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An Opinion: Why You Need PowerPoint XP/2002

by Moore Anderson

Moore offers his reasons why you should buy PowerPoint XP/2002

PowerPoint XP is perhaps the first significant upgrade since PowerPoint '97. Although the content is compatible with other versions, the show features have been significantly improved.

The "fade smoothly" transition is very cool, though you need to check the "use hardware graphics acceleration" checkbox in "Set Up Show" for it and the other new transitions to run smoothly. When you move the file to other machines, the box my "uncheck" itself. Watch out for that! Then the transitions may be jumpy again.



The task pane simplifies your life and is very easy to get used to. You can see the animations as you work on them in your work window instead of the postage stamp size dialog box we"re used to. Animation features added include a lot of zippy presets, path animation and a timeline view. It"s exciting and user friendly. Dig in and play!

I am also finding the clip art gallery much more useful than in the past as it searches my disk and finds my PhotoDisc pictures and other photo resources on the hard drive.

For someone like myself putting together files for large meetings, the "multiple formats" feature is incredibly useful. Using the Slide Sorter view, I first select all of the frames from the "guest" presentation. Then I copy them into my "main" show file. There is a little clipboard icon associated with the first frame of your imported show that allows you to "retain source formatting" of your imported files. When you select that option, "Voila!" the frames revert to their source style. Putting medical meetings and associations varied speaker files together is a snap.

Other cool things are in the improved graphics capabilities. WMF files display smoothly with anti-aliasing. Pictures can be rotated and flipped. You can import .pdf and .eps files now and they will display; in fact, .pdf files look incredibly good! A word of warning though; these new features are not backwardly compatible with older versions.

The Redmond group has my grudging admiration for the many improvements they have brought to the program. It could be the best $100 you ever spent. I really don"t use the rest of office that much (except for Word) and don"t think the changes there are worthwhile enough to justify upgrading the whole Office suite, but PowerPoint XP has my recommendation for a "must buy"!

Moore Anderson is a professional PowerPoint designer and graphic artist. He also runs shows for large corporate clients around the country. He has won national awards for his work in video and interactive applications. With a 15 year background as an art director and creative director for large production companies in the Chicago area, he now runs his own business as a graphic designer and PowerPoint guru. He holds an MFA from the University of Iowa in printmaking and multimedia. Check out www.mooreanderson.com for "Moore" information.