Can't save PowerPoint file as addin (.ppa)

[kelw]

This seems like a very weird problem to me.

I have been recently updating an existing addin in PowerPoint 2003
(with many problems which I'll ask about later).

I have done several changes to the .ppt file, then saved it as an addin
(.ppa) and put it into my addins folder. This has worked fine, all the
VBA code appears in the loaded addin.

Today, I cannot save a file as an addin. I choose save as, then change
the type to 'PowerPoint Addin .ppa' as I have done before, and it looks
like it saves, but there is no file there when i go to check.

I have tried deleting the existing file, saving over the file,
unloading the addin, removing the addin - pretty much every combination
i can think of.

I installed Visual Studio .NET onto my machine last week, could this
have caused a problem?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Kel

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

No error messages or anything? You're not trying to save from the IDE are you?

 

[Kelw]

No, can't even create a new blank file in PowerPoint, save to My Docs,
then do 'Save As' in PowerPoint to create a .ppa. Not doing anything
different to last week.

 

[Kelw]

I have been trying a few things. I disconnected a COMAddin and managed
to save a blank file as an addin. Then reconnected, can still save a
blank file as an addin.

Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, also seems to depend on the file
location you're saving to, My Documents or a folder within my
Documents, and not saving over an existing file.

All of these things worked fine last week.

If anyone's seen anything similar, I would appreciate hearing from you

Thanks - Kelw

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have been trying a few things. I disconnected a COMAddin and managed
to save a blank file as an addin. Then reconnected, can still save a
blank file as an addin.

Mysterious. Haven't run into anything like this, I'm afraid.

 

[Kelw]

I finally found what I think is the solution/way round this.

I'm not sure whether anything else has changed on my computer, but this
method now works.

Things to check:

1. That you do not have a .ppa with the same name in the location you
want to save to, it doesn't seem to like saving over an existing .ppa
file.

2. That you do not have a .ppa with the same name currently loaded as
an addin in your PowerPoint

3. That your VBA code compiles correctly (check this on Debug menu).

I think I must have had one of these things wrong each time I tried.

Still a bit weird that i never got an error message, but following
these 3 steps first, I've finally been able to update my addin!

Thanks to anybody who had a look for me!

Kel

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I finally found what I think is the solution/way round this.

I'm not sure whether anything else has changed on my computer, but this
method now works.

Things to check:

1. That you do not have a .ppa with the same name in the location you
want to save to, it doesn't seem to like saving over an existing .ppa
file.

FWIW, I save to same-named PPAs all the time and have never had a problem with this.
However, PowerPoint will NOT save to Whatever.PPA (in any folder) if Whatever.PPA is
already loaded as an addin.

2. That you do not have a .ppa with the same name currently loaded as
an addin in your PowerPoint
Yes.

3. That your VBA code compiles correctly (check this on Debug menu).

And yes. It can't save as an addin unless the code will compile.

I think I must have had one of these things wrong each time I tried.

Still a bit weird that i never got an error message, but following
these 3 steps first, I've finally been able to update my addin!

That you didn't get an error message ... that's indeed odd.
Normally it gives you an error message (though an airy, vague "Oh, my, I had a problem.
You figure out what it was." kind of thing.)

 

[Kelw]

Yes, normally something helpful like that! and I'm sure I was able to
save over existing files previously! Not just me though, several
people here have tried and failed as I did.

The only thing we could come up with was some kind of Hotfix that had
changed a setting somewhere