Just a simple question... is Microsoft a little retarded?

[Dawgma]

When printing a PowerPoint presentation that uses shapes with gradients on a
postscript printer, the gradients either show up as solid colors, or the
shapes become completely transparent!

Is Microsoft just a little retarded for having drawing tools that don't work
properly upon printing? Couldn't they have added an options where, if you
try to print, all shapes are converted to PNG's temporarily before
printing??? Because that would have worked swell...

*sigh* I have hundreds and hundreds of slides that need to be printed...
each one has unique shapes on all of them. I don't feel like going to each
slide, selecting the shape, converting it to a PNG just tp print...

Does anyone know of a way to automatically convert all shapes to PNG files
for better printing?

 

[SupportX]

Is Microsoft just a little retarded

Hi, Don't know anything about you, but, if I were to be asked to fingerpoint who is the retarted one, between a multi Billion Dollar company that changed the world for ever, and a fat ass user who thinks the world is his. Guess who I'd point to?
(Hint... not the $B company...)

 

[Urpiano Cedazo]

Hi:

You can export the slides as PNGs with a macro like this:

Sub ExportPGN()

Application.ActivePresentation.SaveAs "C:\Folder", ppSaveAsPNG

End Sub


--
Un Saludo
Urpiano Cedazo





Y fue Dawgma ([email protected]) quien en el mensaje
(e-mail address removed), planeando sobre su
teclado, hizo un picado y tecleó:

 

[John Wilson]

Maybe not the smart way to get help but what the hell!

This is straight off the top of my head so not elegant or error trapped.
Make sure you use a copy of your file! It should search out all gradient
filled shapes and replace them with pngs

'*******************code starts
Sub pinger()
Dim osld As Slide
Dim oshp As Shape
Dim Izord As Integer
Dim Itop As Integer
Dim Ileft As Integer
For Each osld In ActivePresentation.Slides
For Each oshp In osld.Shapes
If oshp.Fill.Type = msoFillGradient Then
Izord = oshp.ZOrderPosition
Itop = oshp.Top
Ileft = oshp.Left
oshp.Cut
ActiveWindow.View.PasteSpecial (ppPastePNG)
With ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange
..Top = Itop
..Left = Ileft
Do Until .ZOrderPosition = Izord
..ZOrder (msoSendBackward)
Loop
End With
End If
Next oshp
Next osld
End Sub
'****************ends
--

Did that answer the question / help?
_____________________________
John Wilson
Microsoft Certified Office Specialist
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk/ppttipshome.html

 

[John Wilson]

Ahh it also doesnt work!!
I'll be back
--

_____________________________
John Wilson
Microsoft Certified Office Specialist
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk/ppttipshome.html

 

[Sandy]

Hello Dawgma,

If you are printing in Black & White you can eliminate your problem by
changing your grayscale settings. Go to View > Color/Grayscale. Change your
settings to Grayscale and the problem goes away. You will have to do this for
each slide that contains the troublesome objects.

 

[Dawgma]

I'm looking forward to it!

Ahh it also doesnt work!!
I'll be back
--

_____________________________
John Wilson
Microsoft Certified Office Specialist
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk/ppttipshome.html

 

[Dawgma]

Your so funny!

Hi, Don't know anything about you, but, if I were to be asked to fingerpoint who is the retarted one, between a multi Billion Dollar company that changed the world for ever, and a fat ass user who thinks the world is his. Guess who I'd point to?
(Hint... not the $B company...)

 

[Dawgma]

Okay!

So now I have 165 PNG images sitting in a folder... Can you suggest how I
would print all of these? (easily)

 

[Dawgma]

Thanks!

I am looking for full color prints of the presentation, however.

 

[Echo S]

Dunno how well this will print, but I'd File|Save As and save the
presentation as PNG. Then I'd use a batch importer to reinsert the images
into a new presentation. Then print.

PPTools Protect was designed to do pretty much this sequence of steps.
(export as images, reinsert into new file)
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/protect/index.html

 

[John Wilson]

Try this (still not elegant!)
--
Sub pinger()
Dim osld As Slide
Dim oshp As Shape
Dim Izord As Integer
Dim Itop As Integer
Dim Ileft As Integer
Dim shID As Integer
For Each osld In ActivePresentation.Slides
For Each oshp In osld.Shapes
If oshp.Fill.Type = msoFillGradient Then
Izord = oshp.ZOrderPosition
Itop = oshp.Top
Ileft = oshp.Left
oshp.Cut
osld.Shapes.PasteSpecial (ppPastePNG)
shID = osld.Shapes.Count
With osld.Shapes(shID)
..Top = Itop
..Left = Ileft
Do Until .ZOrderPosition = Izord
..ZOrder (msoSendBackward)
Loop
End With
End If
Next oshp
Next osld
End Sub

Did that answer the question / help?
_____________________________
John Wilson
Microsoft Certified Office Specialist
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk/ppttipshome.html

 

[Dawgma]

Unfortunately, no.

I tried running he macro in my large presentation, and afterwards I checked
the print preview, and still the solid boxes were there. I also tried
running the macro in powerpoint files with just one slide, but the objects
did not turn into PNGs and I was still able to adjust their properties like
any other object.

thanks anyway.

 

[Dawgma]

This works nicely! Thank you.

Dunno how well this will print, but I'd File|Save As and save the
presentation as PNG. Then I'd use a batch importer to reinsert the images
into a new presentation. Then print.

PPTools Protect was designed to do pretty much this sequence of steps.
(export as images, reinsert into new file)
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/protect/index.html

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

When printing a PowerPoint presentation that uses shapes with gradients on
a
postscript printer, the gradients either show up as solid colors, or the
shapes become completely transparent!

Is Microsoft just a little retarded for having drawing tools that don't
work
properly upon printing? Couldn't they have added an options where, if you
try to print, all shapes are converted to PNG's temporarily before
printing??? Because that would have worked swell...

*sigh* I have hundreds and hundreds of slides that need to be printed...
each one has unique shapes on all of them. I don't feel like going to
each
slide, selecting the shape, converting it to a PNG just tp print...

Does anyone know of a way to automatically convert all shapes to PNG files
for better printing?

 

[jay m]

This may be a dumb question, but did you play with parameters of
printer and print drivers?
Does it print ok to another printer?

Another workaround/end play: Try outputting it to PDF and printing the
PDF.
Is your PS printer capable of printing gradients from other
applications?

If the presentation isn't too fancy, you could try opening and printing
from OpenOffice.

Cheers
Jay