My wish list of features to be included in PowerPoint. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
PowerPoint 2011 for Mac
- Custom font embed (available in PPT 2010)
- Ability to set custom theme fonts (available in PPT 2010)
- Selection pane (available in PPT 2010)
- Define custom grid spacing (available in PPT 2010)
- Ability to lock the static grid
PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
- Better integration with photo browsers (available in PPT 2011)
- Included weights in font selection menu (available in PPT 2011)
7 comments
I'm not sure how Powerpoint handles this as I only use the Windows version on my Mac (I tend to use Keynote for most things) however if you can get the system color picker then this would be my preference (it seems you can; see CyberTaz response here: The key advantage is that you can define custom colour swatches once at the system level and then use them in every application.
A good overview is here: Another advantage of this approach is that you can send your custom designed swatch files to another Mac user.
A question for you though. This was more in line with your shape subtraction point, now changed. Why are you using Powerpoint for creating graphics rather than a graphic programme? I use Omnigraffle, both on the Mac and iPad to create graphics which I then copy into my presentations. For charts I tend to use Tableau again which I copy over (via Powerpoint).
Actually, the shape combine feature is in PPT 2011, although true to Microsoft form, rather hidden. When you have multiple shapes selected, right-click, and then you'll find the options under "grouping."
An interesting side note: At least on the PC version, MIcrosoft felt that the feature wasn't quite ready for primetime (I often have to do way too much experimentation to get the right result), so that's why they didn't put it on the ribbon. At least, that's what one Microsoftie told me. I don't know how they felt about the Mac version.
I'm surprised that the tool isn't smoother and more publicized. Illustrator has had the very similar "Pathfinder" tools for years, and they work like a charm.
And speaking of sections, the ability to create subsections under a given section would help substantially when a presentation has large number of slides, or if you are collecting multiple slide shows into one.
The above are so obviously useful and obvious, requiring the simplest of code additions then it is inexplicable why MS over looked them. Maybe the Product Manger had the flu the day they finalized the feature set.
Sometimes you have your first slide on show as the audience fills up the room and your speech starts when you flick over to slide 2
To answer your last question, I do very simple shape combinations, doing them inside PowerPoint is just simpler.