[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":273},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-why-free-ppt-to-scorm-tools-fail-on-mobile":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"body":7,"description":252,"draft":253,"extension":254,"meta":255,"navigation":261,"path":262,"publishedAt":263,"seo":264,"stem":265,"tags":266,"updatedAt":271,"__hash__":272},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-free-ppt-to-scorm-tools-fail-on-mobile.md","Why free PPT-to-SCORM tools fail on mobile (and how to tell before your learners do)","Larry \u002F LOST END FOUND LTD",{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":241},"minimark",[10,19,22,30,50,53,77,87,91,94,105,108,113,117,120,131,143,147,154,159,163,166,204,207,211,214,228,231,234],[11,12,13,14,18],"p",{},"Free PowerPoint-to-SCORM converters fail on mobile for four specific reasons: SVG ",[15,16,17],"code",{},"\u003Ctspan>","-chopped text, broken font embedding, Chrome's auto-translate destroying the layout, and desktop-sized tap targets. Most clients who come to us for a re-do have hit at least two — usually after their learners (half of them on phones at 11pm finishing mandatory training) start reporting scrambled slides, missing text, and translated-then-broken layouts.",[11,20,21],{},"Here's what each looks like and how to test for it before your learners do.",[23,24,26,27,29],"h2",{"id":25},"_1-they-export-slides-as-svg-with-tspan-chopped-text","1. They export slides as SVG with ",[15,28,17],{},"-chopped text",[11,31,32,33,38,39,41,42,45,46,49],{},"This is the failure mode behind half the entries in ",[34,35,37],"a",{"href":36},"\u002Fblog\u002F5-scorm-errors-that-break-powerpoint-conversions","5 SCORM errors that break PowerPoint conversions",". Most converters try to \"preserve fidelity\" by exporting every slide as an SVG. That's fine in principle — until you look at how PowerPoint text gets serialised. Each line, sometimes each word, gets its own ",[15,40,17],{}," element with hard-coded ",[15,43,44],{},"x"," and ",[15,47,48],{},"y"," coordinates.",[11,51,52],{},"On desktop browsers at the tool's tested zoom level, it looks identical to PowerPoint. On mobile:",[54,55,56,63,74],"ul",{},[57,58,59,60,62],"li",{},"Pinch-to-zoom scales the whole SVG, which is fine — except on iOS Safari, long ",[15,61,17],{}," sequences sometimes render on top of each other at non-integer zoom levels.",[57,64,65,66,70,71,73],{},"Accessibility zoom (a blind spot — your visually impaired learners ",[67,68,69],"em",{},"are"," using it) exposes the ",[15,72,17],{}," cracks immediately.",[57,75,76],{},"Screen readers read the DOM order, not the visual order. A slide with a heading in the bottom-right and a body block on the left — common in PowerPoint — reads in the order the converter emitted it, which is usually a mess.",[11,78,79,83,84,86],{},[80,81,82],"strong",{},"The fix:"," reflow text into actual HTML blocks at conversion time, not SVG ",[15,85,17],{}," sequences. We do this as part of every Enhanced-and-up conversion. It takes a bit longer and the slide isn't pixel-identical to PowerPoint — but the slide also isn't broken.",[23,88,90],{"id":89},"_2-they-dont-embed-fonts-properly","2. They don't embed fonts properly",[11,92,93],{},"PowerPoint has the concept of \"embed fonts\". Most converters honour it, sort of — they pull the font file out of the .pptx and ship it alongside the SCORM package. Then:",[54,95,96,99,102],{},[57,97,98],{},"The font path is relative to the wrong root, so the LMS can't find it.",[57,100,101],{},"The font is embedded without subsetting, bloating the SCORM zip to 200MB.",[57,103,104],{},"The font's licence doesn't permit web embedding, and the converter silently omits it without telling anyone.",[11,106,107],{},"All three of these cause the same symptom: learners see a system font substitute, layouts reflow wrongly, buttons end up on line two, quizzes become unclickable.",[11,109,110,112],{},[80,111,82],{}," audit every font in the source deck at quote time. Substitute web-safe fonts at conversion time if any of the embedded ones can't be shipped legitimately. Subset everything you do ship.",[23,114,116],{"id":115},"_3-chrome-auto-translate-destroys-the-layout","3. Chrome auto-translate destroys the layout",[11,118,119],{},"This is the one most teams have never heard of. Chrome's built-in Translate feature mutates the DOM — it replaces text nodes with translated text nodes, reflows containers, and if your slides are positioned absolutely (which they are, after any SVG-based conversion), the translated text overflows in ways the original positioning can't accommodate.",[11,121,122,123,126,127,130],{},"Even better: some LMS mobile views set ",[15,124,125],{},"lang"," attributes incorrectly, so Chrome ",[67,128,129],{},"thinks"," an English course is in (say) Dutch and tries to translate it. The result is a course in broken machine-translated Dutch that no-one ordered, with text spilling over quiz buttons.",[11,132,133,135,136,45,139,142],{},[80,134,82],{}," ",[15,137,138],{},"\u003Cmeta name=\"google\" content=\"notranslate\">",[15,140,141],{},"translate=\"no\""," on containers that must not be touched. We do this on every conversion. It's one line per slide. Free converters don't add it because nobody told them.",[23,144,146],{"id":145},"_4-tap-targets-are-desktop-sized","4. Tap targets are desktop-sized",[11,148,149,150,153],{},"PowerPoint shapes have whatever click area the shape has. Converted to SCORM and viewed on mobile, a tastefully small \"Next\" chevron becomes a 24-pixel target — below the WCAG minimum of 24×24 CSS pixels for ",[67,151,152],{},"adjacent"," controls, and below the 44px Apple Human Interface Guideline for mobile. Learners report that the button \"doesn't work\". It works; their fingers are bigger than 24 pixels.",[11,155,156,158],{},[80,157,82],{}," enforce a minimum 44×44px hit area for all interactive elements at conversion time, regardless of what the source PowerPoint says.",[23,160,162],{"id":161},"how-to-tell-before-your-learners-do","How to tell before your learners do",[11,164,165],{},"If you're evaluating a free or cheap converter, run this checklist before you commit:",[167,168,169,172,179,186,201],"ol",{},[57,170,171],{},"Convert one slide. Open the SCORM in Scorm Cloud. Does it look right? (Yes, usually.)",[57,173,174,175,178],{},"Open it in ",[80,176,177],{},"iOS Safari on a real iPhone",", not simulator. Pinch-zoom in and out. Anything overlapping?",[57,180,181,182,185],{},"Enable ",[80,183,184],{},"Chrome Translate"," on Android. Does the layout survive?",[57,187,188,189,192,193,196,197,200],{},"Open the SCORM zip and look at the HTML. Are headings structured with ",[15,190,191],{},"\u003Ch1>","\u002F",[15,194,195],{},"\u003Ch2>",", or are they styled ",[15,198,199],{},"\u003Cdiv>","s? Does tappable UI have ARIA labels?",[57,202,203],{},"Check the zip size. If a 20-slide deck produces a 50MB+ SCORM, you've got bloated or unsubsetted fonts.",[11,205,206],{},"If anything fails the checklist, don't ship.",[23,208,210],{"id":209},"what-we-do","What we do",[11,212,213],{},"Every conversion we deliver is tested against:",[54,215,216,219,222,225],{},[57,217,218],{},"iOS Safari (current + 2 previous)",[57,220,221],{},"Chrome Android with Translate toggled on",[57,223,224],{},"Chrome desktop with 200% browser zoom",[57,226,227],{},"VoiceOver on macOS and NVDA on Windows",[11,229,230],{},"The extra hour per deck is the difference between a course that works and a course that generates support tickets.",[232,233],"hr",{},[11,235,236,237],{},"If you've got a deck that fails any of the above, we can probably fix it. ",[34,238,240],{"href":239},"\u002Fquote","Get a quote.",{"title":242,"searchDepth":243,"depth":243,"links":244},"",2,[245,247,248,249,250,251],{"id":25,"depth":243,"text":246},"1. They export slides as SVG with \u003Ctspan>-chopped text",{"id":89,"depth":243,"text":90},{"id":115,"depth":243,"text":116},{"id":145,"depth":243,"text":146},{"id":161,"depth":243,"text":162},{"id":209,"depth":243,"text":210},"Font embedding, SVG tspan rendering, and one specific browser feature that quietly destroys your course mid-lesson. Notes from too many conversions we've had to redo.",false,"md",{"relatedPages":256},[257,258],{"path":36,"title":37},{"path":259,"title":260},"\u002Fblog\u002Fscorm-1-2-vs-2004-for-powerpoint","SCORM 1.2 vs 2004 for PowerPoint",true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-free-ppt-to-scorm-tools-fail-on-mobile","2026-04-21",{"title":5,"description":252},"blog\u002Fwhy-free-ppt-to-scorm-tools-fail-on-mobile",[267,268,269,270],"scorm","powerpoint","mobile","accessibility","2026-04-25","iaUXfpRiiuyI5rN1BOEyiT4nGiqeRnllL2WzicdNE6c",1777204340837]