look&feel, snapToGrid and Help with PowerPoint 2003

[markpoyser]

I've just upgraded from PowerPoint 2000 to PowerPoint 2003.

Oh, my, God!

Is it now that Help requires online access? With 2000, you got your
answers without having to connect.

The look and feel is horrible. With 2000, the icons were crisp. Now
I'm looking at bland colors. The toolbars have a graded shading
top-to-bottom. Why is, essentially an engineering-type application,
getting all these fancy-pants flourishes?

All I can get from Help is something about the Windows Appearance,
which is about Active Window title bars and menu font sizes, but not
the internals of an application.

Is there any way I can get 2003 to have the icons in the "old
fashioned" 2000 style?

BUT MOST IMPORTANT IS THIS: With 2000, you could detach the
View/Grid-and-Guides and put it in as a toolbar (Or something like
that. I know I got a toolbar somehow.)

But with 2003, all I get is a dialog box that I have to bring up via
menu each time I want to switch between Snap and noSnap - something I
do a lot.

Where is the Snap/noSnap toolbar in 2003 ?!?!?

BTW, I know I can get the Grids-and-guides icon stuck in a toolbar, but
clicking on that is the same as the menu procedure: you then have a
dialogue box that you have to click and then click again on [OK].


Any answers/suggestions extremely welcome!

 

[markpoyser]

Steve,

Terrific answers! Thanks a lot. For anybody reading this thread,
Steve is a real expert and very helpful. Check out his website.

When I was speaking of PPT as being "like an engineering app", I was
thinking along the lines of how technical-types need reliable,
easy-to-identify-properly, buttons. I worked for a while at a place
that made aircraft subsystems. There was no concession to style; the
gauges and labels had to be easy to read. Also, I thought PPT users
were different from the general public: less enamored with style. But
as they say, there is no disputing taste.

Great to know about turning off the online Help. I see that if you are
*not* connected, PPT will *not* attempt to go to the Internet. I
didn't know that, and thought it always needed to go out. I won't need
to make the change you suggest - but it's helpful to know how to
unconditionally turn if off.

I did not know about the ALT feature for Snap. Thanks for that tip.

There are still two things I'm not clear on though.

How does the user know if Snap is on or off? Is there something on the
status bar or something like a changed icon? Toggling Snap doesn't
appear to make any difference - until you actually try to move
something.

You say there are "Snap on/off buttons" and "Grid View on/off". I'm
cool with the Grid View (don't particulary need it). But where is the
Snap on/off button? With PPT2003 via either Drawing or View, cursor
over Grids-and-Guides does not reveal a submenu that could be detached
and turned into a toolbar (e.g. Align-and-Distribute and Order. I'm
pretty sure that's how I got the button in PPT2000: a straightforward
Snap toggle button. The closest I can find is a Grids-and-Guides
button (via customization) that brings up the dialogue, which then
requires a check/uncheck on Snap, followed by [OK]. But that's not a
quick Snap-toggle-button.

I'll look around to see where I might find these two items
(Snap-status, Snap-toggle-button), but if you can give me some
pointers, they'd be much appreciated.

But to repeat, thank you very much for your answers. They really
helped.

M

It does connect by default, but you can turn it off.
Choose Help, Customer Feedback Options
Click Online Content
Remove the check next to "Search online content when connected"
Click OK and restart PPT

I see a Snap on/off dialogue under MENU: View/Grids-and-guides

I've created a custom toolbar and put in two items:
Grid on-and-off
Grids and guides - clicking this brings up a dialogue.

With PPT2000, one could somehow put in a single icon/button. Clicking
on it toggled the Snap, and in addition, the icon's appearance would
let the user know if Snap was on or off.

That should make it limit itself to local help.

The bad local help isn't so good.

The look and feel is horrible. With 2000, the icons were crisp. Now
I'm looking at bland colors. The toolbars have a graded shading
top-to-bottom. Why is, essentially an engineering-type application,
getting all these fancy-pants flourishes?

Everybody seems to see PPT differently, based on their own needs and use of it.
To be honest, you're the first person I've ever heard refer to it as an
engineering-type application, but if that's how you use it, fine. In any case,
some people like the new look, others don't.

The visual aspects of the UI changed a lot from 2002 to 2003. The
functionality changed a lot from 2000 to 2002 (the new task panes, animations
and such). You're getting hit with both in one jump, and that could twist your
sensibilities, sure enough.

Is there any way I can get 2003 to have the icons in the "old
fashioned" 2000 style?

No, afraid not.

BUT MOST IMPORTANT IS THIS: With 2000, you could detach the
View/Grid-and-Guides and put it in as a toolbar (Or something like
that. I know I got a toolbar somehow.)

But with 2003, all I get is a dialog box that I have to bring up via
menu each time I want to switch between Snap and noSnap - something I
do a lot.

Did you know that you can simply hold down the ALT key while dragging to turn
snap on and off? You can also use View, Toolbars, Customize and customize
pretty much any button you like onto any toolbar, so you could put the various
Snap on/off buttons and Grid View on/off etc. on any toolbar (including a new
one you create for your own selection of buttons if you like)

Where is the Snap/noSnap toolbar in 2003 ?!?!?

BTW, I know I can get the Grids-and-guides icon stuck in a toolbar, but
clicking on that is the same as the menu procedure: you then have a
dialogue box that you have to click and then click again on [OK].

Any answers/suggestions extremely welcome!

-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[markpoyser]

Steve,

Terrific answers! Thanks a lot. For anybody reading this thread,
Steve is a real expert and very helpful. Check out his website.

When I was speaking of PPT as being "like an engineering app", I was
thinking along the lines of how technical-types need reliable,
easy-to-identify-properly, buttons. I worked for a while at a place
that made aircraft subsystems. There was no concession to style; the
gauges and labels had to be easy to read. Also, I thought PPT users
were different from the general public: less enamored with style. But
as they say, there is no disputing taste.

Great to know about turning off the online Help. I see that if you are
*not* connected, PPT will *not* attempt to go to the Internet. I
didn't know that, and thought it always needed to go out (which seems
to be a trend with lots of things these days). I won't need to make
the change you suggest - but it's helpful to know how to
unconditionally turn if off.

I did not know about the ALT feature for Snap. Thanks for that tip.

There are still two things I'm not clear on though.

How does the user know if Snap is on or off? Is there something on the
status bar or something like a changed icon? Toggling Snap doesn't
appear to make any visible difference - until you actually try to move
something.

Desperately Seeking Snap Toggle:

You say there are "Snap on/off buttons" and "Grid View on/off". I'm
cool with the Grid View (don't particulary need it, but it *is* a
toggle). But where is the Snap on/off button? With PPT2003 via
Drawing, cursor over Grids-and-Guides does not reveal a flyout menu
that could be detached and turned into a toolbar (e.g.
Align-and-Distribute and Order). I'm pretty sure that's how I got the
Snap-toggle-button (& Grid View button) out there in toolbar-land using
PPT2000. The closest I can find with 2003 is a Grids-and-Guides button
(via customization) that brings up the Grids-and-Guides dialogue, where
one (un)checks Snap, followed by [OK]. But that's not a quick
Snap-toggle-button.

I'll look around to see where I might find these two items
(Snap-status, Snap-toggle-button), but if you can give me some
pointers, they'd be much appreciated.

To repeat, thank you very much for your answers. They really helped.

M

 

[markpoyser]

Steve,

That's it, you found it! I worked with Customize but only examined the
Commands for View. There is no To Grid button there. Only
Grids-and-Guides, which gets you the two-click-required dialogue box.

But as you note, there *is* a To Grid button in the Commands set for
Drawing. And that's the Holy Grail. One click toggle Snap, and a
visual indicator of the Snap state. For me, that's extremely helpful.

Now that I examine them, the Commands under Draw are extensive. I
didn't bother to look there before because there was no detachable
flyout menu for Grids-and-Guides (to turn into a toolbar). I
presumed, incorrectly, that there wouldn't be a Snap button in the Draw
category. And therefore restricted my looking around to the View
category.

Well, that was a good exercise in tracking down something that was
reasonably easy to find/configure in an earlier s/w version, but more
obscure in an upgrade.

Have we loaded up this thread with enough "Snap" and "2003" entries for
others to find the answer to the toggle question? I think so!

Again, thank you *very much* for taking the time to respond to my
multiple questions. Now I'm able to get the job done with maximum
efficiency.

M