we were able to publish the presentation as a Flash video using the current settings. The Publish feature offered more in-depth settings for our presentation, such as naming it and selecting the slide range to be converted into Flash as well as options for starting the video presentation automatically, looping it, and adjusting slide duration and autoclick. Each feature performed without a hitch, and in no time, our presentation was converted into a Flash video that opened in our browser, which allowed us to pull the HTML code to insert into our blog. iSpring Free doesn't include any kind of help feature, but it's really not necessary.
This free add-on installs a desktop icon without permission but uninstalls cleanly. We highly recommend iSpring to all PowerPoint users.
Publisher's Description
From iSpring:
iSpring Free is a free PowerPoint to Flash Converter and eLearning authoring tool. Beyond basic PowerPoint conversion, iSpring Free lets you create SCORM compliant e-learning courses ready for uploading into any LMS that also supports SCORM. Moodle LMS is a perfect example of an LMS that is great to use with iSpring-generated courses and is also free. With iSpring Free you get a great opportunity to start creating online presentations with no expense. There are no time limitations and iSpring Free can be used for all personal, educational and commercial purposes. iSpring Free PowerPoint to Flash converter enables you to create hight quality Flash presentations from PowerPoint slides just in one click. iSpring Free accurately transfers PowerPoint animation effects, slide transitions, hyperlinks, embedded Flash movies, audio, and video clips into Flash format. iSpring Free lets you make a slideshow alive with YouTube videos broadcasted right from your online presentation. With a click of a button you can add a YouTube video into presentation and add some spice to catch attention of your viewers. iSpring Free generates single Flash (.SWF) file with all multimedia resources embedded and ready-to-use .HTML code that allows placing Flash movie into a web site or a blog. You can publish Flash movie to a folder on your local computer or right to SlideBoom, free presentations sharing service. Output Flash presentations can be viewed on computers without PowerPoint installed. This way your Flash presentations become very compact, tamperproof, easy to distribute online and compatible with all browsers and OSs.
More Popular Presentation Software downloads
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010
11,438 downloads
- Microsoft Office Publisher 2010
3,268 downloads
- SmartDraw 2010
1,391 downloads
- Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2010
1,245 downloads
- Batch PPTX to PPT Converter
1,019 downloads
-
All versions:
3.5 starsout of 17 votes
-
Current version:
0 stars Be the first to review this product -
My rating:
Write review
-
"New Version is REALLY bad"
Version: iSpring Free 6.0
Pros
It says it does a lot, and if it actually did all the things it claims, it would be great.
Cons
Nothing seems to work in the 6.XX versions at all. Not even simple narration. Their forum is filled with unhappy people. And support ignores you if you have a problem.
Summary
Look elsewhere for a product that actually works, or get your hands on an old version.
-
"Does de job but annoying control bar cannot be hidden."
Version: iSpring Free 6.0
Pros
Faithfull conversion
Cons
Control bar cannot be hidden (at least in the free version)
Summary
I works as expected
Updated on Dec 13, 2011 -
"PPTX Converter the most professional powerpoint..."
Version: iSpring Free 5.7.0.3066
Pros
PPTX Converter the most professional powerpoint 2007 converter. It is used to convert pptx files to pdf, doc, docx, docm, xls, xlsm, xlsx, txt, rtf, htm, html, url, jpg, jpeg, tga, bmp, rle, png, emf, wmf, gif, tif, flv, swf, etc.
Cons
This PPTX Converter can not only convert pptx to ppt but also convert pptx to flash files such as swf and flv. Then you can upload these video to YouTube, your Blog, your Space, and other websites to share with.
With the PPTX Converter, you can create PDF file from documents including ppt, pptx, pptm. PPTX Converter can convert PPTX to JPEG image file and convert PPTX slide to JPG picture file. It is the best PPTX converter, which is both powerful and easy to use. -
"Fails to install - cannot even evaluate, much less use"
Version: iSpring Free 5.7.0.3066
Pros
Unable to evaluate
Cons
Unable to evaluate
Summary
Trying to run ispring_free_5_7_0_3066.msi on a Windows 7 Enterprise Edition 32-bit and using all defaults fails with the following message:
The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code is 2738.
This error occurs regardless if I have downloaded the MSI directly from the publisher, or from CNET. -
"Good Tool!"
Version: iSpring Free 5.0
Pros
high quality conversion
ease of use
absolutely freeCons
iSpring logo in left-bottom
Summary
I like this tool, because it gives me a possibility to create really well-looking flash movies from my presentation. Excellent!
-
"Great program that does what it says it does."
Version: iSpring Free 5.5
Pros
Easy to use; responsive support; well integrated with PowerPoint; integrated well with elearning program we were using.
Cons
Inability to remove iSpring logo from free version! (although I understand this from the business point of view!)
-
"A good Flash maker for PowerPoint"
Version: iSpring Free 5.5
Pros
-Renders Office 2010 transitions and effects very effectively.
-Simple, small html output files
-html is high quality and stableCons
Webpage slides are very small. I couldn't find a way to make them fill the page like AuthorpointLite can.
-
"Great free programme for all Powerpoint users"
Version: iSpring Free 5.0.0.2842
Pros
1. Easy usage - clearly stated settings
2. Convenience of it being available in the Powerpoint programme toolbar
3. Output Flash link on Slideboom most convenient for use or copy on website, or sending to othersCons
Nothing negative noticeable (Poor Flash quality with poor input only!)
Summary
Super conversion of Power Point programmes to Flash without losing any features! Easy to use, and provision of free storage on Slideboom with links make it just great. Moreover, it is FREE!
Ideal free Flash conversion of ppt & pps presentations - everyone should have! -
"Love this program, and the fact that it is free!"
Version: iSpring Free 4.3.0.2675
Pros
Quick and easy conversion, no hassles.
Cons
none that I have found so far.
Summary
Have only just started using it, but as it does everything I need so far, I have no probs with it. It does everything I need to easily convert my ppt's to Flash for use in my teaching.
-
"Works OK, but doesn't convert narration as advertised"
Version: iSpring Free 4.2.1.2630
Pros
Ease of installation, ease of use within PowerPoint
Cons
Does not convert audio narration embedded within PowerPoint
Summary
iSpring Free seems to work OK for PowerPoint files without narration. However, when I tried to convert a file that included audio narration, it produced an error (even though the iSpring website clearly states that the Free version supports conversion of audio narration and WAV files). And then when I took the time to send the company the error message, their support email address bounced!
Add Your Review
Submit your reply
E-mail this review
Report offensive content
See more CNET content tagged:
Previous Versions:
