[Powerpoint 2007] Freeform Tool is dumbed down

[Ewan]

Rant:
Why is it that you can't confine the Freeform tool to make 45 degree
straight lines anymore?!
Or is there a special way to do it? Office 2007 SP1 does not help.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Ewan,

The Freeform tool (Insert=>Shape) appears to work the same as in prior versions.

If you click and hold down the left mouse key you get scribble lines. If you click and release the left button then move the mouse
you get a straight line, ending with the next click.

Double click when done with your shape.

============
Rant:
Why is it that you can't confine the Freeform tool to make 45 degree
straight lines anymore?!
Or is there a special way to do it? Office 2007 SP1 does not help.<<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Ewan]

Unfortunately you missed a very important feature.

In previous Office2003 Powerpoint, pressing down the shift key would
constrain the straight lines to multiples of 45 degrees, so you could make
absolute vertical and absolute horizontal lines.

I can't believe this issue hasn't been addressed yet.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Ewan,

Sorry, I had tested that, but forgot to mention it.

In Office 2007, Powerpoint and Excel received pretty much the 'full treatment' upgrade to the new Office graphics engine, While Word
only got a partial nip/tuck. If I recall from the beta for the new engine the Shift = constrain feature was one that wasn't fixed
for Powerpoint/Excel, but it does still work in Word, so a workaround I've used has been to draw it in a blank Word document then
copy/paste to Powerpoint.

In Word you also use the snap to grid feature to constrain the lines to intervals. The intervals I get without the snap to grid
feature on are less than 45 degrees though.

=============
Unfortunately you missed a very important feature.

In previous Office2003 Powerpoint, pressing down the shift key would
constrain the straight lines to multiples of 45 degrees, so you could make
absolute vertical and absolute horizontal lines.

I can't believe this issue hasn't been addressed yet.--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Rob]

Holding down the shift key and then creating a line in PPT does force a 45
degree angle for me. I'm using PPT 2007. Not sure why you don't have this
functionality too. I am inserting a line, not drawing one.

Rob

 

[jo]

Contraining a line works, yes ... but constraining a segment of a
freeform does NOT.

Will annoying things like this that seem to have been missed before
release going to be addressed in an update or do we have to wait until
the next version?

Jo

 

[ziipppp]

And SP2 hasn't fixed it either....grrrrr