Inserting Bitmap images

[Matt]

I am working with PP 2003. I work in education and we have several training
rooms. In one of the rooms when I try to insert a bitmap image, I get a
"Covert File" dialog box. I have tried every one of the file type options in
the dialog box and it won't insert the file. When I try it at my office it
works just fine (no Convert File dialog box needed). Any idea and what is
causing this and how I can correct it? Thank you for any assistance you can
provide.

respectfully,

Matt V

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I am working with PP 2003. I work in education and we have several
training
rooms. In one of the rooms when I try to insert a bitmap image, I get a
"Covert File" dialog box. I have tried every one of the file type
options in
the dialog box and it won't insert the file. When I try it at my office
it
works just fine (no Convert File dialog box needed). Any idea and what is
causing this and how I can correct it? Thank you for any assistance you
can
provide.

It sounds as though one of the graphics filters is corrupted or missing.
I'd first go to that computer, start PPT and do Help, Detect & Repair.

If that doesn't work, re-run Setup, choose Custom and verify that all
needed graphics filters are selected. If not, select them and let the
setup complete.

It's also possible that you've got a corrupted graphics file. Can you try
copying it again from a known-good file?

 

[John Wilson]

The same thing happened to me recently. If anyone has an answer to this I'd
appreciate feedback. This seemed to happen after installing Project 2003 on
an existing Office 2003 installation.

 

[John Wilson]

No. Detect and repair doesn't fix it. I have several files that do this but I
can open them with Office Picture Manager and Paint no problem. If I copy the
contents from Paint and paste it directly to the document (effectively
bypassing the open and convert dialog), it works.

I would think that Office would recognize the file as a bitmap and not ask
to convert the file. I have also checked the graphic filters, removed and
reinstalled them to no avail.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

No. Detect and repair doesn't fix it. I have several files that do this

but I
can open them with Office Picture Manager and Paint no problem. If I
copy the
contents from Paint and paste it directly to the document (effectively
bypassing the open and convert dialog), it works.

I would think that Office would recognize the file as a bitmap and not
ask
to convert the file. I have also checked the graphic filters, removed and
reinstalled them to no avail.

OK ... thinking out loud here.

If Project had installed newer but incompatible filters, then D&R might
not replace them with its original, older files. But we can scratch that,
since you've removed/reinstalled the originals.

Does this happen with all bitmap files or (sneaking suspicion) just those
from Photoshop or some other proggie?
If you open in Paint then resave, do they then work?

 

[John Wilson]

OK. Here's the deal: The issue is a combination of problems that come from
Microsoft and the vendor that created the bitmap.

I found earlier that if I paste the contents of the file directly into a new
bitmap file with the same properties as the original and save it from paint,
that file works when trying to insert the picture.

So I opened the two files up and compared the contents in a hex editor. The
only difference is in the headers. Inside the header of the file is a field
called biSizeImage. This field is supposed to contain the size of the image
in bytes. The vendor set this to a presumably arbitrary value (3780). Given
that the file is 800X600 the field should contain 1440000. That is the value
that is in the file saved from paint.

From this observation I have surmised that Microsoft never examined this
field in versions prior to the one I have. It appears that they have started
to validate the contents of this field to ensure that this is a valid file.
It sure would have been nice to know this...

I plan on going back to the other vendor and asking them to fix the firmware
on the camera to output files in the correct format.

Steve, thanks for your feedback. It's nice to know that there are people out
there that read these posts.

 

[John Wilson]

I'm sorry, I don't know which one is worse. That Microsoft didn't do the
verification before or that the vendor didn't learn how to properly construct
the file. But yes, it would be very nice for Microsoft to tell us a little
bit more about what's going on...

What d'ya say Uncle Bill... can we, please???

One of my friends, a Mac user, just shook her head and laughed. What am I
going to say??