Correct versions for compat with Powerpoint 2003

[Taylor Pohlman]

I know there have been similar posts, but I'm now a bit in
the weeds. I've been regularly sending PPT files (v1.4.1)
from my X10.2.8 G4 powerbook to PC users in my office with
Office 2002. No problems, ever. Now one person has
upgraded to Powerpoint 2003, and suddenly when he tries to
open files I send him, either by email, or on a USB disk,
his machine now reports "Powerpoint can't read <pathname>"
When he hits "help" the report is "The file you tried to
open might not be powerpoint". I checked the posts and
upgraded to the latest Mac Powerpoint (1.5.1), and pulled
up one of the files, edited and saved it, and still the
same problem. The PC PPT 2002 users still have no
problems, and when they save what I sent to them, and send
the result to him, he can open their version - Don't tell
me the file formats are the same, something must be
different - does he now need to upgrade PPT 2003? If so,
to what version? (his is a brand new computer). sorry
about the length, but I wanted to get everything in.
Regards, Taylor

 

[Guest]

Sorry, references to Powerpoint versions below should be
10.1.4 and 10.1.5 - my error. Rest of it stands. I'd
appreciate any ideas, and particularly if there are any
patches on the PC side on Powerpoint 2003.
Taylor

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Taylor,

It sounds like the method of transmission may be the culprit here.

Try using DropZip (part of Aladdin Stuffit) to compress the file before
giving it to your PPT 2003 user. If this cures the ill, then probe further
into the transmission method. If it is email, the 2003 user's email client
may be misconfigured or perhaps is not up to the task of properly handling
email.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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[Steve Rindsberg]

No need to apologize for the length. Long, when chock full of details, is
Good. ;-)

In addition to Jim's suggestions, I'd get the PC user with PowerPoint 2003 to
choose Help, Check For Updates (they'll need to be online for this to work).
There's been a "Critical Update" for 2003 that fixes a problem that sounds very
similar to what you're seeing.

Re file formats: they're still the same, but Office 2003 clamps down on
security a good bit harder than previous versions. Rather than open files that
might expose you to buffer-overrun exploits (trojan horses/viruses/bad/stuff)
PPT 2003 now declines to open the file.

Apparently in some cases, older versions of PPT can create a situation that
triggers the "Bad Stuff" detector unnecessarily. The update fixes this.