Getting ActivInspire flipcharts into PDF, PowerPoint or Google Slides
ActivInspire Professional exports a flipchart to PDF or to pictures, one file at a time. It has no PowerPoint or Google Slides export, so the usual school route is a PowerPoint made of page pictures you can't edit. Below is every route I've found, what each one keeps, and the bulk converter I'm working on.
Check which edition you have
ActivInspire is still around. The latest version is 3.5.18, released 22 January 2025, and Promethean's spec sheet lists Windows 10 and 11, macOS 12 to 14 and Ubuntu. ChromeOS isn't on the list, so it won't run on a Chromebook.
Which edition you have decides what you can do. The free Personal edition has no export at all. Professional is included with some Promethean panels (the activation key is usually on a sticker starting 0015 or 0016, or can be generated from the panel's serial number) and is sold separately otherwise. The PDF and PowerPoint routes below both start with Professional's export. If you only have Personal, Promethean's user guide says you can try Professional for 60 days, which is long enough to export a folder of lessons.
PDF: built in
In Professional, go to File > Export > All Pages to > PDF. You get one PDF per flipchart, fine for printing or sharing, but flat. Nothing in it can be moved or edited.
PowerPoint: pictures in a photo album
This is what school IT pages tell staff to do (KBA, Saint Paul Public Schools):
- Open the flipchart and go to File > Export > All Pages to > JPEG. Note the folder.
- In PowerPoint, start a blank presentation.
- Insert > Photo Album > New Photo Album > File/Disk, select all the pictures and click Insert.
- Click Create, then delete the title slide it adds.
Each slide is a picture of a page. Text can't be edited, and anything interactive (actions, containers, reveal tools, links) is gone. Repeat for every flipchart.
Google Slides: go through PowerPoint
Google Slides converts PowerPoint files (.ppt, .pptx and a few others) but not PDFs. Google's list of formats only takes a PDF into Google Docs, by text recognition, and only up to 2 MB. So the route to Slides is the photo-album PowerPoint above: upload it to Drive and open it with Google Slides. You end up with the same picture-per-slide deck.
Other programs that read flipcharts
Three other programs import flipcharts. Two come from rival whiteboard makers, and one is Promethean's own newer app.
| Program | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| SMART Notebook 25.1 and later | Its bulk file converter takes whole folders of .flipchart files, and its output formats include PDF and PPTX as well as Notebook. Notebook 24.1 added single-file import (File > Import). | Windows only, run from the command prompt. SMART's import page lists what doesn't come across, including question objects, Magic Ink, layers, radial gradients and spotlight tools. I haven't tried flipchart to PPTX with it, and couldn't confirm whether it needs a paid SMART licence. |
| Explain Everything (Promethean's own, also in ActivSuite) | Opens a flipchart as a project, which exports to PDF, pictures or video. | No PowerPoint. Promethean says "Actions, scripts, and some animations from ActivInspire may not carry over" (Promethean). The free plan allows three projects of one slide each; the paid plan is US$69 a year (pricing). |
| ViewSonic myViewBoard | Imports a flipchart into its own .olf format (ViewSonic). | One file per import, up to 350 MB, and the result is a myViewBoard file, not PowerPoint or Slides. |
The big online converters (Convertio, CloudConvert, Zamzar, AnyConv) have no flipchart converter; their flipchart pages return "not found". If your school is moving to SMART panels and someone is happy at a command prompt on Windows, SMART's converter is worth trying first.