How to Open Old .PPT Files After Office 2003 SP3 - A Fix

[Chris Carey]

I had hundreds of old .ppt files that I was unable to open after
Office SP3 was "kind enough" to make them unusable.

I am sharing this because finding a way to access these files was a
pain for me and I'm sure I'm not the only person with this problem.
The solutions regarding registry changes and batch processing of old
files, offered by Microsoft on some of the sites I went to didn't work
for me.

After searching many sites, I ran across www.zamzar.com, a free file
conversion utility. They convert many types of files and the site is
worth checking out on its own merits.

First, you have to rename your old .ppt files to .pps (slideshow)
files. Ignore the warnings you get from your computer when you do
this. (After the process, I re-renamed them back to their original
names.)

Then, upload the ".pps" files to www19.zamzar.com and "convert" them
to .ppt.

Note that: The solution is a "beta" one and is currently available on
only one of their servers, so when you access Zamzar, be sure to enter
the website at this address: www19.zamzar.com .

Works like a charm. You can only do 5 at an upload, but the process
is virtually instantaneous so even if you have a hundred, it takes
only an hour or so.

I hope this helps you, if you have old .ppt files that you would like
to be able to use.

 

[John Wilson]

That's a great tip Chris!

I used it to open a 95 file in 2007.

 

[jax7778]

For people that stumble onto this in the future!
So here is a solution for people that cannot upload their docs to a 3rd party site:
There is 1 microsoft solution,(other non MS solutions exist) microsoft made powerpoint viewers back to Windows 3.0. These are not supported, and do not have their own webpage or instructions anymore. But they are still there, in the microsoft archive, you can download ppview97.exe from " ftp/microsoft/com/softlib/MSLFILES "(replace first 2 slashes with dots '.' (use ctrl F to search) this is powerpoint viewer 97 and it will open files going back to powerpoint 3.(works on win 7!) now all you can do is open or print, but what I did was install PDF creator(free open source)(or something similar, there are a few of these) and print to the pdf printer it makes, then I get the old powerpoints in readable PDF files(which make much better archive files)Then you can copy and paste into new powerpoints.