Zionworx

by **atsionwebservant** » Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:32 pm

When attempting to use Zionworx with powerpoint file I receive this error message when starting the program
"access violation at address 004D7E9A in module "Zionworx.exe." Read of address 00000000" followed by another mesage stating "Cannot focus a disabled or invisible window" I am running Win XP home and my powerpoint presentations were created with OpenOffice 1.1. What am I doing wrong? :cry:

by **Christian** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 11:18 am

Hi atsionwebservant,

Great to hear from someone using OpenOffice - an excellent MS Office alternative I reckon. Unfortunately though, the PowerPoint interface within ZionWorx v2.0 requires a full version of MS PowerPoint to be installed on the PC too in order for things to work properly.

I expect this is why you are experiencing problems on startup as ZionWorx can't successfully connect to PowerPoint 2000/XP if it's not installed. As and when OpenOffice (Impress) supports dual monitor presentations then I'll certainly add the required support to ZionWorx, if it's technically possible.

To manually disable PowerPoint support (and get rid of the error message) try the following:

1. Close ZionWorx
2. Using Notepad, open the file called 'Settings.ini' which is in the ZionWorx program directory e.g. 'C:\Program Files\ZionWorx'
3. Edit the line 'Enable PowerPoint=1' so that it reads 'Enable PowerPoint=0'
4. Save the file and close Notepad.
5. Restart ZionWorx and the error should disappear.

All the best,

Christian.

by **Tekman** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 4:44 pm

Christian wrote:
Great to hear from someone using OpenOffice - an excellent MS Office alternative I reckon.

This last Sunday i.e. 03/08/2003 one of our Elders told me that he had compiled his 'PowerPoint' type presentation from within Open Office now that he has moved over to operating under Linux.

He told me this little fact after the service was over and I was amazed that it ran faultlessly under Microsoft PowerPoint and from within ZionWorx. If I had known before, then doubtless I would have messed things up for him, as I was the computer operator :oops:

. I guess that is why he kept quiet about it until afterwards

When I eventually upgrade to a newer machine, then I might well make it a Linux machine but perhaps also dual boot just in case I do need any Microsoft stuff. I know Linux (UNIX) is a 'serious' operating system and would have liked to have moved to it years ago.

Thanks for sharing your opinion of the Linux system with us.

Regards
The Tekman

by **mango** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 1:15 am

Christian, is it easy to detect the absence of PPT in such scenario and give a more meaninful error message like "ZionWorx requires PowerPoint 2000/XP to display PowerPoint slides."? Just a suggestion.

Another suggestion is to use the free PowerPoint Viewer 97 for those of us who don't have the paid full-blown PPT installed. If someone thinks this is a good idea, please put it in the wish list - I feel bad suggesting this in the wish list when I know won't use it.

by **Christian** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 1:11 pm

mango wrote:...is it easy to detect the absence of PPT in such scenario and give a more meaninful error message like "ZionWorx requires PowerPoint 2000/XP to display PowerPoint slides."?

Good idea Mango, guess I missed that one! :roll:

Regarding PowerPoint Viewer 97, I did try using it, but never got it to integrate as I wanted with ZionWorx. It only provides a limited subset of functionality compared to the real thing, and I didn't have much confidence in it in the end...

I'm really waiting for Impress (OpenOffice) to offer dual monitor support and then I'll invest some effort getting that to work well with ZionWorx :wink:

by **dradavies** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 9:51 pm

Powerpoint Viewer 2003 is due for release Oct 21 and will have a more complete feature set - so it might be simpler to try and integrate with that, Christian!

Andrew

by **Christian** » Wed Aug 27, 2003 4:25 pm

That's very good news

and about time too! :roll:

Hopefully it will live up to our expectations... should be interesting...

Christian.

by **dradavies** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 12:44 pm

OK, Powerpoint 2003 viewer is now available for download from Microsoft (just search in the download section). I don't know if it can be programmatically controlled, Christian ...

by **dradavies** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 1:22 pm

Errm ... apparently the Powerpoint Viewer 2003 object model is not exposed (whatever that means) so it can't be controlled programmatically. According to MS, the 97 viewer can be, but obviously it doesn't have the features and fancy animations.

Sorry to disappoint after such a build up! :roll:

by **Christian** » Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:28 pm

I had a horrible feeling that it was just too good to be true...
Micro$oft rarely offer something for nothing!

Anyway thanks for your research Andrew - I suppose we'll just have to wait a bit longer for dual monitor support in OpenOffice

by **mango** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 2:07 am

Bummer... dradavies, did Microsoft issue a document saying the Powerpoint Viewer 2003 object model is not exposed ?

by **dradavies** » Thu Sep 25, 2003 6:54 am

No, but I checked the official MS powerpoint newsgroup where this was a fairly hot topic of discussion (and a cause of some disappointment). Apparently it is mentioned on the download page, though I didn't notice it. Certainly a few people on the newsgroup had tried and failed. :cry:

Andrew

by **intuitas** » Sat Oct 04, 2003 1:00 pm

Christian,

Good to hear that Open Office support is on the agenda. I was going to ask the question but suspected it was something to do with dual monitor support.

Don't have the expertise to assist in this area myself but perhaps some members of the Zionworx community do, or have contacts who do.
You have obviously achieved this in compiling Zionworx so perhaps someone might be able to contribute suitable code for the opensource project to incorporate in their product.

Let's hope so!

Regards,

Paul

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