Microsoft KB Archive/153136

PPT4: Troubleshooting Damaged PowerPoint Presentations (Mac)

PSS ID Number: Q153136 Article last modified on 07-08-1998

MACINTOSH:3.0,4.0,98

MACINTOSH

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= SYMPTOMS =

If you are experiencing unexpected behavior when working with a PowerPoint file, your presentation may be damaged or corrupted. Symptoms of a corrupted presentation include the following:


 * Type 11, Type 1, or Bad f-line errors when you open or work with a presentation.
 * A message that says “This is not a PowerPoint presentation” when you attempt to open a presentation.
 * Out of memory errors when you attempt to open a small presentation.
 * PowerPoint, or your Macintosh hangs, and stops responding.

If this unexpected behavior is exclusive to one presentation, the presentation may be corrupted.

NOTE: It is also possible to receive the above symptoms for other reasons.

= RESOLUTION =

After you determine that the presentation has been corrupted, try the following methods to attempt to recover the damaged file. The methods listed below are split into the following sections:


 * General Troubleshooting
 * If You Are Unable to Open a Presentation
 * If You Are Able to Open a Damaged Presentation

Follow the procedures in the General Troubleshooting section first.

= General Troubleshooting =

Method 1: Rebuild the Desktop
If you are running System 7.5.x, perform a clean rebuild of the desktop using the following steps:

  Disable all extensions and control panels except Macintosh Easy Open in the Extensions Manager control panel.   Restart the computer while holding down the OPTION and COMMAND keys. This should bring up a dialog box with a message similar to the following: Are you sure you want to rebuild the desktop file on the disk ?   Click OK to proceed with the rebuild.   Once the desktop has been rebuilt, open the Extensions Manager control panel and turn all of the extensions and control panels back on. 

Method 2: Start the computer with Extensions Disabled
Restart the computer while holding down the SHIFT key. You should see the following message:

Welcome to Macintosh. Extensions Off.

NOTE: On some systems, PowerPoint will not start when you start with the SHIFT key held down. The computer types that are known to have this behavior are the PowerPC Performa models. With these systems, use the following steps to disable the extensions.

These steps assume you are running System 7.5.x.

  Switch to the System Folder.   Open the folder called Startup Items. Temporally move any items that appear in this folder to a different location.   Click Control Panels on the Apple menu. Start the Extensions Manager control panel. </li>  Save the current extension set. Check the title of the extension set. (The title is displayed to the right of “Sets” in the upper-right corner). If you see “Custom” this is an indication that the current extension set has not been saved. Use the following steps to save the current extension set:   Click and hold the mouse button on the extension set title. This should reveal a drop-down list of options. </li>  Click the Save Set option. </li>  Type in a name for the extension set. </li>  Click OK to save the extension set. </li></ol> </li>  Change the extension set to All Off. This should remove all the check marks from the extension list. </li>  Turn on the following extensions: Microsoft OLE Extension Shared Code Manager </li>  Turn on the following control panel: Macintosh Easy Open NOTE: Macintosh Easy Open is required by PowerPoint 4.0 when running on Macintosh Performa computers. </li>  Restart the computer. </li></ol>

Try to open the file. If the file opens, an extension, control panel, or start up item was preventing normal operation.

= If You Are Unable to Open a Presentation =

Method 1: Drag and Drop the File

 * 1) Arrange the windows on your desktop so that you can see the file you are trying to open and the PowerPoint program icon.
 * 2) Click the presentation and drag its icon on top of the PowerPoint program icon.

Method 2: Open PowerPoint and then Click Open on the File Menu
If you cannot open the presentation from the Open dialog box, the thumbnail image may be damaged. After you click a presentation in the PowerPoint Open dialog box, PowerPoint displays a thumbnail of the first slide. If this thumbnail is damaged PowerPoint may not be able to open the file using this method. Try a different method.

NOTE: PowerPoint 98 does not display a thumbnail of the first slide of a Windows PowerPoint presentation.

Method 3: Double-Click the PowerPoint Presentation
In the Finder, double-click the presentation file you want to open.

Method 4: Attempt to Insert the Slides into a Blank Presentation
  On the File menu, click New. </li>  Click the Blank Presentation button in the New Presentation dialog box, and then click OK. </li>  If the New Slide dialog box appears, click OK. Your selection from this dialog box does not matter; after you re-create the presentation, you can delete this slide. </li>  On the Insert menu, click Slides From File. </li>  In the resulting dialog box, locate the damaged presentation. </li> <li> Click the presentation and then click the Insert button. If successful, this operation inserts all of the slides from the damaged presentation, omitting the master, into the blank presentation you just created. </li> <li> Save the presentation. </li></ol>

Method 5: Apply the Damaged Presentation as a Template
If your presentation does not look the way you expect, try applying the damaged presentation as a template. To do this:

<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;"> <li> Make a backup copy of your presentation. </li> <li> On the Format menu, click Apply Design. NOTE: In some versions of PowerPoint this feature is called Presentation Template. </li> <li> Locate the damaged presentation. </li> <li> Click the presentation and then click the Apply button. This operation replaces the master of the new presentation with the master of the damaged presentation. </li></ol>

NOTE: If you start to experience unexpected behavior, after applying the template, this may indicate that the template is corrupted. In that case, use the backup copy and recreate your master slide.

Method 6: Try opening the Presentation with PowerPoint Viewer
If you are able to a open the presentation, this may be an indication that your PowerPoint program is damaged or that you have some corrupted objects within the presentation.

Method 7: Try Opening the Presentation on Another Computer
Move the file to a computer running another operating system, such as Windows 95.

In some cases, moving the PowerPoint file to a different operating environment may allow you to open the presentation. If you are able to open the file, search the slides for any blank object place holders and delete them. Re-save the presentation and then return the file to its original operating environment.

= You Are Able to Open a Damaged Presentation =

Method 1: Insert the Slides into a Blank Presentation
NOTE: Use this method with PowerPoint 4.0 and later only.

Insert the slides into a blank presentation, and then apply the damaged presentation as a template to preserve the master.

<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;"> <li> On the File menu, click New. </li> <li> Click the Blank Presentation button in the New Presentation dialog box, and click OK. </li> <li> If the New Slide dialog box appears, click OK. Your selection from this dialog box does not matter; after you recreate the presentation, you can delete this slide. </li> <li> On the Insert menu, click Slides From File. </li> <li> In the resulting dialog box, locate the damaged presentation. </li> <li> Click the presentation and then click the Insert button. This operation inserts all of the slides from the damaged presentation, except the master, into the blank presentation you just created. </li> <li> Save the presentation. If your presentation does not look the way you expect, try applying the damaged presentation as a template. To do this: </li></ol>

Method 2: Attempt to Apply the Damaged Presentation as a Template
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;"> <li> Create a backup copy of the presentation. </li> <li> On the Format menu, click Apply Design. NOTE: In some versions of PowerPoint this feature is called Presentation Template. </li> <li> Locate the damaged presentation. </li> <li> Click the presentation, and then click the Apply button. This operation replaces the master of the new presentation with the master of the damaged presentation. </li></ol>

NOTE: If you start to experience unexpected behavior after applying the template, this may indicate that the template is corrupted. In that case, revert to a backup and recreate your master slide.

Method 3: Paste the Slides from the Damaged Presentation to a New One
Use a copy and paste operation to move the slides from the damaged presentation to a blank presentation. To do this, follow these steps:

<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;"> <li> Open the damaged presentation. </li> <li> On the File menu, click New. </li> <li> Use the same master as the damaged presentation by clicking the Current Presentation Format button. </li> <li> Change the view of the damaged presentation to Slide Sorter view by clicking Slide Sorter on the View menu. If you receive errors when you change the view of the damaged presentation to Slide Sorter view, try changing to Outline View instead. </li> <li> Select a slide to copy. </li> <li> On the Edit menu, click Copy. It is possible to copy more than one slide at a time. The number of slides you can copy at one time directly relates to the amount of available RAM on your computer. </li> <li> Switch to the new presentation and click Slide Sorter on the View menu. </li> <li> Paste the copied slides into the new presentation. </li> <li> Repeat steps 5 through 8 until the entire presentation is transferred. </li></ol>

NOTE: In some situations one damaged slide can cause a problem for the entire presentation. If you notice odd behavior within the new presentation after copying a slide to it, that slide is most likely corrupted. Either re-create the slide or copy portions of the slide to a new slide.

Method 4: Save the presentation as RTF (Rich Text Format)
If the corruption is throughout the presentation, saving as RTF may be the only option to recover any data. This method, if successful, recovers only the text that appears in Outline view. To do this, follow these steps:


 * 1) Open the corrupted presentation.
 * 2) On the File menu, click Save As.
 * 3) Select Outline (RTF Text) from the Save File As Type drop-down list.
 * 4) Name the file, pick a location to store the file, and then click Save.

NOTE: When you open this RTF file, to continue working, select All Readable Outlines or All Files from the List Files of Type drop-down list. RTF files will not appear when the Presentations option is selected.

= MORE INFORMATION =

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

ARTICLE-ID: Q143221 TITLE : WD6x: &quot;Bad F-line Instruction in MacWord with Older Extensions Extensions

ARTICLE-ID: Q105509 TITLE : MXL Err Msg: Bad F-Line Instruction

ARTICLE-ID: Q130155 TITLE : Err Msg: “Sorry There Was an Error 253 Accessing the File”

ARTICLE-ID: Q141522 TITLE : PPT4: Error Opening PowerPoint 7.0 Files in Mac PowerPoint

ARTICLE-ID: Q135820 TITLE : PPT: Error -192 When Double-Clicking a Presentation Icon

ARTICLE-ID: Q141845 TITLE : PPT4: Read-Only Message When Opening PowerPoint Presentations

Additional query words: 4.00 m_powerpt powerpnt power point corrupt damaged broken missing tshoot trouble shoot ====================================================================== Keywords : kbenv kbdta Version : MACINTOSH:3.0,4.0,98 Platform : MACINTOSH Hardware : MAC Issue type : kbinfo ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1998.