Playing Powerpoint Presentation

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Playing Powerpoint Presentation

I have about 60 clients that I manage with ARD. I would like to be able to play a PPT presentation from the server on all 60 clients.

How would I go about doing this using ARD. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Feb 17, 2009 9:50 AM

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Answer 1

varjak paw

Level 10

182,518 points

Feb 17, 2009 12:18 PM in response to dyrrachium

If you have the presentation saved as a PowerPoint show, you should be able to just use the Open Items command in ARD to launch that preso on the clients. The server volume will need to be mounted on each of the clients, of course.

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Answer 2

dyrrachium Author

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Feb 17, 2009 12:49 PM in response to varjak paw

worked great. thank you. now the only thing is that I would like to do this even though no user is logged on. Is it possible to start showing the powerpoint presentation even though the mac is sitting at the loginwindow.

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Answer 3

varjak paw

Level 10

182,518 points

Feb 17, 2009 12:50 PM in response to dyrrachium

No. An standard application will not run with no user logged in.

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Answer 4

dyrrachium Author

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Feb 17, 2009 5:28 PM in response to varjak paw

is there a way to have a user log on automatically using ARD?

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Answer 5

varjak paw

Level 10

182,518 points

Feb 18, 2009 6:36 AM in response to dyrrachium

Send the following as a UNIX command:

osascript <<EOF
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "<username>"
keystroke tab
delay 0.5
keystroke "<password>"
delay 0.5
keystroke return
keystroke return
end tell
EOF

Depending on the OS version of the client, the duplicated "keystroke return" may or may not be necessary. This also only works if the client is set to display the login screen as name and password fields.

Regards.

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Answer 6

dyrrachium Author

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Feb 18, 2009 5:21 PM in response to varjak paw

thanks so much. You've answered all my questions. I've tested this and it worked great. If I wanted to block keyboard and mouse access on all iMacs displaying the PPT presentation while the show is going on, how would I go about doing it?

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Answer 7

varjak paw

Level 10

182,518 points

Feb 19, 2009 6:58 AM in response to dyrrachium

There's no way via ARD unless there's a UNIX command that would disable the USB ports. I don't know if the "kiosk" option in the Slide Show settings in PowerPoint would lock off the keyboard and mouse or not. That might be a question to ask in Microsoft's own forums.

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