Best Vector Graphic Format for Mac/PC Compatiblitity

[Gavin Lawrie]

What is the best vector graphic format to use in powerpoint if I want
to use both Office 2004 and Office XP to edit the files? We use
'Enhanced Metafile' on XP as this seems to work well, but many of these
don't work so well in Mac - and embedded images (e.g. placing a PPT
page into a PPT page) don't seem to work well either.

PNG doesn't seem to be well copied from PC to Mac, and things like eps
just look appalling.

Hope someone can suggest something - it is tedious having to share
documents across platforms with the current incompatiblities.

Regards

Gavin Lawrie

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

What is the best vector graphic format to use in powerpoint if I want
to use both Office 2004 and Office XP to edit the files? We use
'Enhanced Metafile' on XP as this seems to work well, but many of these
don't work so well in Mac - and embedded images (e.g. placing a PPT
page into a PPT page) don't seem to work well either.

Once you have a graphic on a slide under either version of PPT, ungroup it
until it won't ungroup any more, then regroup the selected shapes into a group.

This converts everything to PPT (Office) native drawing objects; they'll cause
the least x-platform problems.

PNG doesn't seem to be well copied from PC to Mac, and things like eps
just look appalling.

PNG isn't a vector format in any case. EPS can be useful for printing to PS
output devices and/or Acrobat Distiller, but otherwise it's not very useful in
PowerPoint, especially on the PC


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Gavin Lawrie]

Once you have a graphic on a slide under either version of PPT, ungroup
it until it won't ungroup any more, then regroup the selected shapes
into a group.

This converts everything to PPT (Office) native drawing objects;
they'll cause the least x-platform problems.

Except that ungrouping objects causes wierdness sometimes when they are
not created by MS applications in first place.

PNG isn't a vector format in any case. EPS can be useful for printing
to PS output devices and/or Acrobat Distiller, but otherwise it's not
very useful in PowerPoint, especially on the PC

Well it can be - PNG is the native file format for FireWorks files -
which includes vector and bit-map layers seemingly without difficulty.
Perhaps I'm missing something, or maybe ppt doesn't treat PNG properly?

Gavin Lawrie

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Gavin,

Except that ungrouping objects causes wierdness sometimes when they are not created by MS applications in first place.

True. I have seen this, particularly with gradients and odd-shaped fills

Well it can be - PNG is the native file format for FireWorks files - which includes vector and bit-map layers
seemingly without difficulty. Perhaps I'm missing something, or maybe ppt doesn't treat PNG properly?

PNG is a bitmap format. http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

TAJ

 

[Gavin Lawrie]

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

Interesting, PNG does appear to be a bitmap format. Wonder how
Macromedia does it, as Fireworks files are stored in PNG format and yet
include vector elements.

All I want is to find a vector graphics format I can use to store
vector graphic images in PPT presentations that will open and work well
on both OS X and PC computers.

Ungrouping imported objects (the only suggestion so far) is not the
solution, as it doesn't work consistently or all the time. Nor it
seems is PNG.

Any other ideas how to do this?

Regards

Gavin Lawrie

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Except that ungrouping objects causes wierdness sometimes when they are
not created by MS applications in first place.

Exactly. And in years and years of running a slide service bureau that dealt
with mostly PPT files, we learned that you could count on it: it it caused
trouble in any other way, it'd go goofy when you ungrouped it. Turned around
t'other way, ungrouping is your early warning system. If it snarls at you when
you ungrouped it (at a time of YOUR convenience) it'd almost certainly have
bitten you at the most inconvenient possible time later.

Well it can be - PNG is the native file format for FireWorks files -
which includes vector and bit-map layers seemingly without difficulty.

PNG doesn't contain vector information. Bitmaps may be stored in PNG format
internally within FireWorks files, but that doesn't mean the PNG format itself
stores vectors.

Perhaps I'm missing something, or maybe ppt doesn't treat PNG properly?

In what sense? The thread's about vector graphics. Where does PNG come into
it?


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Forgetting PNG for a moment....

We use 'Enhanced Metafile' on XP as this seems to work well, but many of these

don't work so well in Mac

What problems are you seeing on your macs with EMFs (enhanced windows metafiles)......

Cheers
TAJ