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

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.