PowerPoint 2007 won't open files from PowerPoint 97

[Balroc]

I'm trying to review some presentations from a program I managed 10 years
ago. They were created in PowerPoint 97 (I think, possible one release
earlier) and I can't open them. Yet, in Vista I do see the thumbnail of the
first page when I examine the files. I'd say 50% of the files I have open,
the rest I get an error:

PowerPoint can't open the type of file represented by <path/filename>.ppt

Any ideas on how to fix this? If they are from a version earlier that PP
97 - can I convert them?

 

[Echo S]

If they're from the version earlier than PPT 97, then they're from PPT 95.
PPT 95 used a different file format, and I don't think PPT 2007 will open
that format. So this could indeed be the problem.

PPT 97, 2000, 2002 (aka PPT XP) and 2003 will all open PPT 95 files. So you
need to find one of those versions, then open the file and save it as
PowerPoint Presentation *.PPT -- which saves them as the 97-2003 format,
which PPT 2007 can open.

In PPT 2003, there's also an option to choose "PowerPoint 97-2003 & 95"
which saves in kind of a hybrid format that will probably open in 2007 also.
Other versions have some form of this as well -- just be on the lookout for
the "and 95" part. However, I think you'd be better off just saving the
files so they don't have that "and 95" part.