Powerpoint compatibility

[Thesizzler]

Hello, can anyone tell me if Mac PP 2004 will work on Powerpoint 2003
for PC ? If not out of the box, is there a fix for this.

Thanks for the help.


-Mike

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

The best answer to this question can be found at:

PC to Mac and Back
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00281.htm

It depends on what you mean by "will work." Basically it will work. You
should be sure that the 2003 version has been updated to include Service
Pack 1 (without SP1, 2003 often has trouble opening presentations from
other versions). One of the big problems I see is if images were inserted
into PowerPoint by copying and pasting rather than Insert > Picture >
From File. The former method uses Mac-only compression and makes the
pictures not show up on the PC. The latter method should resolve that.

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

One of the big problems I see is if images were inserted
into PowerPoint by copying and pasting rather than Insert > Picture >
From File. The former method uses Mac-only compression and makes the
pictures not show up on the PC. The latter method should resolve that.

Same risk of incompatibility if you insert QuickTime movies (the PC
won't read them).

Corentin

 

[Matt]

Hi David

Recently I created a presentation on a PC using MS Office 2000. Later I
edited the presentation at home using MS Office for Mac 2004.
Thereafter the presentation opened without any problem on my PC but
when I send it to colleagues running MS Office 2003 they are unable to
open it! It strikes me as odd that newer versions of PowerPoint are
less compatible with each other than they are with earlier versions. Is
there a short answer for this?

Kind regards

 

[Natobasso]

Yes. Usually when a software is updated new features are added whic
make the later files harder to open for older versions of the program
This is common with a lot of software, especially in graphic design
You just don't find a lot of forward compatibility and the reason i
that upgrades make companies money

Can you save your files as an earlier version of PowerPoint

--
Natobass

flikworld(dot)co
bass 20 years. macs 20 years
imac g4 17\" | powerbook g3 (pismo

 

[Natobasso]

By the way, PowerPoint is NOT a graphic design program. I was ju
referring to the fact that in my industry of graphic design, th
programs in use have this same quality of a lack of forwar
compatibility. :

--
Natobass

flikworld(dot)co
bass 20 years. macs 20 years
imac g4 17\" | powerbook g3 (pismo

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi David,

Yes, there is a short answer. Install the service pack for Office 2003
on the Windows computer.

-Jim

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi David

Recently I created a presentation on a PC using MS Office 2000. Later I
edited the presentation at home using MS Office for Mac 2004.
Thereafter the presentation opened without any problem on my PC but
when I send it to colleagues running MS Office 2003 they are unable to
open it! It strikes me as odd that newer versions of PowerPoint are
less compatible with each other than they are with earlier versions. Is
there a short answer for this?

Maybe ... have them do Help, Check for Updates and apply SP1 if they haven't
already. PPT2003 won't open at least some files from several other PPT
versions until that's been done.

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

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Yes. Usually when a software is updated new features are added which
make the later files harder to open for older versions of the program.
This is common with a lot of software, especially in graphic design.
You just don't find a lot of forward compatibility and the reason is
that upgrades make companies money.

Can you save your files as an earlier version of PowerPoint?

Not a good idea in this case, though that's usually the way forward with other
software. PowerPoint uses the same file format for all versions from 97 (Win)
and 98 (Mac) on. The only earlier version you might save to is 95 (Win) or 4
(Mac); since neither supports compression, the files bloat horribly when you
back save; let's not even talk about the loss of features when saving to 10
year old versions of the software! ;-)

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

 

[Matt]

Thanks for all the helpful advice, everyone. I have asked my colleagues
to download the update and will keep you posted.

Matt

 

[Matt]

Thanks again, problem solved.

 

[Matt]

Thanks again, problem solved.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Great! Thanks for letting us know.

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