Can't open file as part missing

[David Harrowfield]

Hi,

My Dad's receiving the following error message whenever he attempts to
open a Chemistry lecture presentation he created:

"Powerpoint cannot open <file>.ppt because part of the file is missing."

In between the cursing, I discerned that he encountered some type of
problem when he was attempting to embed an object. This may or may not
have eventually been successful, but all subsequent attempts to open the
presentation have resulted in the above error message.

Oddly, a preview of the first slide is still available when choosing the file in
the File->Open... dialog. Does anyone know what the problem might be?

He is using Powerpoint X for Mac on an iMac running OS X Panther version
10.3.

Thanks for your help,

Dave.

 

[Mickey Stevens]

Create a new blank presentation in PowerPoint, and save it under a new name.
Then, go to Format > Slide Design, choose to show all documents, and choose
the corrupt PowerPoint file. Check the option to apply it to all slides.
That might or might not work. Now, go to Insert > Slides from File, and
select the corrupt PowerPoint file. Make sure you are set to insert all
slides, and then import. If that works, great! I suspect, however, that
you might crash at that point. If so, try repeating the process, inserting
specific slides one by one until you find the problem one. After that, save
the file, making sure that Fast Saves are off (in Preferences / Save).

See this web page for more advice:
<http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00423.htm>

 

[David Harrowfield]

Hi Mickey,

I tried all your suggestions, but none worked. I wasn't able to insert slides in
bulk or one at a time into a new blank presentation.

From the website you attached, it's obvious this is a frequent bug.

Thanks anyway,

Dave.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I tried all your suggestions, but none worked. I wasn't able to insert slides in

bulk or one at a time into a new blank presentation.

Sorry to hear it. Is it possible to go back to the source, the computer where it
was originally created and get another copy?

And can you tell us more about how the presentation got to you? Even if the
current file can't be saved, it'd be good to know what circumstances surrounded its
demise, so to speak.

For example, it's always a good idea to save to the HDD then copy to removable
media, rather than saving to removable directly.

From the website you attached, it's obvious this is a frequent bug.

Any time anybody loses work because of something like this, it's happening too
frequently. But I wouldn't assume that because the question and suggestions appear
on that site, it's something that necessarily affects a large percentage of the
general population of PowerPoint users.

--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
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