help! - Possible bug? PPT/Windows XP SP2 does not play audio objects any more

[Anil Philip]

Hello,
Problem: Possible bug? Windows XP SP2 does not support audio objects that
used to work in Windows98 with Office Animation Runtime installed....

Details: I am finding that my Powerpoint 2003 presentation - When I 'Save
For Web' (NOT single web page) with the powerpoint presentation options
previously set to No Slide Transition and also No Animation; I record a
narration for the slide and try to bring up the html presentation in the
browser (IE 6.029), there is no sound when I click the Narration speaker
icon button.
The narrations were saved as Linked, not embedded.
It works on Windows 98 with the Office animation Runtime. Looking through
script.js that is generated, I find a possible bug in ToggleVNarration(),
the code that is called when the icon button is clicked.
if(rObj.playstate) & !g_anim...
this condition becomes true! (but rObj is NOT supported because when I
modify the code to put a rObj.Play(), nothing, no sound...)

where rObj is the document("NSPlay") is for Netscape and pre-IE5.5 browsers,
see below. In MS Script Editor, apparently rObj is not supported by XP
because it says rObj.playstate is undefined when I try to 'Watch' for it in
debug mode.
--in the HTML generatedfile--
<![if !ppt]><OBJECT ID="NSPlay" WIDTH=0 HEIGHT=0
CLASSID="CLSID:2179C5D3-EBFF-11CF-B6FD-00AA00B4E220"
CODEBASE="http://www.microsoft.com/netshow/download/en/nsasfinf.cab#Version=
2,0,0,912">
<PARAM NAME="FileName" VALUE="narration0027.mp3">
<PARAM NAME="ControlType" value="0">
<PARAM NAME="AutoStart" value="FALSE">
</OBJECT>
-----------------------------

this is ridiculous! I am tearing my hair out and there is no way to get help
from M$ at all!
Please also reply to goodnewsforyou AT yahoo DOT com
thanks,
Anil Philip

----in script.js in the generated files folder--------
function ToggleVNarration()
{
rObj=PPTSld.document.all("NSPlay")
-BUG?-->if( rObj && !PPTSld.g_animUseRuntime ) {
if( (rObj.playState == 1)||(rObj.playState == 0) )
rObj.Play()
else if( rObj.playState == 2 )
rObj.Pause()
else
return;
}
else if( PPTSld.g_animUseRuntime )
{
narObj = PPTSld.document.all("narrationID")
if( narObj )
narObj.togglePause()
}
}

 

[Anil Philip]

I think it is ridiculous that I have to pay Microsoft to alert them to fix
their bug!
I used the following workaround - which seems to work, need more testing but
is a kludge - can anyone come up with something better?
* We try to play and quickly stop the NSPlay audio object. Windows XP (at
least) does not
* support it. method Play() will throw an exception. We use this to set the
boolean flag
* isNSPlaySupported. Preferably, this method should be called by the very
first narration slide only.
* In the HTML slide, <script>g_supportsNSPlay = SupportsNSPlay()</script>
thanks,
Anil Philip
---
for good news go to http://members.tripod.com/~goodnewsforyou/goodnews.html

========
function ToggleVNarration()
{
rObj=PPTSld.document.all("NSPlay")
if( rObj && !PPTSld.g_animUseRuntime && g_supportsNSPlay/*NEW TEST*/) {
if( (rObj.playState == 1)||(rObj.playState == 0) )
rObj.Play()
else if( rObj.playState == 2 )
rObj.Pause()
else
return;
}
else if( PPTSld.g_animUseRuntime )
{
narObj = PPTSld.document.all("narrationID")
if( narObj )
narObj.togglePause()
}
}

var g_supportsNSPlay = false; //NEW VARIABLE

/* NEW FUNCTION - Anil Philip
* We try to play and quickly stop the NSPlay audio object. Windows XP (at
least) does not
* support it. method Play() will throw an exception. We use this to set the
boolean flag
* isNSPlaySupported. Preferably, this method should be called by the very
first narration slide only.
*/
function SupportsNSPlay()
{
rObj=parent.PPTSld.document.all("NSPlay");
try {
rObj.Play();
rObj.Stop();
} catch(e) {
return false;
alert("NSPlay is not Supported: " + e);
}
return true;
}