Opening Office XP ppt files

[dsamuelis]

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

On opening .ppt files, created with Office XP, with Powerpoint 2008, the file modification time stamp of that particular presentation is reset to the current date. This happens even if no changes to the presentation are made. For me, this is very annoying, as it breaks our in-house backup and also my file synchronization software. Is there a way to restrict PPT2008 to resetting the modification time stamp only in these cases, when modifications actually occured ?

 

[CyberTaz]

Just because the user doesn't make the change doesn't mean that *no* changes
are taking place. One obvious example: if the Footer of the slides includes
a Date set to Update Automatically, that constitutes a modification each
time the file is opened. IOW, 'modified' is not the equivalent of 'edited'
or 'revised'. I don't know of any way to prevent that.

 

[Dominik Samuelis]

Just because the user doesn't make the change doesn't mean that *no* changes
are taking place. One obvious example: if the Footer of the slides includes
a Date set to Update Automatically, that constitutes a modification each
time the file is opened. IOW, 'modified' is not the equivalent of 'edited'
or 'revised'. I don't know of any way to prevent that.

Bob,

that's true, of course. But in this case, standard behavior of MS
software on closing the app was to ask the user, if he wants to save or
discard changes. On clicking "discard", the file remained unchanged, and
so did the modification time stamp. However, ppt2008 modifies the file
without user's consent. That's the case for all presentations created
with Powerpoint XP and below.

Now, that wouldn't be bad at all, if the modification time stamp
wouldn't be the standard "file was modified" indicator for all backup
and version control software. And I certainly don't want to have a new
revision number on my presentation every time I just open the file. Not
to mention the implications on backup software. If the last 5 versions
of a file are retained in the backup, just opening the presentation only
4 times flushes all previous versions from the backup. That's very annoying.

cheers,
dominik

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Dominik -

Based on your further description I can understand your concern. It appears
that PPt 2008 only does this on files that *aren't* .pptx format, so it must
have something to do with an internal adjustment or markers being set within
the file. Can you look a little closer for the following:

Does this happen only the *first* time 2008 opens a .ppt or does the Mod.
Date change *every* time 2008 opens that same file on a different date? (I'd
check it myself but don't have the right files available right now.) If only
the first time it should be less of a problem for you since the change would
only happen once per file, but if it happens every time the file is opened
I'd classify it as a bug.

If you find the latter to be the case, please use Help> Send Feedback to
provide a complete description to MS. Post back here as well & I'll bug it
from this end.

 

[Dominik Samuelis]

Hi Bob,

Does this happen only the *first* time 2008 opens a .ppt or does the Mod.
Date change *every* time 2008 opens that same file on a different date? (I'd
check it myself but don't have the right files available right now.) If only
the first time it should be less of a problem for you since the change would
only happen once per file, but if it happens every time the file is opened
I'd classify it as a bug.

This happens every time I open the presentation. I don't know if
attachments are acceptable in this group, so I've uploaded a sample .ppt
file for further testing to http://pc1.pc.rwth-aachen.de/~ds/test.ppt

BTW, even "Save as" to a new file name doesn't resolve this issue, as
long as the file format is still set to "Powerpoint 97-2004".

A little further analysis on the test.ppt file: just opening with
PowerPoint 2008 changes the file size from 8kb to 12kb and vice versa.
There definitly are changes made to the file during opening. This also
indicates there's a bug...

I've already sent feedback to MS back then when I also posted this issue
to the group (22 March, 10:18 CET). To be honest, I was a little bugged
by the "I understand that I will not be contacted in response to my
feedback" box, and that's why I finally posted this issue here.

I really appreciate your help ! Thanks in advance !

Cheers,
dominik