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Mac Forum / Applications / PowerPoint / March 2006Powerpoint 2004 vs. Powerpoint v.X-2004 is SLOOOOOOOOOOW1
Hi, Has anyone else noticed this problem? It was brought to my attention recently when I borrowed a notebook to give a presentation that had Office vX on it. My problem is that in Powerpoint 2004, many transitions are very slow, espceially if the next slide has graphics in it. For example, I have prepared a rather long Powerpoint slideshow on my office Mac, a 1st generation PM G5/2.0 Gig, with 1 Gig of RAM, running 10.4.5. When using the slide show mode on this machine, I have to wait for several seconds for some of the slides to show up on the screen. On my iMac G5 (RevB, 20"/2.0Gig with 1 Gig RAM), the situation is similar. If I try to run the same show on my old iBook G3/700/256, it is painfully slow. However, a similar presentation ran acceptably fast on the iBook when run on Powerpoint vX. What really brought this to my attention again is that when I borrowed the Powerbook G4 (867 MHz, 640 MB RAM), which is running 10.3.9 and Office vX, my slideshow ran faster on the Powerbook than on my PowerMac, even though the PowerMac is a much more powerful machine? What is going on with PowerPoint? As a point of information, the presentation was originally created in PowerPoint v.X, but has been highly modified in PowerPoint 2004. To get it to run faster, I have changed graphs to jpg files (they were originally just pasted in from Excel), and have made all other graphics jpeg files, which helped quite a bit. However, graphics-rich slides still hesitate for several seconds before coming on the screen. One more issue, what is it with Microsoft applications and pdf files. I have created pdf files that display excellently in both Adobe Acrobat and Preview. However, when I put them into any Office application, they show up as very low resolution graphics. What is going on? Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office?  SignatureDave Fritzinger Honolulu, HI Hi, PPT 2004 can be slower than v.X, but if you have the latest updates installed it should not be that much slower. I think in most cases a G5 with a good graphics card should not feel slower. I'd spend some time doing basic troubleshooting. Repair permissions and run DiskWarrior. If you know how to examine memory with Apple's Activity Monitor, have a look and see how much memory is being used. For most presentations a low resolution graphic will display as nice as a high resolution. If you have 600 dpi TIFFS turn them into 96 dpi JPEGS and things should move a lot faster. PDF files only display a poster of the first page of the document. You don't see the entire file. -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is > Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office? > Hi, > > PPT 2004 can be slower than v.X, but if you have the latest updates > installed it should not be that much slower. I think in most cases a G5 > with a good graphics card should not feel slower. This is not a "bit slower", but more like massively slower. To give you an idea, I had a presentation that ran fine on a iBook G3 (with only 256 MB RAM). The same presentation, when run on a PM G5 (dual 2.0, revA, 1 Gig, OSX.4, with an ATI 9600 graphics card) was painfully slow. Sometimes it would take over 10 sec for the next slide to appear. I have been able to alleviate some of this by changing the format of the graphic elements (I had been pasting graphs from Excel into the slides. Now I save as Pict, and use Canvas to save as JPG, since the Excel save a JPG feature gives graphs with very low resolution). Still, graphics-rich slides can take several seconds to appear. > I'd spend some time doing basic troubleshooting. Repair permissions and > run DiskWarrior. If you know how to examine memory with Apple's Activity [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > PDF files only display a poster of the first page of the document. You > don't see the entire file. I think this is an error on the part of Microsoft, since it is so easy to save graphics as PDF files on a Mac. Most of the time when I try to display PDF files in Word or powerpoint, it is of an Excel graph, or a picture from Canvas or Photoshop, meaning it is a single graphic element. In the two Microsoft applications, the pdf files are displayed in very low resolution, so as to be totally useless for presentations. I should say that I am hoping to replace my iBook with a MacBook Pro sometime in the near future. I am worried that Powerpoint, running under Rosetta, will be pretty useless on this machine, and am strongly considering trying Keynote instead. Thanks for your help, Jim. -- Dave Fritzinger Honolulu, HI > -Jim > [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] > > Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is > > Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office? Hi Dave, There are so many ways of getting graphs into PowerPoint I don't know where to begin. I would think you would like to be able to take advantage of PowerPoint's ability to animate various portions of a graph. In that case PDF or any sort of picture format is a bad choice. One of these days I have to make a full tutorial on the various ways of dealing with graphs and PowerPoint. Does it make a difference to you if the graphs are linked to the source data? Are you planning to distribute the presentation files or just use them on one computer? -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> >>Hi, >> [quoted text clipped - 85 lines] >>>Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is >>>Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office? > Hi Dave, > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > data? Are you planning to distribute the presentation files or just use > them on one computer? Hi, Jim, Thanks for getting back to me. Perhaps I should explain my situation. My presentations are of scientific data, and don't really need to be fancy. The audience is other scientists, so animated graphs would probably not impress them. I like to take my graphs out of Excel because I use the program to analyze my data, and Excel offers enough options for different kinds of graphs to allow me to display my data in a meaningful way. Therefore, pictures of the graphs are perfectly OK with me, and I don't really want to go have to use the MS Graph program. In addition, I sometimes show other graphics in my slides, which are usually prepared using a combination of PhotoShop and Canvas v.X. Since some of these graphics are based on Tiff files, the file size can be quite large, though I can alleviate that somewhat by saving the pictures as either jpegs or pdf file (which is why it would be nice to be able to insert high resolution pdf files in MS programs when it is so easy to save files as pdfs in OSX). I haven't had a chance to look over the web site you directed me to, so perhaps I will have other comments when I do. Anyway, I am hopeful that Microsoft will be able to do something to speed up PowerPoint in the next upgrade. I really like some of the new features, so I don't want to go back to v.X, but the slow transitions are a real problem with me. Thanks, -- Dave Fritzinger Honolulu, HI > -Jim > [quoted text clipped - 93 lines] > >>>Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is > >>>Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office? Hi Dave, You don't have to use MS Graph, but you could. There are lots of advantages to not using pictures of graphs. Pictures consume lots of memory, can be slow to load (especially TIFF format which is primarily for archive purposes), and simply won't look as good as having the actual graphs in your PowerPoint slides. That being said, in Excel you can always save a graph that is on a worksheet simply by control-clicking on it and save it as a picture. This save-as option is not available if the graph is the entire sheet, so you would use the chart menu to change the location of the graph to a worksheet if you have it on a chart sheet. Pictures saved as JPEGs in this method will default at 72dpi - a nice resolution for putting into PowerPoint presentations. Mac PowerPoint offers ways to save graphs at higher resolution for publication purposes if need be. Windows Office does not. Another approach is in Excel put your graph on a chart worksheet (Chart menu > Location "as new sheet"). Save the workbook. Then use Edit > Move or Copy Sheet and copy (or move) the graph to New Workbook. Save the new workbook as Excel workbook with a new name. Then with that same new workbook use File > Save As and choose format as Excel 4.0 chart. This will create a file with a .xlc extension. Then switch to PowerPoint. On a slide that you want the graph use the Insert menu and choose Object. In the dialog box click the button From File, then choose the .xlc file you made. That's one way to bring the graph in and keep the formatting. Another approach is to make the graph in PowerPoint using Insert > Object > Microsoft Excel Chart. You can copy an existing excel graph and paste it into this one. You can preserve formatting by using user defined chart types. Still another approach is to use Microsoft Graph, which is not at all different from Excel graph except that it doesn't do calculations. You can do it from the Insert > Object menu. You can copy your data from Excel and paste it into Microsoft Grpah's spreadsheet. You can also do Microsoft Graph objects using the slide formats on the formatting palette. Each method I described (way to briefly) above behaves differently and offers different options. You will be given choices in some cases about linking data from the Excel source. If the source won't be available, then don't link. -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> >>Hi Dave, >> [quoted text clipped - 141 lines] >>>>>Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is >>>>>Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office? On 22.3.2006 06:17, in article #flv8dWTGHA.5500@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl, "Jim Gordon MVP" <goldkey74@WarmerThanWarmMail.com> wrote: > That being said, in Excel you can always save a graph that is on a > worksheet simply by control-clicking on it and save it as a picture. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > higher resolution for publication purposes if need be. Windows Office > does not. How is that accomplished? Mine only offers different save-as-types: png, gif, jpg and bmp. Nothing about resolution. Am I missing something? > On 22.3.2006 06:17, in article #flv8dWTGHA.5500@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl, "Jim > Gordon MVP" <goldkey74@WarmerThanWarmMail.com> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > How is that accomplished? Mine only offers different save-as-types: png, > gif, jpg and bmp. Nothing about resolution. Am I missing something? Click the Options button on the Save As dialog box. This applies to the resolution of entire slides saved as images; I'm not sure about saving individual graphs as images. ================================================ Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ Hi Anetti, Here are two approaches to saving pictures of graphs within PowerPoint. * Right-Click on a graph and choose one of the save-as options * Use File > Save As and choose one of the picture types PowerPoint has preferences that affect the screen resolution of these saves. You will find these settings in PowerPoint > Preferences or in the Options button of the File > Save As dialog box. The settings are not very precise, and do not work as advertised. This is a known issue. You will need to verify the actual DPI of the result using a graphic editor such as PhotoShop or GraphicConverter. You can adjust the setting to as high as you like, but the maximum DPI you will get depends upon the file type you choose to save as and also on the current moon phase. Here's the maximum DPI that I was able to get when saving based on file type: TIFF 72dpi JPEG 72dpi PICT 1200dpi PNG 300dpi BMP 72dpi GIF 72dpi When I want the very best resolution I stretch the graph so that it is as large as a full screen then choose the File > Save As > and use either PNG or PICT. The result is usually excellent. For web stuff JPEG is also very nice. -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> > On 22.3.2006 06:17, in article #flv8dWTGHA.5500@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl, "Jim > Gordon MVP" <goldkey74@WarmerThanWarmMail.com> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > How is that accomplished? Mine only offers different save-as-types: png, > gif, jpg and bmp. Nothing about resolution. Am I missing something? > Hi Anetti, > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > BMP 72dpi > GIF 72dpi Are those real DPIs or Photoshop (aka Fantasyland) DPIs? Given the same size original graphic, are the sizes of the files in pixels the same? If so, Photoshop's messing with your head. Sheesh! PhotoShop - big bucks. I use GraphicConverter - almost as good and much less expensive. I told PowerPoint to save a slide at 300 dpi. PPT says it will save it at 3000x2250 pixels at that setting. The resulting slide in PNG format was 2999 x 2249 pixels (pretty close!) according to GraphicConverter. -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> >>Hi Anetti, >> [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > Given the same size original graphic, are the sizes of the files in pixels the > same? If so, Photoshop's messing with your head. > Sheesh! PhotoShop - big bucks. I use GraphicConverter - almost as good > and much less expensive. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > The resulting slide in PNG format was 2999 x 2249 pixels (pretty close!) > according to GraphicConverter. Probably right on target. Some of these programs start counting at zero instead of one. That's what comes of letting programmers write programs, dontcha know. OK, so at the same settings, how many pixies do you get when you export TIF or JPG? > -Jim ================================================ Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ Hi again, Slide saved as TIFF 72 dpi 1000x750 pixels Slide saved as JPEG 72 dpi 2999x2249 pixels Graph Object saved as JPEG 72 dpi 483x320 pixels Graph Object asave as TIFF not an available choice -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> >>Sheesh! PhotoShop - big bucks. I use GraphicConverter - almost as good >>and much less expensive. [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > PPTools: www.pptools.com > ================================================ > Hi again, > > Slide saved as TIFF 72 dpi 1000x750 pixels > Slide saved as JPEG 72 dpi 2999x2249 pixels No kidding? Wow. Can you say "Buggy"? Sure you can. Say it with me. Buggy. BuggyBuggyBuggyBuggyBuggyBuggyBuggyBuggyBuggyBuggy. > Graph Object saved as JPEG 72 dpi 483x320 pixels > Graph Object asave as TIFF not an available choice ================================================ Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ Well, I should apologize, because it's not really a bug. When saving an entire slide the object is the size of the slide (and the graph if you've stretched it to fit the slide). The save as object was before I stretched the graph to fit the slide. So if I had stretched the graph to fit, then it probably would have been the same size. -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> >>Hi again, >> [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > PPTools: www.pptools.com > ================================================ > Well, I should apologize, because it's not really a bug. > > When saving an entire slide the object is the size of the slide (and the > graph if you've stretched it to fit the slide). The save as object was > before I stretched the graph to fit the slide. So if I had stretched the > graph to fit, then it probably would have been the same size. That part I sort of assumed. It was this bit: > Slide saved as TIFF 72 dpi 1000x750 pixels > Slide saved as JPEG 72 dpi 2999x2249 pixels that set me off. That's just ... oh, what is the mot juste ... ah. I have it. Wrong. ================================================ Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ That gets us into NDA land. Let's just say they know and leave it at that. -Jim SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> >>Well, I should apologize, because it's not really a bug. >> [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > PPTools: www.pptools.com > ================================================ Following up... Although I don't have a complete tutorial about graphs and PowerPoint, here's something that might be of interest: http://www.agentjim.com/MVP/linkgraph.htm SignatureJim Gordon Mac MVP MVP FAQ <http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs> >>Hi, >> [quoted text clipped - 85 lines] >>>Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is >>>Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office? > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > it is painfully slow. However, a similar presentation ran acceptably > fast on the iBook when run on Powerpoint vX. Hi. Dave. Yes, lots of us have experienced the same performance problem. Transitions and saving files can be especially slow and painful. It's ok on a G5 with a fast graphics display, but not most of us use laptops to give presentations. > One more issue, what is it with Microsoft applications and pdf files. > I have created pdf files that display excellently in both Adobe Acrobat > and Preview. However, when I put them into any Office application, they > show up as very low resolution graphics. What is going on? Yes, the rest of the world moved to pdf/eps/ai for vector graphics, but ppt provides very poor support for these standardized formats. I end up converting to a larger png, import into ppt, then resize to a smaller picture (so that it both displays and prints well). > Thanks for reading my rant. Any help would be appreciated. Also, is > Microsoft looking to improve this on the next version of Office? Many of us hope so. My pet peave is the amount of time it takes ppt to save a 1MB .ppt - sometimes it's 20 seconds on my G5 (and over a minute on my G4). Nobody has been able to solve this problem either. Here's hoping it will all be fixed in the next update! |
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