PowerPoint 2008 saving to PPT 1997-2004 format

[Zenattitude]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I'm trying to save a presentation to PPT 1997-2004 and it crashes (Mac version, iMac, Intel, Leopard).

 

[neurofungus]

I too am having this same problem!!! The only problem/fix that I've seen is the way I import pictures into the file. I wasn't having any problems until this latest update came along!!! Anyway, try re-importing (INSERT - PICTURE - FROM FILE) your images and that might help.

 

[Bill Duncan]

Yup, I crash about 90% of the time that I have to save back to PPT 2004. Deleting and reinserting pictures USUALLY helps, but I think that transitions and animations may contribute as well.

I haven't been able to discern any patterns.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Yup, I crash about 90% of the time that I have to save back to PPT 2004. Deleting and reinserting pictures USUALLY helps, but I think that transitions and animations may contribute as well.

I haven't been able to discern any patterns.

Hi,

Please be sure that you check for updates frequently. Things like this
are likely to be addressed in updates.

Also, please be sure to include details about the source of the pictures
that are causing the problems when you send the crash reports to Microsoft.

Thanks.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The number of new Mac users has skyrocketed. That’s excellent. In this
forum all answers come from other users, not from Microsoft employees.
Please help answer questions.

If you see an unanswered question that you know the answer to, please
take just a moment to post the answer. Doing so speeds response time for
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Please take just a moment to help fellow Mac users. Your efforts will be
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[Iggles14]

Jim -- the crash reports are automatic. I am not given any option to provide additional information. You are confusing MS crashes with Mac crashes ... Apple gives me an option to say what I was doing if Apple detects the crash.

I check for updates regularly. This problem has been going on since I installed Office 2008 several months ago. I believe that there has been 1 update since then. The update fixed a font problem, but the crashes continue.

All of the pictures that I insert are downloaded from Clipart.com. They are either PNG or GIF files. Nothing else. The pictures that seem to cause the greatest number of problems are either clip art from previous versions of PPT, or WMF files also downloaded from Clipart.com.

One of the really maddening things is the lack of consistency. I'll delete all of the pictures, and the file will save to PPT 2004. Then I will reinsert the pictures (I ALWAYS use Insert|Picture) one by one and save after each one. When it finally crashes, I will delete the last picture inserted, save again ... and it crashes again.

I was a programmer earlier in my career, and I am quite skilled at debugging. I am very disciplined about the steps that I take. There is absolutely no pattern. My guess is PPT gets "confused" somehow and loses track of whatever temporary file it was creating with the converted file.

Duncan

 

[zenattitude]

Jim Thank you but as Iggles14 says, crash reports are generated automatically with the option of either sending or not to Microsoft. I sent all reports thinking we might clog the bug report department with Mac based errors for better attention from the software engineers.

I use normal pictures too. It would represent too much work to redo the whole presentation. There must be a solution to this very annoying problem.

I know a conversion service on the web succeeds in going form pptx to ppt. Can I mention it as a temporary solution?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Jim -- the crash reports are automatic. I am not given any option to provide additional information. You are confusing MS crashes with Mac crashes ... Apple gives me an option to say what I was doing if Apple detects the crash.

I check for updates regularly. This problem has been going on since I installed Office 2008 several months ago. I believe that there has been 1 update since then. The update fixed a font problem, but the crashes continue.

All of the pictures that I insert are downloaded from Clipart.com. They are either PNG or GIF files. Nothing else. The pictures that seem to cause the greatest number of problems are either clip art from previous versions of PPT, or WMF files also downloaded from Clipart.com.

One of the really maddening things is the lack of consistency. I'll delete all of the pictures, and the file will save to PPT 2004. Then I will reinsert the pictures (I ALWAYS use Insert|Picture) one by one and save after each one. When it finally crashes, I will delete the last picture inserted, save again ... and it crashes again.

I was a programmer earlier in my career, and I am quite skilled at debugging. I am very disciplined about the steps that I take. There is absolutely no pattern. My guess is PPT gets "confused" somehow and loses track of whatever temporary file it was creating with the converted file.

Duncan

Hi,

You guys are right! I disabled the crash reports for Office so that I
could send some to Apple.

But thank you for responding, because you reminded me of a really old
bug that was fixed years ago. Clip art from Office 98 and 2001 did cause
a crash under certain circumstances. I wonder if it's the same old bug.

You can send bug reports to Microsoft via:
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx?product=powerpoint

In fact, if you simply copy and paste what you posted here and send it
in I bet it will be helpful to the PowerPoint folks.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The number of new Mac users has skyrocketed. That’s excellent. In this
forum all answers come from other users, not from Microsoft employees.
Please help answer questions.

If you see an unanswered question that you know the answer to, please
take just a moment to post the answer. Doing so speeds response time for
people who come here and need fast responses.

If you see an answer that might be wrong or that you can answer better,
hop right in and offer your thoughts. Don’t berate a wrong answer –
we’re all here trying to help each other.

Don’t bother with questions you’re not quite sure about or don’t know about.

Please take just a moment to help fellow Mac users. Your efforts will be
appreciated greatly - especially by those you help.

 

[zenattitude]

I sent the exact crash message header to the url provided by Jim. I doubt pictures are involved. I beleive it has to do with the writing permissions of the conversion module. We will se, hopefully sooner than later.

 

[aaron]

I have had the same problem. All of the images are .jpg's.

The above solution worked, "remove all images, save as, reinsert all images"

What a waste of time. It seems like the only improvements with the newest version of MS office for mac are sluggish speed, and random crashes.

 

[Pojkensimon]

Me to. Same problem. I downloaded open office to my stationary PC and opened the .pptx as a .ppt and saved it which solved the problem. I just did this yesterday - I guess downloading open office (openoffice.org) for mac will do the same thing. But a fix in an update should be here soon. This is not ok.

Simon

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Me to. Same problem. I downloaded open office to my stationary PC and opened the .pptx as a .ppt and saved it which solved the problem. I just did this yesterday - I guess downloading open office (openoffice.org) for mac will do the same thing. But a fix in an update should be here soon. This is not ok.

Simon

Hi,

NeoOffice is a better choice than OpenOffice.
http://www.neooffice.org/

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The number of new Mac users has skyrocketed. That’s excellent. In this
forum all answers come from other users, not from Microsoft employees.
Please help answer questions.

If you see an unanswered question that you know the answer to, please
take just a moment to post the answer. Doing so speeds response time for
people who come here and need fast responses.

If you see an answer that might be wrong or that you can answer better,
hop right in and offer your thoughts. Don’t berate a wrong answer –
we’re all here trying to help each other.

Don’t bother with questions you’re not quite sure about or don’t know about.

Please take just a moment to help fellow Mac users. Your efforts will be
appreciated greatly - especially by those you help.

 

[Karen Hannan]

I have had a similar problem with pptx crashing when I try to save as ppt. I also noticed the number of compatibility errors that are stated are a larger number than the ones that come up when I check to look at the compatibility issues.

Since I needed to send mine off to someone quickly, I ended up saving it as a pdf file, which was fine.

 

[Zenattitude]

Instead of installing either NeoOffice or OpenOffice just to convert a file, consider www.zamzar.com

Microsoft, can you please solve this major issue. A recent Office 08 update had nothing for PowerPoint.