Insert Picture From File not working PPT2003

[Guest]

Hi,
I have had a problem with Powerpoint 2003 for some time now, and it's
driving me nuts.

Whenever I try to insert a picture By Insert->Picture ->From File, I have to
cross my fingers, as it VERY OFTEN does not work, what happens is i selct the
file, CPU use goes up to 60% and Powerpoint freezes..in then stays like that
indefinitely. It happens with .pngs, .jpgs, all sorts, basically any file
excpet those in My Pictures seems to cause a problem. I jusut tried moving
unopenable files to My Pictures, and it opens those now.

I dont really want to have to copy files to My pictures, and then delete
them...can anyone explain this behaviour? Thanks,
Pete.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi,
I have had a problem with Powerpoint 2003 for some time now, and it's
driving me nuts.

Whenever I try to insert a picture By Insert->Picture ->From File, I have to
cross my fingers, as it VERY OFTEN does not work, what happens is i selct the
file, CPU use goes up to 60% and Powerpoint freezes..in then stays like that
indefinitely. It happens with .pngs, .jpgs, all sorts, basically any file
excpet those in My Pictures seems to cause a problem. I jusut tried moving
unopenable files to My Pictures, and it opens those now.

I dont really want to have to copy files to My pictures, and then delete
them...can anyone explain this behaviour? Thanks,

Try this as a test:

Insert, Picture, From File.
Let it go to My Pictures (hah. try and STOP it from .... deep breath ...
nevermind)
Change the view to Details so it doesn't try to show a preview of the image.
Now browse to the folder where your files are located and choose one in details
view.

Does that work better?

 

[Guest]

Hi Steve,
Yes that worked! Thanks a lot....it is strnage, once out of the "my
pictures", and having inserted an image with the details view, it seems to
revert *almost* to normal, allowing me to use other folders even with the
thumbnail view turned on.
Do you know what casues this? Is there a way to really fix it?
Anyway, thanks alot, now at least I can work with other folders apart from
My Pictures!
Pete.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve,
Yes that worked! Thanks a lot....it is strnage, once out of the "my
pictures", and having inserted an image with the details view, it seems to
revert *almost* to normal, allowing me to use other folders even with the
thumbnail view turned on.
Do you know what casues this? Is there a way to really fix it?

Probably so. That was a test. Now that we know the results, here's what you want
to do: go to one of the "slow" folders and look at the image that's first on the
list. Chances are that it's a large one.

What's happening is that in Preview mode, PPT's trying to generate a thumbnail image
of each picture as you click on it, but as soon as you open a new folder, it
automatically opens the first image to generate the preview; if that's a big
honker, it can take quite a while to do that.

One trick is to find a really small gif image, give it a name like @_Top.gif and put
it into the folders where you put your other images. That name will force it to the
top of the list alphabetically and ppt won't bog down trying to preview it.