OPML Workstation: PowerPoint to OPML
In an earlier post I was wondering if you could convert MSWord outlines to OPML, well close to this is a new service that enables you to convert PowerPoint to OPML…this is perfect, PowerPoint, when you think of it, is a type of outline…see OPML Workstation.
You don’t have to host your own PowerPoint files (that is give them a URL and put them on a server)…you can just convert it to OPML and rssLABS will host the OPML URL for you…now when people search in an OPML engine they may find the OPML of your PowerPoint file.
Alex Barnett blogs about this and has created an OPML file via OPML Workbench.
See it at:
OPML Surfer
OPML Browser
Not sure how to browse an OPML URL at OPMLsearch.
Or import it into your own Outlining tool like OPML Manager and go to town on it…actually in the OPML Manager post I queried if you could make a PowerPoint file into OPML:
“…I wonder if you could export a powerpoint outline or word outline as an OPML file…you could import this into OPMLmanager and give a presentation from your outline view, and even give this outline URL to your audience to view later, or give them the OPML file so they can view a rendered outline in OPML surfer.”
You can view the outline of the OPML in an OPML search engine, browser, or outlining tool, but what about being able to convert it back to PowerPoint.
This way all you do is get RSSlabs to host your OPML file, then when someone finds it they can import it into PowerPoint.
Since outlines like Dave Winer’s can include other outlines, does this mean you can view changes that are made in a PowerPoint presentation by subscribing to the OPML file…I think this is a bit wishful…if changes were made to the OPML version of the PowerPoint file (I guess by using an outliner) then the changes would be dynamic to whoever subscribes to that OPML file…is this correct?
This way if we had our own OPML directory (integrating OPML files into our own) it won’t be static, and always show the latest version of the OPML files within your OPML file
…the next is to be notified of changes to an OPML file, this is happening right now with OPML files that contain RSS feeds, but what about OPML files of other types.
…or what about feeds for PowerPoint…
Can’t we have a blog to OPML tool, blogs are essentially outlines by date, how are they different to PowerPoint, is not each blog post like a PowerPoint slide (excuse my ignorance)?
![email.png](http://services.nexodyne.com/email/icon/GxbiQvgbwBgCnw%3D%3D/oIp%2BJMQ%3D/R01haWw%3D/0/image.png"){kind=icon}
You can subscribe to OPML “feeds” that aren’t lists of RSS feeds — that’s what the Instant Outliner function of the OPML Editor is about, and it’s a big part of creating the distributed directory features where multiple people maintain a single directory. Cool, no?
Comment by Lisa Williams — December 13, 2005 @ 3:20 pm
hi!
Your Word outlines to OPML is a great suggestion. Look to see this capability as well as a OPML to Powerpoint conversion relased from RSS Labs soon.
BTW, you can search the Powerpoint content at OPMLSearch if the user has chosen to open it up for search. For example, Alex’s Powerpoint can be searched, and also browsed at:
http://www.opmlsearch.com/OPMLTree.aspx?SourceURL=http://www.opmlworkstation.com/Create/public/opml/Test_deck/Test_deck.opml
Thanks for the great posts and keeping us all informed about whats going on in the community!
Comment by Bela — December 14, 2005 @ 4:59 pm