PowerPoint Centimeters Different from Actual Centimeters

[Martin]

Does anyone have a solution for this yet?

I want to create shapes of specific sizes & place them
together & use the ruler/guide function to measure the
total size without having to add up each individial
dimention.

Thanks,

Martin

PS delete somebodycalled__ from the Email address to reply

 

[Bill Dilworth]

The measurements used in PowerPoint are more of a reference for relative
sizes during the design process rather then an actual display size. This is
because PowerPoint was designed to be a presentation software. The
presentations usually fill the screen, regardless of if it is a 13" diaginal
monitor or an 80' jumbo-tron. Therefore it is difficult to call for exact
measurements in the finished presentation display.

Will you be using this as a display, or as a printout? If it is for
printout, then there may be better solutions than PowerPoint (keeping exact
screen/paper measurements).


Bill Dilworth (MS PPT MVP)

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Does anyone have a solution for this yet?

I want to create shapes of specific sizes & place them
together & use the ruler/guide function to measure the
total size without having to add up each individial
dimention.

Select all the shapes you want to get a combined measurement for, then run
this:

Sub WidthOfAll()

Dim TotalWidth As Double
Dim Item As Long

For Item = 1 To ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Count
TotalWidth = TotalWidth + ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange(Item).Width
Next Item

MsgBox TotalWidth

End Sub

 

[John Langhans [MSFT]]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]

Hello,

This is a design problem in PowerPoint 2000 and earlier driven by the
desire to have the invisible grid spacing be something that was consistent
(1 pica) easily divisible into one inch or one centimeter. As a result 12
grid units go into 1 inch and 5 grid units go into 1 centimeter which means
that one real inch is equivalent to 2.4 PowerPoint 95/97/2000 centimeters
(instead of the real conversion factor of 2.54).

In PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 a centimeter in PowerPoint is a real centimeter
(printed unscaled and measured on the paper will be correct).

For PowerPoint 2000 and earlier, if you need printed accuracy, you should
use inches instead of centimeters for your units of measurement (and due
the unit conversion calculations yourself) and make sure that you don't use
the Scale to fit paper option when printing.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=189826

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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