[MacDV] Re: Formatting problem: video in PowerPoint

[Ehrhart, Robert]

Good info, and a validation of what I'm facing. Like you, Mike, our IT
department has a short list of supported apps, and we're talking about
probably a hundred or so laptops. But as far as using Keynote, iMovies,
etc., I have to keep in mind that I'm the ONLY PERSSON in my company of
6,000 that uses a Mac! These will be tools for the sales force; they'll want
to use the videos interchangeably depending on their target market; my job
is just to give them each a cd of clips they can use. What do other
companies with these limitations do?


On 2/19/07 3:39 PM, "Mike Rehbein" <rotorwash at mac.com> wrote:

> I work at an IT shop.
> 
> Our enterprise is all windoes (sigh.....!)
> 
> The policy set does not allow users to install QT or anything else so
> that each workstation and server remains standard.
> 
> In the past, QT was installed but like any windoes environment,
> installing an item on 3,000 boxes means 300 or more boxes will
> require a visit from staff to "fix" the install. Add to that, once it
> is working on all the boxes (and it never does on all.....) then
> comes the maintenance trips to the boxes (hey, it used to work,
> really). So as you can see, it is important to keep the number of
> supported apps to a minimum. QT is not considered vital to the
> enterprise for work so, it is no longer on the list of installed or
> supported apps.
> 
> That's why QT is not an option for us or many windoes shops....
> 
> This is my beef with MS. My expectation would be that MS Office would
> be cross-platform. And while much of it is, much is not. PowerPoint
> is probably the biggest pain in not being cross-platform. Instead, MS
> or the MBU (mac business unit) decided to use what each platform
> deals with best when adding movies to PPT. So, PPT on the Mac uses QT
> best and on the MS side of the fence, other formats are used. This is
> just one difference. If you are making a PPT show on a Mac, it is
> best to remain super simple if you wish to use the same PPT on a PC
> for a presentation.
> 
> Or, better yet. If you will use a Mac for the presentation, why use
> PPT at all? Move on to (yep, it is painful to learn a different app
> but.....) move on to Keynote. It will actually work. PPT needs to be
> updated severely and I hope that someday, MS takes the time to do so.
> It is appallingly messy to work with if you try to use many of the
> spiffy features.
> 
> After my more recent attempt to develop a fancy training PPT on my
> Mac, trying to be careful and test each feature I used would work on
> a PC, well, I gave up. I spent more time on the PPT functions than on
> the training material itself.
> 
> It was like having to do more maintenance on a car that I was driving
> on a trip than the time it was taking to drive the trip itself....
> 
> I still needed a product that would work on PC's so my work around
> was and is to develop the training material in iMovie and create a
> DVD. The PC seems to function with this reliably. I've had other
> fancy PPT's simply break time and again in the past and I'm tired of
> having to fix them or not fix them and remove the errant feature.
> 
> PPT is great when all you need is to knock out a quick presentation
> that consists of photos, graphics, text and little more. Very little
> more :)
> 
> YMMV,
> Mike