PowerPoint very slow while opening presentation

[distri]

Hello,

I'm experiencing problems in PowerPoint 2004 while opening files; it is

very very slow.

An example to explain it better:

a PowerPoint 2004 file of about 160MB takes about 10 minutes to open (
in slide sorter view ); same file opens in about 40 seconds if running

in PowerPoint 2003 on Windows XP.

I've made tests on different Apple hardware ( iMac G5, PowerMac G5
dual, PowerMac G4) with enough memory
( from 512Mbyte up to 1.5Gbyte on the G5 dual processor) , and on
both Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4, but the result is the same.

Switching from "Normal view" to "slide sorter view" it is very slow
also ( about 10 minutes).

Mac OS X "Activity Monitor" reports , while file is opening, a
PowerPoint process status
"not responding" and the real memory usage increases very slowly; the
CPU usage is low as 10 %.

I've installed Office 2004 service packs, but I did not get any
improvement.

Does anybody experienced the same problem ?

Any suggestion is welcome.

Regards,

Diego
P.S. I've postedd this message already, but I didd not get any replay.
Maybe the subject I used was incoplete and not explanatory

 

[Mike]

Diego,

I've found that most presentations that open this slowly in slide
sorter view contain links to unavailable media, especially AVIs. Making
a copy of the presentation by choosing Save As... usually helps quite a
bit. On average, the files I've "fixed" this way go from taking about 3
minutes down to about 30 seconds to switch to the slide sorter. -Still
unacceptable but much better. I'm curious about your network
environment. Are you opening these files locally or from a server
volume? If it's locally do you have any server volumes mounted? If
Powerpoint can't locate linked files it seems to search every available
volume to find them.

-Mike

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Diego,

I've found that most presentations that open this slowly in slide
sorter view contain links to unavailable media, especially AVIs. Making
a copy of the presentation by choosing Save As... usually helps quite a
bit. On average, the files I've "fixed" this way go from taking about 3
minutes down to about 30 seconds to switch to the slide sorter. -Still
unacceptable but much better. I'm curious about your network
environment. Are you opening these files locally or from a server
volume? If it's locally do you have any server volumes mounted? If
Powerpoint can't locate linked files it seems to search every available
volume to find them.

That's a brilliant observation, Mike.

It might be searching available volumes or it may be waiting for a network
timeout on the specific volume the link points to.


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Mike]

Thanks Steve,

Powerpoint is in fact waiting for a response from the network. I've
checked the AppleFileServiceAccess log on the server with mounted
volumes and it's full of "CatSearch" entries during the Powerpoint
hang. Windows and OS 9 versions of PPT give up almost immediately if
they can't find a link, while the OS X versions search everywhere they
can (I've tried this in both v.X and 2004). I did write this up and
send it to mswish. Is this still the best way to report a bug?

-Mike

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks Steve,

Powerpoint is in fact waiting for a response from the network. I've
checked the AppleFileServiceAccess log on the server with mounted
volumes and it's full of "CatSearch" entries during the Powerpoint
hang. Windows and OS 9 versions of PPT give up almost immediately if
they can't find a link, while the OS X versions search everywhere they
can (I've tried this in both v.X and 2004). I did write this up and
send it to mswish. Is this still the best way to report a bug?

As far as I know, yes. Could one of the Mac Office MVPs give us a confirm on
that though?

 

[Barry Wainwright [MVP]]

As far as I know, yes. Could one of the Mac Office MVPs give us a confirm on
that though?

Yes, at the moment these newsgroups are monitored and reporting here is the
best way to bring it to MS's attention (until they fix that 'send feedback'
command...)

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Yes, at the moment these newsgroups are monitored and reporting here is the
best way to bring it to MS's attention (until they fix that 'send feedback'
command...)

So it'd be good for Mike to post his writeup here too ... Mike? Over to you.



================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[distri]

Diego,

I've found that most presentations that open this slowly in slide
sorter view contain links to unavailable media, especially AVIs. Making
a copy of the presentation by choosing Save As... usually helps quite a
bit. On average, the files I've "fixed" this way go from taking about 3
minutes down to about 30 seconds to switch to the slide sorter. -Still
unacceptable but much better. I'm curious about your network
environment. Are you opening these files locally or from a server
volume? If it's locally do you have any server volumes mounted? If
Powerpoint can't locate linked files it seems to search every available
volume to find them.

-Mike

Mike,

the file is on local volume and I do not have any network volumes
mounted.

I forgot to tell that the file has been created with PowerPoint 2004 (
OS X 10.3);
as I wrote in my first post , the same file opens in about 40 seconds
on a PC
( Windows XP SP2, PowerPoint 2003).

Diego

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Mike,

the file is on local volume and I do not have any network volumes
mounted.

I forgot to tell that the file has been created with PowerPoint 2004 (
OS X 10.3);
as I wrote in my first post , the same file opens in about 40 seconds
on a PC
( Windows XP SP2, PowerPoint 2003).

Diego

Diego,

Since you have the ability to open this on a PC, I have a suggestion. Download
and install the PPTools FixLinks demo ( http://get.pptools.com ) on your
Windows machine.

Use it to generate a report on your presentation. The report will be a plain
text file. Copy and paste the results here.

Full disclosure: I wrote and sell FixLinks but this is not a sales call. ;-)
The report function is fully enabled in the free demo. Nothing to buy.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Mike]

Ok, Here's what I sent with some additional detail added:

In the mac version of PowerPoint (11.2), presentations sometimes become
unresponsive for several minutes if they contain links to media files
that are not available on the network. Switching to slide sorter view
in such a presentation results in a "CatSearch" of all available
volumes on the server the client is connected to (OS X 10.4.2 Client /
10.4.2 Server). This was also an issue with 10.3 Client and Server.
While a CatSearch is taking place, the AppleFileServer's %CPU goes up
to between 40% and 75% on the server that's sharing the volumes the
client has mounted. If a client is connected to multiple OS X Servers,
only one performs the CatSearch.

 

[Mike]

Diego,

Did you try using "Save As..." to make a copy of the file yet?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks, Mike. Over to you, Mountainview.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[distri]

Mike ha scritto:

Diego,

Did you try using "Save As..." to make a copy of the file yet?

Mike,

yes I did but the behaviour is the same.

 

[distri]

Mike,

Unfortunatelly I'm not the author of the presentation; I've to chek if
any media file has been inserted.
Do you know how a way to get info if the ppt file does contain links
to any audio/video files ?

 

[distri]

Steve,

I'm going to try.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Mike,

Unfortunatelly I'm not the author of the presentation; I've to chek if
any media file has been inserted.
Do you know how a way to get info if the ppt file does contain links
to any audio/video files ?

The FixLinks demo you mentioned that you plan to try (in another message) will
give you a report listing links to sounds, movies, images and more.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[distri]

Steve Rindsberg ha scritto:

The FixLinks demo you mentioned that you plan to try (in another message) will
give you a report listing links to sounds, movies, images and more.

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

Thanks Steve,

I'll try it.

Diego

 

[distri]

Steve,

I ran FIXLINKS_PRO and this is the report:




------------------------------------------------------------
FixLinks Pro DEMO
=================
File: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Presentation
2005.ppt

This DEMO reports all links but only repairs image links.
To repair other link types, please register FixLinks Pro
at http://get.pptools.com

LINKED PICTURES, SOUNDS, MEDIA; SHAPES WITH ACTION SETTINGS
Slide ShapeName Mouse Status Link Type
===== ========= ===== ====== =========
10 Picture 19 M/C BAD media (movie/sound) object
File: movie.mov

ACTION SETTINGS ON TEXT WITHIN SHAPES
Slide ShapeName Mouse Status Link Type
===== ========= ===== ====== =========
HYPERLINKS
Slide ShapeName Status Link
===== ========= ====== =====
TRANSITION SOUNDS
=================
(NOTE: transition sounds are always embedded, not linked.)

Approximate link storage: 24 bytes

KEY to Report
=============
STATUS:
OK Link is good; file is where it's supposed to be
BAD Link is bad; file is missing. FixLinks Pro will allow you to
locate and relink it
N/A Not a link; data may be embedded

NOTES:
RUN MACRO actions are reported as BAD links though they're embedded in
the PPT file
They don't work in the PPT Viewer; they may not work in PPT due to
security settings

RUN PROGRAM actions are reported as BAD links if the full path to the
program or file
isn't specified in the link; some programs like NOTEPAD.EXE and other
Windows utilities
may work regardless. Testing is in order.

--------------------------------------------------



Then I deleted slide 10 , but presentation opens slowly as before...

Diego

P.S. FIXLINK is very good !

 

[Mike]

Well here are some other suggestions from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;892959

....and if you haven't done so already, I'd try reinstalling Office
after running the "Remove Office" tool.

-Mike

 

[distri]

Well here are some other suggestions from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;892959

...and if you haven't done so already, I'd try reinstalling Office
after running the "Remove Office" tool.

-Mike

Thanks Mike,

I'll try it right now...

Diego