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#1
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Object defaults (e.g., default fill color)
MS writes:
"Hello, PowerPoint does not have the specific capability that you are looking for. Although some defaults can be customized (such as using the Options dialog) other defaults (such as fill color) are presentation specific and cannot be set as a global default. If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that PowerPoint should provide more control over various default behaviors, settings, etc. ...send feedback please to Microsoft at..." 1. What does this mean? While it is not easy to do, eventually I discovered--with the suggestions of helpful others--how to set the default fill to blank. Does MS believe that this is impossible (without having to resort to VBA or 3rd party add-ins)? 2. Perhaps the larger question is, why would MS create a default format for a circle or a square that is filled with turquoise? How bizarre! After manually reformatting to remove the bizarre turquoise fill coloring a few hundred times, I learned how to default to an "ordinary" (e.g., empty*) circle or square. But who was the twisted programmer who reasoned that every new object should be made to be turquoise? Is he or she working on even more bizarre defaults for future releases? (Of course, something has to be the default. But surely, while 1 person in 100 may decide to default fill with white, and 1 with black, the other 98 would reason that a circle is a circle and doesn't need any colorful interior color at all. Certainly not a purple, chartreuse or turquoise one!) |
#2
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Object defaults (e.g., default fill color)
Actually, John reminds us all of the time that anyone and everyone should
voice their needs, wants, wishes via the MS Wishlist vehicle whenever you want, but especially if something is bugging you, so maybe this is "your time". G The Wishlist is an excellent way for customers to voice their needs and wants. If 10,000 people complain about the fill color default and 51% say no fill is the best choice, that's valued input that is definitely seen by the product planners. It was through just that process that Microsoft got the message loud and clear that customers were demanding a new Viewer and so the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer was developed. A team of designers (programmers just do what they're told) probably developed what they thought would be the best and "mildest" set of defaults for the color scheme of the blank.pot file. I suspect that they picked colors that would work well in the corporate world, recognizing that customers could and would change the defaults to whatever they want. If you look at the color scheme, the background is white, the text is black, the fill is a pale turquoise, and the accent colors were selected to stand out against a white background. As you noted, something had to be chosen and transparent wouldn't work any better than picking a color. At least this way the new user can look at the color scheme and look at his or her objects and relate the "Fill" color to what happens when they draw an object on a slide. Personally I only use the blank.pot for slapping together quick tests, so I haven't even changed it. For all "real" work I use templates customized to my specifications, and I change absolutely everything to exactly what I want and need for a specific presentation and/or client. Just my two cents, which won't buy anything these days, not even penny candy. G -- Sonia, MS PowerPoint MVP Team Autorun CD software, templates, and tutorials http://www.soniacoleman.com/ "Jeff" wrote in message ... MS writes: "Hello, PowerPoint does not have the specific capability that you are looking for. Although some defaults can be customized (such as using the Options dialog) other defaults (such as fill color) are presentation specific and cannot be set as a global default. If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that PowerPoint should provide more control over various default behaviors, settings, etc. ...send feedback please to Microsoft at..." 1. What does this mean? While it is not easy to do, eventually I discovered--with the suggestions of helpful others--how to set the default fill to blank. Does MS believe that this is impossible (without having to resort to VBA or 3rd party add-ins)? 2. Perhaps the larger question is, why would MS create a default format for a circle or a square that is filled with turquoise? How bizarre! After manually reformatting to remove the bizarre turquoise fill coloring a few hundred times, I learned how to default to an "ordinary" (e.g., empty*) circle or square. But who was the twisted programmer who reasoned that every new object should be made to be turquoise? Is he or she working on even more bizarre defaults for future releases? (Of course, something has to be the default. But surely, while 1 person in 100 may decide to default fill with white, and 1 with black, the other 98 would reason that a circle is a circle and doesn't need any colorful interior color at all. Certainly not a purple, chartreuse or turquoise one!) |
#3
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Object defaults (e.g., default fill color)
The "original" default fill color of an autoshape is based on the slide
color scheme. Because the first swatch representing a fill in the blank.pot template is that turquoise color, that's why the fill defaults to it. That's also the default color for the first bar in a chart. If you look under Slide Design - Color Schemes on the task pane, you can see the little arrow-ish autoshape and chart diagram which show you what pieces receive which color scheme colors. Different templates will have different autoshape default colors, because their default color schemes are different than that of blank.pot. Take a look at Balance.POT, for example. That default fill color is kind of an orange-ish shade. In Bold Stripes.POT, it's white. Competition.POT is red. You get the idea. If you then view the color scheme of any of those templates -- and change to a different color scheme -- you'll see the color of the autoshape change along with it. There's more on color schemes on my site if you're interested. http://www.echosvoice.com/colorschemes.htm As far as what John Langhans wrote, he's just basically asking you to submit feedback to MS about the default settings features. If you would like MS to make it possible to create a global default format for autoshapes (or whatever) so that you don't have to change this for each presentation/template, please submit your feedback as per his information. This type of feedback from users is how feature sets for new versions of products is determined. (Well, partially, anyway.) BTW, I'm glad to hear that you got your default setting working. I wouldn't have thought to look for additional blank.pot files on your system, that's for sure! -- Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com "Jeff" wrote in message ... MS writes: "Hello, PowerPoint does not have the specific capability that you are looking for. Although some defaults can be customized (such as using the Options dialog) other defaults (such as fill color) are presentation specific and cannot be set as a global default. If you (or anyone else reading this message) think that PowerPoint should provide more control over various default behaviors, settings, etc. ...send feedback please to Microsoft at..." 1. What does this mean? While it is not easy to do, eventually I discovered--with the suggestions of helpful others--how to set the default fill to blank. Does MS believe that this is impossible (without having to resort to VBA or 3rd party add-ins)? 2. Perhaps the larger question is, why would MS create a default format for a circle or a square that is filled with turquoise? How bizarre! After manually reformatting to remove the bizarre turquoise fill coloring a few hundred times, I learned how to default to an "ordinary" (e.g., empty*) circle or square. But who was the twisted programmer who reasoned that every new object should be made to be turquoise? Is he or she working on even more bizarre defaults for future releases? (Of course, something has to be the default. But surely, while 1 person in 100 may decide to default fill with white, and 1 with black, the other 98 would reason that a circle is a circle and doesn't need any colorful interior color at all. Certainly not a purple, chartreuse or turquoise one!) |
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