Layout lost when opening powerpoint file: bulleted text keeps running of slide

[Chris Mattmann]

Hi Folks,

My name is Chris Mattmann. It seems that I am having the same exact
issue as the folks who started this thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...df52908e9b76023?sa=X&oi=groupsr&start=1&num=3

Here's a quick summary. I created a presentation in MS Powerpoint 2003,
applied a template to it, all my slides were fine, and I used all
bulleted slides. I was using MS Windows XP SP 2, and I have SP2
installed for my MS Office 2003. Okay, so when I saved my presentation,
and then closed it, and then went back to look at it later, I noticed
something * really * funny going on. It seems that on several of the
slides, the text was running off the end of the slide/text box, instead
of how it was when I originally saved it. So, I fixed the text to make
it fit on the slide, saved my presentation, closed it, and then opened
it, and ahhh! All of the sudden, the text runs off the slide again,
it's almost as if it forgot that I had fixed it.

I tried bringing the presentation over to my iMAC that has Office 2004
installed on it, and I get the same behavior. Fix the running off the
slide text (which again, is a bulleted list), save it, close it,
re-open, and bingo bango, the text is running off the slide again.

I tried some of the debugging suggested in
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...df52908e9b76023?sa=X&oi=groupsr&start=1&num=3

such as making sure on Replace Fonts that there were no ? marks, and
also making sure to turn off the Auto-Complete options for text
resizing, etc., yet none of these suggestions remedies my problem.
Helpppp! Was this issue ever resolved? I have a pretty important
presentation to make today and I'd love to have this problem fixed once
and for all before then

Thanks again.

Chris Mattmann
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Echo S]

I believe your problem is related to multiple masters, Chris.

There's a bug in PPT 2003 (maybe also in 2002, not sure) where the slides
want to take on the settings from the first slide master in the list of
slide masters, even though they shouldn't use that master, or even though
you've overridden the settings on the slide and applied your own formatting.

A couple of ways to resolve it:

1. Go to View|Master|Slide Master and change the order of the slide masters
in the slide thumbnail pane on the left. I'm not wild about this fix,
because it can create problems with other slides in the deck--they may try
to take on the formatting of the new first slide master.

2. Copy the placeholder and paste it on the slide. Format as desired. Drag
the placeholder off the edge of the slide so it doesn't show in the
presentation. This fixes the problem because regular textboxes (which is
what the copy of the placeholder becomes) don't follow the slide master, so
they won't pick up that formatting from the slide master. You can delete the
placeholder if you want, but I like to keep it so my text shows up in the
outline or if I have to save the file as HTML or something.

3. Create a new master based on the formatting for the slide in question and
apply it to the slide. I think this sometimes works, but it just depends on
the slide and presentation in question.