Why do something with one click, when you can do it with twelve?

Published by neil on January 10th, 2005

I am currently working on a number of illustrations to be inserted into Word documents. The client has requested that wherever possible, they should be created within Microsoft Powerpoint, yet have a look and feel which does not immediately scream “this was done with Powerpoint”. This means not using standard MS clipart, clearly, but also means creating a library of custom shapes, fills and styles.

I was pleased to see that Powerpoint handles object transparency quite well, that’s a positive thing. But my enthusiasm for that one element was rapidly quashed when I needed to create custom shapes; i.e. create a shape and edit it’s points directly. Powerpoint cruelly entices with an ‘Edit Points’ icon which can be placed into the Drawing toolbar, but no matter what shape or object is selected, this icon remains greyed out.

This is the desired, and user-centric procedure for editing a shape’s point:

1. Select the shape.
2. Click Edit Points.
3. Edit the shapes points.

This is the Microsoft Powerpoint procedure for editing the points of a shape:

1. Select the shape.
2. Select Edit > Copy (or Cut).
3. Select Edit > Paste Special.
4. In the resulting dialog box select to Paste As: Picture (or Metafile, depending on your version and platform).
5. Select the pasted object and Ungroup (from the contextual menu)
6. Click the Edit Points icon from the Drawing palette (hopefully having remembered to manually place it into the palette before hand as it is not there by default).
7. Edit the shape’s points.

I do so love Microsoft…

Tags: Geek
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