Are these statements accurate?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Drew Cohn
  • Start date Start date
D

Drew Cohn

I'm preparing a brief webcast to help our association members who give
lectures around the country. Often, they prepare their PPTs on their own
computer and present them on someone else's. The object is to avoid
incompatibility surprises at the podium, on a strange PC.

Here are my two very general statements...are they reasonably accurate?

1. It is best to use standard fonts, such as Times New Roman or Arial.
Esoteric fonts that may be resident on your PC may not be viewed properly on
a PC that does not contain that particular font set. To ensure
compatibility, always check the "Embed TrueType Fonts" box when saving your
presentation.

2. Whenever possible, test your presentation in advance on the PC you will
be using during your lecture. A host PC with a version of PowerPoint that is
newer or older than yours may not display as intended.

(Note...on this second statement, I've never seen a problem, but I just want
to be sure. If it's true, what are the potential compatibility issues??

Many thanks for your help!

Drew
 
Yes, those are accurate statements.

However, with font embedding, not all fonts will be embeddable. Just an FYI.
Some of your people may get messages about "unable to embed" when they try
to embed xyz font.

You might also want to tell them where to find "embed truetype fonts" when
saving.
 
For #1 - - Not all True Type fonts can be embedded. I would recommend that
they read the following if they are using non-standard fonts:

FONT embedding
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00076.htm

Microsoft's Typography site
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00296.htm

For #2 - - There are so many things that can bite you that I would say that
if pre-testing can't be done, it's good advice to take a laptop on which you
KNOW the presentation will behave properly. Older version of PowerPoint,
slower processor, less memory, fragmented disk, shortage of free disk space,
missing codecs, old version of DirectX, and more can lead to high stress.
 
2. Whenever possible, test your presentation in advance on the PC you will
be using during your lecture. A host PC with a version of PowerPoint that is
newer or older than yours may not display as intended.

(Note...on this second statement, I've never seen a problem, but I just want
to be sure. If it's true, what are the potential compatibility issues??
Click to expand...

It's absolutely correct.

Media files (sounds, movies) can be the source of all kinds of aggravation
between links that break and codec problems.

97 and the older viewer won't play animated GIFs

Timings can change between versions.

2002 and newer support animations that don't work in earlier versions.

There are quite a few other possible glitch areas as well.

One possible strategy to minimize problems:

Always move the presentation and any supporting files to another PC and test
there (to make sure that links still work).

Test by playing the presentation back in the new PowerPoint 2003 viewer.

Take a copy of the installer for the viewer along on a CD or thumb-drive so you
can install it on the playback PC if need be.
 
Hi Drew,

On the font thing, you might want to consider:
Standard Sans Serif fonts, such as Arial & Tahoma

Serif fonts (like Times Roman)do not display as well on
screens and especially numbers can be hard to see. I
don't know about you, but I ain't getting any younger, so
visual clarity is an issue... :-)

Not really what you were worrying about, but a good
practice none the less.

Thanks,
Glenna
 
[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PPT 2003
that you just created in PPT 2003? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

If you (or anyone else reading this message) have suggestions for how
PowerPoint can make it easier for an author to prepare a presentation for
presenting on another computer, don't forget to send your feedback (in YOUR
OWN WORDS, please) to Microsoft at:

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that Microsoft receives THOUSANDS of product suggestions every day and we
read each one but, in any given product development cycle, there are ONLY
sufficient resources to address the ones that are MOST IMPORTANT to our
customers so take the extra time to state your case as CLEARLY and
COMPLETELY as possible so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

IMPORTANT: Each submission should be a single suggestion (not a list of
suggestions).

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

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