Overview

The Remote PowerPoint Presentation Tool, or RPPT, provides a mechanism by which a presenter can control a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation at multiple sites from a single machine. The development of RPPT was inspired by Bob Olson's (Argonne Futures Lab) simple but reliable Distributed PowerPoint (DPPT), which has been used widely in the Access Grid community. RPPT was created to fulfill some wishes that many AG operators have had for a long time:

• Single point control of a presentation session using the master

• Simplifies operations on the master

• Minimizes operations on the client (unattended mode)

• Allows the use of animated PowerPoint slides, or embedded animations and sound

• Additional presentation features, such as an emulated laser pointer, presenter's identity, the smart control on the appearance of a slideshow, etc.

The current downloadable version of RPPT is 2.0 Beta 1, which is ready for public-testing. The addition of new features has been frozen in order to get ready for AG 2.0. However, comments and bug reports are highly appreciated.

The RPPT application was developed on the latest Win32 platform. Two keystone technologies that RPPT is based on are OLE/COM and group communication on TCP/IP. The entire application was developed using C++.

Three components participate in an RPPT session: server, master, and client. An RPPT session is initiated by the server. The server is a multi-threaded process that listens to a Socket port, handles connection requests from the master and clients, and establishes message communications between the master and clients.

RPPT session activities are controlled by the master. During a presentation, the master invokes PowerPoint through OLE/COM to view a presentation, sends captured mouse events and slide-change events to the server; the server forwards these events to the RPPT clients. PowerPoint presentations that are planned for a session are controlled by the presentation list created by the master.

One or more clients at remote locations invoke PowerPoint in order to view the presentation, and listen to slideshow events from the master. The client program controls the local PowerPoint to display the same content that the master is currently displaying by simulating mouse events and other slideshow events. The client program is also able to display a presenter's laser pointer.

RPPT allows distributed presentations in a true group communication mode; a typical distributed presentation session is illustrated in Figure 1:

• Masters (speakers) from different sites may connect to an RPPT server in a sequence that is scheduled by an AG meeting, to allow clients to watch presentations from different speakers without changing settings. In Figure 1, Master 2 is currently connected to Server 2 and is controlling the presentation session, while Master 3 is waiting for a connection to Server 2.

• Clients may switch among different servers in order to view different presentations being given at the same time.