PowerPoint 2007 changed the way zoom works in same cases

[Guest]

PowerPoint 2007. Imagine this scenario:
- A slide with a lot of different shapes everywhere
- I need to modify a detail in an object placed far in the top-right corner
of the slide.
When I'm viewing that small object detail in the center of the screen (say
zoom @ 400), if I unselect that object and change the level of zoom (say zoom
@ 390), the application automatically re-center the view of the slide and the
object disappears of the screen, viewing now details of the object placed in
the center of the slide.

It's like the new PowerPoint 2007 has a "hidden" feature that allow
something like "automatic center the view when you change the zoom level and
no object is selected". Something that PowerPoint 2003 doesn't have and I've
got used not to have.

Where can I change this setting? Is there any way to change it?

German

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

PowerPoint 2007. Imagine this scenario:
- A slide with a lot of different shapes everywhere
- I need to modify a detail in an object placed far in the top-right corner
of the slide.
When I'm viewing that small object detail in the center of the screen (say
zoom @ 400), if I unselect that object and change the level of zoom (say zoom
@ 390), the application automatically re-center the view of the slide and the
object disappears of the screen, viewing now details of the object placed in
the center of the slide.

It's like the new PowerPoint 2007 has a "hidden" feature that allow
something like "automatic center the view when you change the zoom level and
no object is selected". Something that PowerPoint 2003 doesn't have and I've
got used not to have.

I'm seeing the same "feature" in PPT 2003 though. Perhaps it has to do with the
exact sequence of steps?

Here:

I draw a small rectangle in the upper right corner.

With the rectangle selected, I use the Zoom dropdown list on the toolbar to set
the zoom to 400. The rectangle stays in view.

I unselect the rectangle then use the toolbar zoom gadget to change the zoom to
300% -- PPT zooms to the center of the slide and my rectangle's now way off
screen.

It does the same thing if I unselect the rectangle and choose View, Zoom and
set, say, 390% using the spinner.

 

[Echo S]

Oh, I see it. Yeah, that's annoying.

 

[Echo S]

Forget the rectangle in the upper right corner, Steve. Try these repro steps
instead.

 

[Guest]

Steve,
Thanks for your quick answer.

Another difference is this:
Scenario:
- Draw a rectangle shape ie: 2 cm tall and 21 cm wide.
- Go to an extreme of the rectangle and zoom that tip edge by 400. Now in
the center of the screen you see only the tip of the rectangle, really big.
- Now click and drag the border line of the tip edge just a few
millimeters to make the rectangle a little bit wider (say 21,1 cm)
- After that, as you release the mouse left-click, PPT 2007 shows in the
middle of the screen the geometrical center of the shape (rectangle) @ the
same zoom, so if you wants to modify the edge again, you will have to do many
clicks over the scroll bar to arrive to the edge.

This is a very uncomfortable feature that I need to disable and I don't know
how.

German

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Forget the rectangle in the upper right corner, Steve. Try these repro steps
instead.

Got it.

It seems to depend on what's behind the selected shape.
If it's a placeholder, then the shape disappears when you click off it (thus
selecting the placeholder behind it)

If I draw a big rectangle then a small circle atop it, both centered, I don't
lose the circle when I click off it or change the zoom level or both.

If the placeholder's "filled" (ie, I've clicked the chartthingie and let it
make a chart, then again it may jump a bit (the "recenters" effect) but I don't
lose the object I just unselected.

For the most part, doesn't seem to happen in 2003, but if the test rectangle's
positioned over a text placeholder, you get a similar effect. Rectangle goes
away when text is clicked, but there's at least some logic to that.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi German,

See my reply to Echo also. I missed the point of your earlier post.
Echo knows just where to hit my head to readjust my eyes. ;-)

And thanks for the very clear descriptions by the way.

This one below, for example ... I see the same thing here. Very annoying indeed.

I don't think there's any "Off" setting for this (except for the one called Office
2003). I'll report it though.

 

[Guest]

Steve, thanks again for your answer.
Glad to see you could catch my second example.

If you are going to report it, maybe the following couple of details can
help in clarifying a little bit more the problem:

- In the same scenario (rectangle 2 x 20 cm), draw a small circle close to
the rigth edge of the rectangle. Zoom it @ 400, then delete the circle, and
now you are viewing the center of the rectangle ... Seems like the problem is
when you delete an object too.

- I asked a friend of mine to run these examples in his Office 2007 Beta,
and everything there is like PPT 2003. Very extrange. This Beta version is
12.0.4017.1006 and my version is 12.0.4518.1014

Hope this helps.

German

 

[Echo S]

- I asked a friend of mine to run these examples in his Office 2007 Beta,
and everything there is like PPT 2003. Very extrange. This Beta version is
12.0.4017.1006 and my version is 12.0.4518.1014

That could help explain why nobody noticed it before. Hate when they do
that.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi again, German.

It seems that this is a known problem. We'll just have to wait for a service pack to
see whether it gets fixed.

 

[Guest]

Steve, Echo,

Thanks a lot both of you for the answers. Hope MS will fix these soon.

Because I use PPT a lot, this behavior makes me spend 2 or 3 times the time
I need to do the job. By now, this makes me think in change back again to PPT
2003 ...

Thanks again

German