questions about MS OFfice for Mac OS X

[esj3]

I am using Microsoft Office V. X for Mac OS X, specifically Powerpoint. I
notice that there is no support for the following:

- motion paths
- limited customization of the timing of graphic effects (for example, you
cannot insert a pause after an effect is displayed, only before)
- customizing the order of effects (once you "insert" an effect, it can only
be added or removed, not re-ordered)

Is there a way to gain access to these features? Is there an update I can
install? If I save a PP Presentation with motion paths on a PC version of MS
PP and then try to play it on the Mac version, will it work? Am I missing
something?

Thanks,
Eric Jaffe

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Eric,

Motion paths are a new feature of PowerPoint 2004. To use them you will
need to upgrade. Motion paths that are put into PowerPoint 2004 will
not display in earlier versions of PowerPoint except for PowerPoint 2003
for Windows (some of them might work in PowerPoint XP for Windows).

Motion paths created in Mac PowerPoint 2004 work in Windows PowerPoint
2003 and vice-versa.

PowerPoint 2004 does not have a GUI for creating or editing motion
paths, but it will honor visual basic commands for creating and
controlling motion paths. I put a link and a code sample in a different
message you posted.

When you set the "timing" for an effect to play, you are correct in that
the amount of time is the time elapsed before the effect will play. That
covers all situations that I can think of since any subsequent effect
has it's own timing as well.

In PowerPoint v.X click the "Order and Timing" button in the custom
animation dialog box to change the order of animations. In PowerPoint
2004 that functionality is available in the main custom animation dialog.

-Jim