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PowerPoint eXPerience
The XP in PowerPoint XP stands for eXPerience, but what about
user experiences with PowerPoint XP - learn more about the bouquets
and brickbats here.
This is an evolving page, and eXPeriences will be added as I hear
from you all.
By Austin Myers
PowerPoint XP. How good is the newest version of PowerPoint? It's
such an improvement over previous versions that it may be the real
justification to upgrade your Office Suite. From a new, intuitive
interface, to a plethora of new features, it's almost hard to believe
this is the same application we have used for so many years.
Users that have bemoaned the lack of control over animation will
be overjoyed with all the new tools, especially the path and exit
functions. Yes, you can finally move objects around on the slide
or remove them completely without all the "tricks" used in previous
versions. In fact these tools are so good many users will tend
to forget that this is a presentations application, not an animation
package.
Another feature I especially like is the ability to password protect
the presentations it creates. If you have ever wanted to restrict
changes to your presentations or keep others from "borrowing" your
techniques, this feature is right on the money. It seems someone
at Microsoft has been listening to users and the "wish list".
So what are the negatives? A couple that really stand out are
the lack of a "viewer" for people that don't have PowerPoint installed
on their machines. They will still be able to use the previous
viewer but it won't support the new features of PowerPoint XP.
Microsoft has said that with the ability to export the presentation
to HTML that users will be able to view it in Internet Explorer.
While this is true, the reality of it is that the export process
needs a fair amount of refinement before this is an acceptable
alternative.
The other real sore spot is that Microsoft decided to stay with
the Windows MCI (Multimedia Control Interface) for playback of
multimedia. (Video, music, etc.) It's a mystery to me why they
did this when they already have such a superior vehicle in the
form of Windows Media Player available. Regardless of the reasons,
users are still bound by the limitations of the traditional media
player that dates back to Windows 3.1.
All in all, the new features and capabilities will make PowerPoint
XP a must have for professional presenters, and I expect it to
be adopted very quickly by people that have reached the limits
of previous versions. Simply stated, even with the blemishes, PowerPoint
XP is the version we have all been waiting for.
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By Geetesh Bajaj
What can I say? All in all, I'm very happy with the new PowerPoint
XP - although it seems to have embraced a virtual Microsoft world,
rather than the real world.
There are great features which one never expected, such as the
animation timeline. On the other hand, there are new features which
should have been there all the time - like multiple masters and
password protection.
On the surface, the last three versions of PowerPoint - 97, 2000
and XP have shared the same format. Deeper down, you'll find scores
of incompatibilities - which makes sharing of presentations between
versions an art to master - you'll have to stay away from all new
features of the last two versions to stay out of troubled waters.
This issue is more significant due to the glaring absence of runtime
viewers for PowerPoint 2000 and XP - imagine Adobe asking you to
view your version 5 PDF documents in a version 2 viewer, or else
expecting you to buy the whole commercial Acrobat package to view
a document with all its fidelity. It's just not done. Microsoft's
excuse is its HTML export options - which seem fairly satisfactory
until you reach a level of sophistication requiring sounds, video
or synchronization. You'll discover you're on the road to nowhere,
so where do we go today....? Nowhere?
The above paragraph of my user experiences does seem a little
critical - but even you'll be critical if you find you cannot find
a way to show off all the cool features in PowerPoint XP to somebody
with older versions. User upgradations are based on the entire
Office suite level and corporate decisions on upgrading are not
based on PowerPoint XP's new features alone. Word and Excel exchange
information with their ancestors so much better, so why not PowerPoint?
PowerPoint XP has tons of great features as well - in fact my
thoughts here accompany a full overview of PowerPoint XP which
extolls its numerous virtues, you can find the overview here:
PowerPoint XP
So, dear Microsoft - now that we have a PowerPoint version with
all the dream features we've been clamouring for - why not add
the distribution features that seem to have missed the bus altogether!
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