Comments on: Powerpoint problems

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:49:04 +0000

For Answers to less obvious Powerpoint questions and some amzing free tutorials
http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/powerpoint_hints_and_tips_tutorials.html

By: Tony Ramos

Tony Ramos — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 21:15:04 +0000

For anyone who has ever needed last-minute PowerPoint answers:

http://www.pptfaq.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.powerpoint

By: Ennis

Ennis — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:01:48 +0000

I use powerpoint pretty regularly and have never had a problem like that. My advice is (if you have the original CD) to deinstall and reinstall PP. If there is some sort of bizarre glitch, that should clean it up. I’d also suggest backing up regularly – I’ve got an itchy finger around Control-S – that guarantees that you have an earlier version to rollback to.

You could try the open office clone called Impress (http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html). I tried it around 2 years ago (no powerpoint on my home computer) and it was serviceable then – hopefully it’s better now but I doubt it’s as good as Powerpoint.

You might also want to try the newest version of PowerPoint, which is avail as a beta in free download:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/download/en/default.mspx

But really really – this shouldn’t be happening. MS Office products have slight problems, but I don’t know of something at that scale, so it’s probably fixable with a clean install.

– “E”

p.s. how long in chicago? I might be able to get there on Saturday …

By: Grant

Grant — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 13:42:01 +0000

Grant, thank you, everyone, for great suggestions. It looks like Keynote is the way to go. It looks, though, that it’s not available for Windows. I am moving briskly from Microsoft software but operating systems and PC machines. Not yet. And probably not ever. Thanks! Grant

By: ivv

ivv — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:49:01 +0000

Or you could make your slides in something like Photopaint, save them as jps or gifs, and show them off your iPod (bonus: coolness factor). Here’s a how-to on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/16/how-to-put-powerpoint-on-your-ipod-photo/

-ilya

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:03:24 +0000

I wouldn’t worry too much. The continued existence of Microsoft is proof positive that most consumers of computer software are pretty stupid. Or at least amazingly gullible. I mean, they’ve been working with flawed software since the 1980s and they haven’t picked up on it yet…I really don’t see them suddenly noticing it tomorrow.

By: Jackie Huba

Jackie Huba — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 23:11:32 +0000

Try this with a PC and PowerPoint…

Last Friday, I videocaptured a YouTube video right before I walked out the door. While in the car going to the speaking gig (I wasn’t driving), I edited the video with iMovie to make it shorter. Imported it into Keynote, hit Save and was ready to go with minutes to spare. Elapsed time: 15 minutes.

Keynote, fo’sho, Grant : )

By: Alex Hutton

Alex Hutton — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 21:34:58 +0000

Keynote

Keynote is the shizzle…

By: allen claxton

allen claxton — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 18:36:35 +0000

I am curious as to what you’ll be talking about at conference on developing master-planned communities. Is it a sort of a standard thing that you were invited to give, or do you have insights particular to that endeavor that you’ll be sharing?

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 18:01:19 +0000

Powerpoint is like the QWERTY keyboard, Grant: Still in use, a century later, despite its evident imperfection.

In about 1985, I used a Korean PC with a word-processor in which the text scrolled upwards rather than downwards (ie, as you typed, your current active line remained in the same central position, vertically, with text lines moving upwards as each new one was added). Much easier to type with, as your eyes were fixed on the center of the screen, not the bottom. Despite its easier interface, it hasn’t been adopted by Microsoft.