Mac to PC incompatibility

[Dale Mooney]

My college freshman daughter has a G4 iBook running OS X 10.3.6 and
Microsoft Office X. Most of the rest of the school uses PCs. This
should not be a problem, but, Power Point files created or edited on
her iBook refuse to open on anybody elses PC. I even had her try
making slide show and a movie.
Most recent case (today) she created a file on a PC in the computer
lab but the PCs didn't have CD burners (required to turn in on a CD)
so she opened the file on a computer lab Mac from a common server
location and burned it to a CD. Unfortunately the animations (simple
bullets flying in individually) got deleted.

I started to have her download the Office X 10.1.6 update, but then
read a thread stating that preexisting PP files couldn't be opened
after applying the update.

Any ideas?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

My college freshman daughter has a G4 iBook running OS X 10.3.6 and
Microsoft Office X. Most of the rest of the school uses PCs. This
should not be a problem, but, Power Point files created or edited on
her iBook refuse to open on anybody elses PC. I even had her try
making slide show and a movie.

A slide show is just a normal PowerPoint file saved with a different file
extension on a PC or different Type info on a Mac, so either *should* run
equally well on PCs. Or of course ... equally badly.

Mac PPT movies won't work on stock PCs, so let's set that aside.

What version of PowerPoint do the school's PCs have? What exactly happens when
she tries to open her files there?

How is she trying to open them on the school's PCs? If by doubleclicking the
file's icon on the PC, it won't work unless she gives the filename a .PPT or
.PPS file extension. There might also be a problem with some characters in the
filename and/or (in some cases) even spaces in the name. Have her try with a
very simple filename like: myfile.ppt

Or try this: start PPT on the PC, then choose File, Open and browse to
wherever the file's stored and choose it.

Most recent case (today) she created a file on a PC in the computer
lab but the PCs didn't have CD burners (required to turn in on a CD)
so she opened the file on a computer lab Mac from a common server
location and burned it to a CD. Unfortunately the animations (simple
bullets flying in individually) got deleted.

I started to have her download the Office X 10.1.6 update, but then
read a thread stating that preexisting PP files couldn't be opened
after applying the update.

Any ideas?

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