Compatibility notes

1. Adobe Presenter is only compatible (for production) with Windows XP/Vista, not the Macintosh OS.
2. UCD Server for Adobe Connect Pro is running V.6 of the desktop videoconferencing software. 
3. On the server v.6 of Adobe Presenter is offered (free) under Getting Started on your Adobe Connect Pro home page.
4. V.6 of Adobe Presenter is compatible with MS PowerPoint 2003.  V.6 can be used with PowerPoint 2003 but with inconsitent and unreliable results.
5. Until the UCD server is upgraded to V.7 of Adobe Connect Pro, Presenter 7 is not available free of charge.  It is contained on the installation disk of Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended.  It is the full key installed licensed V.7 of Adobe Presenter (normally $500).  However, Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended can be purchased through http://SHI.com (UCD's discount software contractor) for $50 (license).  The software CD costs $22.  You will first have to get an account at SHI to view the UCD discount prices.
6. Presenter 7 is compatible with PowerPoint 2003 & 2007.  Most compatibility issues are resolved when you save your 2007 pptx file as a 2003 ppt file, then publish.

What is Presenter 7?

Adobe Presenter inside Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

Adobe Presenter 7 is a Microsoft PowerPoint add-in that transforms your boring presentations into interactive and very engaging Flash movies that can be easily shared on the web, by CD, or as PDF documents with video and audio.

Adobe Presenter 7 is available for the PowerPoint on Windows only but the output can viewed on any browser / computer that has Flash Player.

To get started, you just open the PowerPoint presentation, switch to the "Adobe Presenter" and publish in the desired format. All your slide transitions and animations are well preserved in the output.

Almost everything inside Presenter can be easily customized and branded included the color schemes, fonts, layout, logos and so on.

Other than slides, you can add audio narrations, record webcam video or import existing video clips into your presentations. It supports almost every video format and encodes them internally to Flash video using the On2 FLV encoder.

There’s a built-in video editor as well to help you add some basic video effects to your video clips included inside PowerPoint.

When it comes to importing audio, there’s something very useful called "Wait for User." It’s a simple marker that will auto-pause the presentation at a particular point and will resume only when the viewer clicks the play button again. Now this will be handy if you are explaining something but want audience to try that out before proceeding to the next slide.

If you like to use Adobe Presenter for creating product demos or training videos, there’s good support for importing SWF movies so you can very easily import any screencast video that is done in Adobe Captivate, Camtasia Studio or any other screencasting tool.

Here are some helpful resources:

Demonstration at Adobe.com: http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/

System Requirements:
http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/systemreqs/

Presenter 7 features:
http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/features/

Troubleshooting
Powerpoint conversion issues when using Adobe Presenter 7 and suggested workarounds

Presenter 7 Release Notes (PDF)

Unable to upload content to Adobe Connect

Adobe Presenter 7 FAQ

If you are unable to upload content to Adobe Connect--

When you try to upload content to an Adobe Connect server, you receive the following error message:

"You do not have permission to perform this operation. Please contact an Account Administrator for assistance."

Reason: You are not part of the Authors group in Adobe Connect.

Solution:To resolve this issue, contact Mike Poe mlpoe@ucdavis.edu, ANR Connect Administrator, and ask to have your user account added to the Authors group to publish to the Connect server.