deckcraft/docs/ui-parity.md

UI parity with PowerPoint

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-12 · Change: minor (File tab / Backstage, #76; previous: off-slide objects in Normal view, #270) · Target: Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac 16.113 (Microsoft 365)

Last reviewed: 2026-10-12 · Last updated: 2026-10-12 · Change: minor (text editing keys observed in PowerPoint for Windows, #268) · 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.

Shell

Element	PowerPoint for Mac	DeckCraft	Gap
Title bar: AutoSave, Home, Save, Undo/Redo, document title, Share, search	yes	yes, 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
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	#79 default entry fails
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	tabs in one window; no New Window	3–5 h
Quick Access Toolbar customization	yes	no	P1 partial

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 →, 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 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. 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, gradient editor, line, some effects, size; no 3-D, thin picture/texture options
Format Background pane	yes	yes
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
Animation Pane	list + advanced timeline	list, reorder, timing; no timeline
Comments pane (threads)	yes	yes
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, Equation, Chart data sheet, SmartArt chooser, Preferences…)	27 (crates/ui-egui/src/dialogs.rs): Table, Slide Size, Header and Footer, Hyperlink, Set Up Show, Zoom, Comment, Alt Text, Outline, Rename (section, shape, layout), Paragraph, About, Preferences, Export, Symbol, Equation (placeholder), Spelling, Accessibility, Language, Custom Shows, Chart Data, Trim Media, SmartArt chooser, Quit, Notes Pages

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)
Smart guides (edges, centres, equal spacing)	yes	yes
Snap to grid, grid options, drawing guides	yes	gridlines, guides and snap to grid (engine setting); no Grid Options dialog or menu toggle
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	no
Crop handles, crop to shape, aspect ratio	yes	partial
Text caret, selection, double/triple click, drag-select	yes	yes; Tab in text boxes ends editing (#78)
Exact size/position, lock aspect	yes	yes
Rulers with indent markers and tab stops	yes	rulers yes; tab stops partial
Context menus on shapes, slides, text, thumbnails	yes	yes, shorter
Drag and drop of files and between thumbnails	yes	yes
Image paste from the clipboard	yes	macOS yes; Windows and Linux no (#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, 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; icons are original (~240, drawn in code or Lucide) and must not imitate Microsoft's. 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 (Font, Bullets and Numbering, Find/Replace, Replace Fonts, Action Settings, Print, Insert Object)	8–14
Window chrome, system appearance, palette fixes (#41, #71, #79)	3–5
Grid Options, edit points UI, crop depth	4–7
Multiple windows	3–5
A screenshot comparison pass on the most-used tabs	2–4
Total	~30–52

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
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)
2026-10-10	major	Created: shell, panes and dialogs, direct manipulation, shortcuts and visual fidelity against PowerPoint 16.113