PowerPoint exits show to slide sorter by itself? Anyone else see this?

[srblake]

PowerPoint is exiting show mode for no apparent reasone. The computers
are 2 identical "show" machines owned by my client. It occured 3 times
during a 6 hour session. I was not advancing but the presenter claimed
to have not hit any keys besides arrows, space bars, and mouse clicks.

It doesn't Escape - instead it switches to edit or slide sorter mode
without actually closing the presentation. The presentation is still
open in the background to the last slide and clicking the "Resume
Slide Show" button gets me back.

It is as if an Alt-Tab command was executed (except I never see the
Alt-Tab box pop up.) Or it is as if I was using dual screen mode and I
clicked the edit view on the laptop monitor.

Configuration info-----------------
Windows XP SP2 with all current updates
Office 2003 with all current updates
IBM/Lenovo T60 Laptops with 512 MB Ram

My suspicions include:
- 3rd party display or other utilities
- Esoteric PPT bug triggered by a perfect storm of factors
- Ruled out wireless mouse. It happened with 2 different untis which
were incable of issuing any exit show command - Esc or Alt-Tab.

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

These mysterious things are often caused by flaky keyboards or mice,
particularly (but not exclusively) wireless ones.I'd start there in a
search for a solution.
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @t39g2000prd.googlegroups.com:

 

[Echo S]

Sounds as if he's running extended desktop and is seeing the wrong monitor.
(The "resume slide show button" is what makes me think that.) Can't think
what would cause this, though -- maybe dragging the mouse too far off the
presentation screen and clicking? I don't think that should cause the
non-presentation screen to show up on the big monitor, but I don't use the
extended desktop all that often, so....

To get to it, you'd right-click your desktop, choose Properties | Settings,
select the 2nd monitor and then check "extend my windows desktop onto this
monitor."

Maybe turning that off will resolve the issue.

 

[srblake]

These mysterious things are often caused by flaky keyboards or mice,
particularly (but not exclusively) wireless ones.I'd start there in a
search for a solution.
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @t39g2000prd.googlegroups.com:








- Show quoted text -

My first suspicion was also the wireless mouse, but I questioned that
because it has no way of exiting while still keeping the slides open
in the background. It can Escape, but that close slide show mode
completely instead of just switching views as it does, almost as if
someone hit Alt-tab a couple times.

I am running the screens in clone mode. Although I did have VNC
(remote control) software running but it has never given me a problem.

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

I am running the screens in clone mode. Although I did have VNC
(remote control) software running but it has never given me a problem.

....until now?

 

[Steve Blake]

Update to my original post. I think I licked the problem on one of the
computers by disabling BitDefender - Antivirus software. Other tweaks
were done by other people as well. Disabling FastSave and such but
only after disabling BitDefender did PowerPoint stop quitting.

Still working on confirming that this works across other problemed
laptops.

 

[Echo S]

Really good news -- thanks for following up, Steve. Hopefully the info will
help others as well.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Really good news -- thanks for following up, Steve. Hopefully the info will
help others as well.

Indeed! And to further that noble cause, I've added a "disable Office file
scanning in your AV software" section to

Do this before using PowerPoint seriously
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00034.htm