PowerPoint 2007 SP1 Embedded word object

[James]

Embedded word tables are resizing – is there any way to retain a fixed
embedded object size and keep it scaled to 100%? We dont see the same
behaviour with PowerPoint 2003.

 

[Echo S]

How are you embedding the Word table?

What size is it resizing to?

 

[James]

The word table is embedded as an word 2007 object, when you open the object
to edit it and then save it resizes itself and moves around the slide.

I have reproduced this on 4 different machines, 1 running vanilla office, 2
running with SP1 and last running with hotfix 941658.

The following steps reproduce the problem:

1) On new slide insert object > word 2007 document
2) Right click on word object > document open > open
3) Change margin to normal, change orientation to landscape & change page
size to A4
4) Inset 7x2 table
5) Close & return to presentation
6) User drawing guide lines to each end of the table to show where the table
ends
7) Right click on word object > document open > open
8) Check margin is normal, orientation is landscape & page size is A4
9) Write some test words into some of the table cells
10) Close & return to presentation
11) Table will move and object is getting bigger
12) Repeat step 7 to 11

Any ideas?

 

[Echo S]

Thanks for the steps -- lemme see if I can repro and get back...

 

[Echo S]

Wow, in my case, it actually shrunk to 75% and moved to the middle of the
slide. I'm sure this is because I typed enough text that it dropped to a
second line in some of the cells in Word.

I think it's got to do with the text fitting in the cells -- PPT tries to
still show the whole thing on one row, and in order to be able to do this,
it either shrinks or enlarges as (it thinks) appropriate. Actually, I always
struggled with Word 2003 tables resizing in a similar manner in PPT 2003, so
it may just be an old OLE issue that's still cropping up. (When you insert
objects like this, you're creating what are known as OLE -- object linking
and embedding -- objects.)

I'm not sure if this is a bug or "by design," but regardless, it sure is
annoying. You can right-click and choose Format Object and resize to 100%
size on the size tab. I know that's not ideal, but it's the only thing I can
think of right now.

 

[James]

Thanks for taking a look. We have found that it doesn't matter what you do
to the word object, page or table the same thing keeps happening. We have
turned off the cell text wrapping, table auto-sizing etc to find what is
causing the problem.

I think its a bug for several reasons:

1) If you do the same in Powerpoint 2003 it behaves correctly.
2) If you fill the table cells with words that do not cause any wrapping at
all the problem occurs.
3) You can not make any changes at all, just the act of opening the word
object and closing it again can cause it to move/resize.
4) The page size keeps changing.
5) The object size changes.

What is the next step for getting help on this?

 

[Echo S]

Well, I don't know that there really *is* any help on this one, but you
might want to call Microsoft product support. They may be aware of the
problems and be able to help you sort them out.

I'll report the issues you're seeing as well.

What do you mean by this, though?

4) The page size keeps changing.

The PPT slide size? Or the actual page size of the embedded Word object? If
the latter, then it changes from A4 to what?

 

[James]

Well, I don't know that there really *is* any help on this one, but you

might want to call Microsoft product support. They may be aware of the
problems and be able to help you sort them out.

I'll report the issues you're seeing as well.

What do you mean by this, though?


The PPT slide size? Or the actual page size of the embedded Word object? If
the latter, then it changes from A4 to what?

We find that the page size of the embedded word object can sometimes change
from A4 to custom... I think its caused by/or is the cause of the object size
change.
I'll get in touch with product support and see if they have any ideas.
Thanks again for your help.