Equation graphics in PowerPoint 2004

[jharlow]

I have a lot of presentations that I put together 5-10 years ago using
various PC versions of PowerPoint. I am now using Macs exclusively,
and have run into difficulty when I open these old presentations with
Mac PowerPoint 2004. Specifically, all of the equations show as random
collections of black squares. When I double-click them, the equation
editor opens normally, and the original information looks fine; it's
just the rendering that seems to be a problem. There seems to be no
capability to recolor these objects from PowerPoint itself. Is there
some sort of converter or reformatter that can be used to clean these
equations up? I don't have the time or patience to go through hundreds
of these things and re-enter them all...

Thanks

JEH

 

[Bob Mathews]

I have a lot of presentations that I put together 5-10 years
ago using various PC versions of PowerPoint...and have
run into difficulty when I open these old presentations with
PowerPoint 2004...Is there some sort of converter or
reformatter that can be used to clean these equations up?

I'm not aware of one, but you'd no doubt have better success with
MathType. You could try the free evaluation and see if it works
(link in my sig). MathType should be able to convert any equation
that was created on either the Mac or the PC -- even from the old
versions of Equation Editor.

--
Bob Mathews bobm at dessci.com
Director of Training
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType 5
Design Science, Inc. -- "How Science Communicates"
MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, MathFlow, Equation Editor, TeXaide

 

[jharlow]

Thanks. MathType certainly has more features than Equation Editor. It
allowed me to change the font color on an existing equation, and this
allowed me to see what is going on. Each individual character or
symbol in the equation seems to have a black background, so when the
character itself was black, all I saw was black rectangles. Now I can
see yellow symbols on black rectangles, which is an improvement, but
not quite there yet.

When I create a new equation, the font does not behave this way: no
black rectangles. Therefore, I must conclude that the problem comes
about in converting the PC files to the Mac. Bummer...

What might cause the fonts to behave this way? Do you, or anyone,
know what one might do to fix this problem?

Thanks

JEH

 

[Bob Mathews]

...Each individual character or symbol in the equation
seems to have a black background, so when the
character itself was black, all I saw was black
rectangles...

When I create a new equation, the font does not behave
this way: no black rectangles. Therefore, I must
conclude that the problem comes about in converting
the PC files to the Mac. Bummer...

That's a logical conclusion based on the evidence, but I don't
know why this would happen

What might cause the fonts to behave this way? Do
you, or anyone, know what one might do to fix this
problem?

Not me; not a clue. You might try our support staff at
(e-mail address removed), and send them a sample presentation with a
couple of slides in it. You should be able to take one of the bad
ones and delete all but a couple of slides, then save it with a
different name before you send it.

--
Bob Mathews bobm at dessci.com
Director of Training
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType 5
Design Science, Inc. -- "How Science Communicates"
MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, MathFlow, Equation Editor, TeXaide

 

[jharlow]

In probing this situation further, I notice that this kind of thing is
happening with other kinds of OLE objects as well, in particular
embedded Excel obects. With these, I can apply recoloring either in
the server app or in the Format Object context menu, but the fonts
still have this black rectangle background. Sounds like this might be
a Microsoft problem with conversion of OLE objects from PC to Mac.

Oh well, at least I found out about MathType. Now all I have to do is
find the hundred bucks...

Thanks

JEH

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have a lot of presentations that I put together 5-10 years ago using
various PC versions of PowerPoint. I am now using Macs exclusively,
and have run into difficulty when I open these old presentations with
Mac PowerPoint 2004. Specifically, all of the equations show as random
collections of black squares. When I double-click them, the equation
editor opens normally, and the original information looks fine; it's
just the rendering that seems to be a problem. There seems to be no
capability to recolor these objects from PowerPoint itself. Is there
some sort of converter or reformatter that can be used to clean these
equations up? I don't have the time or patience to go through hundreds
of these things and re-enter them all...

On the PC, EquationEditor relies on a special font being installed.
I don't EqEd installed so I don't know offhand what font it is. But what
you're describing sounds like what might happen if the needed font isn't
available.


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

 

[Bob Mathews]

On the PC, EquationEditor relies on a special font being
installed. I don't EqEd installed so I don't know offhand what
font it is. But what you're describing sounds like what might
happen if the needed font isn't available.

The font is MTExtra, but I don't think the lack of this font
would cause the background to turn black.

--
Bob Mathews bobm at dessci.com
Director of Training
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType 5
Design Science, Inc. -- "How Science Communicates"
MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, MathFlow, Equation Editor, TeXaide

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

The font is MTExtra, but I don't think the lack of this font
would cause the background to turn black.

In light of what you wrote later, I agree. Hadn't seen that when I replied
earlier. I've seen the effect you're describing in other situations; never
found a good way of dealing with it other than bruteforce reformatting.

However, if it's a matter of doing the same thing to each selected shape, a lot
of tedium could be replaced with a little VBA code. If you can describe what
you have to do to fix things up, maybe we can cobble something up.

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