deckcraft/docs/ui-parity.md

UI parity with PowerPoint

Last reviewed: 2026-10-14 · Last updated: 2026-10-23 · Change: trivial (scroll bars on the zoomed slide pane, #1157; previous: major, community PR wave 2026-10-14: 14 new dialogs (41 in all), Eyedropper, Export button, New Window, Grid Options, WordArt gallery and handles, Slide Sorter sections, Quick Access Toolbar, Format Background and Format Shape depth, rich-text clipboard; duplicated rows and headers folded; previous: minor, File tab / Backstage, #76) · Target: Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 16.113 (Microsoft 365) Last reviewed: 2026-10-14 · Last updated: 2026-10-22 · Change: trivial (group fill and outline edits reach members, #1079; scores unchanged) · Target: Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 16.113 (Microsoft 365)

How DeckCraft looks and feels next to PowerPoint: the shell, the ribbon, menus, panes, dialogs, direct manipulation, keyboard and precision. Observations of PowerPoint are kept locally in plan/powerpoint/01-observed-ui.md and menu-tree.txt (gitignored, clean-room rules in AGENTS.md §2). Dimension score: ~60% ready (estimated), 30–50 h to parity.

Empty list paragraphs

While editing slide text, empty bulleted and numbered paragraphs show gray markers at the list's indent, including the first click into a content placeholder and the paragraph after Enter. Typing gives the marker its normal text color. These temporary markers are hidden when editing ends and are omitted from thumbnails, slide shows and exports.

Shell

Element	PowerPoint for Mac	DeckCraft	Gap
Title bar: AutoSave, Home, Save, Undo/Redo, document title, Share, search	yes	yes, plus Export; no Share (cloud)	#71 macOS window controls misaligned
Native macOS menu bar (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Arrange, Tools, Slide Show, Window, Help)	yes	no (menus::menu_tree() is defined but not installed)	3–5 h
Menu-bar items with a DeckCraft equivalent	217 app-specific items	128 matched by name (59%, heuristic lower bound)	See target-app-parity.md
Ribbon tabs: Home, Insert, Draw, Design, Transitions, Animations, Slide Show, Record, Review, View	10	10	Record tab is a placeholder
Colour menus: theme and standard colours, hex field, Eyedropper	yes (plus a More Colors dialog)	yes: theme and standard colours, hex field and an Eyedropper that takes the colour drawn under the pointer on the slide (#367)	More Colors dialog; Eyedropper only takes colours from the slide, not the rest of the screen
Contextual tabs: Shape Format, Picture Format, Table Design, Table Layout, Chart Design, Chart Format, Video/Audio Format and Playback	yes	most; checklist P0 row partial	Chart Format, media tabs thinner
File tab (Backstage): Home, New, Open, Info, Save, Save As, Print, Share, Export, Close, Account, Options	yes	yes (#76), see File tab; no Share (cloud)	Video/GIF/CD exports, templates beyond the built-in themes
Start screen: new, themes, templates, recent, open	yes, the same page as File › Home	yes: File › Home with Home, New, Open, Account and Options (#76)
Status bar: slide counter, language, notes, comments, views, zoom slider	yes	yes
Command search (Tell Me)	yes	command palette
Light / dark appearance	follows the system	light or dark; doesn't follow the system (#41)	1–2 h
One window per presentation, New Window, Arrange All	yes	New Window opens one more window on the same presentation (its own slide, live with edits); tabs stay in the first window; no Arrange All	Arrange All
Quick Access Toolbar customization	yes	yes: Customize menu (common commands, reset), right-click any ribbon button to add, right-click a toolbar button to remove; saved with the UI state	done

File tab (Backstage)

Observed black-box in PowerPoint for Windows (Microsoft 365, Version 2609, October 2026) on a synthetic presentation. Clicking File (or Alt+F) replaces the ribbon, slides and status bar with a full-window view; the title bar stays. A side menu 160 points wide, a step darker than the page, lists Back (a circled arrow), Home, New, Open, Share, a rule, Info, Save, Save As, Print, Export, Close and, at the bottom under a rule, Account and Options. Entries are 40 points tall with an outline icon; the current page is drawn in the accent colour and outlined. Esc goes back. Alt+F opens on Home with the keyboard in the side menu; Up and Down move through it and a page shows as soon as its entry has the focus. PowerPoint's start screen is the same Home page, with only Home, New and Open at the top. DeckCraft follows all of this (crates/ui-egui/src/backstage.rs), with the page and menu colours taken from the theme tokens (menu chrome, page card).

Page	PowerPoint	DeckCraft
Home	Prompt box (Copilot), New row of themes with More themes, Recent / Favorites / Shared with Me with a file search, More presentations	DeckCraft's mark, Blank Presentation and the first themes with More themes →, the first starter decks with More templates →, Recent with a file search and More presentations → (to Open). No Copilot prompt, Favorites or Shared with Me
New	Blank Presentation, template search with suggested searches, gallery of online templates and themes	Blank Presentation, search box, the built-in themes, six original starter decks (file.new {template}) and the sample deck (file.new {theme}). No online templates
Open	Recent, Shared with Me, OneDrive, This PC, Add a Place, Browse; Presentations / Folders; Recover Unsaved Presentations	Recent and Browse (app.openDialog), recent presentations with a search box (file.open), Recover Unsaved Presentations (file.recovery.open). No cloud places or Folders tab
Info	Name and path, Upload / Share / Copy path / Open file location; Protect, Inspect, Version History, Manage Presentation; Properties, Related Dates, Related People	Name and path, Copy path, Open file location; Inspect Presentation (Accessibility Checker), Manage Presentation (Revert); Size, Slides, Hidden slides and editable Title, Subject, Tags, Categories, Company, Comments, Author (file.info, file.properties). No Protect, Version History or dates
Save	Saves; a presentation never saved goes to Save As	Same (file.save)
Save As	Places, folder, file name, type, Save, More options	Type (PowerPoint, DeckCraft, PDF, Outline, PNG, JPEG) and Save, which opens the system Save dialog (web: Download). .pptx/.deckcraft take the new file; the others are copies (file.saveAs, file.export)
Print	Print and Copies, Printer, Print All / Selection / Current / Custom Range, Slides box, layout (Full Page Slides, Notes Pages, Outline, Handouts 1–9), sides, collation, colour, Edit Header & Footer; page preview with pager and zoom	Print, Print All Slides / Current Slide / Custom Range, Slides box (1-3, 5), Full Page Slides / Notes Pages / Handouts 1–9, Print Hidden Slides, Frame Slides, Edit Header & Footer; preview with pager. DeckCraft prints through a PDF (file.export) opened in the system viewer, which has the printers (web: downloaded). No printer list, copies, sides or colour
Share	Cloud sharing	Not offered
Export	Create PDF/XPS Document, Create a Video, Create an Animated GIF, Package Presentation for CD, Create Handouts, Change File Type	Create PDF Document, Create Handouts (a PDF), Change File Type (PNG with an optional transparent background, #784). No video, GIF or CD package
Close	Closes; asks Save / Don't Save / Cancel about unsaved changes	Same (file.close after the prompt); Ctrl+W asks too
Account	User information, sign-in, Office Background and Office Theme, product information, About	Appearance (light/dark, view.dark), product information, About DeckCraft. No accounts to sign in to
Options	Opens the PowerPoint Options dialog	Opens Preferences

Panes and dialogs

Pane / dialog	PowerPoint	DeckCraft
Format Shape / Picture / Text pane (Fill & Line, Effects, Size & Properties, Picture, Text Box)	full	partial: fill (solid transparency follows the selection), gradient editor, picture/texture fill (source, tile, offsets, scale, alignment, mirror, transparency, rotate with shape), line (dash, compound, cap, join, begin/end arrows and sizes), shadow/glow/reflection details (colour, transparency, blur, angle, distance, size), soft edges, 3-D format and rotation (bevels, depth, contour, material, lighting, camera presets, X/Y/Z rotation), size (lock aspect ratio)
Slide Master	Insert Layout, Rename, Delete, Preserve, Insert Placeholder, Title and Footers	Insert Layout, Rename, Delete, Insert Placeholder, and Preserve, Title and Footers checkboxes (master.preserve, master.placeholders). A master thumbnail selects the master
Format Background pane	yes	yes: solid transparency; picture transparency, tile, offset, scale, alignment and mirror; Apply to All copies a picture. Stretch insets and rotate-with-shape are command parameters
Selection Pane	front-most first, groups fold, drag to restack, Bring Forward / Send Backward arrows, Show All / Hide All, eye, padlock (Lock), rename in place	same: drag restacks among siblings (a child stays in its group), Ctrl+click toggles, Shift+click selects a run, arrows / Home / End / F2 / Esc in the list, right-click menu
Comments pane (threads)	yes	yes: every slide, with Previous and Next on the Review tab
Animation Pane	list + advanced timeline	list, reorder, timing, an advanced timeline with draggable bars, play the current slide on the canvas; no preview from the selected effect
Design Ideas (Designer)	yes (cloud)	no
Dialogs	~60 (Font, Paragraph, Bullets and Numbering, Find, Replace, Replace Fonts, Hyperlink, Action Settings, Header and Footer, Slide Size, Set Up Show, Custom Shows, Print, Page Setup, Insert Object, Symbol, Photo Album, Equation, Chart data sheet, SmartArt chooser, Preferences…)	41 (crates/ui-egui/src/dialogs.rs): Font, Paragraph, Tabs, Bullets and Numbering, Find and Replace, Replace Fonts, Table, Slide Size, Size and Position, Header and Footer, Date and Time, Hyperlink (address, slide and ScreenTip follow the selection), Action Settings, Set Up Show, Zoom (percent or Fit, applies on OK), Comment, Alt Text (decorative follows the selection), Outline, Rename (section, shape, layout), About, Preferences, AutoCorrect, Grid Options, Export, Symbol, Photo Album (Edit Photo Album reopens this dialog), Paste Special, Equation (placeholder), Spelling, Accessibility, Language, Custom Shows, Chart Data, Trim Media (start, end and fades follow the selection), SmartArt chooser, Create New Theme Colors, Create New Theme Fonts, Quit, Notes Pages
Design ▸ Effects	named theme effect schemes	DeckCraft, Soft, Crisp, Lift, Glow and Plain (design.effects); colours and fonts stay

Direct manipulation

Behaviour	PowerPoint	DeckCraft
Selection handles, rotation handle, yellow adjustment handles	yes	yes
Marquee, Shift/Cmd multi-select, Tab to cycle	yes	yes
Objects off the slide: drawn on the area around it in Normal view (full strength, master graphics too), selectable and movable there; clipped in the show, exports and thumbnails	yes	yes (#270)
Scroll bars on the slide pane when the zoomed slide is larger than the window	yes	yes, on each axis that overflows: drag the thumb or click the track; the wheel and trackpad still pan. The vertical bar does not turn the page (#1157)
Smart guides (edges, centres, equal spacing)	yes	yes
Snap to grid, grid options, drawing guides	yes	Grid Options (view.gridOptions): spacing, snap to grid, snap to other objects, display grid and guides; the on-screen grid uses that spacing
Nudge (arrows), fine nudge (Option+arrows)	yes	yes
Shift-constrained move, Option-drag to duplicate	yes	yes
Connector glue and rerouting	yes	yes
Edit points on freeforms	yes	partial: Edit Shape ▸ Edit Points turns any shape into a freeform; drag vertices and their Bézier handles, Ctrl/Cmd-click to add or delete, right-click for Smooth/Straight/Corner Point and Delete Point; no Straight/Curved Segment or Open/Close Path yet
WordArt adjust handles	yellow handles on transformed text	yes, one per adjust when the text has a warp; dragging sets that guide value
Crop handles, crop to shape, aspect ratio	yes	partial
Text caret, selection, double/triple click, drag-select	yes	yes
Exact size/position, lock aspect	yes	yes — Size and Position dialog (height, width, rotation, scale %, lock aspect, position from the top-left), one undo step; ribbon spinners still resize one side at a time
Drag the frame of a text box being edited to move it	yes	yes
Table cells: caret and selection in the cell, click into another cell, drag row and column borders	yes	yes; no cell-range selection by dragging across cells
Context menus on shapes, slides, text, thumbnails	yes	yes, shorter; a right click selects the shape under the pointer first
Group fill and outline	formats the members	Shape Fill and Shape Outline reach nested members in one undo step; a transparency-only fill edit retains each member's colour (#1079)
WordArt transform	Transform gallery	Shape Format ▸ Text Effects ▸ Transform (format.textWarp): No Transform, Follow Path and the other 36 presets. Adjust handles: see WordArt adjust handles
Rulers with indent markers and tab stops	yes	yes: indent markers and tab stops drag on the ruler (a click adds a tab, the corner selector picks its kind); Tabs dialog from Home › Paragraph and the Paragraph dialog
Drag and drop of files and between thumbnails	yes	yes
Slide Sorter sections: a bar per section, add, rename in place, collapse, drag the whole section (its slides move with it)	yes	yes
Image paste from the clipboard	yes	macOS pastes a picture when the paste carries no text (TIFF), and rich text copies and pastes as HTML (bold, italic, underline). Windows and Linux image paste stays #53
Font menu: every installed family with its faces	yes	families yes; only Regular/Bold/Italic faces (#69)

Keyboard shortcuts

Every common PowerPoint for Mac shortcut is bound (checklist row done): new slide, duplicate, group/ungroup, bold/italic/underline, alignment, font size, list levels, Format Painter, the Font dialog (Cmd+T), show from start/current, view switching. Not yet: Cmd+F Find opening a find bar on the slide, Option+drag precision without snapping, F6 pane cycling, ribbon KeyTips (Windows).

Text editing keys

Observed black-box in PowerPoint for Windows (Microsoft 365, October 2026) on synthetic text, and pinned by tests in crates/model/src/words.rs, crates/model/src/edit.rs and crates/engine/src/tests_keys.rs (#268). Windows and Linux use Ctrl; the Mac uses Option for words and Cmd for line and text ends (Session::mac_keys).

Keys	Behaviour
Ctrl+Left / Right	Previous / next word stop. A stop is the start of every word, punctuation run, symbol run, tab, line break and CJK character, plus the paragraph's end; spaces belong to the word before them. it's, baz-qux, a-, 3.14, 1,000, 3:45 are one word; e.g., a_b, x@y.com, dogs' are not. Every CJK ideograph, kana and Hangul syllable is a word. Combining marks and emoji sequences never split. With a selection: Right goes on from its end, Left from its start
Ctrl+Shift+Left / Right	Moves the selection's moving end by the same stops
Ctrl+Up / Down	Start of the paragraph (then of the previous one) / start of the next paragraph (end of the text in the last one); Shift extends
Ctrl+Backspace	Deletes back to the previous stop (word plus its trailing spaces); at a paragraph's start joins it to the previous paragraph
Ctrl+Delete	Inside a word: the rest of it. On spaces after a word: the spaces and the next word. At a word's start: the word and its spaces. Then smart spacing: spaces left before closing punctuation (ab cd, ef → ab, ef) or at the paragraph's end after a word go; sentence punctuation left touching a word gets a space (cd...ef gh → cd... gh). At a paragraph's end joins the next paragraph
Ctrl+Backspace / Delete with a selection	Leave the selection and delete the word part before / after its start
Right-to-left paragraph	Left and Right (with or without Ctrl) swap: Left goes forward in the text. Arabic or Hebrew words in a left-to-right paragraph move in logical order
Home / End	Start / end of the visual line. End on a wrapped line goes past its trailing space and the caret stays drawn at that line's end; End again stays; Home from there returns to the same line's start
Ctrl+Home / End	Start / end of the text; Shift extends
Ctrl+Shift+> / <, Ctrl+] / [	Next / previous size in the font size list (18 → 20 → 24)
Ctrl+B / I / U, Ctrl+Space	With a caret strictly inside a word, the whole word (without trailing spaces); at a word's edge, only what is typed next
Ctrl+E / L / R / J	Center / left / right / justify the paragraphs in the selection
Shift+F3	Cycles lowercase → Capitalize Each Word → UPPERCASE → lowercase; other mixes go to UPPERCASE first. A caret in a word changes that word and moves to its start
Shift+Enter	Line break
Double-click / triple-click	The word without its trailing spaces (a CJK character on its own) / the paragraph including its paragraph mark

Quirks kept on purpose because PowerPoint has them: Ctrl+Left (not Ctrl+Right) also stops at each no-break or ideographic space, and treats an emoji followed by punctuation as one word. Tab, Shift+Tab and Alt+Shift+arrows in text are handled elsewhere (#78, #93).

Visual fidelity

Colours, spacing, ribbon card and tab geometry follow the observations in plan/powerpoint/01-observed-ui.md; the ribbon and menu icons are original (~240, drawn in code) and must not imitate Microsoft's. Insert › Icons places Lucide stroke icons (ISC, release 1.56.0) on the slide as shapes. The editing canvas, thumbnails and layout previews are drawn on the physical pixel grid, so a Retina display does not blur them between pixels (#184). No pixel comparison against PowerPoint screenshots has been run since 2026-10-07. Cross-app icon consistency is open (#73, #56).

Estimates

Work	Hours
Native macOS menu bar from menu_tree(), filled out to PowerPoint's menu items	3–5
Format Shape pane depth	6–10
Missing dialogs (Print, Insert Object and the rest of PowerPoint's ~60)	4–8
Window chrome and system appearance (#41, #71)	3–5
Arrange All (New Window is one extra window)	2–3
Edit points UI, crop depth	3–6
Multiple windows	3–5
A screenshot comparison pass on the most-used tabs	2–4
Total	~26–46

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-23	trivial	Scroll bars on the zoomed slide pane (#1157)
2026-10-23	minor	Shape Fill and Shape Outline (Home and Shape Format): the button applies the last colour picked from its menu, Accent 1 and Text 1 until one is picked. Line weight and dashes are not changed by the button; Font Color and Highlight stay as they were (#1080)
2026-10-22	trivial	Group fill and outline commands reach members, including nested groups; selection and single-step undo are preserved (#1079). The existing Arrange / Group checklist score stays D
2026-10-16	minor	Export › Change File Type › PNG and the Export… dialog offer a transparent background (#784)
2026-10-14	minor	Gray list markers on empty paragraphs while editing; caret keeps the list indent before typing
2026-10-14	minor	Community PR wave folded: one row each for Format Shape, Dialogs (41, listed from dialogs.rs), Animation Pane (timeline is in), window, Quick Access Toolbar, Format Background, rulers, image paste, context menus, exact size and edit points; estimates re-totalled (~26–46 h)
2026-10-13	trivial	Eyedropper in the colour menus (#367)
2026-10-12	minor	Title bar: an Export button next to Save opens the Export dialog, a quick-access shortcut beside File › Export
2026-10-12	minor	A right click selects the shape under the pointer before its context menu opens, as in PowerPoint; edited text keeps its selection and gets text items
2026-10-13	minor	WordArt Transform gallery on Shape Format ▸ Text Effects; format.textWarp applies a preset or clears it. Adjust handles remain open
2026-10-14	minor	Insert › Icons is a searchable gallery of Lucide stroke icons inserted as shapes. Ribbon chrome stays original drawings
2026-10-14	minor	Size and Position dialog on Shape Format › Size and the shape context menu. Breadth stays 79%; UI ready stays ~60%
2026-10-14	trivial	Comments pane lists every slide; Review ▸ Previous and Next walk the deck
2026-10-13	minor	View › New Window: a second window on the same presentation, with its own slide; Arrange All is still missing
2026-10-14	minor	File › Home and New show six original starter decks; online templates are still absent
2026-10-14	minor	Slide Sorter draws a bar per section: Add Section, rename in place, collapse, and drag the bar to move the section and its slides
2026-10-14	trivial	Photo Album dialog (28 dialogs). Breadth stays 79%, UI ~60%
2026-10-14	trivial	Edit Photo Album reuses the Photo Album dialog (28 dialogs). Breadth stays 79%, UI ~60%
2026-10-14	minor	Design › Colors › Customize Colors… opens Create New Theme Colors (the open master's twelve theme colours; dialogs 27 → 28)
2026-10-14	minor	Design › Fonts › Customize Fonts… opens Create New Theme Fonts (heading and body latin on the open master; dialogs 27 → 28)
2026-10-14	trivial	Alt Text dialog: Mark as decorative follows the selection
2026-10-14	trivial	Hyperlink dialog: address, email, slide and ScreenTip follow the selection
2026-10-14	minor	Insert › Date and Time: format list, language, Update automatically. 28 dialogs. Languages are the ones the date field can compute (English, plus numeric dates for en-GB, fr-FR, ja-JP, sv-SE)
2026-10-14	trivial	Zoom dialog: percent or Fit, applied on OK. View ▸ Zoom opens it; the arrow keeps the presets
2026-10-13	trivial	Command search no longer offers an Export command that fails without a path (#79)
2026-10-14	minor	Design ▸ Effects applies a named effect scheme (fills, lines and effects). Not a new dialog; dialogs stay 27
2026-10-14	minor	Slide Master: Preserve, and Title and Footers placeholders, on the open master or layout
2026-10-14	trivial	Trim Media dialog: start, end and fades follow the selected clip
2026-10-12	minor	Dragging the frame of a text box being edited moves it, as in PowerPoint
2026-10-12	minor	Table cells: caret and selection shown in the edited cell, clicks place the caret in the clicked cell, row and column borders drag to resize
2026-10-14	minor	Format Background pane: solid transparency, picture transparency, tile, offset, scale, alignment, mirror, and Apply to All copying a picture. Not a new dialog; the dialog count stays 27
2026-10-13	trivial	Editor slide rasters sit on the physical pixel grid (#184)
2026-10-14	minor	Copy and paste rich text (HTML: bold, italic, underline) with other apps
2026-10-13	minor	Animations ▸ Preview and Animation Pane ▸ Play All play the current slide on the editor canvas
2026-10-14	trivial	Format Shape Fill transparency slider follows the selected solid fill and does not clear it on focus loss
2026-10-14	minor	Paragraph dialog from the Home › Paragraph launcher; Tabs… opens a standalone Tabs dialog
2026-10-14	minor	Font dialog from Home › Font, the shape menu and Cmd+T
2026-10-13	minor	Grid Options dialog: spacing, snap, and whether gridlines and guides are drawn; the on-screen grid uses that spacing
2026-10-13	minor	WordArt adjust handles on a selected text warp; dragging one sets that prstTxWarp adjust
2026-10-12	minor	File tab (Backstage) observed in PowerPoint for Windows and matched (#76); the start screen is File › Home
2026-10-12	minor	Off-slide objects drawn and editable around the slide in Normal view (#270)
2026-10-12	minor	Selection Pane matched to PowerPoint (#133): drag and drop, arrows, groups, eye, Lock
2026-10-12	minor	Text editing keys: Ctrl+arrows, Ctrl+Backspace/Delete, Ctrl+Up/Down, Home/End on wrapped lines, Shift+F3, font size keys, as observed in PowerPoint for Windows (#268)
2026-10-11	minor	Tab in text boxes keeps editing (#78)
2026-10-10	major	Created: shell, panes and dialogs, direct manipulation, shortcuts and visual fidelity against PowerPoint 16.113