Notes master compatibility between PPT 2007 and 2003

[Guest]

My clients use PowerPoint 2003 to create presentations with speaker notes,
but I edit them using PPT 2007. When I open a PPT 2003 presentation in PPT
2007 (in Compatibility Mode), the headers/footers in the PPT 2003 Notes
Master convert to editable text boxes on each page of the presentation in
Notes view. Then when I try to edit the headers/footers on the Notes Master,
the changes do not apply to the rest of the presentation. When I save the
presentation as a PPT 2003 file after editing and the client opens it with
PPT 2003, he also sees these individual text boxes on each page.

So far I have had to manually delete the text boxes on each page of the
presentation, then create new headers and footers on the Notes Master which
then seem to apply to the rest of the slides as they should.

How can I keep PPT 2007 from creating the headers/footers from the Notes
Master as individual text boxes on every page? Appreciate any suggestions!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

My clients use PowerPoint 2003 to create presentations with speaker notes,
but I edit them using PPT 2007. When I open a PPT 2003 presentation in PPT
2007 (in Compatibility Mode), the headers/footers in the PPT 2003 Notes
Master convert to editable text boxes on each page of the presentation in
Notes view. Then when I try to edit the headers/footers on the Notes Master,
the changes do not apply to the rest of the presentation. When I save the
presentation as a PPT 2003 file after editing and the client opens it with
PPT 2003, he also sees these individual text boxes on each page.

So far I have had to manually delete the text boxes on each page of the
presentation, then create new headers and footers on the Notes Master which
then seem to apply to the rest of the slides as they should.

How can I keep PPT 2007 from creating the headers/footers from the Notes
Master as individual text boxes on every page? Appreciate any suggestions!

I suspect the answer will be to accept that 2007 is WILDLY different from
previous versions and that it's not a very good idea to use it to edit
presentations for clients using earlier versions.

If you still have your Office 2003 and Windows CDs, you may want to consider
installing a "virtual machine" or two on your computer so you can edit
presentations in the same version of PPT that your clients use.

Using Virtual PC / VMWare virtual computers
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00819.htm

 

[Guest]

Thanks very much, appreciate the response. Unfortunately I have a version of
Office 2003 that did not include PowerPoint...I upgraded from PPT 2000 to
2007.

I've contact MS tech support for help; so far I was given a workaround that
does change the header/footer so it appears accurately on every page.
However, it does not eliminate the editable text box for header/footer on
each page. I hope to know more after speaking to MS tomorrow and will post
any solutions.

Workaround steps:

 

[Guest]

Update: After talking with MS tech support, I have learned that this is a new
feature in PPT 2007...in other words, they purposefully left the
header/footer editable on each page so you can have different headers/footers
if needed without adding them manually. So I think if you don't want them
editable, you must remove them manually as I have been doing. I understand
the reasoning--unfortunately it doesn't solve my issue, but I think this is
all the solution I'm going to get.

Hope this helps anyone else who has encountered this!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Update: After talking with MS tech support, I have learned that this is a new
feature in PPT 2007...in other words, they purposefully left the
header/footer editable on each page so you can have different headers/footers
if needed without adding them manually. So I think if you don't want them
editable, you must remove them manually as I have been doing. I understand
the reasoning--unfortunately it doesn't solve my issue, but I think this is
all the solution I'm going to get.

Thanks for coming back with this. It triggered another thought that may work
better for you:

Go to Slide Master view.
On the master slide, add a text box and if you like, start by typing e.g.
"Slide: "

Then on the Insert tab, Text group, click Slide Number. That'll insert
something that looks like <#> at the current text cursor position.

On any slide based on that master or layout, the <#> will turn into a slide
number, but since it's on the master, you can't select it.

Do we have Bingo? <g>