Opazity and Microsoft
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008When I talk to people and mention Opazity, a common reaction is to assume that any day now Microsoft is going to come knocking on my door begging to drop me a couple of millions of their loose change to incorporate it into PowerPoint. Well, it’s not like that! Let me explain…
In 2004 I went to PowerPoint Live! Which has become a key annual user-conference, supported by many Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). Of all the interesting experiences I had there, one which stands out was to listen to Ric Bretschneider, Senior Program Manager for PowerPoint, and other members of his team, talking about how they work. He didn’t say it directly, but I understood how difficult it is for them to introduce even the most minor change in PowerPoint’s functions. The scale of the business case they have to make – how many millions of users the change may affect, and how likely they are to be disrupted by the change – and their negotiations for resources are, by my reckoning, horrendous.
Clearly, they took the opportunity of the large-scale Office 2007 changes to slip in a few improvements, but how do they respond to people and companies that, like I have, produce something that makes a leap in terms of change to the program? After all, it is not for nothing that MVP Geetesh Bajaj said in his review of Opazity:
“The new versions of PowerPoint seem to have everything apart from the kitchen sink – but yet, it’s amazing to see vendors create small add-ins that provide an impressive capability that PowerPoint lacks.”
Microsoft’s limitations
Interestingly, Microsoft is not neutral on the subject of other people’s developments. I guess that people in the organisation recognise its limitations and are happy for other companies to produce extras that will appeal to, and enhance the experience of, a small proportion of their user-base. In fact Microsoft positively encourages them by providing a venue for the promotion of add-ins, etc. relating to their programs.
That venue is called the Office Marketplace, and it is worth visiting from time to time. There are separate Office Marketplace sites for many countries, which you can find by using the ‘change’ link at the top right of the page once you are on one of them. It then takes a bit of navigating to the right place from the portal page you are taken to, but look out for something like ‘Third Party Downloads’ at the bottom and then head for ‘Presentation Tools’.
When you arrive at the Marketplace (links below) you will find all sorts of interesting things with links to the vendors and an opportunity to rate their listing – the product, in effect – including Opazity. So do go and have a look now; rate Opazity if you wish, but don’t expect to see me stuffing Microsoft’s millions under my bed any day soon!
US Office Marketplace site, and the other sites in English: UK, Australia, Canada. (Canada has a French site too.)