PowerPoint 365 Save as Picture adds unwanted space around text boxes

Hi,

Based on the description that you provided, we need to determine the cause of this problem. Having said that, we would like to know more about this concern. Kindly answer the following:

• Any changes made on the computer prior to this concern?
• Is this the first time that you encountered this problem?
• What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far?
• Can you send us a screenshot with what you are seeing? Note: Please do not include any personal information.

Hi Desiree,

Thank you for your fast response. Answers for you:

- no modifications to my computer - I'm up to date and virus and malware protected.

- Yes, it was the first time I encountered it because this was the first time I used Save as Picture to export a full-page slide from PPT, instead of just an image object to make it a PDF. In previous cases, I exported _images_ and shapes and objects, never a text box that was close enough to the edge of anything to make a difference.

But in this case, I used PPT to create a full size graphic for an 8.5x11 report cover, with some text boxes close enough to the edge of the cover to cause oversize problems with the final cover image.

For troubleshooting, I read the forums, verified the bug still exists by cutting a text box, pasting it back as a picture, and noting that the bounding box had drastically increased in size (the fat white border around the text box).

Note that if the source text is left justified, the extra space appears on the left.

If source text is right justified, extra space appears on the right.

I am thinking that the extra space on the bottom (in both left and right cases) might have something to do with the text position (top, center, bottom) in the text box.

I created the example below on a blank slide in a blank presentation. Just create a text box, cut it, paste it as picture, and select everything on the slide (Ctrl-A) to see the different bounding boxes. I added a visible outline to my boxes to make it easier for you to see the gaps.

Good luck!

Kevin

I can repro this here in O365/Win7.

Definitely seems to be a bug; sometimes it helps getting bugs fixed if you can explain why the bug causes you problems and possibly cost.

Toss that into a reply and I'll forward this thread to someone at MS.

It's a problem because I can't use PowerPoint to create 8.5x11 page-size graphic images if they have text boxes in the graphic. When I Save As Picture to generate a PNG that I can use in Word as a background header/footer graphic, PPT generates a 9x11 graphic with a white bar down the side, forcing me to crop the image back down to size.

Using PPT to generate page-size graphics for Word documents is a great way to give Word documents some life. But it's a hassle to have to manually crop the images if they have text on the graphic.

PPT saves objects out to PNG just fine. So why not text boxes? :-)

Thanks ... I'll pass this along.

I've got a bit more info about this and a possible (if clumsy) workaround.

This seems to be a side effect of changes that were made to the text engine in Office several versions ago. It's reproducible but apparently if they made a quick fix to this, it'd cause all manner of worse problems to other text, so I wouldn't look for a fix any time soon.

Give this a try though:

Select the text box, copy it, then Paste Special, as PNG.

Select the pasted PNG and use the cropping tool to remove excess image and finally rightclick it and choose Save As Picture and save to whatever final format you want.