PowerPoint Import Tips

There are a few things you can do before you import a Microsoft® PowerPoint® file into dominKnow | ONE to ensure you get the best results.

Depending on what version of PowerPoint and how old, the default screen ratio can be 4:3 or 16:9.  16:9 is the newer ratio for newer presentations.

For dominKnow the 16:9 ratio is preferred. If you can use that format, or change your slide's format to that aspect ratio, generally speaking your results will be better.

When you import the PowerPoint dominKnow | ONE will automatically adjust the Stage size to match the layout of these options. This will result in the following Stage sizes:

• 4x3 imports in at 800x600

• 16x9 imports in at 1280x720

If your PowerPoint is of a different overall size or ratio, the dominKnow | ONE will attempt to set a unique stage height width ratio to best match the import.

The size of your PowerPoint file matters. In many cases people will put in images that are really much larger than they need to be for the web. Before uploading your PowerPoint we recommend you optimize all images for Web (or even Email) output. This will speed up the conversion process, produce a better loading course, and generally have zero downsides.

There are many articles on the web that explain how to do this, but here is one if you are unsure: https://nutsandboltsspeedtraining.com/powerpoint-tutorials/powerpoint-compress-images/

We recommend you apply the compression to all images. After you save the PowerPoint (maybe as a new file name if you are unsure) take a look at the file size. You may see some dramatic differences!

NOTE: The max upload size for PPTs is set to 20MB. 

When importing a PowerPoint, dominKnow | ONE will take the Master Slide and convert it into a single background image and add it to every page.  Generally we recommend you only use one Master Slide as multiple ones may result in less desireable outcomes. 

When importing a PowerPoint, dominKnow | ONE will turn all of your fonts into "Project Styles". This enables you to easily mass change a look and feel of your fonts by adjusting the Project Styles. However, since PowerPoint doesn't provide any names for the styles you use, you may want to adjust the Project Style names to reflect how you are using them in your course to make it easier to manage and adjust at a later date. Review the Project Styles article for more information.  We also recommend that you keep your font usage and styles consistent in PowerPoint to minimize inconsistencies.

To learn more about Project Styles and how to edit them across your course, access our knowledge base article: Project Styles

Note: If you add a word and change the text colors mid word, e.g., Modular has M in red and the rest of the text in black, upon import a single space will be be generated after M which you will need to remove to match the original design.

Too Many Project Styles: when importing a project you may get a message that reads "The PowerPoint File has exceeded the number of allowable styles.". When you receive this message, we recommend you take your PowerPoint and divide it into two files (or more if needed). The division should be based on the slide number at which the import failed. e.g., if it failed on slide 54 of 87 slides, create two PowerPoints with slides 1-53 and 54-87 and then import both PowerPoints as two separate projects. Once Imported you can then open the first project and copy slides from the second project into the first one.

You may have a reason to copy pages from a PowerPoint Import into a new project or perhaps copy pages from one PowerPoint import project into another slides into another PowerPoint import project. When doing this you can use the Copy Page function when in your primary project to locate the secondary project and then copy the desired pages into your primary project. 

After copying the pages in, please review the pages. If the fonts and text styles do not appear to be correct that is because PowerPoint imports rely heavily on Project Styles. To resolve this issue, you will need to copy the Project Styles from the secondary project into the primary project. Once this is done your copied pages will automatically update as they have Project Styles applied to them, but these styles were not previously set in your primary project. We recommend that when copying Project Styles from the secondary project simply select and copy all Project Styles in one step. To learn more about copying Project Styles see Copy a Style under our Project Styles article. 

dominKnow | ONE will import MP4 and MP3 audio and videos that are embed in your PowerPoint. 

• The videos will include a poster image of the video.
• The audio files will be set to "icon" and "narration" (if only one audio file on the slide) upon import. 

If you have audio and video we highly recommend you optimize the audio and video before importing the PowerPoint for best results.

See our articles on audio and video optimization for more information.

TIP: Once your video is added to the page, you can use the audio or video settings tools to change the Player Controls, allowing you to have the video play on load, or to hide the player controls if you wish. To open the context-specific Audio Settings or Video Settings tab and ribbon, click the media element on the page and select the ribbon option.

NOTE on Native Audio Recorder: If you utilize the native PowerPoint recorder to create a recording, an icon where the file would appear will be added when imported, but the audio will not be available. You will need to replace the image with an MP3 video.

NOTE on Import of Shared Video Links: When converting the PowerPoint, an image where the Shared Video is will be imported, but the link will not be transfered. You will need to replace the image with an emebed video option within dominKnow | ONE.

While you can add an MP3 audio, the native recorder in PowerPoint does not create a format that dominKnow | ONE can currently accept, and thus it will not import. You will see an icon where the audio icon appeared on the PowerPoint slide. 

Share video links, such as YouTube and Vimeo, while supported in PowerPoint are not currently supported for the conversion process and would need to be added after import.

dominKnow | ONE does not have a grouping functionality like PowerPoint. When grouped items are imported into dominKnow | ONE all the items will be imported as individual items. Ultimately this will enable you to more easily adjust and or move the items independent of one another.  

However, if you have a large number of items on the page (greater than 50), dominKnow | ONE will automatically group some to aid the conversion process. Generally, this works as desired, but you can control this process by pre-grouping appropriate items before importing the presentation.

When importing the PowerPoint, dominKnow | ONE attempts to match up the transitions and actions. Once imported, you can edit these actions and adjust as needed. However, we do recommend that if you do not already have actions in the PowerPoint, that you do not add them prior to import, and instead add the desired interactivity directly in the project in dominKnow, post conversion.

Supported Entrance Effects

Animation names are derived from multiple versions of PowerPoint and your version may have a different name/utilize a different naming convention than found here.

All other effects default to the Fly animation in dominKnow | ONE. 

NOTE: For Entrance Effects (animations) all timing defaults to 1 second.  If you need a more protracted entrance effect, edit the animation action after import to adjust the timing as desired.

If the PowerPoint contains a link to an external asset or URL it will not be included in the import process. External assets are considered a security risk. It is better to download the asset and include it in the local PowerPoint file. Regular links are not currently supported, but can be added after the import. 

If you use PowerPoint for Instructor led presentations, you should check out the Instructor Led Presentation Theme. This will transform your package into a course that behaves like the PowerPoint Presentation Mode.  Your instructors can then have a centrally managed and controlled presentation link that is always up to date and it makes it easier for you as an organization to centrally manage and control your ILT materials.

When creating bullets in PowerPoint, they will be rendered into dominKnow | ONE in one of two ways depending on how they were created in PowerPoint.

Text with a Bulleted List

When you have text with a bulleted list, it will generate a text element in dominKnow and utilize the inline text bullet formatting option. This option is better if you want the bullets to remain with the text and want greater control over the text formatting of any bullet independent from the overall formatting of the text block. You can adjust individual text elements with Project Styles. 

Bulleted List with No Associated Text

When the bulleted list has no non bulleted text, the bullets will be turned into the List Component. List components will have a uniform size for all aspects of the text in the bullets, but you can animate individual bullets and have different options that are built into this component. 

Which you use is up to you and how you design the PPT.

Example: PowerPoint with two bullet variations

The following PowerPoint features are not currently supported in dominKnow | ONE PowerPoint conversion. This means that PowerPoints utilizing these features will either not import the object in question or not all aspects of that imported object will be reflected accurately.

• Transparent Backgrounds: Images with transparent backgrounds will not be transparent upon import in all cases.
• Animated Gifs and Gifs: Gif images are stored in PPT in a PNG format. The GIF aspects can only be seen/used when in PPT format. When imported the images will be in a PNG format and will not retain animation.
• Shapes with white "fill" will be transparent: Any shapes that use a white fill will have the "white" rendered as transparent.
• Center align of lists: Standalone lists are auto rendered as a "list" component. The list component does not support center alignment.
• Fuzzy Images: Images that are "stretched" to be a larger size than their actual size in PowerPoint, upon importing, may be fuzzy instead of crisp or clear.  This occurs more often when the image is one of several in a master slide, as master slide backgrounds are all merged into a single image. Using the actual size of the image or placing the image on the page or outside of the master page can typically solve this problem.
• Animated Bullets: If individual bullets have animation entrance effects and they are a separate block of bullets they will be turned into the dominKnow | ONE list feature and will be animated. If they are part of a text block, they will be text based bullets and will not be animated.
• Decorative Images: If an image is marked decorative, the import will not automatically turn focus off for the image. An author must turn off focus for WCAG and decorative images.