Exporting Powerpoint presentations with embedded charts

[af]

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

One of my users has prepared a presentation in Powerpoint 2008 as part of a final report to a funding agency. The presentation contains numerous charts all of which can be edited on other Macs, both in Powerpoint 2008 and Powerpoint 2004. However, they cannot be edited in either Powerpoint 2007 or Powerpoint 2003 (and, we assume, Powerpoint XP, which is what the funding agency is running!). While the charts are recognized as Microsoft Graph objects, double-clicking them (or right clicking and selecting Edit from the contextual menu) produces only a vague error message. Reinstallations on the Windows machines make no difference; neither does renaming the presentation file to have a shorter name. I'm at a loss, and the funding agency wants to be able to edit the charts.

Is there anything we can do short of recreating <i>everything</i> (approximately 30 charts) on a Windows machine?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

One of my users has prepared a presentation in Powerpoint 2008 as part of a final report to a funding agency. The presentation contains numerous charts all of which can be edited on other Macs, both in Powerpoint 2008 and Powerpoint 2004. However, they cannot be edited in either Powerpoint 2007 or Powerpoint 2003 (and, we assume, Powerpoint XP, which is what the funding agency is running!). While the charts are recognized as Microsoft Graph objects, double-clicking them (or right clicking and selecting Edit from the contextual menu) produces only a vague error message. Reinstallations on the Windows machines make no difference; neither does renaming the presentation file to have a shorter name. I'm at a loss, and the funding agency wants to be able to edit the charts.

Is there anything we can do short of recreating <i>everything</i> (approximately 30 charts) on a Windows machine?

Hi,

It sounds like someone may have done a custom install on the Windows
side and left off Microsoft graph. If you used Graph to create the
charts, then Graph has to be there to display and edit the charts.

Windows users can easily check to see if Graph is present by using
Insert > Object. If Microsoft Graph is not in the list of objects
available, then it was not installed.

Microsoft Graph comes with Windows, as well as Mac versions of Office,
and is in the installer, including Office 2007.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP


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[af]

Chart *is* present on the Windows side; I'm able to add new charts to the presentation, even though I can't edit the old ones.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

One of my users has prepared a presentation in Powerpoint 2008 as part of a final

report to a funding agency. The presentation contains numerous charts all of which can
be edited on other Macs, both in Powerpoint 2008 and Powerpoint 2004. However, they
cannot be edited in either Powerpoint 2007 or Powerpoint 2003 (and, we assume,
Powerpoint XP, which is what the funding agency is running!). While the charts are
recognized as Microsoft Graph objects, double-clicking them (or right clicking and
selecting Edit from the contextual menu) produces only a vague error message.

1) What's the *exact* text of the error message? Vague is about par for the course,
but knowing the specifics might trigger an "Aha" experience for someone who knows the
solution.

2) If the charts don't need to be edited by the recipients, try ungrouping then
regrouping them. Best to make a copy of the original chart first, shrink it a bit and
hide it behind the group/ungrouped version in case you later need to edit the chart.

 

[af]

I couldn't cut and paste the error message (I tried); it referred to the possibility of a missing server, file or program element, and didn't have any kind of code or number.)

And we do need to have the charts editable by the recipients, unfortunately. I'm not sure what sort of editing, though, so it's entirely possible that I'll be recommending the ungrouping solution.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I couldn't cut and paste the error message (I tried); it referred

to the possibility of a missing server, file or program element,
and didn't have any kind of code or number.)

You could always type the message into a text file ...

 

[af]

And I will, the next time I have access to a Windows machine, some time next week.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

And I will, the next time I have access to a Windows machine, some time next week.

Thanks ... that'll help.

Incidentally, on a PC, you can press Ctrl + Shift + C to copy the contents of most
message boxes to the clipboard.

Paste from there into a message here or into a notepad file to use the message info.

 

[af]

OK, possibly with a few typos, the unhelpful error message I get when I try to edit the charts on a Windows computer running PP 2003 is:

"The server application, source file, or item can't be found, or returned an unknown error. You may need to reinstall the server application."

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

OK, possibly with a few typos, the unhelpful error message I get when I try to edit

the charts on a Windows computer running PP 2003 is:

"The server application, source file, or item can't be found, or returned an unknown

error. You may need to reinstall the server application."

There seems to be a whole array of reasons why you might get this message and there may
be a few new ones when we throw in the new versions of both Win and Mac PPT and then
toss the files back and forth between them but work your way through the suggestions
here:

Can't edit Org Chart, Graph, Excel (error msg: "server application, source file, or
item can't be found")
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00236.htm