Tables in PowerPoint appear with weird characters to PC users
Alfredo M. Saavedra
I've worked on numerous presentations on PowerPoint X that I then send to PC
users. They in turn make edits to them and send them back to me to further
format and stylize them.
The problem that I've encountered time and again has to do with tables.
When the PC user opens the presentation, many tables show weird characters
instead of "n" or "m" hyphens, quotes, brackets, apostrophes, etc.
To try to remedy the problem, after I finish working on them, I open them in
VPC (XP) in PowerPoint. I notice the tables with the weird characters and
all I need to do is open them and close them, and that solves the problem.
I then zip the file while still in VPC to preserve its integrity during
email transit.
When I'm only dealing with five or six tables this workaround is tolerable,
but not when I am working with thirty tables or so.
Also, in VPC, after I open the table, the table seems deformed (the fonts
are stretched), even though I did not change the shape or size of the table
whatsoever. Even when I try to reset the size of the table (via Object
Properties>Size), the table remains deformed.
The fact that I have to open each presentation in VPC (or my PC laptop)
before sending it to PC users greatly slows down production. Any ideas?
Jim Gordon MVP
It sounds like there are problems occurring with differences in fonts
between the various computers.
Try changing the font in the table to one of the fonts that Microsoft
recommends for cross-platform use.
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/officex/using.aspx?pid=usingofficex&t
ype=howto&article=/mac/LIBRARY/feature_articles/officex/of_thm_compatibility
.xml>
Also, PowerPoint 2004 reportedly will handle fonts differently. In
particular it should support Unicode fonts. So as soon as PowerPoint 2004 is
available I recommend you try it out and see if that makes life better for
you (especially if your Windows friends are using PowerPoint 2003).
-Jim
On 3/10/04 7:09 PM, in article BC74FC3D.8F46%al...@cox.net, "Alfredo M.
Saavedra" <al...@cox.net> wrote:
--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
**Everyone is encouraged to post answers to any unanswered questions
whenever you see one that you know the answer to.