PwrPnt'04: Guides are buggy

[Jonathan L Jacobs]

BUG

Using the Guides to snap on screen objects in-line works great in PwrPnt X.
However, there are some issues in PwrPnt 2004.

1. Sometimes two guides appear for each axes, but only 1 set is actually
usable.
2. if Guides are enabled and you scroll around a large slide (e.g. 42" x 36"
poster) then guides, which should be visible based on the ruler, disappear.
Using the <cmd>-G keyboard short cut makes them appear, but they are not
usable. <cmd>-G again makes them disappear, but if you carefully click in
the right spot you can grab one and drag it to a new ruler position. It's as
if they become out of sync with on/off vs. visible/invisible (if that makes
any sense). Is this a problem with my video card (not likely)?
3. Objects snapped to guides do not end up where you drag them too or
snapped at the correct position along the guide.

Ciao.


--
Jonathan Jacobs
PhD Candidate
(e-mail address removed)

University of Maryland
2135 Microbiology Bldg.
Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics
College Park, MD 20742

SPECS: Mac OS X (10.3.4); Dual Power Mac G4, 1.4 Ghz; 1.5 GB memory, ATI
128MB video; Cinema Display 21"; Super Drive DVD-R; INTERNAL 120 GB HD
(journaled HFS+); EXTERNAL LaCie FW800 120GB HD (journaled HFS+).

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Jonathan,

It sounds like you may have discovered a real bug here.

You should report the bug to Microsoft using the feedback feature from
PowerPoint's help menu. Although there's a chance someone from Microsoft
will find your posting here in the newsgroup, you can be sure that the bug
will be tracked if you use the feedback feature.

Thanks.

-Jim
--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Joshua LeVasseur]

I can duplicate this bug too (at least the parts I've tried).

-Josh

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Josh,

Please read my reply to Jonathan, then take a moment to report your
experience to Microsoft using PowerPoint's Help menu feedback feature.

Thanks.

-Jim

 

[Joshua LeVasseur]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the attention. I posted my bug experiences to the news group
to provide honest information to us users. If I had known about the
bugs in the first place, I wouldn't have purchased Office 2004. My copy
of Office X has never crashed on me, and I'll probably have to switch
back so that I needn't waste time working around the bugs. I'm rather
surprised that all the reviews in the press ignore the bugs. Do they
not try the product before writing the reviews, or do they not
experience the bugs themselves? It must be that such basic bugs are a
result of my environment, and thus the developers and reviewers were
unaware of them.

So for me, Office 2004 will collect dust until Microsoft releases an update.

-Josh

Hi Josh,

Please read my reply to Jonathan, then take a moment to report your
experience to Microsoft using PowerPoint's Help menu feedback feature.

Thanks.

-Jim


Quoting from "Joshua LeVasseur" <[email protected]>, in article
[email protected], on [DATE:

I can duplicate this bug too (at least the parts I've tried).

-Josh

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Josh,

After having worked with Office 2004 for a long time and then reading the
reviews, my impression is that most of them are written by users of Windows
office. They read the little blurb supplied for reviewers, look at one or
two things that grab their attention, complain there's not much new then go
back to their Windows world.

Office 2004 had just about every feature changed in some way or other. Some
changes were very minor. Others were huge. Some changes are not readily
apparent.

A few bugs will get by no matter what when there's a major update. Sometimes
a bug is created or discovered late in the development process and there's
not enough time to fix it before release time. Once in a while a bug only
surfaces when a specific combination of events occurs but otherwise it is
not seen - so it can easily get by the testing process.

Of course if the bug is "your" bug in the sense that it affects your
workflow, that's a bad thing. In that situation all you can do is report it
and then hope that others report it too so that it gets priority when bug
fix is released.

One thing you can be sure of is that Microsoft would like PowerPoint 2004 to
be the most bug-free product they have ever released and that they will work
very hard to get rid of the bugs that are reported.

Meanwhile, if the bug affects a feature that is critical to you about all
you can do is what you said - go back a version and wait till the fix is
released. Not a great solution, but at least your not out of business
altogether.

-Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the attention. I posted my bug experiences to the news group
to provide honest information to us users. If I had known about the
bugs in the first place, I wouldn't have purchased Office 2004. My copy
of Office X has never crashed on me, and I'll probably have to switch
back so that I needn't waste time working around the bugs. I'm rather
surprised that all the reviews in the press ignore the bugs. Do they
not try the product before writing the reviews, or do they not
experience the bugs themselves? It must be that such basic bugs are a
result of my environment, and thus the developers and reviewers were
unaware of them.

So for me, Office 2004 will collect dust until Microsoft releases an update.

-Josh

Hi Josh,

Please read my reply to Jonathan, then take a moment to report your
experience to Microsoft using PowerPoint's Help menu feedback feature.

Thanks.

-Jim


Quoting from "Joshua LeVasseur" <[email protected]>, in article
[email protected], on [DATE:

I can duplicate this bug too (at least the parts I've tried).

-Josh



-----Original Message-----
BUG

Using the Guides to snap on screen objects in-line works great in PwrPnt

X.

However, there are some issues in PwrPnt 2004.

1. Sometimes two guides appear for each axes, but only 1 set is actually
usable.
2. if Guides are enabled and you scroll around a large slide (e.g. 42" x
36"
poster) then guides, which should be visible based on the ruler, disappear.
Using the <cmd>-G keyboard short cut makes them appear, but they are

not

usable. <cmd>-G again makes them disappear, but if you carefully click in
the right spot you can grab one and drag it to a new ruler position. It's
as
if they become out of sync with on/off vs. visible/invisible (if that makes
any sense). Is this a problem with my video card (not likely)?
3. Objects snapped to guides do not end up where you drag them too or
snapped at the correct position along the guide.

Ciao.


--
Jonathan Jacobs
PhD Candidate
(e-mail address removed)

University of Maryland
2135 Microbiology Bldg.
Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics
College Park, MD 20742

SPECS: Mac OS X (10.3.4); Dual Power Mac G4, 1.4 Ghz; 1.5 GB memory,

ATI

128MB video; Cinema Display 21"; Super Drive DVD-R; INTERNAL 120 GB

HD

(journaled HFS+); EXTERNAL LaCie FW800 120GB HD (journaled HFS+).






.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info