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MS Office Forum / General PowerPoint Questions / May 2005looking for PPT annoyances
Hey, all -- I'm working on a book for O'Reilly Media called PowerPoint Annoyances. If you're familiar with Excel Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/durnb or PC Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/8mjk3 or any of the other Annoyances titles, then you're already familiar with the type of format PowerPoint Annoyances will follow. (It's basically "the annoyance" with "the fix" right after. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/excelannoyances/chapter/ch03.pdf has a sample chapter from Excel Annoyances if you're interested.) I've been able to think of a couple hundred annoying things about PPT all on my own <g> -- but I could sure use some help coming up with more! So if there's something in PPT that annoys you, I'd love to know about it. We generally try to keep newsgroup stuff here in the newsgroup, but I'll confess that I'm a bit leery of flooding the newsgroup with everyone's PPT annoyances! So I've set up an email address you can email your annoyances to: ppt.annoyances at-sign gmail.com If you prefer, you can just post them here -- you never know, it could end up being a fun thread! Thanks for your help. -- Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com Wow, I'm amazed. I've only received one email (thanks, David!) and there are no posts to this thread. And here I thought I'd at least get more than the four that the O'Reilly folks got when they posted something like this to some e-list or 'nother... Oh, well. Echo > Hey, all -- > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Echo [MS PPT MVP] > http://www.echosvoice.com I sent this via email, but I'll post it here to help get the ball rolling, so let's roll ... I don't know if you want any that include VBA (I suspect not). Here are a few off the top of my head: 1. Features that change from version to version. For example, I believe that it was PPT 2000 that changed kiosk mode. The change was changed back in 2002. In every version except 2000, files in kiosk mode jump back to the first slide after 5 minutes. In 2000, they don't. 2. On the subject of kiosk mode, it is annoying that you can't control jumping back to the first slide. Why can't I specify that it jumps back after 1 minute or 10 minutes or never. 3. Printing handouts is a major annoyance. There should be a way to pick a larger variety of handout layouts, and why is it that the layouts under Send to Word are totally different than the regular handout layouts. 4. I want to put whatever I want in slide titles, but I can't link to slides with commas in the titles. This is annoying! 5. Printing from the Viewer should provide more options, especially printing handouts. 6. Your announcement has only been out for a few minutes, and I'm sure that you already have a dozen people complaining about automatic layouts. 7. PowerPoint should be able to do anything Word can do in the same way, including grammar check and word count. 8. There must be easier ways to convert Word documents to PowerPoint so a normal looking document (not just ones with Header 1 and Header 2) turns into something more reasonable in PowerPoint. 9. There must be long lists of times that people want to hide or show the cursor when PowerPoint doesn't want to. 10. Can we individually control the "Loop continuously until Escape" feature of a custom show (independent from the main slide show)? This is fun, but I don't think all of these have solutions, so I'm not sure you can put them in your book. Good luck. --David  SignatureDavid M. Marcovitz Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology Loyola College in Maryland Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_ http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/ > Wow, I'm amazed. I've only received one email (thanks, David!) and > there are no posts to this thread. [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] >> Echo [MS PPT MVP] >> http://www.echosvoice.com Since a colleague was just having this problem (and she looked very annoyed), I'll have to add this one: 11. Anything to do with the smooth operation of sounds, particularly multiple sound files over multiple slides, is really annoying. She had four songs that she wanted to play through 220 slides, but she couldn't get the slides to continue playing and get each of the four songs to play. Thousands of people use PowerPoint to do picture slide shows at weddings, graduations, bar mitzvahs, hernia operations, etc. It should be easy to throw this together. While we're at it: 12. Why did I have to write her a macro to easily insert the pictures and get them sized and centered properly? PowerPoint should do this. The macro was easy for me, but not for most people trying to do this. --David SignatureDavid M. Marcovitz Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology Loyola College in Maryland Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_ http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/ > I sent this via email, but I'll post it here to help get the ball > rolling, so let's roll ... [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > > --David > Since a colleague was just having this problem (and she looked very > annoyed), LOL! <snip> More good ones. Appreciate it. -- Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com Thanks, David! You've come up with a number of annoyances I hadn't already thought of. -- Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com > I sent this via email, but I'll post it here to help get the ball > rolling, so let's roll ... [quoted text clipped - 92 lines] > >> Echo [MS PPT MVP] > >> http://www.echosvoice.com To roll the ball a bit further: Dumb default settings Dumber UI notions (Hiding things on the menu? How in heck is that supposed to make a feature more discoverable)? Anything to do with with PowerPoint's image linking. It's unworkable, it's annoying. Hiding it isn't the answer, MS. FIXING it is. Any problem with an answer that starts out with "The MCI media player in Windows ..." isn't an answer, it's an annoyance. ;-) PPT 2002/3: With a presentation open, click Insert, New Slide. PowerPoint ... umm ... does nothing. Huh? ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ I especially like that last one, Steve. It throws me every time! (But don't you mean when you use File/New as opposed to Insert/New Slide?) Echo > To roll the ball a bit further: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > PPTools: www.pptools.com > ================================================ > I especially like that last one, Steve. It throws me every time! (But don't > you mean when you use File/New as opposed to Insert/New Slide?) All of the above, actually. In PPT2k and previous, you could use Tools, Options, View and have it give you a new slide dialog that let you choose the autolayout you wanted. No longer there. You get what it gives you. Don't like it? Heh: choose Format, Slide Layout and ... nothing. Another one! And Format, Slide Design, while we're at it. Yeah the Tsk Pane changes if it's set some other way, but if it's already where it wants to be, then you choose something from a menu and nothing happens. How do you spell "Flies in the face of everything MS has been teaching users to do since Windows Version 1?" </rant> Sorry. > Echo > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > PPTools: www.pptools.com > > ================================================ ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ Animated text that looks like the dog couldn't digest it. Text in exported bitmaps that looks like the dog ate it at the same time as the animated text. ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ My top annoyances...any maybe there are answers already. Inserting images needs a shortcut key. Ctrl-D would be nice (matches Adobe products) Blurry screen captures. Anti-aliasing by default. (I believe I can overcome this by inserting very high-rez images, but that introduces other problems) As I'm working on notes in the notes pane, there's no keyboard command to go to the next slide. I have to grab the mouse to see the next slide. MS is normally great about keyboard shortcuts, but this one would be very handy to me. John O Echo...does O'Reilly still ask authors to use that amazing Word template full of styles? > My top annoyances...any maybe there are answers already. > > Inserting images needs a shortcut key. Ctrl-D would be nice (matches > Adobe products) Oh well. Since Adobe uses it, that pretty much guarantees that Microsoft won't:-) --David SignatureDavid M. Marcovitz Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology Loyola College in Maryland Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_ http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/ Good ones, JohnO. Thank you! Re > Echo...does O'Reilly still ask authors to use that amazing Word template > full of styles? Oyeah <g> Echo > My top annoyances...any maybe there are answers already. > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Echo...does O'Reilly still ask authors to use that amazing Word template > full of styles? File corruption and files disappearing. People do stupid things, but the last saved version of the file should still work unless it has been deleted. --David SignatureDavid M. Marcovitz Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology Loyola College in Maryland Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_ http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/ > File corruption and files disappearing. People do stupid things, but the > last saved version of the file should still work unless it has been > deleted. Yeah, that's definitely annoying. I'd add the whole font embedding thing (for PPT 2003) to that as well! Echo Echo, After all the help you and others have given us, the least we can do is help you one this small (for us) task. I get irritated when I want to enlarge the type size on the slide and have to click the slide bar to drop down more size choices. Why must the size you already have be the largest one shown in the listing unless you make a useless click to the slide bar to go bigger. Going smaller is fine since it shows thesmaller listing OK. Just lazy I guess but it is ridiculous to not expand the listing on the drop down to show everything available at once. Talon >Hey, all -- > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > >Thanks for your help. Thanks, Talon! That's a good one I hadn't thought of. Appreciate it. -- Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com > Echo, > After all the help you and others have given us, the least we can do [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > > >Thanks for your help. Echo..don't forget my problem with high contrast/background..it was *very* annoying... Worse yet, there was abolutely no documentation, at least that I could find, on how to fix it. Until you mentioned it, I had no clue that was it. SignatureJoe Fisher Teacher, K-8 Marion, MT Oh, yeah. That one will definitely be in there! (Really glad we got that one figured out, too!) Echo > Echo..don't forget my problem with high contrast/background..it was *very* > annoying... [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Teacher, K-8 > Marion, MT I'll throw a dozen in... 1) That #!%&#! AutoCorrect-Automatic Layout for Inserted Objects option!!! 2) No keyboard shortcut for starting the show on the current slide (like F5). 3) No intuitive method to access the full-screen outline view. It's no longer in the menu or view icons (unless you know the shift+ctrl+sorter trick). 4) You can't make tab settings per line. 5) That #!%&#! AutoCorrect-Automatic Layout for Inserted Objects option!!! 6) You can't send to Word as PowerPoint greyscale/bw. 7) Pasting Web-snarfed graphics defaults as HTML object, which can import unwanted code. 8) Moving or copying an AutoShape via the mouse using shift, for linear restriction, many times causes the AutoShape to incorporate a text frame upon release. (And, I know of no way short of vba to restore it, not even undo.) 9) You can't loop or repeat a group of custom animations. 10) There's no native control to copy a custom animation. 11) Ungrouping an animated grouped object looses the animation and regrouping does not restore the animation effect. 12) That #!%&#! AutoCorrect-Automatic Layout for Inserted Objects option!!! -Gregg Thanks, Gregg! You hit on some of my "favorite" annoyances -- and then some! Appreciate it. Echo > I'll throw a dozen in... > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > -Gregg > 2) No keyboard shortcut for starting the show on the current slide > (like F5). Shift+F5 in PPT 2003 > 3) No intuitive method to access the full-screen outline view. It's no > longer in the menu or view icons (unless you know the shift+ctrl+sorter > trick). You can add the outline view to the menu 1. Tools | Customize... 2. Activate the 'Commands' tab. 3. Select 'View' under categories. 4. Dray 'Outline' to the menu bar. 5. Click on Close. Check out the commands in the customize dialog, lot of hidden gems in there. > 6) You can't send to Word as PowerPoint greyscale/bw. It's not annoyance. It's a crime. It's broken many existing apps. SignatureRegards, Shyam Pillai Animation Carbon: http://skp.mvps.org/ac/ > -Gregg > > 2) No keyboard shortcut for starting the show on the current slide > > (like F5). > > Shift+F5 in PPT 2003 Sweet! I was not aware they added that to 2003. That's great, and thanks for pointing that out because I'm about to move to 2003 next week. I look forward to enjoying having that command. > > 3) No intuitive method to access the full-screen outline view. It's no > > longer in the menu or view icons (unless you know the shift+ctrl+sorter [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > 4. Dray 'Outline' to the menu bar. > 5. Click on Close. Right. It didn't take me long to hunt that down and put it on my toolbar when I first moved to 2002. I've just seen others struggle with it. Thanks for the info, Shyam. My number one! I should be able to disable any and ALL macro warnings on MY machine. > My number one! > > I should be able to disable any and ALL macro warnings on MY machine. Yeah, I feel that way m'self! Echo Hi Echo, From a user's perspective: 1. PPT2002/2003: Task pane - A good feature in PPT 2002/2003 but lacks keyboard support. Try changing the layout, design, color scheme etc using the keyboard. 2. PPT2002/2003: File | New... does not apart from bringing up the Task pane for New Presentation while the short-cut (Ctrl + N) opens a new presentation. 3. PPT2002/2003: Cannot view all comments in PPT 2002/2003 each needs to be clicked on to display it or use of buttons on the 'Reviewing' toolbar. 4. PPT2002/2003: Lack of keyboard support to switch between comments. 5. PPT2002/2003: Cannot set the default to 'Copy with source formatting' while copying slides. Will post more when I run into them. SignatureRegards, Shyam Pillai Toolbox: http://skp.mvps.org/toolbox > Hey, all -- > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > Echo [MS PPT MVP] > http://www.echosvoice.com > 5. PPT2002/2003: Cannot set the default to 'Copy with source formatting' > while copying slides. Yeah Baby.... that's a big one.... across ALL office software TAJ Thanks, Shyam. Some good ones in there... Echo > Hi Echo, > [quoted text clipped - 46 lines] > > Echo [MS PPT MVP] > > http://www.echosvoice.com You know how PPT wants to snap an object to the edges of the slide? That's always been an annoyance to me. The snap commands don't control that action and I've found no way to defeat it, except to zoom in when working that close to the edge. The CTRL+wheel works well for that. -Gregg Thanks, Gregg. That's a good one. (Try the ALT button to override it.) -- Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com > You know how PPT wants to snap an object to the edges of the slide? > That's always been an annoyance to me. The snap commands don't control > that action and I've found no way to defeat it, except to zoom in when > working that close to the edge. The CTRL+wheel works well for that. > > -Gregg "Gregg" <greggbeck2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:1117528541.767603.274930@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com... > > You know how PPT wants to snap an object to the edges of the slide? > > That's always been an annoyance to me. The snap commands don't control > > that action and I've found no way to defeat it, except to zoom in when > > working that close to the edge. The CTRL+wheel works well for that. > (Try the ALT button to override it.) Thanks. I tried that and it seems to resort to snap to grid, which gets me closer to the edge, but still not free positioning. Zooming in appears to be the best solution for that detailed work. Problem with zooming in is that it doesn't always zoom in on the area I need to see. I overcome that by quickly placing a box where I want to zoom and then use the CTRL+wheel, which then zooms to that spot, and then delete the box. |
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