Major bugs between (French) PC and (US) Mac Powerpoints

[malekin]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I am experiencing huge issues between Powerpoint files created on PCs and my own MacBook Pro/Office 2008. The PPT files in question all come from France but not from the same company/PC. I've been doing this kind of work for 10 years and never had this type of issue. Basically either entire files or certain parts of files become really difficult to work on (I'm translating so trying to enter into text and replace it with new text). The issue is that everything seems to slow down: entering the text, then once I type in the new text it takes a while to sloooowly type out onto the screen. If I push it too much the software sometimes crashes. This is a disaster in the sense that my work is dependent on going fast. Does anyone have a clue what is going on and whether anything can be done? Any tips would be appreciated, this is impacting my work big time.

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Hello,

Basically either entire files or certain parts of files become really
difficult to work on (I'm translating so trying to enter into text and replace
it with new text). The issue is that everything seems to slow down: entering
the text, then once I type in the new text it takes a while to sloooowly type
out onto the screen. If I push it too much the software sometimes crashes

Slow text input response in PowerPoint 2008 for Mac is a problem we've
seen on this forum before. Here are a few threads to check out:

http://www.officeformac.com/ms/ProductForums/PowerPoint/[email protected]
E@
http://www.officeformac.com/ms/.59b7c21b/1

The possible solutions mentioned in these threads are:
1. checking for duplicate copies of your fonts using Font Book;
2. making sure that there isn't a second install of Office 2008;
3. repairing permissions with Disk Utility;
4. turning off the "Track recently opened documents" in the Preferences -
General pane;
5. opening the presentation in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows, resaving
and then reopening in PowerPoint 2008 for Mac;
6. using OpenOffice for text input in presentations instead of PowerPoint.

Some, all or none of these solutions may work for you. The issue
hasn't been resolved to anyone's satisfaction, as far as I know.

Other possibilities are the actual performance and specs of your machine,
what other apps you are running in the background, and so on.

Anyway, give these things a try and let us know how it goes.

Jeff

 

[malekin]

Hey thanks for this post. I read the threads and I'm going to work my way through these potential solutions over the next couple of days.

Like you, this is not a systematic problem, it can just be some pages within a presentation or even one text bloc on a page that is otherwise ok. So the font issue might be relevant.

I did have Open Office on my last computer. I found it to be pretty good, although it did tend to take over the system [you hit a Word doc on the desktop and up comes Open Office instead of Word]. Also it doesn't do word counts and some other things that are helpful. But hey, it's free...

I'll report back if any of these things work and thanks again.

Rebecca Reid

 

[Priyanka]

Hi,

Can you share one such file? Just to find out if this problem is file
specific or an issue on your machine?

Thanks,
-Priyanka