What’s new

• Grunt for Mac available for everyone. While still in Beta, this version brings massive improvements across the board both in features and stability
• Big performance improvements. Grunt is more than 2x faster on almost everything related to manipulating, editing, or moving objects
• Improved start-up time. Enjoy much faster start-up times when loading PowerPoint with Grunt
• Significantly reduced memory (RAM) usage, especially for text heavy objects
• Smaller file sizes. Grunt object outputs are around 30% smaller, and even more for text heavy objects, flags and images

Fixes

• Resolved some nasty Spell Check bugs associated with text rotation and Add to Dictionary
• Brought back support for dragging multiple rules in the rule stack
• Fixed some DPI issues associated with external monitors
• Fixed an issue where the Agenda object could display the wrong chapter order temporarily while editing the presentation
• Fixed an issue where duplicated Grunt objects became unintentionally linked and changes to one would carry through to the other
• Fixed an issue where the vertical value category axis would break if it did not start at 0
• Fixed the behavior of the CTRL+D hotkey in Visual Grid to ensure it triggers a standard duplication of rows/columns instead of creating linked duplicates
• Fixed an issue where removing a duplicated slide with a Grunt object required an extra undo step. Now, it can be undone with a single step
• Fixed a misalignment issue with the scatterplot Grunt axis handlebars
• Improved the adjustment mechanism for discrete date axes in charts, ensuring more intuitive and precise control over the axis range
• Resolved issues with Excel integration, including connection errors, unexpected Excel termination, and problems with workbook fetching when checking for updates. This ensures smoother Excel operations and update checks
• Improved clipboard support on Mac: special characters like Å, Ä, and Ö in Excel file names now work seamlessly when creating charts
• Fixed several focus issues that appeared when plugging external monitors in and out

What’s new

• Completely revamped template experience! We now offer the ability to move and use templates in the cloud with the ability to create and share templates for yourself, your teams, and the organization (requires additional subscription). With cloud templates, it is possible to leverage Template Change Alerts (Beta), which allow you to get notified of source template changes and pull updates. Across both local and cloud templates, we have improved and fixed several fundamentals (e.g., file system operations)
• Spell check (Windows only). We now support spell check across Grunt objects. You can choose from your computer's different proofing language(s). Note for Visual Grids: spell check errors only show when the object is selected. This will be addressed in future updates.
• Label backgrounds. Look for the new button in the label toolbar to add backgrounds to labels in charts. Helpful for creating series-color consistent labels and/or adding contrast to improve legibility on labels in combined charts.
• Improved label positions in combined charts. Labels in combined charts will now automatically move to improve legibility.
• Improved chart axes. Grunt now supports discrete date axes, enabling much-improved charts out of the box with date-based data for all discrete chart types. You can also now manually switch between different axis types by right-clicking and selecting them in the axis context menu.
• Dumbbell charts. We’ve added a new chart type! They're great for showing variance in a data series and high/low/expected outcomes.
• Easier access to opening connected Excel files. When editing a Grunt object with an Excel connection, you will be be given an option to directly open the connected Excel file, so you don’t have to go digging around your computer to find it. You’ll also get a warning (or two) if you try to override data connected to Excel.
• Connectors in stacked charts. You can now add line connectors between chart categories in all stacked charts.
• Gantt labels with date and/or text. Labels in Gantt with both dates and/or typed text are now supported. If you click on a Gantt date label, you’ll see the “@date” notation. Add your text in the same box or remove the date, as desired. We’ve also changed the default date format to a shorter format.
• Data connection manager improvements. We’ve introduced a tab panel in the data connection window for switching between connection and slide grouping. If you use templates in the cloud, you can also view and manage template connections as connections.
• Improved chart annotations (formerly highlights) design and behavior. This includes the ability to select and manipulate multiple chart annotations simultaneously, enhancements to combined labels like percentages, CAGR visual appearance, better font size rescaling, and enhanced functionality for combined Value Jumps.
• New display format for 0s. You can now choose between showing zeros as "0", "-", or leaving it blank. This feature ensures consistency with Excel formatting.
• Added double-click the edge of the Visual Grid to open the data editor, just like for charts
• Added a button to update the date and number format across all objects in a presentation. You’ll find it in “Settings” in the “Date and number format” tab.

Revision 7

2025-March-3

• Fixed Tool and Smart Selection functionality with horizontal and vertical lines
• Excel data connection file dialog no longer freezes when changing a file on Mac
• PowerPoint no longer crashes when the Shared Template publish button was pressed on Mac
• Performance (memory and speed) improvements :)
• Improved security standards more

Revision 6

2025-February-5

• Added the missing shadow to macOS toolboxes so they look more like those on Windows.
• You can now add local collections to the template gallery even if no local folders exist yet.
• The “Save as Grunt Template” dialog now has a scrollbar for smoother navigation. Also, if your presentation has more than 10 slides, the “Save as Presentation” option will be turned on by default.
• Keyboard shortcuts now work properly on Mac.
• Mac ribbon icons now update correctly.

Revision 5

2025-January-14

• Fixed a bug that caused some presentations with a lot of Grunt data to take a long time to load
• Fixed a bug where gridlines would render outside of the chart if the starting x-axis value was greater than zero
• Fixed an issue where Gantt was rendered out blank if a font was missing with no explanation to the user (now we show a clear notification)
• Changed the data connection manager button back to "Check all"
• Resolved user friction on unexpectedly overriding user changes to inserted Templates when clicking Update All in the connection manager (now it only updates Templates that have new available data since last insertion)
• Fixed an issue on MacOS where users could not move Grunt and native components selected together as a single selection
• Fixed an issue on MacOS where the object notification for new Excel data available was weaker on MacOS than on Windows when the object was not selected
• Fixed an issue on MacOS where making text into bullet points did not work as expected at all
• Fixed an issue on MacOS where Templates did not respect the current slide master on insertion

Revision 4

2024-December-11

• Fixed several issues with the Excel connection manager (incl. speed, UI flickering/glitches, minimal feedback in UI)
• Fixed an issue with local templates not appearing if they were OneDrive files and open by the user or someone else simultaneously
• Fixed an issue with thumbnails not being generated for local deck templates
• Improved UI for adding multiple collaborators to Shared templates folders
• Fixed an issue where it was not possible to fully scroll to the bottom of the template gallery
• It is possible to now upload files to Shared templates on Mac
• Grunt Tools (e.g., aligning, resizing) now work on Mac!

Revision 3

2024-November-21

• Fixed an issue with the Excel Connection Manager that took a long time to Update when many connections were enabled
• Send email functionality now works again on Windows with Outlook 2016 (as before)

Revision 2

2024-November-13

• Replacing data from Excel files now works on macOS
• Writing to Excel (i.e., export current data) now works on macOS
• Fixed the screenshot in contact support functionality on macOS

Revision 1

2024-November-1

• Fix compatibility issue for macOS

Fixes

• The “Present in Teams” function now also works with Grunt objects
• Fixed several collaboration-related issues, in particular, some related to legend objects
• Improved behavior with layered objects, allowing for the selection of graphics positioned directly on top of Grunt charts
• Improved rendering of monthly and daily data, ensuring the last data point in the period gets captured
• Backspace now works in the Data Editor
• Improved annotation calculations to support zeros as valid calculation points
• In clustered charts, pointing a value jump at a series with a higher index than the number of categories no longer crashes the chart
• CTRL can once again set the slide as a reference object for "Same size”
• RGB colors were listed as RBG colors in the color wheel
• Hide columns inside the data editor now hide columns
• Fixed an issue where the Gantt bracket labels were untypable
• Fixed an issue where some rule targets were not preserved when copying and pasting into Gantt charts
• The “Update all“ button in the Data connection manager was often disabled. Now, it is abled - at least when it should be.
• Legend now shows forecast pattern as hatched
• Fixed an issue where Week 1 was displayed as Week 53 in Gantt. All week numbers now follow ISO standard week numbers.
• Send PPT no longer crashes PPT / Outlook
• Fixed an issue where milestones were displayed behind bars, and the user had no way to change this
• Changed default date format in Gantt to take up less visual space
• Fixed a bug that was causing issues with logo rule not showing up as expected

Improvements to the MacOS version

• Open presentations no longer auto-recover and reopen every PPT/Grunt reboot
• Fix an issue where the installer failed with some specific setups
• Fixed an issue with Excel crashing when changing ranges on connected objects
• Fixed several font-related issues
• Eyedropper now works
• You can now access Quickfind rules using CTRL + ENTER
• Fixed an issue where licenses didn’t work without internet on Mac
• Excel named ranges now work

What's new

• Subchapters in Agenda. Finally, you can create subchapters in Agenda objects. To get started, simply select a chapter and use the indention buttons in the toolbar.
• Multi-level lists support. Creating bullet lists and sub-bullets in Visual Grids without using rules is now possible. Just select the text you want to make a list and find the new button in the text toolbar. To increase indention, use the TAB key - and to decrease it, use SHIFT + TAB. You know, like you'd expect.
• Bar shapes in Gantt. We've added support for thinner Bar shapes in Gantt by popular demand. Use these instead of Processes to create a different look or in addition to Processes to distinguish between different categories of items.
• Date labels in Gantt. Labels in Processes, Bars, Milestones, and Brackets now support displaying automatic dates in their labels. However, you can only display the dates or write your own text, not combine the two. To replace dates with text, simply place your caret and start typing. To get automatic dates back, remove all content from the label. You can also choose from various date formats in the label toolbar.
• Column and row visibility from Excel. When inserting new objects, Excel's dimensions visibility is now automatically mirrored in the inserted Grunt objects. In the Grunt object dimension context menu, you can still find the options to hide or unhide a row or column if you want to change the visibility.
• Generate PowerPoint sections from Agenda chapters. To create sections matching your Agenda structure, look for the new "Create sections from chapters" option in the Agenda context menu.
• Added support for sorting in Clustered charts.
• Improved performance, especially for large Visual Grids.
• You can now adjust font sizes with hotkeys using the CTRL + SHIFT + "," and CTRL + SHIFT + "." like in PowerPoint.
• We've added two new calculation options in Waterfall: Percentage of Previous and Percentage of Next Baseline.
• We've added proper language support for "Week" in Gantt charts. "Week" will now be displayed in the selected language for supported languages. We also added a couple of new label display options for the week label and capitalized the month labels in all languages.
• Label handles are easier to grab, especially for multi-level labels.

Revision 6

2024-August-21

• In gantt charts "@date" will be replaced with the date

Revision 5

2024-August-21

• Resolved an issue where resizing cells in the data editor would not update correctly.
• Fixed the order of RGB inputs in the color picker to correctly display as Red, Green, Blue instead of Red, Blue, Green.
• Added a "Copy to clipboard" button to the Diagnostics screen, making it easier for users to share diagnostic information for debugging purposes.
• Fixed a crash issue in clustered charts when a value jump pointed at a series with an index higher than the number of categories.
• Fixed an issue where the Gotham font did not display correctly on Mac.
• Updated the Mac installer scripts to create the PowerPoint node in the registry if it's missing, addressing an issue where the installer would fail on some setups.

Revision 4

2024-May-28

• Fixed the "Distribute to Slide" feature which was not working as expected. Shapes are now correctly distributed with even spacing between themselves and the slide edges.
• Fixed issues with the "Link to Arrow" color option for annotation labels.
• Fixed the bouncing issue in Gantt labels when editing, by adjusting the AscentCorrection for TextEndOfParagraph text runs. This resolves the regression observed in label editing behavior.

Revision 3

2024-May-3

• Resolved rendering issues with Harvey balls.
• Fixed an issue where ribbon buttons would be non-responsive on Nordic versions of OSX.
• Fixed issue where the user interface would hang during data update on OSX.
• Fixed issue where CAGR would not show up when adding it to a chart with a date axis.
• Improved pasting of bullet points.
• Fixed an issue where exporting presentations with multiple Master Slides would fail if the first Master Slide did not have a Layout.
• Hotfix for the Undo/Redo functionality in collaborative environments to prevent overwriting changes made by other users.
• Fixed a bug where some installed fonts would cause issues and report "Issue detected" on objects.

Revision 2

2024-April-17

• Added support for paragraph spacing in exports, ensuring text is properly spaced as expected.
• Fixed minor bugs with text editing.
• Added missing settings to the Image Conditional rule.
• We also made small stability and performance fixes.

Revision 1

2024-April-12

• We've made it easier to place your cursor in text areas by expanding the clickable area on empty or shorter lines.
• Now you can move multiple list items simultaneously using Alt + Shift + Arrow Keys, making organizing your lists more efficient.
• Fixed tab navigation issue in Visual Grid where pressing Tab or Shift + Tab would not navigate to the next or previous cell when bullet points were present in the cell.
• Resolved issue with license loading on Mac, which would prompt you to login again.
• Fixed issue where Sharepoint folders would not be recognized on Mac.
• When copying text from bulleted lines, a text-only option is now included, enhancing compatibility with various applications.
• Fixed a minor issue with character insertion when rearranging paragraphs using keyboard shortcuts, ensuring a smoother editing experience.

Fixes

• Fixed issue where drawing tools within PowerPoint would not work.
• Fixed rendering issues with whitespace. Especially when exporting to PDF.
• Fixed an issue where right-clicking with smart selection enabled on native shapes would not bring up the context menu, restoring expected PowerPoint functionality.
• Fixed an issue where the caret would get stuck on the first index when navigating left in a text editor with mixed bulleted and regular text. This ensures smoother text editing experience.
• Improved general stability. We've fixed several issues that should improve stability in various circumstances.
• Startup error message. Some users were getting an error message when starting Grunt and PowerPoint. This version fixes the underlying issue causing this message.
• Improved Sharepoint robustness. We've fixed an issue with data connections where users sync SharePoint sites and folders on different levels.
• Opening Read-only presentations could cause instability. This is now fixed.
• Improved robustness of the automatic updater; in particular, we've improved the feedback if the process fails.
• Fixed several issues when working with alternative slide sizes, like 4:3 formats.
• The Eyedropper tool is fixed to work outside the PowerPoint window again.
• Fixed several issues with the "Convert Grunts" feature, producing more accurate results.
• When exporting a file with the same name as an existing one, the user is warned before saving.
• In the Chart Series Editor, moving or changing the chart type for a series would unhide any hidden series. This is fixed, and we've also made sure that the view adds a scrollbar for large numbers of series.
• Fixed a bug in charts with continuous axes when adjusting the axis.
• Fixed a bug with Pie/Donut where charts with only 1 data point were not perfectly uniform.
• Single Waterfall connectors can again be deleted.
• Fixed an issue where Chart highlights were challenging to work with if one anchor point was hidden.
• Fixed an issue with selecting markers when on top of the axis line. The marker is now always on top in selection order.
• Fixed an issue where the decimal adjuster did not work as expected for charts with specific number formats from Excel.
• Fixed an issue with the "Size" label calculation in Bubble charts.
• Fixed a bug where some text toolbars in Gantt did not correctly display the set font size.
• The Gantt date axis should be much faster when dragging to adjust date intervals.
• We've fixed some issues when Copy-Pasting values from PowerPoint tables to Grunt. This should now work as expected.
• Fixed an issue where the render of a Visual Grid would crash if the size of an item was set to "0%". Grunt will now handle such cases more gracefully.
• We also fixed a rare bug where setting the dimension size could make a Visual Grid freeze up.
• Fixed an issue where two clicks were required to open another rule after deleting a rule.
• Fixed the display of conditions in conditional rules, where it previously looked like there was a white space on either side.
• Using CTRL with the "Same Size" tool to set an object the same size as the slide is working again.
• The "Move to front" or "Move to back" actions have been fixed to work as expected.
• When adding a conditional rule, the criteria were not always set in the automatically created condition. This is fixed. We've also improved the interaction in the input field for conditions.
• Fixed an issue where Target names could lose their specific naming under certain circumstances.
• We've made navigating and placing the cursor on empty lines much more straightforward.

Bug fixes

• Improved stability.
• Fixed additional issues with copy-pasting.
• The button to toggle label visibility for individual data points in Line Charts was missing. We brought it back.

Bug fixes

• Fixes a bug where several features like sorting and copy-pasting rules did not work as expected in the context menu.

Bug fixes

• Fixed some annoying bugs for users working with 4:3 slide formats where object highlight effects and placeholder slots were not in the right place.
• We've improved the error handling of failing automatic updates.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a problem where Grunt could hang if undoing object insertion immediately after inserting.
• Fixed a bug where Visual Grids could sometimes stop working if the dimension size were set to 0.
• Fixed an issue where labels in brackets in Gantt could get a label line even as there was room to display the label without it.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where some users could not start Grunt under specific circumstances.
• Fixed some issues with opening protected presentations.
• Fixed a problem with the chart series editor, which could be infinitely long if you had an infinite number of series. It now, sensibly, gives you a scrollbar instead.

What's new

• The monthly labels in the date axis in Gantt are automatically trimmed if there is no room to display them in the chart.
• We've removed a limitation in some Conditional rules on what value sizes could be set as arguments.
• Added user feedback when trying to connect to a .csv file. This file type is not supported but can easily be converted to a supported .xls file.
• We've ensured that the bracket labels in Gantt always line up pixel-perfect with Milestones labels, regardless of the font size.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue where named ranges were only sometimes used as the connected address for Macro-enabled Excel workbooks.
• The origin line could not be selected and changed for some charts with negative values.
• The logo rule is more robust and handles changes in search terms better.
• Fixed a bug in the data editor where the first right-click did not spawn a context menu as expected. It now appears every time.
• Other minor stability and performance fixes.

What's new

• We've slightly updated our Financial table templates to reflect updated best practices.
• When adding conditional rules, we use Slide Master accent colors instead of "random" colors at insertion. You know, since random color is probably not what you wanted.
• In Bubble/Scatter charts, label lines are now always drawn toward the circle's center - which looks nicer than our previous approach.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug preventing the drag-drop of images and other files to work as expected.
• Fixed an issue with charts containing axis breaks, where the click area of the chart would be larger than the actual chart.
• Arrow key navigation did not work for text starting with an empty line. In addition, the Home and End keys did not work as expected when editing text. Both issues are fixed.
• In rules using conditions, the number input field would accept any number inputted but display it as rounded after committing. This is fixed to always display numbers as typed.
• Fixed an issue causing Visual Grids with Fill conditional rules to crash if the grid contained no values and the min value was set to "Relative."
• When selecting multiple markers in a line chart, the marker toolbar did not appear when clicked. This is fixed.
• We've simplified available modes for marker colors in line charts in Visual Grid and set the default to link it to the series color. We've also fixed the preview color of marker colors in charts.
• Fixed a bug preventing the axis reset buttons from being clickable in Visual Grids.