Animated Clipart doesn't work after upgrade

[Jordan]

I have a number of clip art images in my Powerpoint
presentation, including a few animated images that I got
from the clipart site that's directly linked to
Powerpoint. One such animated clip art image is a
picture of a television-like screen that says "Welcome"
and then a moment later, a smiling usher comes across the
screen wth a sign that says "Enjoy the Show". I've been
using it for about a year now but when I went to review
my Powerpoint slides today, in preparation for a lecture
this Friday, I discovered that it doesn't animate
anymore. It just displays the "Welcome" image and stays
that way. Oddly enough, however, the rest of the
animations seem to be working fine. My IT guys just
upgraded my computer to XP and Office 2003. I assume
that this is the problem and would appreciate any help in
resolving this.

 

[Glen Millar]

Jordan,

I did see this once when I was in the US (hey, I blamed the US electricity
<grin>). Could you please send me a single slide with the gif on it? I am
happy to look at it in PowerPoint 2002 and also 2003. If I can reproduce it
here between versions, we may be able to work out why it is happening.
Please remove spaces from my return email address.

--
Regards,

Glen Millar
Microsoft PPT MVP
http://www.powerpointworkbench.com/
Please tell us your ppt version, and get back to us here
Remove spaces from signature
Posted to news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Sonia]

It might be worth it to try making a tiny change to any slide (add a space
at the end of a line of text, or similar) and save the file with a new name.
Then re-open it and see whether it works the way you expect. The problem
could be related to upgrading to PowerPoint 2003 and this will cause the
file to be saved by PowerPoint 2003. Just might cause it to play the
presentation correctly. It's a long shot.

 

[John Langhans [MSFT]]

[CRITICAL UPDATE - Anyone using Office 2003 should install the critical
update as soon as possible. From PowerPoint, choose "Help -> Check for
Updates".]

Hello Jordan,

This appears to be a problem with PowerPoint 2003 and animated GIF's that
have been designed to only play once (not loop). They don't play at all in
PowerPoint 2003. A bug report has been filed.

John Langhans
Microsoft Corporation
Supportability Program Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint for Windows
Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Windows

For FAQ's, highlights and top issues, visit the Microsoft PowerPoint
support center at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=ppt
Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbhowto

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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[Jordan]

Thanks John. I appreciate your help. Just to let you
know, howevere, the animated clip art in questions did
loop when it worked. It just kept doing the same thing
over and over again.

I'm including a message from a Windows XP support person
who seems to have identified what may be the problem.
Hopefully, this can be included with the bug report. The
message is as follows:

Dear Jordan,

Thank you for the information.

I've performed two tests in my side:

A. Windows XP & Office 2003:

The "Welcome" does not work as expected and there is only
a picture, the one you sent to me.

B. Windows 2000 & Office 2000

The "Welcome" worked well and I did see the man
with "Enjoy this Show"

I've noticed the following things:

1. If I download the file in scenario A, it will be a
file named ClipArt.mpf. However,

2. If I download the same file in scenario B, it will be
a file named ClipArt.cil

(We cannot open .cil file in Office 2003; we cannot
open .mpf file in Office 2000)

So far, I am not sure why this happens but I think this
is an operating system and Office version related issue.
Since I am not a PowerPoint support professional, I do
not know how to identity this issue. My personal guess is
that this is a by designed issue and there should be a
better resolution in Office 2003 (which we 2 are not
aware of so far).