Moving to Powerpoint

[Jon Paris]

Trying again (Original post seems to be lost)

Anyone out there with any experience of moving from Freelance to PowerPoint?

I'd like to make the move - but there are certain things I just can't find
out how to do in PPT.

For example: Despite Freelance's many flaws, the Smart Masters work quite
well and inventing your own layouts is a breeze. I can create a completely
new page layout and it is then is added to the list of possible layouts and
can be selected at will. I cannot find any equivalent in PPT. It seems
like all I can do is change the fonts etc. on the supplied layouts.

What am I missing?

 

[Bill Foley]

Not missing. Here was the original response from Adam:

"You're missing nothing Jon...If you want a specific layout - in addition to
what you set up in the Master and how that filters through to the set
layouts - you'll have to do it as a one off and copy and paste it.
You'll soon find that PowerPoint has flaws too...just different ones (to be
fair it is better than Freelance in most respects)."

 

[Jon Paris]

Thanks Bill.

For some reason I still can't see the original message - but this one shows
up in the newsreader (Outlook Express).

Unfortunately this is a bit of a show stopper for me - at least as far as
making the change in a meaningful time frame. I can't see a layout that
meets my needs and cut/paste is not really an option as typically I use the
"missing" layouts for about 40% of all my presentation pages. From time-to
time I need to shrink/expand the typeface for those pages and doing it
one-by-one ........

I've already discover one biggie - the printing is absolutely horrible. I
Freelance if I print 2-up it occupies most of the page and even programming
code samples are readable. PPT leaves a wasteland of whitespace around the
edges for no apparent reason and I can't see how to get rid of it. I am
using the 2000 version - is 2003 any better?

 

[Echo S]

I've already discover one biggie - the printing is absolutely horrible. I
Freelance if I print 2-up it occupies most of the page and even programming
code samples are readable. PPT leaves a wasteland of whitespace around the
edges for no apparent reason and I can't see how to get rid of it. I am
using the 2000 version - is 2003 any better?

No. PPT's printing capability is rudimentary at best.

Try File/Send to Word, though. There are also a couple of good third-party
alternatives we can steer you to if you want.

 

[dusty]

We distill everything to Acrobat and print Acrobat files. We use the notes
pages a lot so we're printing large manuals that show the slides on top and
the notes on the bottom. Although we send everything to a professional
printer, prints sent to our own copy machine look pretty darn good (in b&w,
that is).

 

[Echo S]

Oh, absolutely, you can get good-looking b/w prints out of PPT. I didn't
mean to suggest otherwise.

By "rudimentary," I mean that PPT doesn't offer many additional printing
features people would benefit from -- advanced page numbering, ability to
resize slide thumbnails on the page (can't do this on handouts, can do this
on notespages), ability to print more than one slide/page with notes beside
them, etc.