PowerPoint 97 Batch Converter (Pptcvt.exe) - Batch Converter Error

[Paul L]

I was looking for a PowerPoint Batch Converter to convert many PowerPoint 95
and older files to PowerPoint 97 format.


I found this:

PowerPoint 97 Batch Converter (Pptcvt.exe)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...E6-D251-4D24-BC55-1ABC4D3FB036&displaylang=en



However, I received the following error message when running Batcon.exe
(after installation):

Batch Converter Error
PowerPoint 97 translators are not correctly installed.


Although I DON'T have Microsoft Office 97 nor Microsoft PowerPoint 97
(stand-alone), I do have Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 (which
includes Microsoft PowerPoint 2003) installed.


So, my questions are:

What are these "PowerPoint 97 translators" that the PowerPoint 97 Batch
Converter is looking for? (i.e. ppXtrans.dll - where "X" equals any number)
Where would/should these PowerPoint 97 translators be found? (i.e.
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\ ?)
Are there any Windows Registry entries that should be present? If so, what
and where?
Where/how can I get these translators? (i.e. Is there something else I need
to install?)


Is there any other PowerPoint Batch Converter that I could use (even if it
is made by a third party)?

 

[Austin Myers]

Paul,

PPT 2003 has a built in convertor and should open/play presentations made in
PPT95 with no loss of contents. If this is not the case see this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=828041



Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

PowerPoint Video and PowerPoint Sound Solutions www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Paul L]

I know, but what I'm looking to do is to convert a "batch" of PowerPoint
presentations without running PowerPoint 100 times to just open and re-save
them individually 100 times.

Since the only batch converter I found was the PowerPoint 97 Batch
Converter, I was asking how to get it working.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

However, I received the following error message when running Batcon.exe
This converter was intended for use with PowerPoint 97 and probably does some checking
to see that any needed conversion filters are available. Apparently what it needs is
*probably* built into later versions of PPT but since it was written before they were
release, it has no way of knowing that.

It's probably safe to assume that it'll only install to PPT97 setups.

Do you do any VB/VBA coding? If the files to be converted are all in a single
directory, or a relatively small set of directories, it wouldn't take a great deal of
code to automate the conversion.

 

[Paul L]

That's what I thought.

Anyway, no, I do not do any VB or VBA coding.

If you know how (and could take the time to), would you write a script that
I could use?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

That's what I thought.

Anyway, no, I do not do any VB or VBA coding.

If you know how (and could take the time to), would you write a script that
I could use?

This should do it. Watch out for linebreaks.
If you don't know what to do with vba macros, have a look here:
How do I use VBA code in PowerPoint?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00033.htm

Option Explicit

Sub BatchSave()
' Opens each PPT in the target folder and saves as PPT97-2003 format

Dim sFolder As String
Dim sPresentationName As String
Dim oPresentation As Presentation

' Get the foldername:

sFolder = InputBox("Folder containing PPT files to process", "Folder")

If sFolder = "" Then
Exit Sub
End If

' Make sure the folder name has a trailing backslash
If Right$(sFolder, 1) <> "\" Then
sFolder = sFolder & "\"
End If

' Are there PPT files there?
If Len(Dir$(sFolder & "*.PPT")) = 0 Then
MsgBox "Bad folder name or no PPT files in folder."
Exit Sub
End If

' Open and save the presentations
sPresentationName = Dir$(sFolder & "*.PPT")
While sPresentationName <> ""
Set oPresentation = Presentations.Open(sFolder & sPresentationName, , ,
False)
Call oPresentation.SaveAs(sFolder & "N_" & sPresentationName,
ppSaveAsPresentation)
oPresentation.Close
' New presentation is now saved as N_originalname.ppt
' Now let's rename them - comment out the next couple lines
' if you don't want to do this
' Original.PPT to Original.PPT.OLD
Name sFolder & sPresentationName As sFolder & sPresentationName &
".OLD"
' N_Original.PPT to Original.PPT
Name sFolder & "N_" & sPresentationName As sFolder & sPresentationName
sPresentationName = Dir$()
Wend

MsgBox "DONE"

End Sub

 

[Paul L]

What exactly needs to be changed for .pps and .pot files (just in case I
need this script in the future)?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

What exactly needs to be changed for .pps and .pot files (just in case I
need this script in the future)?

You're welcome.

Change instances of *.PPT to *.POT or *.PPS
Change "ppSaveAsPresentation" to ppSaveAsTemplate or ppSaveAsShow as
appropriate

 

[Paul L]

And what about Word (Documents/Templates) and Excel (Worksheets/Templates)?
I'm sure that there would be more to change, but what exactly?

Or should I ask this on the Word and Excel newsgroups?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

And what about Word (Documents/Templates) and Excel (Worksheets/Templates)?
I'm sure that there would be more to change, but what exactly?

Or should I ask this on the Word and Excel newsgroups?

I expect so.

And a hint before you do: when somebody you've never met spends the time to
code a solution to your problem, particularly one that might save you hours or
days of dull work, a word of thanks is appropriate, particularly before
demanding more features.

That'd just be common courtesy if you were dealing with paid technical support
staff, which you're not. We're all volunteers here.

 

[Paul L]

You are right.

And thank you for your work.


By the way, is there any web site or book that you would recommend which
will teach me VB/VBA?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

You are right.

And thank you for your work.

By the way, is there any web site or book that you would recommend which
will teach me VB/VBA?

Any decent bookstore will have lots of books on VB.
Since VBA is virtually the same as VB with other application-specific features
layered on, learning VB is a good foundation. Pick a book that appeals to you.

Then on to VBA. For PowerPoint, there's precious little. MS Press has Office
2000 fundamentals by David Boctor. It covers the main Office apps and how to
write programs for them.

Mostly, look at web sites. There's a programming section at
http://www.pptools.com One of the pages there has links to other sites with
PPT programming information.