help deleting a corrupt slide

[Bruce Strange]

Help! I've read the forums trying to find a solution. I frequently get
corrrupt slides in powerpoint files. Any time that slide is accessed
in any way powerpoint crashes. If I go to slide sorter view,
powerpoint will crash when it gets to that slide. If I try to select
the slide from the outline view, powerpoint crashes. I tried creating
a new document and using the insert slide from file command,
powerpoint crashes. Is there a command in powerpoint that I can use to
delete a slide without accessing it?

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Doing what you are trying to do sounds like a bad idea. You really want
to get those slides out of the presentation to brand new presentation.
Generally, a slide itself isn't corrupt; it's a whole presentation even
though the corruption is manifesting itself in a single slide.

With that said, you can try the following code:

Sub DeleteASlide()
Dim slidenum As Long
slidenum = InputBox("Which slide do you want to delete?")
ActivePresentation.Slides(slidenum).Delete
End Sub

Go to Tools->Macro->Visual Basic Editor. Then choose Module from the
Insert menu. Paste this code in the module. Close the Visual Basic
Editor (in OS X, you do this by going to the PowerPoint menu and choosing
Close and Return to Microsoft PowerPoint). Now go to the Tools menu and
choose Macro and choose Macros... Click on the macro named DeleteASlide
and click the Run button.

You should get a dialog box that asks you which slide you want to delete.
Type the slide's number and click OK. Note, if you use PowerPoint 98,
you won't actually see the dialog box (because InputBox didn't work with
98), but it will still be there so just type a number and hit Return.

The slide you want should disappear when you do this, but I have no idea
what effect it will have on a corrupt presentation. If by some miracle
this works, you should still copy your slides to a new uncorrupted
presentation. Also, be sure to make backups of your file before and
after doing this.

Good luck.

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

(e-mail address removed) (Bruce Strange) wrote in

 

[Bruce Strange]

Thanks David. That worked perfectly.

Doing what you are trying to do sounds like a bad idea. You really want
to get those slides out of the presentation to brand new presentation.
Generally, a slide itself isn't corrupt; it's a whole presentation even
though the corruption is manifesting itself in a single slide.

With that said, you can try the following code:

Sub DeleteASlide()
Dim slidenum As Long
slidenum = InputBox("Which slide do you want to delete?")
ActivePresentation.Slides(slidenum).Delete
End Sub

Go to Tools->Macro->Visual Basic Editor. Then choose Module from the
Insert menu. Paste this code in the module. Close the Visual Basic
Editor (in OS X, you do this by going to the PowerPoint menu and choosing
Close and Return to Microsoft PowerPoint). Now go to the Tools menu and
choose Macro and choose Macros... Click on the macro named DeleteASlide
and click the Run button.

You should get a dialog box that asks you which slide you want to delete.
Type the slide's number and click OK. Note, if you use PowerPoint 98,
you won't actually see the dialog box (because InputBox didn't work with
98), but it will still be there so just type a number and hit Return.

The slide you want should disappear when you do this, but I have no idea
what effect it will have on a corrupt presentation. If by some miracle
this works, you should still copy your slides to a new uncorrupted
presentation. Also, be sure to make backups of your file before and
after doing this.

Good luck.

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

(e-mail address removed) (Bruce Strange) wrote in

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Thanks for getting back to us and letting us know. It's always nice to hear
that my advice was helpful.
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

(e-mail address removed) (Bruce Strange) wrote in