PowerPoint 2010: Now Available!

And remember you can download a FREE trial of Office 2010 - just go here: office.microsoft.com/.../try

And remember... you can download a FREE trial version of Office 2010 - just go here: office.microsoft.com/.../try

We love all the new features of PowerPoint 2010. I have one question however; we have been contacted by several people via our website (www.m62.net) who are unable to view all the transitions. For example, one person has purchased the full version of Office Professional Plus 2010 Pro, but can only see some subtle transitions and only four transitions under exciting: Clock, Blinds, Checkerboard & Dissolve. Is this issue dependent on version, due to an installation error, or have some of the transitions been removed? Thank you for your time, Jessica

Hey Jessica, When you say they can only see certain transitions - do you mean that only a few options show up in the gallery, or do you mean that all the options show up in the gallery but only a few of them actually play when you click on them? -Chris

The issue is that only a few options show up in the gallery. The issue seems to be more common with the 'exciting' transitions. Jessica

It appears that there has been a change in how PPT uses "ink" during presos. In the previous version, when you selected pen (ballpoint or felt tip) you could write on a slide. Then use the keyboard or the "arrow buttons" to move to the next slide. At this point PPT 07 would remain in "pen mode." However now in PPT 2010 it automatically reverts back to "mouse/arrow mode." Forcing 2 more clicks to get the pen back. For those of us who use this feature daily (Teachres with tablet PCs) this is very frustrating. Tell me it is a setting somewhere, please! Or at worst that it is a bug to be fixed soon. Thanks.

Jessica, It's possible that they've purchased the release version but still have the Technical Preview installed, which only included a subset of the transitions. You may want to reccomend that they uninstall Office, and re-install using CD or download link from Office.com. Samandjt, Thank you for the feedback. We will investigate the pen issue. -Chris

I have prepared a power point using backgrounds from another source. I need to change the background, however I really don't want to retype all the slides. Is there a way to either copy the text from all the slides at once and replace them on new slides or is there another way?

rhand, You can easily change the background using one of two methods: 1. Right click a slide, click "Format Background..." where you can choose a new background and then click "Apply to all" which will change the background of every slide. 2. Go to the View tab and click "Slide Master." There, you can change the backround of the individual layouts, or of the overall slide master which is located at the top of the thumbnail pane in this view. Once you make your change and close slide master view, you will notice that your background has changed on all the slides. This article has a video that contains some information about how to use slide masters: office.microsoft.com/.../understand-the-difference-between-powerpoint-templates-and-themes-HA010357528.aspx -Chris

I wholeheartedly echo Samandjt's comment about the cursor automatically reverting back to arrow mode on a slide change. Any new information?

I also need to know how to keep in pen mode during presentations. I also present with the pen and donot want to hit Ctl P for every single slide.

PP2010 switches back from pen to arrow mode in presentation!!! PPT 07 would remain in "pen mode." PPT 2010 automatically reverts back to "mouse/arrow mode." Forcing 2 more clicks to get the pen back. Please brung a bug fix or a workarrount asap.

Any news on the pen issue yet? we have resorted to using the PointerKeeper add in.

I really need to have Pen mode remains.

any solution for that?

Still wondering if the PPT team has an answer for why the pen doesn't stick around. Usually Microsoft doesn't remove a feature without good reason. What's the reason, and what's the fix?