Microsoft KB Archive/282270

Knowledge Base

PPT2001: Troubleshooting Damaged Presentations in PowerPoint 2001

Article ID: 282270

Article Last Modified on 1/29/2007

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac

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This article was previously published under Q282270

SUMMARY

If you experience unexpected behavior with a Microsoft PowerPoint file, your presentation may be damaged or corrupted. Symptoms of a corrupted presentation include the following:

• Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 or Type 11 errors when you open or work with a presentation.
  
  
• When you attempt to open a small presentation, you receive "out of memory" errors, or one of the following error messages:

  This is not a PowerPoint presentation.

  -or-

  PowerPoint cannot open the file (path:file name). The file may be corrupt, in use, or of a type not recognized by PowerPoint.

• PowerPoint or your Macintosh stops responding.

If this unexpected behavior only occurs in one presentation, the presentation may be corrupted; however, you may experience these symptoms for other reasons.

MORE INFORMATION

If you determine that the presentation is corrupted, use the appropriate methods for your situation to recover the damaged file. The methods are divided 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 Mac OS 8.1 or later, perform a clean rebuild of the desktop. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Turn off all extensions and control panels, except Macintosh Easy Open, in the Extensions Manager control panel.
2. Restart the computer while holding down the OPTION and COMMAND keys.
   
   You receive a dialog box that contains a message similar to the following:

   Are you sure you want to rebuild the desktop file on the disk (name of your hard drive)?

3. Click OK.
4. After 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 Turned Off

Restart the computer while holding down the SHIFT key to turn off all extensions. Start PowerPoint and you receive the following warning message:

Cannot start the Office Assistant because QuickTime is not installed or is not currently enabled. Please install or enable QuickTime and then restart your Macintosh if you want to use the Office Assistant.

Disregard this warning and click OK.

Method 3: Remove All Auto-Recover Files

One or more corrupted Auto-recover files may be on your system, and may be preventing PowerPoint from opening your presentation properly.

NOTE: Earlier versions of PowerPoint do not use Auto-recover files.

1. Open the System Folder.
2. Open the Preferences folder, and then open the Microsoft folder.
3. Drag all files called "PowerPoint temp x" (where x is a number) to the Trash.
4. Attempt to open your presentation.

If You Are Unable to Open a Presentation

Method 1: Drag the File to the Program Icon

Arrange the windows on your desktop so that you can see both the file that you are trying to open and the PowerPoint program icon. Drag the presentation icon on top of the PowerPoint program icon.

Method 2: Open from the File Menu

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start PowerPoint.
2. On the File menu, click Open.
3. Select the presentation that you cannot open.
4. Click Open.

Method 3: Double-Click the PowerPoint Presentation

In the Finder, double-click the presentation file that you want to open.

Method 4: Attempt to Insert the Slides into a Blank Presentation

To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu, click New Presentation..
2. 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.

1. On the Insert menu, click Slides from File.
2. In the file selection dialog box, locate the damaged presentation.
3. Click the presentation and then click Open. If successful, this operation inserts all of the slides from the damaged presentation, omitting the master, into the blank presentation that you just created.
4. Save the presentation.

Method 5: Apply the Damaged Presentation as a Template

If your presentation does not look the way that you expect, try to apply the damaged presentation as a template. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Make a backup copy of your presentation.
2. On the Format menu, click Apply Design Template.
3. In the file selection dialog box, locate the damaged presentation.
4. Click the presentation and then click Apply.
   

PowerPoint replaces the master of the new presentation with the master of the damaged presentation.

NOTE: If you start to experience unexpected behavior after you apply the template, the template may be corrupted. If this occurs, use the backup copy and re-create your master slide.

Method 6: Try to Open the Presentation in the PowerPoint 98 Viewer

If you are able to open the presentation in the PowerPoint Viewer, your PowerPoint program may be damaged or the presentation may contain some corrupted objects.

NOTE: The PowerPoint 98 Viewer is the most recent viewer available for PowerPoint 2001.

Method 7: Try to Open the Presentation on Another Computer

Move the file to a computer that is running another operating system, such as Microsoft Windows 98.

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 placeholders and delete them. Resave the presentation and then return the file to its original operating environment.

If You Are Able to Open a Damaged Presentation

Method 1: Insert the Slides into a Blank Presentation

Insert the slides into a blank presentation, and then apply the damaged presentation as a template to preserve the master. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu, click New Presentation.
2. 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.

1. On the Insert menu, click Slides from File.
2. In the file selection dialog box, locate the damaged presentation.
3. Click the presentation and then click Insert.
   

PowerPoint inserts all of the slides from the damaged presentation, except the master, into the blank presentation that you just created.

1. Save the presentation. If your presentation does not look the way you expect, try the steps under "Method 2: Attempt to Apply the Damaged Presentation as a Template."

Method 2: Attempt to Apply the Damaged Presentation as a Template

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Create a backup copy of the presentation.
2. On the Format menu, click Apply Design Template.
3. In the file selection dialog box, locate the damaged presentation.
4. Click the presentation, and then click Apply.

PowerPoint replaces the master of the new presentation with the master of the damaged presentation.

NOTE: If you start to experience unexpected behavior after you apply the template, the template may be corrupted. If this occurs, revert to a backup and re-create 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:

1. Open the damaged presentation.
2. On the File menu, click New Presentation.
3. On the View menu, click Slide Sorter.
   

If you receive error messages when you change the view of the damaged presentation to slide sorter view, try outline view instead.

1. Select a slide to copy.
2. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
   

It is possible to copy more than one slide at a time. The number of slides that you can copy at one time is directly related to the amount of available memory on your computer.

1. Switch to the new presentation and click Slide Sorter on the View menu.
2. Paste the copied slides into the new presentation.
3. Repeat steps 4 through 7 until the entire presentation is transferred.

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 you copy a slide to it, it is likely that the slide is 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 entire presentation is corrupted, saving as RTF may be the only way to recover any data. This method, if successful, recovers only the text that appears in outline view. To save as RTF, follow these steps:

1. Open the corrupted presentation.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. In the Format list, click Outline (RTF Text).
4. Name the file, pick a location to store the file, and then click Save.

NOTE: When you want to open the RTF file, click All Outlines or All Documents in the Show list of the file selection dialog box. RTF files do not appear when Microsoft PowerPoint document is selected.

REFERENCES

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

272784 MacPPT: Can't Save PowerPoint File with Embedded Object

Additional query words: PPT2001 mac PPT2001KB RTF Corrupt Damaged presentation Troubleshoot Error opening hang embedd object missing unexpected behavior strange odd weird crash recover data

Keywords: kbhowto KB282270

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