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Cross Platform PowerPoint - Windows, Macintosh
by Geetesh Bajaj
...Continued from Page
1 3. Images
4. Objects and Tables
5. Transitions
and Animation
6. Narration and Audio
Continued on Page 3...
3. Images
Avoid using Macintosh
PICT images. They do not
transfer well into Windows
versions of PowerPoint.
Use bitmap files, such as
JPEG and PNG formats, for
images. PNG is the format
PowerPoint uses natively.
The JPEG format also works
well for images and is recognized
on both platforms.
The Mac versions of
PowerPoint ship with special
photo effects that were
originally part of Microsoft’s
abandoned PhotoDraw program
on the Windows side.
Regardless, any Mac presentation
file that contains
images with these effects
can be moved to any version
of PowerPoint for
Windows and all the special
effects will remain intact.
The only caveat is that you
cannot apply these effects to
images once the presentation
has been moved into a
Windows version of
PowerPoint.
4. Objects and Tables
Most embedded objects in
PowerPoint presentations
created on Windows do not
translate well within a Mac
version of PowerPoint. For
instance, if an embedded
Word document or Excel
spreadsheet has accentuated
characters, these may not
appear in a cross-platform
presentation. Rather than
embedding these files
(Word, Excel, PDF, etc.), use
hyperlinks to link them to
the presentation file. Make
sure these files remain in
the same folder as the
PowerPoint presentation.
Some file formats (such as
Microsoft Visio and CAD)
may not translate well. In
these cases, you can often
convert the files to an image
or PDF file within their
native applications. These
newly converted files can
then be linked into the
PowerPoint file, and will be
recognized and displayed
correctly on either platform.
Microsoft Word tables and
Excel spreadsheets pasted
inside PowerPoint can cause
cross-platform problems. Either redo the table using
PowerPoint’s
native table engine, or create a link to
the Word or Excel document.
5. Transitions
and Animation
All older PowerPoint versions
(before 2002) include
a limited selection of transitions.
All new transitions do
not play in the older
PowerPoint versions on
either platform.
Older Mac versions of
PowerPoint can use
QuickTime transitions in
addition to other transitions.
These transitions cannot be
seen once a PowerPoint file
is transferred to a Windows
machine. Also, PowerPoint
2004 for Mac no longer provides
the option to use
QuickTime transitions.
Motion-path animations
can be found in PowerPoint
2002 or 2003 versions for
Windows, but the feature is
not available in Mac versions.
You can still view
motion-path animations
within PowerPoint 2004 for
Mac, but they cannot be
selected or edited on the Mac.
Animations in PowerPoint
on both platforms were the
same until the arrival of
PowerPoint 2002 for
Windows arrived, which
showcased motion-path animations
and more. Mac
users got a new custom-animation
engine in
PowerPoint 2004 for Mac,
but it does not include support
for Trigger animations.
6. Narration
and Audio
When you link a narration
or sound file in PowerPoint
for Windows, you can still
hear the audio in PowerPoint
for Mac. But the opposite is
not true. PowerPoint for
Windows cannot play back
any linked narrations and sound recorded in Macintosh
versions since Apple computers
use the QuickTime AIFF
format to store the recordings.
Microsoft PowerPoint
for Windows does not support
this format.
If you need to move a
sound file recorded in
PowerPoint 2001 or 2004 for
Mac to a Windows machine,
embed the audio file as part
of the presentation. Luckily,
PowerPoint on both platforms
will embed audio files
by default, unless you
choose to change the settings
(within the Record Narration dialog box) linking
the audio file instead.
MP3 audio files will work
in both Windows and Mac
versions of PowerPoint.
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