PowerPoint

Submitted by mara06 on Wed, 2008-01-09 20:28.

Member's Forum

Yeah, I know it's not a design tool (thanks Nat), but I'm going to have to design a PP presentation for a client very soon. I find I have an oldish version, the original one Microsoft included in their Microsoft Office for OSX way back in 2001 or something. I'm finding that in order to upgrade to their latest version, I'll have to buy the 2004 release, at the very least, for over $300. Phooey!

My client will be using the finished product on a PC, and probably launching a much later version of PowerPoint to run it. Any advice from the hive mind about cross-platform issues? Would he be able to run my older Mac version of PP?

Use Keynote

Submitted by thornysarus on Wed, 2008-01-09 21:27.

It does everything Powerpoint does and more, plus exports flawlessly to Powerpoint.

Read more at Apple's site:
http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/#share

Terry Thornhill

e-zign Design Group

She says the client is on a

Submitted by natobasso on Wed, 2008-01-09 22:49.

She says the client is on a pc. :)

I wouldn't imagine there should be any compatibility issues. The other way, maybe, from 2007 Office to 2001, but not going upwards. Send him a test file first.

Mara, I'm sure you're going to make us proud even though this is in powerpoint. :)

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Powerpoint is not a design application
My latest web design work

Ii thought of you when my

Submitted by mara06 on Thu, 2008-01-10 21:26.

Ii thought of you when my client asked me if I could "design a PowerPoint presentation" for him :-)

I guess the only way to be sure about this is to do a test. He gave me some photos today that he'll want me to use, so I'll try it tomorrow and report my results, just in case it might help someone else. Thanks!

Mara

Shouldn't be an issue

Submitted by thornysarus on Thu, 2008-01-10 21:35.

I do cross-platform presentations for powerpoint about once a month in Keynote. Just follow the "export for Powerpoint" tips in Keynote help and you'll be fine.

Terry Thornhill

e-zign Design Group

Acrobat

Submitted by shoaf on Thu, 2008-01-10 19:43.

I really, really wish Acrobat would let you present full-screen to a secondary display (not the one that has the menu bar). Then I could make PowerPoint go very far away from me.

fonts

Submitted by gwells on Thu, 2008-01-10 20:58.

fonts can still be an issue (even if you don't cross platforms, but especially so when you do). as can the format of the images you place in PPT. i recommend PNG or JPG. PNG gives you transparency (both in 8 and 24 bit). both formats are universal. but many people on the mac, at least in days past, would use EPS files because they'd get screen resolution previews on their machines and then high resolution printouts. then they'd give that file to someone on a PC and there would be no preview (the headers on EPS mac and EPS pc are different formats) and, often, they wouldn't print because it was a corporate person who wasn't printing on a postscript printer (not as big a deal today, since most HP corporate printers have PS emulation).

still, i would say that office suite is still the toughest to go xplatform with, if you're not careful. adding in different versions could give you even more headaches.

Yeah, I was worried about

Submitted by mara06 on Thu, 2008-01-10 21:29.

Yeah, I was worried about the font issue myself. Thanks very much for the advice about using JPEG. My inclination, being print oriented, would have been to use TIFF, or maybe Photoshop EPS.

One of my print clients does a lot of PowerPoint stuff. Half the staff have Macs and the rest are on PCs. I called a contact over ther yesterday, and they tell me they've never noticed any cross-platform problems, that it always "seems to work seamlessly." But I'm sure they hav all the latest versions of everything on both platforms.

It'll do a test run and see what happens. Thanks again!

Mara

PNG is best

Submitted by gwells on Thu, 2008-01-10 22:02.

i would actually recommend PNG over JPG for anything other than a background image. you'll get smoother edges on any solid color in PNG and transparency capability. any text in a JPG tends to get fuzzy and they look much nicer in PNG.

Really? Ah. Okay. I'll use

Submitted by mara06 on Fri, 2008-01-11 16:17.

Really? Ah. Okay. I'll use that format in my test case later today. Thanks again!

Mara
ps: Do I hear you saying you'd do text in an imported PNG rather than directly layering it into PowerPoint, because of potential font problems? Euuww! How about if I used the newer OT fonts only?

Arial, Helvetica, etc.

Submitted by natobasso on Fri, 2008-01-11 17:02.

If you stick with the standard pc fonts like Arial, I'd imagine you'd be okay.

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Powerpoint is not a design application
My latest web design work

no... only graphics

Submitted by gwells on Sat, 2008-01-12 03:14.

any regular text should just be typed in PPT. but if there is text inside your graphic, PNG will look better than JPG will.

nate's probably right that the safest thing to do is use one of the standard windows fonts, like arial, verdana, or tahoma.

Thanks. UGH! If this guy

Submitted by mara06 on Sat, 2008-01-12 19:30.

Thanks. UGH! If this guy weren't so generous, I'd "just say no"...

Mara

I hear ya, but like Terry

Submitted by natobasso on Mon, 2008-01-14 01:20.

I hear ya, but like Terry said you can use Keynote and then export as powerpoint so you can take advantage of apple's ease of use that you already know. :)

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Powerpoint is not a design application
My latest web design work