which program to open and print Powerpoint files?

[Fidelio]

I use Mac Os X 10.4 and have to view and print powerpoint presentations from my college. At the beginning, I used Keynote but now the 30 day trial period is expired. That's why I tried two other programs:

1) NeoOfficeJ: The viewing is ok but unfortunately the printouts look strange.
2) MS PowerPoint Viewer 98: I can view .pps files properly but I can't modify the print quality and I can't choose greyscale printing.

That's why I need another program. It should be freeware but I hope that's no problem - after all I only need to view and print Powerpoint files and not create them.

 

[MisterMe]

Why don't you just make the sacrifice to buy the Student and Teachers version of Office 2004?

 

[Lt Major Burns]

in this situation, i would say that you have found your free viewer/printer in NeoOfficeJ, just that the bug you have found needs ironing out. what is the exact problem with the printouts from Open Office? i'm no expert with Open Office, but i sure many others on here are.

 

[Fidelio]

@ MisterMe

I use OpenOffice which is perfect for me. I don't pay a lot of $$$ just to view and print some stupid Microsoft files.

@ Lt Major Burns

When I print out powerpoint files, the text and the images are too far on the left side of the page so that about a quarter of an inch gets cut.

Example:
"Corporate ..." -> that's the way it should be
"porate..." -> that the way it is when I print with OpenOffice

 

[Lt Major Burns]

this sounds like printer dialogue settings. is there a way to set the margins, either on the document, or directly to the printer, so that you 'nudge' the page across to the right?

 

[Rhisiart]

I'm with Mister Me on this. Microsoft's OS clearly sucks (as I know on a dialy basis), but Office X is a good product. I found OpenOffice/Neooffice clumsy.

 

[Fidelio]

@ Lt Major Burns

Thanks for the hint, I discovered a "fit to page" option which corrects the problem. But it's strange that I have to explicitly activate this option in order to make it work because the presentation format is A4 and i print on A4 pages...

But that doesn't matter, i can finally print my powerpoint files again