Latest update to Mac Office suite still does not solve display issue in PowerPoint!!!

[elpelso]

Hopefully installing the latest update to the Office suite for Mac, I
was sorely disappointed to note that PowerPoint still does not work
correctly on the Apple 30" Cinema Display at its native resolution of
2560x1600. Images are split in half, the bottom part of the picture
shown at the top of the screen. Downshifting to 1900x1200 "solves" the
problem... Can you get this fixed ASAP, Microsoft ?

 

[r.torensma]

Also the bug in the Mac version of Powerpoint was not solved. Slanted
text made with Windows does look weid when opened with Mac powerpoint.
Remarkably when this windows PPT file is opened in Keynote the text is
ok AND when exported to Powerpoint for the Mac the slanted text is OK.
I asked Microsoft several times to correct this bug but the latest
update still contains this bug.

 

[Andrew Chiang [MSFT]]

Hello,

Can you provide us w/a little more information? Where did you ask us to
"correct this bug"? What do you mean by "Slanted text made with Windows
does look weid when opened with Mac powerpoint"?

When you're referring to "slanted text", are you are referring to an italic
or oblique version of a font? It would be helpful to provide repro steps
such as:
1. Start PowerPoint for Windows version xx SPx
2. Type some text and select it
3. Change font to _____ [please indicate which font]
4. Ctrl+I
5. Save file
6. Open file on Mac PowerPoint xx.x.x

Result:
?

If you're using an oblique or italic version of a font, are you sure that
the exact same font w/the same name exists on the Mac in question? Also, do
Word and Excel exhibit the same behavior?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi,

In order to properly troubleshoot this problem the entire PowerPoint
team including supervisors will need to upgrade their displays to 30"
cinema displays. I bet they would hate to have to do that and be forced
to work on such tiny displays LOL. The world is growing and shrinking
simultaneously. They also want office to work on cell phones.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[elpelso]

Office for Mac has just been upgraded to 11.2.5, and this issue is
still there...

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi again,

Although I tried to be humorous, there is an obvious serious side to
this issue.

It's possible that this bug is not one that is easily fixed without
affecting other things within PowerPoint. If that's the case the
managers would probably decide that the downshifting to a lower display
resolution is an acceptable temporary work-around until they can spend
some time on this.

The programmers are currently most involved in building the next version
of Office. It seems more likely to me that they would take into
consideration the 30" display problem and address it in the new build
rather than worry about the existing build. In a way fixing this problem
is more like a new feature (supporting new hardware) rather than a bug fix.

My lame attempt at humor was intended to show that in today's hardware
environment that the developers have to consider a wider range of
display screen sizes than ever before. From a tiny display on a cell
phone to a massive 30" display the product has to perform well. Up until
now the design has been primarily around 15" to 20" screen displays and
also projectors. Solving the usability and display problems at larger
and smaller screen sizes will need to be addressed.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[elpelso]

Jim,

Your humour is appreciated. However, having shelled out many many
hard-earned dollars for this product, I find the support totally
lacking, and I am completely unforgiving towards the non-resolution of
this issue. Keynote costs 79$ and works perfectly fine. There is a
slight discrepancy there, is there not? I have been an ardent Apple
user since 1986, and while not always perfect, there is presently a
HUGE gap between the fantastic user experience of Apple products and
the general awkwardness of those of Microsoft. And while its
entrenched monopoly will be hard to overcome, never say never...

So, if the programmers at Redmond are working on a new version, that
will mean I get to pay yet more money to get functionality that should
exist today... 30" displays are hardly a new item on the market...

Redmond, are you listening ?

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi again,

Relative to product design life cycles (2 to 5 years) I would say that
30" displays are relatively new. Apple wants to sell their nice displays
and they make great software to go along with their products.

Microsoft doesn't sell 30" display hardware and they have to support
lots of brands of hardware and graphic cards and two very different
operating systems. There's always this thing called "profit" that the
Microsoft folks have to worry about. If supporting 30" displays is
costly and few people are using them, then the product managers have to
decide whether or not 30" screen display is worth the cost for either an
immediate update or wait until a new release later down the line.

In the marketplace the question is always whether or not there is
sufficient demand for a feature such that if the demand is met would
there be a reasonable profit after all costs are taken into account.

For example, Apple could have made keynote cross platform and tried to
go head-to-head against PowerPoint. But they chose not to try this on
the Windows platform realizing that their market is primarily Macintosh
users with different needs and purchasing preferences.

Maybe if enough Windows users were to request Apple to make Keynote
cross-platform (100%) then Apple would make Keynote for Windows. But for
now, that hasn't happened.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[Jim Gordon]

After I wrote I thought a little more about the situation and wondered
why you are willing to chastise Microsoft yet you gave Apple a free ride
concerning charging for Keynote instead of including it with AppleWorks.
Why should someone pay for AppleWorks, get a presentation program, and
then have to pay again for a second presentation program, Keynote?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[elpelso]

Hi Jim,

I never bought AppleWorks, so I cannot comment. Keynote comes with
Pages as the iWork bundle, which at 79 USD is quite a bargain compared
to Office. Include a spreadsheet at some stage, and Office has no
reason to exist on the Mac anymore. Which brings me back to my main
point : Office is expensive, and does not support 30" screens on
PowerPoint. And their support is wholly non-existent. Kinda like
buying a nice fancy car, but the dealer telling you never to come back
for anything, and oh by the way, it only runs on certain model tires,
but we won't mention those on the package. You'll just have to try and
find out... And since I need the car, I'm screwed...

Steven

 

[Jim Gordon]

hmmm....

Right now there's a $50 rebate on the student-teacher edition of
Microsoft Office 2004 which brings the price difference between iWork
and the entire Microsoft Office suite to about $20.

iWork comes with only Pages (bottom end page layout) and Keynote (mac
only presentation program).

$20 gets you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, MS Graph, MS Query, Fonts, Visual
Basic for Applications, Word Basic, Excel Macro language, etc. and it's
all mostly cross-platform Mac & PC. That's quite a bargain by comparison.

If money is your issue you can always get a slightly older but very
functional version of Microsoft Office on eBay or Amazon. Office v.X and
Office 2001 are very serviceable and are vastly more feature rich than
iWork.

If you just hate Microsoft altogether and love Sun Microsystems and self
deprivation you can get OpenOffice in several different flavors for
free. Expect results commensurate with the price.

Still, with iWork you have to buy AppleWorks to get the word processor
and spreadsheet applications and then toss away the presentation portion
of Appleworks. It can cost more for the Apple suite than the Microsoft
suite under certain scenarios.

Condemning PowerPoint because it does not yet support new hardware that
didn't even exist when it was made seems entirely unfair to me.
Requesting a new feature is entirely appropriate in your situation, and
it's not like PowerPoint doesn't work at all. Granted, switching screen
resolutions is a nuisance, but AppleScript could handle that quickly for
you I think. You might explore the possibility of writing a macro that
switches the screen resolution whenever you open PowerPoint and changes
it back when PowerPoint closes.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[elpelso]

This is turning into a wee-ing contest... I didn't mean to get you
started. Point taken on the price, but bad luck if you are neither
teacher nor student...

And I agree switching screen resolutions is a nuisance, mainly because
the large workspace of a 30" allows many items to be displayed
simultaneously. Unfortunately, switching screen resolutions jumbles up
their former positions... So I get to redo the whole workspace every
single time, that is tedious...

Believe me, I don't hate Microsoft, Jim. I just think that they not
always deliver as they should, especially in the support department...
And working on Mac OS X and Windows, I have a very distinct preference,
entirely based on my personal experience.

And as you suggested, and if you are the man to talk to, Jim, can you
please have Microsoft implement support for 30" hardware? Thanks !

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi again,

The MVPs have some influence, but we can't get Microsoft to do anything
in particular that they wouldn't do anyway. None of the MVPs work for
Microsoft. We're just customers like you but we have, in general,
posted lots of helpful (most of the time, anyway) stuff on the web about
Microsoft products.

Easy things are more likely to be implemented over costly, complicated
things. I have no idea whether implement support for 30" displays is
trivial or would require a major re-writing of PowerPoint.

If you poke around this newsgroup you'll find that Microsoft employees
do read it, so chances are pretty good that your comments are being
heard loudly and clearly by the PowerPoint gurus who make the code.

The MVPs know only a few things about the next version. It will have
native XML support, support the same XML file format as Windows
PowerPoint, and it will have some sort of new toolbar/GUI look.

I don't even know if MacBU has a 30" display for their developers to
use. But I'm sure your postings will give them a good reason to go get
at least one!

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

 

[elpelso]

Thanks Jim, for all the info... I do appreciate you taking the time
and effort to enlighten me... I really do.

And if Microsoft cannot afford the gorgeous Apple displays, maybe they
can get the cheaper Dell one...

Best regards,

Steven