PPT 2003 - Missing Text

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I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt file I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in some of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service Pack 1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps, if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
 
I'm not sure of the direct answer to your question, but anyone using PPT
2003, should have Service Pack 1 installed. There are several significant
problems that the Service Pack resolves. I would imagine that installing the
Service Pack on everyone's machine would save time in the long run because
the IT department will get far fewer calls about problems with PowerPoint.

You might try round-tripping the file to HTML. See HTML "Round-tripping" to
repair corruption from the PPT FAQ:

http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00526.htm

However, even if that helps (which I'm not sure it will), it is just a
stop-gap measure until the next problem crops up. Note that before Service
Pack 1 was released, several of the bug fixes were packaged in an update that
Microsoft called "Critical Update." They didn't call it "critical" for
nothing.

--David

David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/
 
I think the issue won't be which version it was created in, but rather which
version they're viewing in. There's no such thing as a "backsave" in PPT, as
all versions from 97-2003 share the same format. In other words, PPT 97 can
open a PPT 2003 file and vice versa -- and the same for all versions in
between.

If ensuring that all PPT 2003 users there have SP-1 installed is too much
trouble, then you might consider setting the thing up to run from the PPT
Viewer -- have Director call the Viewer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-
90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

Depending on what's actually in the PPT file, this could be a good solution
or a bad one. <g>

You can try saving in your updated PPT 2003, but I don't think it will make
a difference. (I'd imagine that your client's using unpatched PPT 2003 to
view the file if she can't see the text.) I could be wrong, though.

It's worth testing, and should be fairly straightforward, though. Save the
PPT file and resend her the interactive app.
 
Don't know about "missing" text but I seen problems when a _non_standard
font is used in a PwrPnt but is neither embedded nor installed on the
viewer's system.

Jerry W Thompson
 
You might try round-tripping the file to HTML. See HTML "Round-tripping" to
repair corruption from the PPT FAQ:

http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00526.htm
Click to expand...

Or another one that struck me:

Round trip it outbound on the creator's (cunninghamprod's) computer, send the
resulting html and supporting folder full of files to the client and have them
open the html file.

However, even if that helps (which I'm not sure it will), it is just a
stop-gap measure until the next problem crops up. Note that before Service
Pack 1 was released, several of the bug fixes were packaged in an update that
Microsoft called "Critical Update." They didn't call it "critical" for
nothing.

--David

David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

cunninghamprod said:
I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt file I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in some of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service Pack 1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps, if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thank you all for your input. I agree that the best solution is to apply the
patch to the clients computers, and I have suggested that solution to then.

In the meantime, I have downloaded the PPT viewer. Echo S suggested that I
use Director to open the viewer, and I need a little advice in this area.
Since this is a program distributed to the company via CD how do I call the
viewer and specify a specific PPT file? I have the ability in Director to
open a file using its progam, but is there a way to open the viewer with a
specific file in the viewer?

Thanks,

jim


Echo S said:
I think the issue won't be which version it was created in, but rather which
version they're viewing in. There's no such thing as a "backsave" in PPT, as
all versions from 97-2003 share the same format. In other words, PPT 97 can
open a PPT 2003 file and vice versa -- and the same for all versions in
between.

If ensuring that all PPT 2003 users there have SP-1 installed is too much
trouble, then you might consider setting the thing up to run from the PPT
Viewer -- have Director call the Viewer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-
90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

Depending on what's actually in the PPT file, this could be a good solution
or a bad one. <g>

You can try saving in your updated PPT 2003, but I don't think it will make
a difference. (I'd imagine that your client's using unpatched PPT 2003 to
view the file if she can't see the text.) I could be wrong, though.

It's worth testing, and should be fairly straightforward, though. Save the
PPT file and resend her the interactive app.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

cunninghamprod said:
I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt file I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in some of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service Pack 1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps, if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You need to have director link to the application PPTVIEW.exe and use a
command line option to tell the PPT viewer to open the specified
presentation. You can also add a "/s" to the command line, after the
presentation name, to surpress the viewer splash screen.

--
Best Regards,
Troy Chollar
TLC Creative Services, Inc.
troy at tlc creative dot com
www dot tlccreative dot com
==================================
A Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
==================================

cunninghamprod said:
Thank you all for your input. I agree that the best solution is to apply
the
patch to the clients computers, and I have suggested that solution to
then.

In the meantime, I have downloaded the PPT viewer. Echo S suggested that
I
use Director to open the viewer, and I need a little advice in this area.
Since this is a program distributed to the company via CD how do I call
the
viewer and specify a specific PPT file? I have the ability in Director to
open a file using its progam, but is there a way to open the viewer with a
specific file in the viewer?

Thanks,

jim


Echo S said:
I think the issue won't be which version it was created in, but rather
which
version they're viewing in. There's no such thing as a "backsave" in PPT,
as
all versions from 97-2003 share the same format. In other words, PPT 97
can
open a PPT 2003 file and vice versa -- and the same for all versions in
between.

If ensuring that all PPT 2003 users there have SP-1 installed is too much
trouble, then you might consider setting the thing up to run from the PPT
Viewer -- have Director call the Viewer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-
90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

Depending on what's actually in the PPT file, this could be a good
solution
or a bad one. <g>

You can try saving in your updated PPT 2003, but I don't think it will
make
a difference. (I'd imagine that your client's using unpatched PPT 2003 to
view the file if she can't see the text.) I could be wrong, though.

It's worth testing, and should be fairly straightforward, though. Save
the
PPT file and resend her the interactive app.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

message
I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive
program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt
file I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in
some of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service
Pack 1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a
large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be
difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps,
if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Have you taken these troubleshooting steps:
- Is the font in question a truetype or postscript?
- Assuming it is a truetype font, have you saved the presentation with the
font embedded? Note: if opening as editable file in 2003 this may trigger a
warning message and allow to be opened as read-only.
- Must you use the offending font? Can the presentation use an alternate
font that does not cause these problems?

Just a few thoughts.
--
Best Regards,
Troy Chollar
TLC Creative Services, Inc.
troy at tlc creative dot com
www dot tlccreative dot com
==================================
A Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
==================================
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I've been able to open the pptview.exe via
Director(Buddy). However, what I'm trying to do within Director is have a
button that will open the ppt file. Again, I can call a file, and it will
open in its program. In this case calling a .ppt file will open the file in
PowerPoint. What I can't seem to figure out (and am not sure whether or not
it is possible) is how to call a .ppt file and have it open in Viewer. Is
there a suffix that I can change the .ppt to that would let the system know
that I want to open the file in viewer and not PowerPoint?

By the way, I am really impressed with the speed and depth of knowledge of
the folks responding to this community.

Thanks again,

jim cunningham

Troy @ TLC Creative said:
You need to have director link to the application PPTVIEW.exe and use a
command line option to tell the PPT viewer to open the specified
presentation. You can also add a "/s" to the command line, after the
presentation name, to surpress the viewer splash screen.

--
Best Regards,
Troy Chollar
TLC Creative Services, Inc.
troy at tlc creative dot com
www dot tlccreative dot com
==================================
A Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
==================================

cunninghamprod said:
Thank you all for your input. I agree that the best solution is to apply
the
patch to the clients computers, and I have suggested that solution to
then.

In the meantime, I have downloaded the PPT viewer. Echo S suggested that
I
use Director to open the viewer, and I need a little advice in this area.
Since this is a program distributed to the company via CD how do I call
the
viewer and specify a specific PPT file? I have the ability in Director to
open a file using its progam, but is there a way to open the viewer with a
specific file in the viewer?

Thanks,

jim


Echo S said:
I think the issue won't be which version it was created in, but rather
which
version they're viewing in. There's no such thing as a "backsave" in PPT,
as
all versions from 97-2003 share the same format. In other words, PPT 97
can
open a PPT 2003 file and vice versa -- and the same for all versions in
between.

If ensuring that all PPT 2003 users there have SP-1 installed is too much
trouble, then you might consider setting the thing up to run from the PPT
Viewer -- have Director call the Viewer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-
90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

Depending on what's actually in the PPT file, this could be a good
solution
or a bad one. <g>

You can try saving in your updated PPT 2003, but I don't think it will
make
a difference. (I'd imagine that your client's using unpatched PPT 2003 to
view the file if she can't see the text.) I could be wrong, though.

It's worth testing, and should be fairly straightforward, though. Save
the
PPT file and resend her the interactive app.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

message
I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive
program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt
file
I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in
some
of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service
Pack
1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a
large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be
difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in
another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps,
if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Cunninghamprod said:
Thanks for the suggestion. I've been able to open the pptview.exe via
Director(Buddy). However, what I'm trying to do within Director is have a
button that will open the ppt file. Again, I can call a file, and it will
open in its program. In this case calling a .ppt file will open the file in
PowerPoint. What I can't seem to figure out (and am not sure whether or not
it is possible) is how to call a .ppt file and have it open in Viewer. Is
there a suffix that I can change the .ppt to that would let the system know
that I want to open the file in viewer and not PowerPoint?
Click to expand...

Other than explicitly calling the viewer's exe from the command line or altering
the registry on the target system (a *very* bad idea), no.

But why not rename the PPT to PPS? In that case it should open in slideshow mode
in whichever application "owns" the PPS/PPT extensions on the system (PowerPoint or
the viewer).
By the way, I am really impressed with the speed and depth of knowledge of
the folks responding to this community.

Thanks again,

jim cunningham

Troy @ TLC Creative said:
You need to have director link to the application PPTVIEW.exe and use a
command line option to tell the PPT viewer to open the specified
presentation. You can also add a "/s" to the command line, after the
presentation name, to surpress the viewer splash screen.

--
Best Regards,
Troy Chollar
TLC Creative Services, Inc.
troy at tlc creative dot com
www dot tlccreative dot com
==================================
A Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
==================================

cunninghamprod said:
Thank you all for your input. I agree that the best solution is to apply
the
patch to the clients computers, and I have suggested that solution to
then.

In the meantime, I have downloaded the PPT viewer. Echo S suggested that
I
use Director to open the viewer, and I need a little advice in this area.
Since this is a program distributed to the company via CD how do I call
the
viewer and specify a specific PPT file? I have the ability in Director to
open a file using its progam, but is there a way to open the viewer with a
specific file in the viewer?

Thanks,

jim


:

I think the issue won't be which version it was created in, but rather
which
version they're viewing in. There's no such thing as a "backsave" in PPT,
as
all versions from 97-2003 share the same format. In other words, PPT 97
can
open a PPT 2003 file and vice versa -- and the same for all versions in
between.

If ensuring that all PPT 2003 users there have SP-1 installed is too much
trouble, then you might consider setting the thing up to run from the PPT
Viewer -- have Director call the Viewer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-
90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

Depending on what's actually in the PPT file, this could be a good
solution
or a bad one. <g>

You can try saving in your updated PPT 2003, but I don't think it will
make
a difference. (I'd imagine that your client's using unpatched PPT 2003 to
view the file if she can't see the text.) I could be wrong, though.

It's worth testing, and should be fairly straightforward, though. Save
the
PPT file and resend her the interactive app.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

message
I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive
program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt
file
I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in
some
of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service
Pack
1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a
large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be
difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in
another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps,
if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Sorry, I don't know the exact procedure/lingo code off the top of my head.
But doesn't the Buddy Xtra embed the PPT file into the Director file or
something? http://www.cambersoft.com/code/ppt_demo.html I don't think that's
what you want to do.

I think you just want to call the PPTView.EXE as you would any other EXE
file. If you rename your PPT file with a PPS extension and you can avoid the
/s part of the command line that Troy mentioned earlier. For a quick
explanation of the difference between PPT and PPS, see Does a PPS
(PowerPoint Show) need PowerPoint or a Viewer to play?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00185.htm

Also, have you googled this? I suspect you can find the information already
out on the web. I searched for "PowerPoint Viewer open from Director"
(without the quotation marks). First hit is this:
http://director-online.com/buildArticle.php?id=305 It looks promising.
Here's another: http://www.mediamacros.com/item/item-986355886/ It says to
use Use the Lingo "open {file name} with {application name)" and gives a
couple more links to check out. So I'd guess you'd do something along the
lines of "open client_presentation.pps with pptview.exe"

Remember, too, that the Viewer has some files required to be on the CD so it
will run. If you open a presentation in PPT and use File/Package for CD/Copy
to Harddrive and choose to include the Viewer, the files will all be
included in the resulting packaged folder. Be sure to include those on the
CD along with pptview.exe.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

cunninghamprod said:
Thanks for the suggestion. I've been able to open the pptview.exe via
Director(Buddy). However, what I'm trying to do within Director is have a
button that will open the ppt file. Again, I can call a file, and it will
open in its program. In this case calling a .ppt file will open the file in
PowerPoint. What I can't seem to figure out (and am not sure whether or not
it is possible) is how to call a .ppt file and have it open in Viewer. Is
there a suffix that I can change the .ppt to that would let the system know
that I want to open the file in viewer and not PowerPoint?

By the way, I am really impressed with the speed and depth of knowledge of
the folks responding to this community.

Thanks again,

jim cunningham

Troy @ TLC Creative said:
You need to have director link to the application PPTVIEW.exe and use a
command line option to tell the PPT viewer to open the specified
presentation. You can also add a "/s" to the command line, after the
presentation name, to surpress the viewer splash screen.

--
Best Regards,
Troy Chollar
TLC Creative Services, Inc.
troy at tlc creative dot com
www dot tlccreative dot com
==================================
A Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
==================================

Thank you all for your input. I agree that the best solution is to apply
the
patch to the clients computers, and I have suggested that solution to
then.

In the meantime, I have downloaded the PPT viewer. Echo S suggested that
I
use Director to open the viewer, and I need a little advice in this area.
Since this is a program distributed to the company via CD how do I call
the
viewer and specify a specific PPT file? I have the ability in Director to
open a file using its progam, but is there a way to open the viewer with a
specific file in the viewer?

Thanks,

jim


:

I think the issue won't be which version it was created in, but rather
which
version they're viewing in. There's no such thing as a "backsave" in PPT,
as
all versions from 97-2003 share the same format. In other words, PPT 97
can
open a PPT 2003 file and vice versa -- and the same for all versions in
between.

If ensuring that all PPT 2003 users there have SP-1 installed is too much
trouble, then you might consider setting the thing up to run from the PPT
Viewer -- have Director call the Viewer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-
90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

Depending on what's actually in the PPT file, this could be a good
solution
or a bad one. <g>

You can try saving in your updated PPT 2003, but I don't think it will
make
a difference. (I'd imagine that your client's using unpatched PPT 2003 to
view the file if she can't see the text.) I could be wrong, though.

It's worth testing, and should be fairly straightforward, though. Save
the
PPT file and resend her the interactive app.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

message
I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive
program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt
file
I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in
some
of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service
Pack
1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a
large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be
difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in
another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps,
if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Echo S said:
I think you just want to call the PPTView.EXE as you would any other EXE
file. If you rename your PPT file with a PPS extension and you can avoid the
/s part of the command line that Troy mentioned earlier. For a quick
explanation of the difference between PPT and PPS, see Does a PPS
(PowerPoint Show) need PowerPoint or a Viewer to play?
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00185.htm
Click to expand...

Whoops, my bad. Troy mentioned the /s to suppress the splash screen, not to
open the file in show mode. It may not be a problem to have the splash
screen in this case, though.

Echo
 
Thanks once again for all of you inputs. I am so impressed with the level of
response and the caliber of knowledge out there.

We are in the process of having the clients PP upgraded with the patch. In
the meantime we had to get the CD out and were able to flatten the file
(output to BMP then import) This was the temporay fix.

Echo:
I will look into the web sites you suggested. However, the lingo to open a
file is sight specific and really not a good answer for CD's that need to be
distributed.

Thanks again for all you help. I've come away from this exercise not only
with several solutions that work but also with a great deal of respect for
the professionalism of this discussion group.

jim

Troy @ TLC Creative said:
Have you taken these troubleshooting steps:
- Is the font in question a truetype or postscript?
- Assuming it is a truetype font, have you saved the presentation with the
font embedded? Note: if opening as editable file in 2003 this may trigger a
warning message and allow to be opened as read-only.
- Must you use the offending font? Can the presentation use an alternate
font that does not cause these problems?

Just a few thoughts.
--
Best Regards,
Troy Chollar
TLC Creative Services, Inc.
troy at tlc creative dot com
www dot tlccreative dot com
==================================
A Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
==================================

cunninghamprod said:
I have received a PPT file from a graphic house, integrated it into an
interactive program and sent it to the client. [The interactive program
(Director) mearly opens the PPT file.] When I first received the ppt file
I
had problems opening it, I am using PPT 2003, it had missing text in some
of
the slides. I went to the MS web site and downloaded Office Service Pack
1,
and the missing text was now visable.

My client, however, can't see the missing text. Because she is in a large
corporation, and updating everybodys PPT software is going to be difficult
and time consuming, is there a way to save the missing text file in
another
version of PPT so that the client can see the missing text? Perhaps, if I
resave the file in my now fixed PPT 2003?

Any guidance on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks,

jim cunningham
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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