loading powerpoint 4 into powerpoint 2007

[pwh]

Hi,
I have a bunch of old files that are in powerpoint 4. I recently upgraded to
from office 2000 to office 2007, and now I can't read the old files.
What I'd ideally like is a batch file to convert everything. But if I can't
get that,
is there an add-on for powrerpoint 2007 that will let me open powerpoint 4
files?
Thanks!
Peter

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Peter,

If it was me I'd find a PC with office 2000 to open each file
then save them as a ppt 2000 file

I'm pretty sure ppt 2007 would open a ppt 2000 file no problem.

cheers

--
TAJ Simmons
Microsoft Powerpoint MVP

awesome - powerpoint templates,
http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com
powerpoint backgrounds, free samples, ppt tutorials...

 

[pwh]

Hi,

There are hundreds of these pp4 files scattered all over the place,
so your solution is actually too time-consuming for me. I really
need an open on-demand solution, just like ppt 2000.

Of all the 1000's of features ppt has, why did they have to delete this one?
Argh.
- Peter

 

[Austin Myers]

Hi,

There are hundreds of these pp4 files scattered all over the place,
so your solution is actually too time-consuming for me. I really
need an open on-demand solution, just like ppt 2000.

Of all the 1000's of features ppt has, why did they have to delete this
one?

Because those old files and file formats are not secure at all.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi,

There are hundreds of these pp4 files scattered all over the place,
so your solution is actually too time-consuming for me. I really
need an open on-demand solution, just like ppt 2000.

Of all the 1000's of features ppt has, why did they have to delete this one?

I don't know of any company that supports older file formats indefinitely.

PPT4 was the last version for Windows 3.x and may've sold for a while after
PPT95 came out and was introduced several years before that, which makes it at
least 10 and more likely 15 years old.

IIRC, support for PPT4 files was dropped after 2000. Just checked, and 2003
won't save to that format; that generally means it won't open it either.

An open-on-demand solution isn't going to happen; I'd bet money on that.

I or any of the other VBA coders here could lash you up something that'd open
each PPT file in a folder, then save it back out in 2000 format, though.

All you'd need to do is collect the files and find a PC that can run 2000.

Or I could do it here if you sent a CD along with the files.

Other interested parties can chime in with their email addresses; mine's steve
at-sign pptools dot com

Or if you have a bit of VBA in you, you can probably do it yourself.

Batch: Do something to every file in a folder
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00536.htm

 

[pwh]

Thanks! This was extremely helpful. The one catch is that I won't be able to
get everything into a single folder. Do you know of an open source VBA script
that traverses every file in a directory tree? If so, I can probably code the
rest myself.
Cheers,
Peter

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks! This was extremely helpful. The one catch is that I won't be able to
get everything into a single folder. Do you know of an open source VBA script
that traverses every file in a directory tree? If so, I can probably code the
rest myself.

Not off top of head, but they're out there.
I believe someone posted some code for that in this group w/in the last year.
Search the group (using Google's group search) for terms like "Dir" or "Dir$" and
the like.

Or do more general searches on the web. Don't restrict the search to VBA; anything
written in classic VB (though not VB.NET) will work in VBA.