PowerPoint shape fill options

[Sketcher]

One of the most important shape fill effects seem to be missing from PP 2007,
namely the ability to fill shapes with lines, diagonals or simple patterns.
This feature has been in every previous PP. Where is this very useful and
indispensible feature hiding?

 

[Lucy Thomson]

Hi Sketcher

Yep, they are gone. However they are still in Word so you can create the
fill there. See John Wilson's article here:
http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk:80/patterns.html

There are other workarounds here:
No more Pattern Fills in PowerPoint 2007
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00925.htm

Lucy

 

[Sketcher]

Thankyou for the information. I'll have to use a workaround.

I'd like to mee the idiot at Microsoft who made this decision. I have 15
employees complaining about PP 07. Some of it can be attributed to learning a
new user interface, but it is hard to respond when a feature they use on
daily basis has been removed for no good reason. Already I have one guy who
wants to use OpenOffice instead. Shame on Microsoft.

 

[Lucy Thomson]

Yes, I must admit I was surprised to find they had got rid of pattern
fills - not all of us have got/want to use colour printers after all. But I
think they are hearing the feedback on this one loud and clear (see the
Excel team blog article here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2007/11/16/chart-pattern-fills.aspx) so
they may make a return yet....

As for moving to 2007, yes it can be a frustrating process but now I can't
live without live preview, or soft shadows, or funky text treatments, or
more master options, etc etc. I found this 'where have all the commands
gone?' workbook an invaluable resource during the move:
powerpoint:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102128641033.aspx?pid=CT102130321033

Lucy