FYI: Office 2004 Service Pack 1

[TAJ Simmons]

Just a heads up.

I keep seeing a lot of people posting about problems with powerpoint 2004 on the mac.

This service release for office 2004 seems to address 3 of them.

See "Improvements for PowerPoint 2004 for Mac"

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=883951

=== from that page ===
. Performance is improved when you play movies in a slide show When you play a movie in a slide show, performance
is improved, resulting in movies playing more smoothly in most cases.
. Compatibility with fonts is improved Compatibility with fonts is improved, resulting in better overall
appearance of fonts. Font compatibility includes Open Type fonts, symbol fonts, and fonts used in presentations created
in other versions of PowerPoint.
. Dragging objects on a slide works correctly when the ruler is turned on When you drag an object on your slide
and the ruler is turned on, the object now remains in the position where you put it.

===

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com

 

[Bill Swartout]

With the update, I found that embedded movie performance was better, but
still not as good as PPT v.X -Bill

 

[Greg Pinelo]

Me too. Still some stutters. Still acceptable. Very disappolnting.

 

[John Perez]

I'm finding the same results - SR1 DOES improves QuickTime
performance, but it's STILL NOT AS GOOD as in Powerpoint X.


Also the QUALITY of the Quicktime video is being degraded by
Powerpoint 2004. My movies look fantastic in Powerpoint X and in
QuickTime player (768x576 25fps using Photo-JPEG and DV CODEC's), but
when played in Powerpoint 2004 look 'blocky' (you can see
Macro-blocking artefacts as if the video was compressed with the old
CinePak CDOEC). Somehow Powerpoint 2004 is degrading the quality.
Trust me, I know what I'm doing when it comes to compressing video and
Powerpoint 2004 is at fault.


My Mac's are not at fault either. I've recreated the problem on two
test systems - a G5 DP 1.8Gig desktop and 17" G4 1.5Gig Powerbook
runningQT 6.51 and OS X10.3.5 (the G5 was a clean install).


This situation is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE and sending out a very clear
message from the MBU - they don't care. Every other message on this
site refers to Powerpoint 2004 Quicktime performance (or lack of it)
and it still has not been fully addressed!!!!!!!

I'm really screwed by this and won't (can't) upgrade to Office 2004
until the QuickTime issues with Powerpoint 2004 are addressed. My gut
feeling is this will be a LOOOOONG wait.

I'm so unhappy and disappointed. What does everyone else think?

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

(e-mail address removed) (John Perez) wrote in

This situation is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE and sending out a very clear
message from the MBU - they don't care. Every other message on this
site refers to Powerpoint 2004 Quicktime performance (or lack of it)
and it still has not been fully addressed!!!!!!!

I just want to note that the participants in this newsgroup are not
employees of Microsoft. Microsoft may or may not monitor the contents of
this newsgroup. The number of complaints here certainly indicates a
serious problem, but don't expect Microsoft to respond to something here.
They should hear from you directly. I hope that all the people here that
are bothered by this are also forwarding their comments to Microsoft.
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

 

[GregPins]

Oops, I meant still unnacceptable. Wouldn't dream of using it in a
client presentation.