Venting

[patgund]

Currently trying to recover a batch of slides from a PowerPoint presentation that became corrupted. All because clueless wonderboss ignored my suggestions to save often, don't go much over 50 slides, and try to keep the file under 20 MB.

Grrrrr! I (deleted) HATE PowerPoint!!! I swear, it corrupts if you look at it cross-eyed, it's as stable as homemade nitroglycerine, and seems to do more to muddy commincations that clairfy it

Cows eat grass and leave cow patties behind. Powerpoint eats communication and leaves bullet points behind. The main difference is that the cow patty actually has some value. Yeah, you can dry out a cow patty and burn it, or print out PowerPoint slides and burn those. Even then, the Cow Patty will burn longer.

I have to say one thing about it though - it doesn't matter if you're dealing with the PC or Mac version, it's a dog on either platform.

Comments

On the other hand...

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

If you don't embed your graphs in it, and avoid using Word with it like the BLACK PLAGUE OF DEATH that Word is, PowerPoint can be fairly trouble-free. Depending on your platform. I've been using the XP version for some six months (maybe longer?), now, with very few problems. I've been working with PowerPoint, in general, for the last four years (might be five - I lose track). Definitely keep your file sizes under 20 meg. Oh, gods in cheese-wiz, keep it under 20 meg! And size your graphics externally for whatever manner of output you're planning on, before importing them to Powerpoint... I could go on at length with Useful Powerpoint Tips from somebody who isn't employed by Microsoft (read: somebody who actually uses it for a living)...

Quick tips: Build your charts in Excel. Copy the chart and paste it in as a Picture (Enhanced Metafile) - your graph will look just ducky, one person can edit the data while somebody else makes the presentation look speyshul, and (in theory) it can all come together fairly neatly.
Use the Table function within PowerPoint instead of building tables in Word and embedding them - The powerpoint tables are generally easier to format, they don't do Weird Things (tm) when you edit them, and help make for a smaller file.
If the presentation is on-screen, set any non-vectored graphics to display at 144dpi (or higher), but have them at the X by Y size you will have it show on the page.

BTW, I'm a graphic contractor, if your company's lookin' for a powerpoint specialist... (big cheese-eatin' grin)

[angelique69.livejournal.com]

Well, you knew the job was dangerous when you too it but the senile old bat has to drop dead some time. Blessed Be,