Power Point/Office Improvements

[Code Doc]

I must confess that I am still using Powerpoint 2000 with Win XP. This is archaic and I know it. Please forgive me.

So, can this forum please tell me what is new and why I should spend the money to upgrade this software and other components of Office and join the rest of you in the 21st century? I think the time has come. Do you agree?

Please advise positively because others have already told me that my feet are stuck in concrete. TIA.

[Nightwalker83]

Well, since I can't remember ever using Office 2000 I will direct you to a place that should be able to help you Microsoft, if they can't then we're screwed.

Edit:

Office 2007 has the ribbon feature which replaces the menu style in 2003, I personally don't like it.

[Code Doc]

Well, since I can't remember ever using Office 2000 I will direct you to a place that should be able to help you Microsoft, if they can't then we're screwed.

Now I feal awful. I've already grabbed my ankles. What more do you want me to do? All I want is some friendly advice from a modern user--not a link to advertising. Sheesh!

[Nightwalker83]

Well, like I said above I have never used office 2000. Is it just Power Point 2000 you are using or the whole Office 2000 suite?

[Siddharth Rout]

Don't upgrade to Office 2007. I hate it...

The beta version of Office 2010 is out... And I like it ...

You can download that to test it

[RobDog888]

If you can wait a few more months you can buy 2010 release version.
I wouldnt spend good money on 2007 when 2010 is so close to RTM

[Code Doc]

Well, like I said above I have never used office 2000. Is it just Power Point 2000 you are using or the whole Office 2000 suite?

My whole Office suite is 2000. So, I'm a measly 9 years out of date. Perhaps I could be more specific about the shortcomings I am experiencing and you could tell me if this has been fixed:

(1) Embedding a background sound track into a slideshow requires a .wav file and no other more compact sound format, such as .wma or .mp3 is recognized.

(2) Changing a .pps file that already has continuous sound from manual to automatic slide advance does not work. The sound restarts with every slide after the countdown.

(3) There seems no way to delete an embedded sound track and replace it with another more desirable one without redoing the whole slide show from scratch.

Are these problems still on board with the more recent releases? TIA.

[Nightwalker83]

Well, I only have Office 2003 and can only tell you what is different in that. Although, I think you can down the office 2010 beta and get a rough idea of what will be different in the office 2010 suite.

1. Looking at the list of sound files that can be inserted in power point 2003 those are: aiff, au, midi and mp3.

2. In office 2003, you only need to right click on the sound icon of the inserted file and select Custom Animation. From there choose either on click (to play the file when the slide is click) or After Previous (Play the file automatically).

3. With office 2003 you only need to select the sound/movie file on the stage and press backspace or the delete key to remove the file. After that then you can add a different file by going the movies and sounds section under the insert menu.

[Code Doc]

Thanks a bunch. At least I know there were some major enhancements from 2000 to 2003. I'm not sure if .wma format was common knowledge in 2003, so perhaps that's now available. The .mp3 format is a far better compression ratio than .wav and about the same as .wma.

I received a .pps file today that I wanted to fix and could not. Several slides advanced automatically and much too rapidly even though the auto delay was supposed to be 14 seconds. No adjustment was possible when I applied the auto delay to all slides. These are the bugs that drive me bonkers.