[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]
Hello,
PowerPoint does not have the specific capability that you are looking for
although there are a few different workarounds depending on what is most
important (easy printing <single file>, or on-screen slide show
appearance). There's an online help topic that describes one workaround:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HP051949451033
This is one of those requested capabilities that has been difficult to
justify because we haven't received enough (or compelling) reasons for the
on-screen slide show scenario. Basically, we haven't received good
arguments as to why displaying a portrait slide on a landscape
display/projector is any better than simply placing your "portrait" content
into a landscape slide (retaining the aspect ratio of the content while
sizing it so that it touches the bottom and top of the slide) and then
displaying the landscape slide on a landscape display/projector. They look
the same. Perhaps a better recommendation in this scenario is NOT to allow
mixed portrait/landscape slides in the same presentation but, INSTEAD,
provide better slide show tools for viewing portrait content in slide show
(scrolling, magnify, etc.) at it's original size instead of shrunk down to
fit the slide area?
However, we have received some good justifications for combining mixed
landscape and portrait slides in presentations intended primarily for
printing (since printers have the capability to rotate the output on a
per-page basis), but as always, more feedback and justification in
customers own words would really help us to understand under which
scenarios (print, display, etc.) you are looking for support for mixed
orientation slides and what your expectations are of the experience when
showing or printing these types of presentations (does it have to be a
single presentation, or will multiple presentations with improved
presentation "chaining" features be sufficient, what else?)
If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that PowerPoint should
provide support for mixed orientation slides in same presentation
(onscreen? print? both?), or features for better handling of naturally
"portrait" content in a landscape slide show, or better features for
chaining multiple presentations together (regardless of each presentations
orientation), don't forget to send your feedback (in YOUR OWN WORDS,
please) to Microsoft at:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp
As with all product suggestions, it's important that you not just state
your wish but also WHY it is important to you that your product suggestion
be implemented by Microsoft. 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.
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
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of any included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm