PowerPoint download inconsistencies

downloading PowerPoint file

[slepster]

I am a new member and first time poster so be gentle, please.

I've been asked to figure out a way to post a PowerPoint (PPT) presentation to an internal company web site for our sales staff. The requirements are:

1) the presentation must be viewable online
2) it must be able to be saved as a PPT file to a sales person's laptop so they can modify it later (add notes, etc.) and use it during sales calls they make

The problem is when we test the standard hyperlink to the presentation, some of our testers' PCs opened the file without any download option while others were given the option to download or open the file. We want them to have the latter dual option, but for some reason that isn't happening consistently.

Is this a browser setting issue that can changed (for those that only open the file, that is)? Is this related to a file association setting on their PCs? Or is something else going on here?

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

Slepster

[rocknbil]

If the browser recognizes the file type or has a plug in to display it directly in the browser, that's exactly what it will do. This is particulary true of PowerPoint, being a sister app to Exploder.

There are two ways to manage this (I've had **too** much experience in trying to download known file types!) One, you simply place a note near the link asking them to RIGHT-click the file and select Save Target As from the context menu. This is such an easy solution one asks why you'd go any further . . . .

But you know the answer. The brightest minds in the world can't read one sentence sometimes. So here's the more complex solution:

Any file you download from the Internet first sends headers, and part of those headers is the MIME-type. For web pages the MIME type is text/html; for images image/jpg or image/gif, for starters; for PDF, application/pdf. There are many. If you "munge" this header - generate an unknown content type to the browser - it will normally always force a download. So by dynamically opening the file, printing "Content-type: bad/type" then printing the file - normally it downloads it.

That's the short story, but it requires a sever-side language to munge the header and print out the file.

[slepster]

Thanks, rocknbil. I suspected something along those lines, but I'm not as versed on MIME types as you are, obviously. I think your first option sounds best, if I can just get these non-techie sales people to understand "right-click". I'm amazed at their inability to do the simpliest of tasks. Thanks.