Microsoft KB Archive/188910

= MacPPT: Error Message When You Double-Click a Movie in Slide View =

Article ID: 188910

Article Last Modified on 7/20/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac
 * Microsoft PowerPoint 98 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q188910





SYMPTOMS
When you double-click a movie in slide view, you may receive one of the following error messages:

This multimedia object is unavailable for playback because it is linked to a file on a different platform.

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The server application, source file, or item cannot be found. You should reinstall the server application.



CAUSE
When you insert a movie into a slide, PowerPoint actually creates a link to the original movie file. For example, if you insert a QuickTime movie into a PowerPoint for Macintosh presentation, PowerPoint uses the QuickTime Extension to play the movie.

The error messages occur for one or both of the following reasons:
 * You copied the presentation to another computer, but you did not copy the movie files. Or, you copied all the files, but PowerPoint cannot find the movie files.

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 * The type of link that is required to play the movie is not supported by PowerPoint or the operating system. For example, PowerPoint for the Macintosh cannot activate Windows Media Player objects.



RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem in Office 2001, please download and install the Microsoft Office 2001 Service Release 1 file from the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/download/office2001/update_905.xml&secid=10&ssid=25&flgnosysreq=True

To temporarily work around this problem, follow these steps:  When you copy your presentation between a Macintosh-based and a Windows-based computer, be sure to copy all the movie files as well. Make sure that your movie files can be played on the destination computer. Open the file on the destination computer. For each movie object, follow these steps:  Delete the movie. Reinsert the movie.</li></ol> </li> Save the presentation.</li></ol>

NOTE: PowerPoint for Macintosh can insert and play QuickTime movies but cannot insert or play Windows .avi files.

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STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 2001 for Mac Service Release 1.

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MORE INFORMATION
It is possible to convert .avi movies to QuickTime movies (and to convert QuickTime movies to .avi movies). There are several utilities available, some of them shareware, that can do this.

The following solution assumes you have Microsoft Video for Windows, version 1.1, installed on your Windows computer, or the Video for Windows 1.1 Utilities on your Macintosh:

AVI (Windows) to QuickTime (Mac)
<ol> Transfer the AVI file from Windows to the Macintosh.</li> Start the AVI To QT utility.</li> Locate the AVI file you want to convert.</li> Select the AVI file, and then click Add.</li> Click Convert. You have two options to save the file: <ul> Save Normally (dependency to AVI file)</li> Save Self-Contained Movie</li></ul> </li>  Make sure that Windows Compressors resides in the Extensions folder. The extension currently supports the following compression schemes: <pre class="fixed_text">     Microsoft Video 1 Microsoft RLE Microsoft Full Frame Apple Cinepak </li> Delete the placeholder from your presentation.</li> Insert the converted movie.</li></ol>

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