As some of you know, Sketchin has been part of the Business Integration Partner group for the last three years.
There are a lot of interactions between us. We exchange documents, spreadsheets, reports, pitch decks, case studies, etc.
BIP lives in a Microsoft world, which is fine. Sketchin lives in an Apple and Google world, which is fine. Different views on different ecosystems. Lucky us, we were not forced (yet 😉 ) to change.
Yesterday I had to work on a pitch deck where Sketchin is marginally involved. Just one slide.
I received a link to the shared document on Teams, which redirects me to a Sharepoint resource. No way. I did not have permission to view or edit the file. Hours were lost trying to get the permission fixed.
Finally, I was able to access the document online with my browser. Yes, PowerPoint in a browser. I can’t imagine a worse nightmare. As the title says, it’s not you; it’s me. I tried to design my slide for quite a long time, but it was not coming along well with the interface. I did not find a way to do what I wanted to do. I tried to copy data from an existing Powerpoint presentation and paste it into the browser presentation with no luck.
Yes, I gave up.
I edited my slide locally on my personal computer, and then I sent it as an attachment to an email message. Someone will have to spend time integrating my contribution to the master document.
Incredibly inefficient.
At the very same time, I had to edit another presentation in Keynote for another client while collaborating with other people online. I did it directly in Keynote since the deck was shared over iCloud. It was a breeze. Half an hour and I was done.
Working on the same ecosystem makes things easier. Conversely, the Microsoft Office suite is below par compared to its Windows equivalent.
Every time I have to deal with a native Microsoft application on my Mac, I have to spend three times the time I would estimate to do the same thing on my Mac.
I can’t get into the Microsoft workflow. Powerpoint is what causes me the more significant pain. Again, it’s not you; it’s me. Spending so many years on Keynote must have sculpted a particular workflow in my brain, which is extremely difficult to change.