Hello all! I’m not sure how many of you are transitioning to the 64-bit Mac version of TM, but wanted to share a little of what we’ve learned regarding maps in the hopes that it saves someone time and frustration. Maps are processed differently in the two different versions. Artsman has help notes on how to align seats for each version separately, but if you’re like us, you need to at least temporarily run both versions in your organization and this was a little tricky. The picture files on the maps need to line up with the TM seats for online users, internal 64-bit users and internal 32-bit users. With Artsman’s help, we think we’ve got the right order of operations and yes, the order of operations matters:
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Create/adjust your source PPT file. We use LibreOffice to edit the file because it has nicer editing features than OpenOffice, including an eyedropper color tool and an easier custom color naming structure. We’ve stopped editing in Powerpoint due to complications opening the file later in the OpenOffice freeware product needed to create the other file types.
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Open your graphic image in OpenOffice and export out as WMF (for windows machines), PCT (for Macs) and SVG (for 64-bit and pick-your-own). LibreOffice can make these same exports, but they often don’t then upload into TM successfully depending on the specific version of LibreOffice you have, so save yourself the trouble and bypass it for exporting.
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START ON A 32-BIT MACHINE. To align seats, drag-and-drop the WMF or PCT onto the graphic map and adjust the size of the WMF or PCT file as well as move the physical seats as needed. You’ll need to keep the WMF and PCT files under TM’s size limit (I think it’s 500kb for WMF and less than 200kb for PCT).
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Still on the 32-bit version, import your SVG and place the seats. I will note that we’ve had to do more placing scaling adjustments recently than before - you may have to play and test a little. We recommend that if you used any non-default placing settings, record it in the internal Map notes for future reference.
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If you’ve got internal users on both Windows and Mac, then go to a machine on the other platform with 32-bit TM and drag-and-drop the other file type. (If you adjusted the size of the WMF or PCT to work the first time, then make sure to re-export the corresponding filetype first.)
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Only AFTER YOU’VE GOT IT ALL SETUP ON 32-BIT, move on to a 64-bit machine. Do NOT adjust the SVG placing from 64-bit. It will only make you miserable, trust us on this one
Use the Reserved Seating JPEG Map Size height setting (on the description tab) to adjust the visual lineup. You set a height or width (only do one, not both), save the map, then drag-and-drop the SVG. As far as I understand it (which is admittedly not very far), this makes a JPG from the SVG to override the WMF or PCT visuals from the 32-bit version. Again, there’s some test and play here to get the height or width setting right for the seats to line up, but have patience and Do NOT move the seats from the 64-bit version - it will throw off the 32-bit you just got right. Also, side note, a few pixel changes can go a long way. -
Don’t forget to upload the most recent PPT source file - it doesn’t affect any of the graphics you see so this is easy to forget about, but you’re going to want to be able to export the correct file later on!
Thank you Bonnie and Danny!