Steve - I haven't used Office 2004 much so I can't feel your pain (although
I am a long-time user of PPT for Windows in all its flavors); but I did
recently start using PPT 2008 for Mac. I tried creating a linear gradient
for a shape as you mentioned. It seemed pretty straightforward to me -
here's what I did:
1. Making sure that the toolbox is displayed, select the shape and click
on
the "Formatting Palette" tab.
2. In the Quick Styles and Effects section of the Formatting palette,
click
"More Options".
3. In the Format Shape dialog box, click Fill, Gradient, and under the
Color and Transparency section, click Add Color. There should now be
three color stops in the gradient sample bar. (Make sure that the
"Styles and Direction" setting is set to Linear before you try to
add colors.)
4. Click on the first and third color stops to adjust the colors to your
liking, and make sure that the Angle is set to 90 degrees. (This is a
live preview feature, BTW - if the dialog box doesn't obstruct the
slide
view, you will be able to see the changes you make in real time and
correct them if necessary.)
That's really all there is to it. You can even skip steps 1 and 2 above if
you have right-click access, by right-clicking on the shape and selecting
Format Shape. It took me about 20-25 seconds to make the change in PPT
2008
using the above method, BTW. ;-) Again, I'm not familiar with the way that
PPT 2004 did it, but the steps involved seem pretty logical to me, and
they
are pretty well in line with how PPT 2007 for Windows operates. Also, if
you
use this method, there is no reason to mess around with prefab samples -
you
can just do your own thing and make it look the way you like.
Jeff
On 4/22/08 12:31 PM, in article
5A9B5EF1-43F6-40FD-BBCA-FDB41C8F4453@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Steve"
<Steve@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> What took me about 15 seconds to do in the older version of powerpoint
now
> took me an hour and I still didn't get results..
> All i wanted was a simple vertical light-dark-light gradient, but there
are
> so many pull down menus' angles and pre-fab'd samples that I can't make
a
> simple gradient fill.
> You took a great powerpoint and just made it slower - everything about
the
> new menus adds time - before I could click and go, now its select a bar
menu
> then pull down another...
> This was a step backwards.
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