James Gordon(pictured to the left) has
been a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) since 2000 and
can be found in the Microsoft Macintosh newsgroups for Excel, PowerPoint
and Word. PowerPoint users will recognize Jim as the creator of
InsertPicture add-in for Macintosh. He has made other add-ins and
templates for Excel, PowerPoint and Word and is knowledgeable about
graphs and mail merge. At SUNY University at Buffalo, Jim works
helping faculty, staff and instructors with a wide array of technologies
for higher education.
Geetesh:
Please tell us more about yourself, and your InsertPicture PowerPoint
add-in.
James:
Although PowerPoint is a program that started off on the Mac
and was ported to Windows, each platform offers a different
feature set. On the PC version there’s a capability
to insert a folder’s worth of pictures all at once.
The Mac PowerPoint team never put this capability into PowerPoint,
but because Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
is supported on both Mac and PC I was able to create an add-in
with similar yet enhanced functionality for the Mac.
Geetesh:
How does your add-in differ from Windows
PowerPoint’s Insert Photo Album feature?
James:
I wanted to expand upon the Windows functionality. The InsertPicture
Mac add-in allows for a greater choice of sources. You
can directly insert pictures from a scanner or camera.
The add-in lets you add a random animation to a folder
full of pictures, add a border, put all the imported
pictures onto a single slide, and can put the file name
onto the slide or into the slides notes or slide footer.
Geetesh:
Does PowerPoint on the Mac platform integrate well
with other Mac programs?
James:
In PowerPoint on the Mac, you can use File | Make Movie
to save any presentation as a QuickTime movie. The movie file
can then be incorporated into iMovie, iDVD, QuickTime Pro,
and even Final Cut. Likewise, QuickTime objects can be inserted
into PowerPoint slides using the Movie Toolbar (View | Toolbars
| Movies).
For example, to turn a presentation into a movie suitable
for Google Video or YouTube just use File | Make
Movie. A bug in YouTube doesn’t recognize movies made
by PowerPoint. To get around this, open the movie in QuickTime
Pro, and then export it as a QuickTime movie (I know – it
already was a QuickTime movie). YouTube will accept the result
this time.
To make a PowerPoint presentation suitable for your cell
phone use File | Make Movie. Then open the movie in QuickTime
Pro and export in 3g format.
Geetesh:
What PowerPoint features you think Mac users would
find useful, but are not well known.
James:
PowerPoint’s toolbars can easily be customized. (View |
Toolbars | Customize
Toolbars/Menus). When the Customize window is open, you can add,
remove, and move any command to or from any toolbar or menu.
You can make totally new toolbars with your own favorites on
them. You can also click the Reset button if you think you’ve
made a mess and want to start over on the stock toolbars.
When
in the Customize window click the Commands button. Here are
some of my favorite commands that I drag to my PowerPoint
standard toolbars:
Project Gallery (Mac only)
File Close
Send
to Mail Recipient as Attachment
Animation Preview (Mac
only)
Cutout (Mac only. Uses the selection tools on
PowerPoint’s built-in Picture toolbar, which are
also Mac-only)
Set
up show
Slide Show In a Window (plays slideshow in
a window instead of taking the entire screen. Lets you
run the show while other applications are running).
Geetesh:
What have you heard about upcoming PowerPoint
2008?
James:
Microsoft announced that the product is in beta testing,
which would indicate it will likely be available as
promised at MacWorld on January 15. This is a two-week
delay from the originally promised delivery date of
New Year’s Eve. I guess MacBU decided it’s
better to have a crowd of enthusiastic Mac heads than
a bunch of drunken revelers at the product introduction.
Maybe MacBU will do a better job with the Office 2007 “Ribbon” than
the Windows team did. I find the Ribbon and the Task
Panes of Windows Office very objectionable. Thankfully,
the Macintosh PowerPoint folks never adopted task panes.
Add-ins for Office 2008 will be non-existent, as support
for Visual Basic ends in this release. Old add-ins
will no longer work. AppleScript is a viable programmability
option for Office 2008. The status of RealBasic is
unknown at this time.
As was PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint 2008 is a “port” of
old code to a new platform. In the case of 2008, PowerPoint
is being converted from PowerPC only to PowerPC/Intel dual
platform, which might improve performance on Intel based
Macintosh computers because PowerPoint won’t have to
use “Rosetta” to emulate a PPC processor.
Geetesh:
What can you tell us about the
Microsoft MVP Program?
James:
People from any walk of life who have
done something to help technical communities in a way that
is noteworthy and visible are awarded the MVP distinction
annually. The MVPs communicate with each other and Microsoft
directly. Every once in a while Microsoft throws a huge bash
that is incredibly technically oriented as a way to say “thank
you” to the MVPs. I am delighted that PowerPoint 2004
was built with a great deal of input from the MVPs.
For information
on who the MVPs are and how you can become one visit this
URL
