Transition and animation formatting errrors when using on another

[Guest]

A Powerpoint presentation that included slide transition formatting and
animation worked perfectly on several of our computers; however, when the
presentation was presented at the client's office, the transition and
animation did not function properly. In addition, a Visio file was inserted
into a slide as an object, but when viewed at the client's office, portions
of the graphic were not placed accordingly. The presentation was burned to a
CD and used in the client's computer. We tested the CD on one of our laptops
and had no problems. Could the version of Powerpoint affect the formatting?
For example, we use Powerpoint 2003, but if the presentation was opened using
an older version of Powerpoint, could that somehow change the formatting?
Or, can burning the presentation to a CD somehow affect it? Any other
suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Burning the presentation to a CD should not affect the file. Presenting on a
computer with a different version of PowerPoint can definitely affect slide
transitions and animation.
Try saving the file as a PowerPoint Show by choosing "PowerPoint Show
(*.pps)" on the "Save as type" line in your "Save As" window. This feature is
designed to allow you to show a PowerPoint file as a show even on computers
that don't have PowerPoint software loaded on them, so my guess is that could
solve your problem for computers with older versions of PowerPoint as well.
As far as your Visio graphic blowing up, if showing the file as a show
doesn't prevent that, try convering your Visio file to a jpg file before
inserting it, or in a pinch, hit your "Print Screen" button on your keyboard
while you have the Visio file open and on your screen, then paste that image
into the PowerPoint slide simply by choosing "Paste" from your "edit" menu.
You will have to crop the image after pasting it to eliminate the extraneous
screen graphics though.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

A Powerpoint presentation that included slide transition formatting and
animation worked perfectly on several of our computers; however, when the
presentation was presented at the client's office, the transition and
animation did not function properly.

Transitions/animations changed a lot between PPT 2000 and 2002/2003. You're
presentation probably uses new features that aren't supported in PPT 2000.

Supplying an AutoRun CD with the new PPT2003 viewer might solve some of these
problems.

This has some links to more info about that:
Make an AutoRun CD
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00037.htm

As far as the visio file's concerned, it's *very* unlikely that burning the PPT
file to CD had anything to do with the problem. It might be a video driver
problem at their end or any of several other things.

Unless you need to be able to edit the inserted objects on site, it's a very
good practice to ungroup then regroup them (working on a copy of your
presentation, of course!) That converts them into Office drawing objects -
these tend to have fewer cross-platform, cross-version problems than copy/pasted
objects.

 

[Echo S]

Transitions and animations can definitely play differently when played on
different versions of PPT.

PPT 2002 (aka PPT XP) and 2003 offer a number of animations and transitions
that weren't available in PPT 97 and 2000.

If you need to create a presentation that will be played on older versions,
go to Tools/Options and turn off the new animation features on the Edit tab.
This will essentially put PPT into "2000 mode," so you won't be tempted to
use the new features that won't show up in older versions.

You could also create an autorun CD that would call on the PPT 2003 Viewer
to play the presentation. That would enable you to use the new animations
and transitions without worrying about what version of PPT the show computer
has. If you have PPT 2003, you can use Package for CD. If you have a
different version of PPT, see http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00037.htm

Also, you mention affecting the formatting. If you mean animations and
transitions, I've answered that above (I think). If you mean actual
formatting -- like the font changes or something, it is probably because
you've used nonstandard fonts on your presentation. See
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00076.htm for info about embedding fonts
in PPT.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the information. At least I know now to anticipate such issues
in the future. However, saving the presentation as a pps did not prevent the
transition problems, so I am going to try the other suggestions posted. The
visio charts were perfect once I saved as a jpg file, so you were right on
the mark.

Thanks again.