Compatibility with PPT 2000

[Mitch]

I'm a long time windows user and just got my iBook and
Office v.x. I'm creating a powerpoint presentation on my
Windows 2000 machine using Powerpoint 2000. When I open
some of the slides on my Mac in PPT v.x I get a big red X
where my graphic was (insert picture from file). Also
when I fix it and go back to the Windows machine, some of
the graphics are missing. Is Office 2000 for Windows and
Office v.x for Mac just not 100% compatible?

Suggestions to deal with missing images when going back
and forth between Mac and Windows?

Thanks,
Mitch

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

It appears that a lot of different factors contribute to the Red X problem.

One seems to be CMYK images. Another is JPGs from certain versions of
Photoshop.

Try converting all of your images to, say, PNG before inserting them into PPT,
regardless of whether you're working on PC or Mac.

 

[Steven Larson]

My office is having the same problem of missing graphics/bullet charts with
other versions of PowerPoint. The big red X is usually fixed by the CMYK vs.
RGB issue. I just use RBG for PPT. The missing graphics and often bullet
charts is more mysterious. We noted that a file which is fine on the
Windows/PPT 2003 computer will drop images and bullet charts if the file is
opened, edited and saved from a Mac OS 9, Powerpoint 2001. To the Mac all
images are still in place as long as the file is still only saved by the
Mac. If the file is opened in the Windows environment with now missing
graphics then saved by the windows machine. The graphics now disappear on
the Mac as well. We also have Mac OS X/Office X which we are testing out, no
results yet.
Thanks,
Steve Larson
University of Iowa Hospitals

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks for the add'l info, Steve. FWIW, all of the really intractible problem
files I used to run into when I ran a slide imaging service bureau seemed to
result from moving PPT files back and forth between multiple PPT versions and
platforms. Unfortunately, PPT doesn't maintain a history of PPT versions that
have "touched" it in the files, so it's hard to track or prove this, but I'd
suggest making x-platform and x-version transfers one-way wherever possible.
Create here, give it to somebody over there but don't toss it back and forth
across the wall many times.