Frequently Asked Questions

  •  
     
      General
      What is TechExcel Community ?

    TechExcel Community lets you share, embed and discover presentations and slide shows online. You can upload your presentation documents in a variety of formats such as powerpoint, pdf, openoffice odp, etc. If you need to add narration or sound effect to your presentation, you can upload an audio file and have the option to synchronize the audio with your slides using our online easy-to-use sync tool. Once a presentation is made, you will have the choice to either publicly share with everyone or only share it within a small private group. You will also be able to find out how users are viewing your items(Article, Topic and Event), for example, how much time people stayed on each slide. User feedbacks and statistics like this will help you to improve your presentation making skills.

      What is an item?

    Under construction

      Who should use TechExcel Community?

    Whether you come here just for fun, or are looking for useful, discussion and educational materials for TechExcel Products, TechExcel Community is the right place for you.

    If you have fun PowerPoints that you would like to share with others, you don't have to email it around any more, just share it here.
    If you have delivered a presentation, and would like to reach more audience, just share it here.
    If you are a blogger or a podcaster and would like to add more spice and richer experience for your audience, you can simply share here.


    Since we index and extract the text contents of your presentation, we make it easily searchable by major online search engines. With slides and audio synchronized, people can also navigate your presentation better.

      What browsers and flash plugins does TechExcel Community support?

    We currently support IE6(+), Firefox(1.5+) and the latest Safari.
    For flash browser plugins, we support 8(+).

      What powerpoint features are not currently supported?

    We do not support powerpoint animations yet. We also ignore any audio embedded in powerpoint files.
    We realize these are important features and will be working on them next.

      I uploaded a private item, now how do I share that with my friends?

    One thing you can do is to just go to the view Article/Topic/Event page and use the share feature. Only the owner of a private item can share it with others. Each friend will receive a confidential link that will allow access to the item.

    You can also allow friends with a certain tag (for example, family) to view an item directly on our site. To do that, go to the edit Article/Topic/Event page and select the appropriate privacy setting.

     
     
      Making an item
      How long does it take to process an item after I uploaded my files?

    The time needed to process a article depends on the following factors
    - how large the slide file is, and how many slides are in the file
    - how large the audio file is and its length
    - how busy we are with our processing machines

    Usually, processing an item takes 1 to 10 minutes, depending on the above factors. If you feel that the processing step is unexpectedly slow, please feel free to contact us via email (community@techexcel.com) and we'll be happy to take a look for you.

      What is sync? How do I sync my audio with slides?

    Sync allows you to associate fragments of an audio file with each slide so that when people watch the item, the slides will auto-advance with the audio. Sync'ed item gives you complete control on how your viewers will watch your item. It also gives your viewers the best experience.

    After your slides and audio are processed, to sync your item, go to "account->uploaded items" page, and click on the sync button. You will be taken to the following screen. Most users find the sync process fun and easy. We hope you enjoy it too.

      What contents are not allowed on TechExcel Community?

    You may not upload any copyrighted material that you do not own.
    You may not make any public item that contains adult material.
    You may not upload any illegal content or hate material.

    We provide users a reporting system to flag any inappropariate content. We reserve the right to take down any item that we see inappropariate.

      What file formats are supported?

    For slides, we support Microsoft Powerpoint, PDF, and OpenOffice Documents. Our conversion process will also work with most of the Microsoft Word, Excel, JPEG, GIF, and plain text documents. However, please keep in mind that TechExcel Community is about sharing presentations. In addition to supporting files, we also support Google Presentatation upload. Just copy your published google presentation URL, we'll handle the rest for you. If your material is not in a presentational format, although you can still upload it, it may not be shown as crisp and clear on TechExcel Community.

    We also support various audio formats for upload, including MP3, WAV, WMA, AU ... If you decide not to upload your audio, but specify a URL for it, we only support mp3 in this case. Make sure the mp3 is publicly accessible via the http protocol. If you only video recorded your presentation, you can upload your video file, and we should be able to extract the audio part out of it.

    If you are not sure whether your file format is supported, the best way to find out is to upload it first. If you find your file format is not supported, and think we should, please feel free to contact us via email(community@techexcel.com).

      What's the maximum upload size allowed?

    Our current maximum size for slide and audio files are 50mb each.

      Is there an upper limit on the number of slides allowed in an item?

    Yes, we currently allow each item to have up to 150 slides. If it is not sufficient for you, please let us know via email (community@techexcel.com).

      How do I upload Google Presentation to TechExcel Community?

    All you have to do is to give us an URL to your Google presentation. Make sure the presentation is publicly published, otherwise we would not be able to access it. When you publish the presentation, Google will give you an URL to share with friends. Just give the URL to us and you are all set.

      Why should I upload Google Presentation to TechExcel Community?

    By uploading Google Presentation to TechExcel Community, you will have the option to add audio to your presentation. Instead of just sharing slides, you'll be able to share the whole presentation, audio synchronized with slides, with your audiences online. You can also embed your presentation on your own web page. Additionally, you can download your slides in PDF format.

     
     
      Troubleshooting
      TechExcel Community failed to process my uploaded files. Why?

    Most failures we had so far were from PowerPoint 2007 presentations and secured pdf files.

    We are currently not supporting PowerPoint 2007. If you want to upload a PowerPoint 2007 presentation onto TechExcel Community, you need to first save it to an earlier format. (open PowerPoint, click File -> Save As -> Save As Type and choose any *.ppt)

    Secured pdf files are perfectly readable by anyone, but do not allow duplicate/copy/extraction of the contents. Thus, we cannot show it on TechExcel Community.

    If that's not the case for you, we would be happy to hear from you. Any reported problem will allow us to improve our product.

      When I click on a link, nothing happens. What's wrong?

    Your pop-up blocker or browser might be blocking popup windows very aggressively.
    Some IE6 users reported that clicking the download link in our player brings a new window showing 'Action canceled'. You can work around this issue by pressing the reload key on the window that shows the error message.

      I specified a url for my mp3 hosted elsewhere. It seems the item player has trouble playing the audio. Why?

    If your mp3 is hosted elsewhere, make sure it is publicly accessible via http. Flash player only supports mp3's with frequency rate at 5, 11, 22, or 44 khz. If your hosted mp3 does not satisfy all these requirements, please just upload it. We will do all the processing necessary to convert your audio file to a format that is supported by flash.

      Why some items don't have statistics?

    We collect statistics on how each article is being viewed, for example, how much time viewers stayed on each slide of the item, how many slides they viewed before leaving, etc. There're certain scenarios where an item doesn't have any statistics available.
    • We started to collect detailed statistics on August 08, 2007. Views before that are not captured in details.
    • We will not show any view statistics in details until we have collected at least 3 data points.
    • If we find any viewing pattern that's not typical, we will drop the data. We are constantly improving our algorithm to ensure the data we collect is valuable and captures true user viewing patterns.


      I uploaded my Google Presentation. It failed. Why?

    There are a number of reasons why processing can fail. First check if the Google presentation URL you gave us is correct. If so, have you published the Google presentation yet? We do not have your Google password. Therefore, we can only access Google Presentations that are publicly published. If you believe you have done the above steps correctly, please send us a note (community@techexcel.com). We really appreciate your feedback.

     
     

My Account

FAQ
Contact Us