If you’re in the U.S. or have your copy of Windows set to use US locale settings for measurements, PowerPoint wants you to enter size/position information in inches.
Since you’re in the U.S. or have your copy of Windows set to use US locale settings for measurements, this is perfectly reasonable.
Unless you’re trying to create work for a client anywhere else on the planet who, reasonably enough, wants to specify dimensions in metric.
Or you’re working with experienced DTP people who want to work in points and picas. Or YOU want to.
The surprising thing is that you can. All you have to do is tell PowerPoint what units to use when you plug in your numbers.
Instead of getting out your calculator and working the conversions to inches, just type the actual measurement you want, then (no spaces) type:
pt for Points, pi for Picas
cm for Centimeters, mm for millimeters
And if your system’s set to a sensible measurement system but you just HAVE to use inches, in for Inches
Are there other units available? Not that I’ve found, but hey, I just this evening discovered that pi works. Who knows what further treasures lurk?
Oh. One more tip in case you decide to go exploring: type the number followed by your best guess as to the “mystery unit abbreviation” then press the Tab key. If PowerPoint resets the measurement to the original measurement in inches, your best guess wasn’t good enough. It’s a dud. If the measurement changes (still in inches but to a new number), you’ve struck gold. Well. Something cool to win bar bets with, anyhow. In bars where seriously geeky people hang out. But still … neat.
Of course, you have to plug in a number that, converted to inches, would be a different number of inches that’s showing currently. If the shape you’re messing about with is 10 inches wide and you change it to 2587rmk, the equivalent of 10 inches, expressed in Romulan Mikrons, you don’t have a winner.
You just have something that PPT doesn’t understand. It’s not bowing to your will. It’s ignoring you.
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