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.ppt files won't open on MS PowerPoint

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 5:37 am
by lindsay
I'm not very computer savvy, so I hope I can explain this.

I made a presentation on my Mac in Impress and clicked "save as" and then choose ".ppt". I then saved this to a flash drive. When I brought it to my class and tried to open in on their windows (Not 100% sure what they're running, I think it's windows XP), powerpoint opened but my presentation wasn't there. When I brought my flash drive home and plugged it into my Mac, it brought up a text editor box (which I tried to attach to this post but couldn't) with a ton of jargon.

When I first put the file on my flash drive from the Mac, I can open it just fine, but as soon as I've tried to open it on a PC, it gets messed up.
What am I doing wrong?

Re: .ppt files won't open on powerpoint

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 10:07 am
by pingju
The only thing we can do for you here is
1. Reproduce your presentation / just a dummy one on Mac
2. Post it here
3. Friends who has OOo and XP can test it for you to see if there is any problem to open it correctly.

Re: .ppt files won't open on powerpoint

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 10:20 am
by RoryOF
lindsay wrote:When I brought my flash drive home and plugged it into my Mac, it brought up a text editor box (which I tried to attach to this post but couldn't) with a ton of jargon.

When I first put the file on my flash drive from the Mac, I can open it just fine, but as soon as I've tried to open it on a PC, it gets messed up.
That the mac is now unable to open the file is bad news, I fear. Normally the text box asking one to select a language and encoding (or something of that nature) is a sign that the file is severely damaged. You can upload it to the forum and we'll look at it, but don't hope too much. If it did not open on the Windows machines, it was most probably damaged at that stage.

There are many reported problems with USB sticks, which are not clearly understood at present. On this forum we do not recommend ever working direct to a USB device; we suggest that one works to the internal harddrive, and when that file has been closed and finished, then one copies it to the USB device, and ejects the USB device using the protocol appropriate to the Operating System. At the far end, copy it to the HD and then run it. I hope you have a HD copy of the file, to save you recreating it.

Re: .ppt files won't open on powerpoint

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:30 pm
by lindsay
thankfully, I have it saved to my Mac, so it's not lost!
It does seem like something is going wrong with my flash drive. When I was in the early stages of creating the powerpoint, I emailed it to myself and could look at it on pc. It's now much to big to email, so I don't know how else to transfer it. Maybe I'll try burning it to a cd.
I save it to my Mac, then insert the flash drive and drag the file to it. I then drag the flash drive icon to the trash can, and remove it when the computer says it's okay. I insert it into the PC (I have a crappy PC that I've been trying it out on just to see if it will work) and open it through my computer, where the file is listed. When I click on the presentation, powerpoint opens, but nothing is there. I then do the "remove flash drive safely" process, and when I reinsert it into my Mac and open the file, instead of openoffice opening, a text edit box opens with what I assume is code. I tried to upload the text box, but it wouldn't work (kept loading for a very long time) and I tried to copy and paste some of the text in here, but it didn't show up when I posted (presumably because it's code?) Like I said, I still have the hard copy on my computer, so nothing is lost, but I'd like to be able to use this program to make presentations for school!
For the time being, I'm going to re-do the presentation at the library on a PC, because my presentation is tonight. Maybe I just have to play around with it. I've used two different flash drives and had the same problem with both, so it's not the drive itself.
Not sure if you guys have any advice, but thanks in advance for any ideas!

Re: .ppt files won't open on powerpoint

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2009 4:48 pm
by RoryOF
If it is a "crappy PC" it may only have USB 1 ports which are appreciably slower than USB 2 ports. Also, If your presentation is large/complex/or the pictures are greatly over resolution it can also take time to load (say perhaps 60/90 secs max after Powerpoint opens). But these are general remarks. The worrying thing is the possibility that the stick is being interfered with in some way by Windows, which shouldn't happen just reading a file.

If you put the stick into your mac, then open Powerpoint or Impress, amd _then_ tell it to open the presentation file from the stick, does that work? It may be that your mac doesn't recognise the file type and tries to open it with something else, which is usually easily cured. Do you have Automatic File Name Extension ticked in the Save As box?

Re: .ppt files won't open on MS PowerPoint

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:22 pm
by fibula1
Hi All

Dont know if you guys found the solution to this issue:

If you want to take your ppt presentation on the road eg USB stick, do the following ...

Go to 'Edit' - 'Links' and select all the links (select the 1st one then 'ctrl A'), then click the 'Break Link' button, say yes to the dialog box and Bob's your uncle.

All you do now is save it again (as whatever you like eg ppt) and you'll see the file size is much larger. Copy this file to your USB stick or CD and it should work on any powerpoint software.

Have fun
Phil

Re: .ppt files won't open on MS PowerPoint

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:08 pm
by TheGurkha
When you do the Save As make sure the Automatic file name extension option is checked.

Re: .ppt files won't open on MS PowerPoint

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:38 am
by Vidari
Okay...i did what you told that guy to do..basically do the whole break line and what not to open up presentation basicallly anywhere and it worked for me. But I have on my sildes mp3 files...that wont show up at all..when I save my presentation on the thubnail drive and take it somewhere else, open it..and doesn't have any sound. Can I fix it or whatever, so it will have sound? What are the steps and procudures? Thanks