Backward Compatible???

[Brenda from Michigan]

User has PowerPoint 2002 SP3

He has many old PPT documents he created but many cannot be opened. He gets
a message "PowerPoint cannot open the type of file represented by
{filename}. I note these files are dated from 2000 to 2006. I don't know
for sure what versions of PP he may have been using during this time, but he
says he has always used PP, never Corel Presentations. If for instance some
of these files were created with PP 97, would PP 2002 be able to read them.
Thanks in advance!

 

[David Marcovitz]

PowerPoint 97 through 2003 all share the same file format so 2002 should
be able to read any document from any of those versions (although it
will not recognize the few new features that are new in 2003). 2003 had
a problem when it was first released that behaved the way you describe,
but that was fixed by the first service pack (also, you say the user is
using 2002, which never had the problem).

It's possible that the files are corrupted. Check out this entry from
the PPT FAQ for more details and suggestions for fixing the problem:

"PowerPoint can't open the type of file represented by [FILENAME]" or
"No text converter is installed for this file type"
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00135.htm

--David

 

[Echo S]

I'd love to see a couple of these files, Brenda, if you can email them to
me. echos at indy dot net

I'm kind of swamped for awhile, so I don't know that I'll be able to offer
any solutions other than what David already has, but I am trying to track
down information on these files PPT considers corrupt....