Error "No text converter is installed for this file type" receivedwhen opening PPT

[Tribble]

Looking for any insight into this issue - note that the Office 2007
Compatibility pack IS installed.

I support a user environment with about 200 users on Office 2003. In
recent weeks, I have had several tickets opened by users who are
receiving .ppt files received in email (Exchange 2003) and get this
error:

PowerPoint can't read the outline from <file path\filename.ppt>. No
text converter is installed for this file type.

This message is one of the potential messages a user will receive if
they try to open an Office 2007 file without having the Office 2007
Compatibility Pack installed - but all the computers at this company
have the pack installed.

One thing I find very interesting is that the extension is .ppt, and I
would have thought it might be .pptx (changing it manually to .pptx
does nothing, nor does installing PowerPoint Viewer 2007).

Another thing - in one case we sent the file back to the originating
user and they could not open it either. It appears to be truly
corrupted by the time it gets to the Office 2003 user.

Has anybody seen this happening anywhere else, or have any ideas of
things I can try?

 

[Echo S]

Usually when I see that "no text converter" message, it means the file is
truly hosed.

Email is notorious for corrupting PPT files -- but we haven't seen as much
of it in the past few years as we used to. I thought that email had probably
gotten better, but maybe not.

Anyway, can your users zip the files before emailing them?

Here are some things you can try to get to the contents of the files:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA011168781033.aspx

In addition, do the users have all critical Windows updates installed?
Apparently those are required in order for the compat pack to work properly.

Oh, and are they trying to open the PPT files from email, or are they saving
to the harddrive and then attempting to open? Maybe try the latter as
opposed to the former.