Fired Up: Microsoft says, "Wrap your own damn text!" by ZURB

Fired Up: Microsoft says, "Wrap your own damn text!"

Earlier this morning, Jonathan pointed me at an online help page for wrapping text around images in Microsoft Powerpoint 2007. I was both shocked and amazed that such a help file even existed—especially in 2009! Microsoft actually wants you to hack together a solution to wrapping text, even though they have long automated the task in Word.

Text wrapping in Powerpoint 2007. It only takes four boxes to wrap text around the image.

It's one thing for a company to provide helpful documentation on how to perform a complex design decision, but it's entirely another for someone like Microsoft to post such a bogus "help" file. Anyone could hack something together like that. What Microsoft should be doing is providing tools to do this automatically within Powerpoint, just like they do with Word.

Text wrapping in Word 2007. What takes a hack job in Powerpoint, I did in a few clicks.

It took only a few clicks and I didn't even have to use multiple text boxes. I just positioned my image after setting the alignment. Why is it that Microsoft doesn't have a similar solution for Powerpoint? They have a solution for a problem, but instead of actually cross-implementing it (which I imagine could be a bit of a chore), they hand it off to people like you and I.

When it comes to product suites, cross-implementing features is key. It's a selling point, a usability concern, and above all else it just makes sense. Don't make me think.

17 comments

Bryan (ZURB) says

Ok, so we know you're an Apple fan boy, but really, which large company truly delivers on an integrated suite of software tools? Companies buy companies then try to integrate them into a common work flow. This comes down to a company's cost/benefit decision for feature integration- usually this doesn't consider the long term impact on a users.

Joy Miller says

I'm curious... In what case(s) would anyone want to wrap text around an object in PowerPoint? Unlike in Word, doing it in PowerPoint seems like a very remote necessity.

Mark (ZURB) says

@Bryan: Microsoft has always owned and developed Office in house. And while I do enjoy Apple more than the casual consumer, I fail to see how that has relevance here :). Cost/benefit decisions? Meh, doesn't concern me. If you have a solution in one product, it'll pay off in the long run to get it into the rest of the products.

@Joy: Aligning images in the middle of the text is the extreme end of the stick. I used it for shear exaggeration based on Microsoft's own graphics. Aligning images in Word is very simple, be it inline, behind, or squared up again text. That same functionality is missing in Powerpoint.

Tor LÃ¸vskogen Bollingmo says

Apple fanboyism has nothing to do with this â€“ it's just sad that the programs in the Office Suite doesn't have this kind of consistency.

Mark (ZURB) says

@Tor: I think Bryan's bigger point is probably the fact that it's true sometimes companies have problems with consistency because of whatever internal circumstances (different teams, legacy code, etc).

And Microsoft isn't the only one with this problem; nearly every suite of apps has problems like this. The more notable one for me is Adobe's Creative Suite. Different ways to move things, different panels, tool behavior. It's sometimes hard to remember those differences!

Tor LÃ¸vskogen Bollingmo says

Yes, I'm just echoing Bryans opinion â€“ Apples is a good example. Have a great weekend!

Joy Miller says

I work for Microsoft, and while I didn't write the topic in question, I do know that MS out of the business of placing consistent cookie-cutter features in all apps of the Office Suite. From a design perspective, we listen to how people are using the product - and people who use PowerPoint as it was intended (to create and deliver a message to an audience) the thought is that text wrapping isn't typical or even suggested. But the author of the topic listened to the (very few) people who want to use the product for purposes other than what it is intended for - so he created a work-around. It may appear unthoughtful, when really, it is an extra effort to please as many people as possible.

Aaron says

Correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't this supported in older versions of PowerPoint? I think this article is hilarious because it's SO TRUE. I was looking for a solution and link 1 led me to the "how to do the obvious" tutorial by MS and the link 2 led me to this soooo true article.

Aaron says

Obviously, Joy Miller is incorrect when states very few people want this feature. That's insane to think such a thing! What do you mean this isn't typical? Don't people who design presentations want something that's EASY and PLEASING TO THE EYE simultaneously?

On second thought... that is soooo atypical. And on third thought... that was a lie.

Amanda says

Joy Miller writes "But the author of the topic listened to the (very few) people who want to use the product for purposes other than what it is intended for" - I believe the product was intended for presentations. Presentations which may include images. Possibly irregularly shaped images. Images and text. As an academic who regularly uses powerpoint and keynote, I find that an absurd statement. On a nearly daily basis I wonder the exact same question considered in the article (hence I was googling the topic yet again hoping for a work-around). Just try typing "wrap text" in ppt's help box and see what useful tips Microsoft has for you. I guess the thousands of academics and corporate presenter represent only a fraction of the intended audience - based on the intelligence of the design, I suppose she was correct. It is best suited for elementary school students who do outnumber academics and corporate presenters and don't necessarily need to text wrap yet.

Dallas says

From a design perspective, we listen to how people are using the product - and people who use PowerPoint as it was intended (to create and deliver a message to an audience) the thought is that text wrapping isn't typical or even suggested.

If this was not a commonly used feature, then why would MS have a help guide on their website for implementing it through a kludge?

This is very typically MS.

I too was shocked to find this "work around." I mean, for a company that supposedly has the best talent money can buy, they clearly have failed to deliver on this feature...

Disclosure: I was a MS user for almost all my PC experience, until about 2 years ago. MS makes things overly complex in some areas and overly simplified in others, foisting their own ill-thought-out design mandates on the poor users.

Mark (ZURB) says

@Dallas: I too was a Windows user for nearly all of my life. It wasn't until about 2.5 years ago that I made the switch to Macs having had the worst product and customer support experience ever with Alienware. I had had enough.

Now, I get great products and great support whenever I need it. And, there is a huge outpouring of community support for everything I use on a Mac. For the most part, things are just put together better on Macs.

Martin says

Well, a colleague of mine just asked how to wrap text around an image - I didn't think you could but went off to look, and was also amazed at the MS article. I think most Powerpoint users could work out their kludge, and what people are actually searching for is a way to do it for real! No demand for it? I think now? Not relevant to presentation software? Of course it is!

Tim says

Sure wish I could wrap text in powerpoint. I guess I'm one of the very few people also. Is it possible that there could be an add-on or a hack to add the text wrap feature?

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