Possible Mac Office 2004 SP????

[Michael Grant]

I know MS won't answer this question directly, even though it would be
nice to know their plans. Does anyone know how long it typically takes
for MS to come out with Service Packs or updates for their Mac Office
products? I'm new to Office Mac 2004 so I don't have a history. But I
find the 2004 version of Powerpoint to almost un-usable due to
performance issues. If the other apps, haven't used them yet, are
anything like Powerpoint, then I will have to hold off on using and
recommending MS Office Mac to my friends.

The real issue is screen updates, redraws, and just general usability
of the interface because it is so slow. I'm coming from the Windows
version 2003 and the performance difference between Windows Powerpoint
and the new Mac version are night and day. I went back to my old
Windows laptop for a recent business trip because PPT was just so much
snappier on Windows than on the Mac. Makes me very sad since I want to
support the MS mac business unit.

Mac Powerpoint 2004 needs a MAJOR overhaul to bring it 'up to speed'
with the current Windows version. I would encourage QA people at
Microsoft Mac BU to sit down with Windows Office and Mac Office and
use them side by side. Performance should be part of the quality
cycle. They really missed this one.

There are LOT'S of other issues which also need addressing but the big
ones omissions are Motion Paths (where are they???) and Quicktime
playback features (controls, full screen playback for example). QT is
very powerful and MS should be leveraging it extensively in ways that
they ARE NOT. For example, when I save a Mac authored PPT file, I
should be able to set a flag to generate a Windows compatible file
copy. Mac PPT would take all the embedded graphics, and QT movies and
convert them into compatible Windows versions (QT does this for you MS
- just have it convert the movies to AVI) along with preserving all
the links. Compatibility Report is a nice idea, but I don't want to
have to spend LOTS of EXTRA time tweaking files on both platforms. PPT
should do it for me.

Interested in other comments people have. BTW: I'm using a dual G4
Powermac 800mhz and a 1.3gh Powerbook G4.

thanks Microsoft for listening.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Michael,

Ordinarily posts to newsgroups are not read by Microsoft employees, but
because the recent introduction of Office 2004 they are reading these
groups, so your comments will likely be noticed by someone from
Microsoft even if they don't respond in the newsgroups.

Although Office 2004 has been available for a while in the US, it is
being introduced in phases around the world. Each language requires a
localization process, marketing, etc, which takes time. Meanwhile, bugs
and problems are identified, recorded, quantified and prioritized. Once
the initial roll-out is made, then the developers can address the issues
and requests that arrived in the meanwhile. Then it takes more time to
figure out how to fix what's broken, test the cures, and then finally
release an update. There's no crystal ball available, so there's no way
to tell how long it will take to complete the bug release cycle. Plus
there's the whole issue of testing everything in Tiger. There's a lot to
be done, so it will probably take a few months at least. I have no
inside information about the process, but I hope what I just typed seems
reasonable and plausible.

Given the number of complaints about PowerPoint performance, I'm sure
they will look at optimizing things like re-draw and QuickTime playback.

In order to convert QuickTime to AVI you need to have QuickTime Pro,
which Apple sells for about $30. QuickTime Player does not have that
capability, so PowerPoint can't count on it. Maybe an Applescript could
automate the process. Are there any AppleScripters out there willing to
give this a try?

It seems you didn't notice in Compatibility Report that you can "Fix
All" the incompatibilities of one kind at once. For example, if you
rotated a picture on 10 different slides, you need to select just one
instance of the incompatibility in the Compatibility Report, then choose
"Fix All" to fix the problem all at once on all 10 slides of the
presentation. It sounds like you're making a feature request that you
could "Fix All" and do just that - fix *all* the incompatibilites at
once. Sounds like a good idea to me, too.

PowerPoint 2004 supports motion paths mostly but not completely. If a
presentation was made in PPT 2003 the paths will play as specified.
There are some animations in PPT 2004 that have built-in motion paths
that are pre-set (same as windows PPT). You can use Visual Basic to
control PPT 2004 motion paths. The one thing that MacBU didn't have time
to complete is the graphical user interface (GUI) that lets you set
motion paths on screen. Most of the behind the scenes work is done. But
getting a GUI so you can control motion paths will require people
requesting it a lot. It's not going to be a quick and simple thing to
build that particular GUI, that's for sure. I sent in my own request for
the GUI, but I'm just once voice. That's what the feedback feature on
PPT's help menu is for.

I'm glad you posted your message. It was well thought out. I hope others
who have thoughts about your comments post their ideas, too.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
MVP FAQ
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>

 

[Bryan Harris]

Hi, Michael,

I've used PPT '04 happily without any of the performance issues you're
seeing. But I have other folks here in my department that find it
unbearably slow... It seems to be very setup-dependent. Does it
perform equally slowly on both of your machines?

Try creating a new user on one of your computers and try running it
under that user. Is it still slow? It could be an interaction with
some third-party software, or possibly some uncommon combination of
settings.

A corrupted font might cause this too...

Sorry I can't be more help.

- B

 

[Michael Grant]

Thanks Bryan. I think 'performance' is a relative concept. Have you
used Windows Powerpoint 2003? If you use it for a length of time you
will see that it is night and day on display and re-draw performance.
Text slides are fine, but the minute you embedd any graphic objects
then things really slow down. I have used PPT mac on my Dual G4 with
1gig of RAM and haven't installed yet on my powerbook because if its
slow on a Dual G4, I can't imagine what its like on a powerbook.

There are many others having the same problem so its hard to imagine
that its configuration dependent. I don't think MS is using graphics
card VRAM so its unlikely that the video card matters much.

I will try what you suggest and create a new user to see the impact.
But that's not really a solution since I need all my other tools and
apps to do work and can't create a 'clean' environment just to run
powerpoint. I have TONS of other apps on both Mac and Windows and the
Windows version of PPT could care less about what else is there. So it
should be for the Mac version. I think there is a general performance
problem with PPT on the mac and MANY other folks are seeing it daily.
Its nice that all the reviews are so positive but I feel like these
reviewers must spend a few minutes playing with the new features and
then saying 'its great!!'

Are you saying that you get redraws on slide sorter that are fast? I
mean nearly instant as is the case on Windows. I have a 30 slide deck
and PPT must render each slide in Sorter mode each time I go to the
sorter. That's JUST BAD DESIGN. Sorry MS, but you can cache things
that don't change so you don't have to redraw every slide every time.

-m

 

[Alfredo M. Saavedra]

I have been using PP (both Office X and Office 2004 for the Mac) for over
two years, and PP for the PC side practically since PowerPoint's inception.
All of my clients are on Office XP.

I create the PP presentations on my Dual 1.25 GHz PM G4 (mirror drive) with
2GB of RAM and 128 of VRAM.

I also have an old Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop (4 years old) with 512 Mb of
RAM that I use for checking for PPT font or graph problems and I run Office
2000 on it.

PowerPoint on the Dell reacts instantaneously, whether it is a 20-slide or a
90-slide presentation and shows all fonts clearly and neatly.

PowerPoint on the Mac has a noticeable drag when typing, takes a while to
redraw (particularly in slide sorter view), doesn't display fonts properly
and is quite sluggish overall. On top of it, it leaves ghosts of text frames
and of guides until I move to a different slide. Nonetheless, I still prefer
to work on the Mac because OSX is a much more pleasurable environment, and,
of course, because I have wide displays to work on...

I have tweaked my Mac as much as I could to extract as much performance as
possible for PowerPoint, but it's been mostly fruitless.

-- AMS