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Helius Presenter

PointeCast logo

PLEASE NOTE: The Helius company is the new owners of the PointeCast software. Currently the software is referred to as PointeCast Publisher OR Helius Presenter. These names are interchangeable - the software is basically the same - and might be named as either when you install it.

Converting Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into FLASH movies

PowerPoint presentations are normally large files (specially if they are animated and/or narrated). If you want to upload these presentations to the internet (inc. Blackboard) it may be a good idea to convert the presentation to a FLASH movie format (producing a much smaller file while keeping the animations and narration).

Helius Presenter can do this.

To use this product please contact Mark Shand. You'll then be sent an activation code and the web address of where to download the program from.

Helius Presenter presentation examples

Here are two examples of online presentations that have been created using the Helius plug-in:

  • The Learning Online presentation shows how you can deliver a lecture online effectively. The experience is interactive as there is narration, navigation and quizzes with feedback.
  • Pointecast/Helius can be used to deliver a pre-recorded conference speech/presentation. The Technology Enhanced Learning: The Challenege presentation was created for a conference that took place in India. The presentation was played to the conference delegates and they were able to ask Manuel questions via Skype. (It was designed to start in full screen mode).

Installing Helius

This conversion tool needs to be installed locally on a PC. Once installed it will add an extra menu to the PowerPoint application. Via the PointeCast/Helius menu you can add narration and interactivity (quizzes and surveys) to the presentation and then convert it to a Flash format.

You will need to download, install, and enter an activation code to get PointeCast to work on your machine. Please contact Mark Shand for details and to acquire a license.

  • Please note that older versions of PointeCast Publisher (pre 2009) may not work with the latest version of the Flash movie player. You may need to download the NEW version of Publisher (version 4.8).

Problems activating PointeCast/Helius

After entering your code and attempting to activate your copy of PointeCast/Helius you may receive the following arror:

Pointecast activation error

This problem is a proxy issue. This should be easily corrected by briefly altering your settings in Internet Explorer (and then changing them back).

You can follow the instructions in our movie or follow the instructions below:

  1. Open Internet Explorer
  2. Open Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN settings
  3. Untick 'Use automatic configuration script'
  4. Tick 'User proxy server for...'
  5. Enter cache.uwe.ac.uk into the Address box
  6. Enter 8080 into the Port box
  7. Press Ok etc

...and then try and activate again

Don't forget: go back and change these settings after successfully activating.

You can also follow these instructions in our movie.

If you have any other installation problems please contact elearning@uwe.ac.uk

Uploading PointeCast/Helius files to the Blackboard Content System

For security purposes, Blackboard 9 blocks the upload of html files containing javaScript (this includes PointeCast/Helius and Wimba Create packages).

To work around this issue, PointeCast/Helius files produced from Powerpoint presentations should be uploaded to the content system in compressed .zip format and not unpackaged.

There is further information about how to zip and upload these files to Blackboard on the Blackboard Support website.