Mac

One of our clients uses a lot of Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT) presentations that need to be updated by their sales force, which are then sent to us to tidy up and put on brand. For several years this has been done on PPT 2004 on a Mac, and reviewed on a PC depending on the complexity of the graphics.

When PPT 2008 for the Mac was released, we toyed with the idea of using it as our standard. But once we got a little more familiar with it, we felt that the new version does little more than stir up the user interface a bit. There may be some new bells and whistles, but for the power user nothing much was improved in the way of functionality or efficiency.

One function that I was hoping would be improved was the animation interface. This component has always been inferior on the Mac compared with the PC version. On the PC, you can change elements of an animated group without ungrouping and subsequently losing the animation. But this isn’t possible on the Mac, even in the newest release. To change just one item in a group, you have to ungroup it and lose any animation effect the group had. If there are several animations, it’s quite time consuming to recreate them all.

This inefficiency is compounded (but just on the Mac!) by the fact that animations have to be done in a dialog box rather than a palette. So as you compare old and new versions of the animation to recreate it, you must continually open and close the dialog box to make alterations to the animation sequence, options and/or effects. If we had a palette that always stays open for edits, it would be a huge time saver.

Another area that’s a problem is text wraps in a bulleted list. When we opened existing files in Mac PPT 2008, extra spaces would sometimes appear at the beginning of random lines. This discussion thread illustrates the problem and a Microsoft representative acknowledges that it’s a known issue.

With these issues we wondered if it would be better to switch to PPT 2007 for the PC. This version is supposedly the equivalent of 2008 for Mac, but its interface is radically different. The new release seems odd and harder to use. That alone would not keep us from using it, but we’ve also encountered glitches that prevent us from relying on it. Again, an example is text that’s incorrectly spaced and aligned in presentations that were created in previous versions. Because of the large number of older presentations we work with, we weren’t comfortable with this uncertainty.

Other wildcards are the process for adding new colors is glitchy, and gradients created in earlier versions may reverse direction in 2007 for PC. In addition, there are issues with using multiple master slides – if you have a large number of people (like a sales force) that needs to be able to apply master slide layouts, they must be on this version to access them.

So for now, we’ll just stick with our tried and true process of editing in PPT 2004 for the Mac and reviewing on the PPT 2003 and 2007 on the PC. If you have expererienced any of this yourself and have found a good solution, let me know!

I’ve been reminded that not everyone knows about Quick Look and how handy it can be. As a designer, I use it quite frequently.

Here are the details:

Quick Look is an easy way to preview files in Mac OS X Leopard. It provides a full size view of file contents rather than icon previews. You can watch videos, listen to songs, view presentations and scroll through the pages of a document without even opening it in it’s native application. Users can also scroll through multiple files in a folder or on the hard drive.
Quick Look works with many file formats: jpgs, gifs, tiffs, pdfs, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, MP3/4, and some video formats. In it’s basic format, it won’t open InDesign, QuarkXpress or Illustrator files – but there are plug-ins available at qlplugins.com or quicklookplugins.com. After downloading the plug-ins, just place them in your user folder/Library/Quick Look.

I also like the zooming capability and the option to view items in the trash.

• Zooming – If you activate Quick Look on an image, you can zoom in and out or focus on a particular part of the image.
• Trash – Normally users cannot view items in the trash unless they are moved onto the Desktop. Quick Look allows you the option to preview items already in the trash without having to drag them to the desktop.

Coming from the corporate world, I was deeply entrenched in the PC – and I was forced to learn the way of the Mac. I was often told how much I would love my Mac … Apple is great … Yadda. Yadda. Yadda.

Well, thanks to my phone contract expiring, I’ve come full circle. After some research, I purchased the new iPhone.

It’s quite a contraption … People often ask me if it’s difficult to set up and use. The quick answer is no – it’s super easy.

But let me illustrate that point:

Before the OSU vs. Penn State match-up I went to a pre-game party at Riverwatch. Knowing how crowded it could be, I left the iPhone in the care of my niece and nephews – the under age 10 crowd. My four-year-old niece wouldn’t let the thing go.

The next day I checked my phone for messages and – to my surprise and amazement – I found three new games (air hockey, duck splash, and Venger lite). All of the apps had been rearranged (if you’re four, you must have different priorities?). Calls made. Emails created. And I had a photo documentary of the evening’s events.

What’s the lesson? Yes, the iPhone is easy-to-use. Just ask my niece and nephews. Or, see for yourself. The photos are a little blurry, but you have to give the girl credit for trying.

Or maybe the real takeaway is her eagerness – and fearlessness – to learn new technology … That’s something we could all benefit from in this “agency life.”