Help with help menu

[Guest]

I've searched for help in opening 2000 ppt in 2003 and your group tells me to
go to Check for Updates on the Help menu
I can't find this entry on my Help menu. Could it have been blocked by our
IS group when they updated my PC? Prefer asking you before them as I can
then sound as if I know what I'm talking about!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I've searched for help in opening 2000 ppt in 2003 and your group tells me to
go to Check for Updates on the Help menu
I can't find this entry on my Help menu. Could it have been blocked by our
IS group when they updated my PC? Prefer asking you before them as I can
then sound as if I know what I'm talking about!

It may be that IS changed something but more probably it's PPT's coy little
default settings, which hide menu items from you. Check For Updates is one of
the hidden bits.

Click Help, then click the downward pointing arrowhead thingies at the bottom of
the Help menu that appears. That'll make all the available menu items appear.
Check for Updates should be one of them.

To make PPT stop hiding stuff from you, choose Tools, Customize; on the Options
tab of the Customize dialog box, put a checkmark next to "Always show full
menus" then click Close.

Life will be marginally better thereafter.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your advice, Steve, but it's not that. I should have said I've
already looked for hidden stuff. Definitely not there. Do I now set fire to
IS?

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Yes, if they have disabled this menu item, they probably prevent you from
installing updates as well. You need to make it clear to them that
PowerPoint 2003 is badly broken without Service Pack 1. Before Service Pack
1 was released, Microsoft released something called the Critical Update
(which is now incorporated into Service Pack 1). They didn't call it
"critical" for nothing.
--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.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks for your advice, Steve, but it's not that. I should have said I've
already looked for hidden stuff. Definitely not there. Do I now set fire to
IS?

Given the history of various MS patches inadvertently breaking other stuff, I
can understand why IS might not want people applying them willynilly. FWIW, I
don't think we've heard of ANY problems resulting from the Office 2003 SP1
update, though, and it solves several serious problems.

You might want to point them here, in case they want to apply patches from
files they download rather than turning users loose:

How can I get Office 2003 updates and service packs as files, not over-the-web
installations?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00638.htm

 

[Guest]

Thank you both for your advice
--
Linda M

Given the history of various MS patches inadvertently breaking other stuff, I
can understand why IS might not want people applying them willynilly. FWIW, I
don't think we've heard of ANY problems resulting from the Office 2003 SP1
update, though, and it solves several serious problems.

You might want to point them here, in case they want to apply patches from
files they download rather than turning users loose:

How can I get Office 2003 updates and service packs as files, not over-the-web
installations?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00638.htm

-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
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