| 01 Interface View Slide. View
The most obvious change is in the very interface. By default,
PowerPoint opens to a three pane interface. The new task
panel on the right replaces many dialog boxes of previous
versions - so almost no action is more than two clicks away.
Also, the menus and toolbars sport the new flat look of Office
XP.
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02. Task Panes View
Slide
The task pane is the single most important usability change
- almost everything can be accessed from here- including
templates, transitions, animation, timeline, colour and animation
schemes, text and content layouts, etc. This provides you
with a clean and functional interface.
The task pane is context sensitive, changing in relation
to a current activity. You can also get back to previous
activities using the browser like back and forward arrows
above the task pane.
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03. Fill Effects View
Slide
Solid Colour Fills now have transparency options - the old
semitransparent value of 50% has been replaced with a 0 to
100 % transparency scale.
Gradient Fills take it even further - now you can specify
the 'from' and 'to' transparency values in gradient fills.
Picture fills have options to lock picture ratios and fill
rotation to prevent unwanted skewing and orientation of such
fills
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04. Image Rotation And Compression View
Slide
At last, images can be rotated - either using numeric values
in the Format dialog box, or using the image rotation handle
which appears on selected images.
Images can be compressed too - a boon for those who input
high resolution gargantuan images into PowerPoint to end
up with presentations running into many megabytes! Changing
resolutions from 200 to 72 dpi ensures a big drop in file
size, without compromising onscreen quality.
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05. Photo Album View
Slide
PowerPoint provides a quick way to create presentation and
web photo albums. Inserting a Photo Album component allows
you to select multiple pictures from disk, scanner or a digital
camera.
Specific control is provided for sizing, layout, and captions
accompanying these pictures. The pictures themselves can
be adjusted for brightness and contrast, as also rotated
within the Photo Album interface.
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06. Clip Organizer View
Slide
The new Clip Organizer replaces the old Clip Gallery - although
both can exist and function concurrently. This is significant
since Clip Organizer is not backward compatible with Clip
Gallery, nor can it import your old Clip Gallery catalogs!
On its part, the new Clip Organizer functions as you would
expect it to - adding a few niceties like better web integration,
shared catalogs, etc. Also, the Clip Organizer functions
in a task pane in PowerPoint - so that you can view the slide
and the clip previews at the same time. Inserting clips is
through drag-and-drop.
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07. Diagrams View
Slide
Diagrams are not new to PowerPoint XP - although their scope
is magnified manifold now. In the last version, Organization
Charts were inserted through an outdated OLE component, causing
more crashes than charts.
PowerPoint XP's diagram arsenal supplements organization
charts with cycle, radial, pyramid, target and venn diagrams.
All diagrams have a soft, understated look - individual components
of such diagrams have full access to PowerPoint's excellent
fill and line elements.
What's more - all these diagrams can be exported in popular
raster and vector formats for use in other applications.
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08. Diagrams Again View
Slide
Editing diagrams is easy with new context sensitive toolbars
for each diagram style.
Diagrams can be animated by levels, similar to the way charts
were animated by series in previous PowerPoint versions.
Auto format for diagrams provides styles incorporating bevels,
gradients and shadows.
All diagrams except the Organization Chart can be converted
between styles.
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09. Save As Picture View
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Every vector illustration, picture, diagram - even every
WordArt component and chart can be saved as a separate picture
on disk in a choice of seven export formats. However, don't
expect miracles - in a trial, pictures with transparency
were exported with black backgrounds, and rotated elements
were saved with a sizeable grey background. Yet - it still
is a breakthrough.
The best deal may be the ability to export your diagrams
and charts for usage on a web site or touch up in an image
editing application.
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10. Custom Animation View
Slide
Custom Animations have been beefed up - there are more than
two dozen new styles conveniently presented in four categories:
Entrance, Emphasis, Exit and Motion Paths.
Entrance animations introduce an object, emphasis styles
are in-place animations, exit styles accompany an object-leaving-the-stage
and motion paths allow you to pick up from a specimen library
of 64 paths or draw your own!
Each animation has specific variables like speed, timing,
delay and trigger - and multiple animations can be used on
the same object to create sequential animations - such sequences
can be re-ordered and edited.
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11. Motion Paths & Timeline View
Slide
Although Motion Paths & Timelines are part of Custom Animations
in PowerPoint, we're discussing them separately since they
open the avenues to create so many special effects.
Not only can paths be drawn, they can also be individually
scaled and edited - and multiple objects can travel on multiple
paths concurrently using the timeline.
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12. Animation Schemes View
Slide
Professionally created animation schemes work wonders with
titles and bulleted text. These schemes have been categorized
as either Subtle, Moderate or Exciting, depending on their
motion qualities.
After applying such schemes, all animations can be further
fine-tuned using the specific animation options and the timeline.
A sample file with all animation schemes applied to specific
individual slides is included with PowerPoint XP.
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13. Transitions View
Slide
There are new transitions too! There's the much needed Smooth
Fade, as well as Circle, Diamond and Plus shaped transitions.
Then there are the two Comb transitions and finally the Newsflash,
Wedge and Wheel transitions.
Not unlike the Custom Animations, Transitions too appear
on the Task Panel - there are lots of options to play with
concerning the Speed, Transition Sound and Timing.
What's more - previews are in real-time on the actual slide
- not on a small stamp sized image like before.
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14. Sounds & Movies View
Slide
Not much has happened on this front, although PowerPoint
now allows you to insert two sounds playing simultaneously
- maybe this will work only with sound cards with capabilities
to render more than one sound stream.
There's an elementary timeline for sounds as well.
In the same way, PowerPoint allows you to insert two simultaneously
playing movies - but this does not seem to work in practice.
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15. Multiple Masters View
Slide
PowerPoint finally supports multiple slide and title masters
in templates and presentations. This means you no longer
need to find out roundabout ways to change backgrounds or
paragraph styles between slides.
This also allows users to combine several presentations
into one - or create distinct divisions in the same presentation.
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16. Set Up Show View
Slide
There are new Presenter Tools, including a new view for
those whose systems have multiple monitors. This functionality
enables the presenter to view whatever is coming next.
Performance wise, you can now choose the resolution at which
you would like to view the presentation, including an option
to allow hardware graphics acceleration.
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17. Print Preview View
Slide
A Print Preview feature is now available, so that you can
see what you're going to print.
You can change views between slides, handouts and notes
as also change orientations for print between landscape and
portrait.
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18. Document Recovery & Password
Protection View Slide
Document recovery and password protection features now come
to PowerPoint. Presentations can now be recovered after a
crash - and you can set opening and edit level passwords
to secure your presentation. You can also choose to remove
all personal information stored with a presentation.
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19. Web & HTML Improvements View
Slide
PowerPoint XP's web features are exemplary - imagine the
ability to export your entire presentation to a web page
- along with all animations, timelines, transitions, transparencies,
bullets and image rotations intact. Such files can be opened
and edited in PowerPoint even if the original source files
no longer exist! There's also support for Internet Explorer's
new MHT mail archive format, which packs all your multiple
slides and images into a standalone file. For older and competing
browsers, you can still choose to make your web presentations
backward compatible. What's more, there's a great Web Page
Preview too.
And no one's stopping you from using the MHT files in autorun
CDs for systems with Internet Explorer 5 and above!
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20. Other Improvements View
Slide
There are many other new features as well - for instance
'smart tags' to apply automatic layouts, more grid options,
application error reporting, collaboration features such
as compare and merge, markup, revisions, a reviewing toolbar
and last but not the least, an improved feature set for broadcasting.
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