Cliff Notes version of my problem:
I teach engineering and often like to put together my notes and such on the computer. That way I keep them for posterity and when I show them to the student’s, they can read my handwriting.
The problem is that no one computer package puts all the pieces together. PowerPoint comes the closest with a decent equation editor and the ability to easily integrate text and pictures together.
The problem is that the drawing package bites. If I want to put together a quick sketch of something, it doesn’t work very well.
I would like to have a few more CorelDraw like features in PowerPoint. Things like Bezout curves, arcs that are not exactly half circles, the ability to rotate by a specific number of degrees, closed arbitrary polygons… yadda yadda yadda.
With Visual Basic and macros, it seems like some smarter person than I could write an add-on drawing toolbox for PowerPoint.
PowerPoint supports just about every graphic format that exists, including CorelDRAW. Why don’t you just create it in CorelDRAW and insert it as a .CDR file?
As far as adding on a drawing toolbox for PPT, that is not possible. There are companies that use SlideShow effects and enhance them, like GoldDisk Astound, but that’s b/c the Slide Show layer is more succeptible to manipulation. However, the drawing layer is not. We rely on internal Escher drawing code for all graphic display in office - nothing in the Object Model could adapt to a foreign set of commands. However, are you sure you’ve exhausted the drawing components PPT has? Everything you mention above (Bezouts, half-circles, rotating by a specific number of degrees, closed arbitrary polygons), can be achieved in the Drawying layer. Which version of PowerPoint do you have?
FYI, it would behoove you in the future to not say that the drawing layer “bites” if you want help from someone who is uniquely qualified to do so. (Like me).
Since you are uniquely qualified, what were the chances of the only person in the world able to help me would walk in.
I am using PowerPoint 2000, and only see the things in the drawing toolbar. Based on your answer, I played around with a couple of things.
The arbitrary polygon is fairly easy, my mistake.
The bezier curve (my spelling mistake) is I assume the curve command. That is nice, but I can’t grab the end points or change the curvature after I have created it.
I still don’t see how to draw an arc other than a quarter circle or rotate something by EXACTLY 32 degrees. (I can do a quarter circle, do a free rotate, or rotate by increments of 15°)
Hang on, hang on. :smack: Okay, I now see the edit points on the curve. That’s nice. Still can’t control the tangent at that point, but that’s no big deal. I can just add more points.
Okay, okay, I see those yellow diamonds on the quarter circle now… those let me adjust the circle fraction. :smack: :smack:
Tell me how to do exactly 32° and I will admit the only thing that ‘bites’ is me, and sit quietly in my corner.
I do often import drawings from Corel, but if I want them to look nice with my equations, pictures and text it would be nicer to draw them in PPT.
If you click on the “Autoshapes” menu, then on “Basic Shapes” you will see an “Arc” drawing button which is easier for placing Arcs than drawing a quarter circle.
As for rotation - if you double-click on any line you’ve created, you will be taken to the Format Autoshape dialog. In that dialog, click on the Size tab. In that tab is a Rotate spinner control that will allow you to rotate in 1 degree increments.
A couple more tricks: Holding down SHIFT while creating a line will lock it into rotated increments, which makes it easier to create 45 degree or straight horizontal / vertical lines. Holding down CTRL while creating a line will create it in a locked position relative to your anchor point. (Play around with these and you’ll see what I mean easier than I can explain it). Ditto for creating shapes with those keys held down.
(I’ll agree it was extremely unlikely that you would find me here :))
This is a slight highjack, but…
One of my irritations wrt to powerpoint is the pickpoints. I have to make presentations of things like unit cells and have found that because I cannot properly place drawing units (the pickpoints are too coarse) that I have to use Corel for all of my drawing needs (as the expert recommened). Is there a way to increase the number of pickpoints?
Also, when I insert equations, I am unimpressed. I have been told that the best way to insert an equation is to insert it as a tiff (create in a word doc, save as an html (which creates the tiffs)). Is there any other way?
Many apologies for the highjack, but these answers might help you.
Oh, Mac-PC powerpoint conversions are EVIL. Of all the MS products powerpoint has the poorest compatability.
Is there any reason you can’t use CorelDraw? You could easily cut and paste the drawings onto PowerPoint. Don’t import as an embedded object though (what’s the term? OLE?), I’ve found that to be slow and unreliable. Instead choose “paste as” (or something like that) and paste as WMF or some other vector graphics format.
(Sorry about the uncertain terms, I don’t have the English version of PowerPoint)
I use Adobe Illustrator, but I DON’T use the EPS import facility in PowerPoint; it sucks. Instead, I copy the illustration and paste it into Photoshop, then copy out of photoshop as a bitmap and paste it into Powerpoint. Alternatively, you could save the image from Illustrator as a GIF, then import it as an image into Powerpoint (but I’m too lazy to do this).
:smack: :smack: :smack:
Okay, you win. Powerpoint rules and I bite.
Can we get a grumpy old man smiley? “Computers these days are so much more confusing than when I was a young lad. Right click… double click… shift-control-alt-left click… we use to have to type it in at the prompt and we liked it.”
Now hold on now, this ain’t “Ask the PPT Guy”. I usually look for complex PPT questions if I find them in GQ, but I generally shy away from spending too much time responding to different requests in a single thread, much like I imagine Jodi doesn’t set up a “legal questions booth” and Qadgop doesn’t set up a “medical booth”. I’ll answer the ones above, then move on. The OP has been answered anyway…
xiao_wenti - if you’ve created a freeform shape, you can right click it, choose “Edit Points”, mouse over where a point does not already exist, and CTRL+Click to add a new point. To delete any points, mouse over an existing point and CTRL+Click. (You will see the cursor change to an “X” to alert you that you are about to delete one. Equation Editor is crappy, nothing I can do about that. Mac to PC conversion is much improved if you have the latest versions (WinPPXP, MacPPX).
jjimm - The EPS filter isn’t really that great b/c the standards used by different applications to export as EPS are too varied. You should look into other export options from Illustrator - GIF is but one of many formats supported by PPT.
SandWriter - nope - you can trick it into going slower by manipulating the slide timings, animating hidden objects in the meantime, etc, but you cannot speed up the animations themselves.
