I use a lot of powerpoint "somewhat big" presentations (usually coming from windows users), and one of the things I always feel, is that my windows peers navigate faster this presentations. Hence, I was looking forward to the Mac Office 2004 update to gain some speed, but here are some benchmarks to provide some perspective:
SETUP
Powerbook 12 in, 1 GHz, 768 MB SDRAM
Mac OS X 10.3.3
Presentation size: 111.8 MB
Number of slides: 29
initial opening setup: slide sorter view (at 50% to see all slides)
RESULTS
Powerpoint v.X:
Launch powerpoint (after first launch): 1.8 seconds
Open time with powerpoint open (from double click to all slides viewable): 22 seconds
Transition presentation (in presentation mode) from 1 to 29: 20 Seconds (it took me 13 seconds to click the presentation from begining to end).
Transition fron slide view to all slides viewable: 18 seconds.
Powerpoint 2004:
Launch powerpoint (after first launch):3 seconds
Open time with powerpoint open (from double click to all slides viewable): 57 seconds
Transition presentation (in presentation mode) from 1 to 29: 23 Seconds (it took me 13 seconds to click the presentation from begining to end).
Transition fron slide view to all slides viewable: 22 seconds.
Net, no speed gains for now
I'll run similar tests next week with the same presentation in windows xp in a new compaq laptop.