How can I zoom or pan slides during a PowerPoint presenation?

[Guest]

I'm doing a PowerPoint 2003 presentation.

I have some complicated visuals and some long timelines to display and it
would be a lot easier to present this stuff if I could zoom in/out .

Also, if I could pan right-left along a very wide slide (a timeline) then I
wouldn't have to cut it up into different slides and it would be easier to
present.

 

[Craig Ball]

I'm doing a PowerPoint 2003 presentation.

I have some complicated visuals and some long timelines to display and it
would be a lot easier to present this stuff if I could zoom in/out .

Also, if I could pan right-left along a very wide slide (a timeline) then I
wouldn't have to cut it up into different slides and it would be easier to
present.

You've gotten excellent advice, so no need to bad-mouth PowerPoint.
Some of us here love it and have no problem making it jump through
amazing hoops for us!

I created a demo slide for you at
http://www.craigball.com/pan-zoom-demo.ppt that pans right and left
over an image spanning two slide widths, and I also put an exemplar
triggered zoom that enlarges an area for detail (the green info box
brings out the zoom and a click on the zoomed image makes it recede).
You can, of course, add other zoomed areas, or use different triggers,
as well as add additional triggered motion path events.

Setting this up took only a few minutes, but admittedly I'm pretty
experienced using PP. If you are less comfortable with the program's
animations, take a moment to look at how the custom animation stack is
structured and also examine how the trigger function was employed.
There's really not that much to it once you get the hang of it. Hope
this helps. Good luck.

Craig Ball
Attorney and Technologist
Certified Computer Forensic Examiner
Law Offices of Craig D. Ball, P.C.
3402 Cedar Grove
Montgomery, Texas 77356
TEL: 936-582-5040 or 936-448-4321
FAX: 936-582-4234
E-MAIL: craig @ ball.net

 

[Lon]

Craig,

Your demo is terrific. It's exactly the feature I've been looking for. Alas,
though I've downloaded and opened your demo, you've used PowerPoint
functions that I don't recognize. Could I persuade you, please, to write a
short narrative explanation of what you did, so I could do it too?

I'd like to be able to do it, because I've created a legal "concept map,"
but many of the law's concepts are too complicated to display on a single
slide. To deal with this, I've created links from objects on the right edge
of slides to entirely new slides, and then links from the left edge of new
slides back to the earlier slides. But your way -- panning left and right --
would allow users to see where they were in the map, much more clearly.

-Lon Sobel

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I created a demo slide for you at

http://www.craigball.com/pan-zoom-demo.ppt that pans right and left
over an image spanning two slide widths, and I also put an exemplar
triggered zoom that enlarges an area for detail (the green info box
brings out the zoom and a click on the zoomed image makes it recede).

Sweet! Thanks for taking the time to post this, Craig.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for posting the example. Is there a way to pan across multiple screens?

I need to display a timeline that is normal screen height but is 4 or 5
screens wide. I need to be able to pan back and forth, not following a
pre-programmed path.

Is there a way to define a motion path such that it contains multiple
stopping points and each click of the button re-activates the motion so that
a single button can provide panning across multiple screens, one screen at a
time?

The other motion button would need to pan the image back from its current
location to the previous motion-path stopping point.

Is there a way to do this in PowerPoint?

 

[Craig]

I want to say "yes," but the honest answer is "not exactly" (assuming,
by "in PowerPoint," you mean without resorting to Visual Basic). You
can certainly use a single button to pan through as many screen widths
as you wish, and I've posted an example of that at
http://www.craigball.com/pan4-zoom.ppt. But, you would need to pan
screens 1 through X, a screen at a time, then pan back screens X
through one, if you intend to use a single trigger button for each
direction. You could, of course, add additional buttons that would
work like a "fast-forward" or "rewind" feature, or include buttons to
bring you back to particular screens. I also added rather crude
auto-rewind "enlarge" and "shrink" buttons as well, for zoom and
orientation purposes.

Appended to my demo is a slide pair that uses transitions to mimic a
pan effect so as to enable a presenter to pan back and forth seamlessly
between slides 3 and 4. This effect uses slow push left and push right
transitions combined with splitting a wide graphic over two adjoining
slides (using the PP crop tool to split the graphic). Use the right
and left cursor keys or the embedded buttons on the slides to pan back
and forth. Pretty effective, and very simple and quick to achieve.
There's always more than one way to skin the cat with PP.

Craig Ball
Attorney & Technologist
Author of "Power Persuasion" and "Six Ways to Add PowerPoint Pizzazz to
Mundane Documents"
http://www.craigball.com/powerpersuasion.pdf

 

[John Langhans [MSFT]]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the Critical
Update or Service Pack 1 for Office 2003 as soon as possible. From
PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for Updates".]

[TOP ISSUE - Are you having difficulty opening presentations in PowerPoint
that you just created (you can save, but not open)? -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=329820]

Hello,

It sounds that, although there are workarounds, you would like this to be a
lot easier to do in PowerPoint.

If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that it's important that
PowerPoint should provide this kind of functionality natively (not
requiring add-ins or ActiveX controls), don't forget to send your feedback
(in YOUR OWN WORDS, please) to Microsoft by either:

PREFERRED METHOD:

A) If you are using Microsoft's web-based, online newsreader for Office
communities
(http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.p
ublic.powerpoint), check to see whether or not the suggestion has been
submitted before (Show -> Suggestions for Microsoft) and, if so, add your
vote to the suggestion submission. If the suggestion has not been submitted
before, click on the "New" drop-down menu and choose "Suggestion for
Microsoft" from directly within the newsreader web page.

OR, NEXT BEST METHOD:

B) If you are using another newsreader (such as Microsoft Outlook Express),
submit your suggestion using your web browser at the following address:
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/suggestion.asp

It's VERY important that, for EACH wish, you describe in detail, WHY it is
important TO YOU that your product suggestion be implemented. A good wish
submssion includes WHAT scenario, work-flow, or end-result is blocked by
not having a specific feature, HOW MUCH time and effort ($$$) is spent
working around a specific limitation of the current product, etc. Remember
that 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 so that we can FEEL YOUR PAIN.

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.