PowerPoint Link to Web Page yields random failure

[wbhickok]

We used HTML links to web pages successfully in the past but at the
moment we're running 50% failure or more, same sites, same buttons,
same OS, apps and machines. The failure shows as a PPT pop up window
that says unable to download, with an OK button. About half the time,
closing that window and re-clicking the HTML button on the screen show
works. We're using 10.3.2 on aluminum G4s and Safari with Office X SR
1. Thanks

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

We used HTML links to web pages successfully in the past but at the

moment we're running 50% failure or more, same sites, same buttons,
same OS, apps and machines. The failure shows as a PPT pop up window
that says unable to download, with an OK button. About half the time,
closing that window and re-clicking the HTML button on the screen show
works. We're using 10.3.2 on aluminum G4s and Safari with Office X SR

FWIW, I'm noticing a fair number of sites that take forever to load and may
time out and give me an error page; a reload generall fixes it. I wonder if
some ISPs are just getting badly whacked by all this virus email traffic making
the rounds of late.

 

[wbhickok]

FWIW, I'm noticing a fair number of sites that take forever to load and may
time out and give me an error page; a reload generall fixes it. I wonder if
some ISPs are just getting badly whacked by all this virus email traffic making
the rounds of late.

No, the failure notification is from within PowerPoint and is
instantaneous. Also, I've had the chance to confirm now that it
happens with IE set as the browser, so it is not Safari=specific.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

No, the failure notification is from within PowerPoint and is
instantaneous. Also, I've had the chance to confirm now that it
happens with IE set as the browser, so it is not Safari=specific.

Very odd. I can't say that I've got any constructive suggestions, then ...
The problem's consistent across several computers and several presentations, I take it?

 

[wbhickok]

We've tried it with at least two different presentations, on two
different machines. The machines are identical in terms of hardware
and operating system and directly relevant software. The presentations
ranged from an extremely simple one-pager to fairly complex.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Can you replicate this in a small presentation with just a few slides?
If so, I'd like to have a look - email to steve at-sign steve rindsberg dot com (make the usual
punctuation revisions, remove spaces, voila, a real email address.)

 

[wbhickok]

Yes. I can replicate on a single slide and am sending it over to you. Thanks

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

For anyone who's following this, I've gotten a simplified version of the file in
question and get the same error: "PowerPoint cannot download the information you
requested" and have replicated the problem in PPT X, OSX with a link to the root
domain of my own site; that is, a url like http://www.MyDomain.com/

There's nothing wrong with either URL, both test fine in Safari, MSIE and in Windows
PPT 2000.

The problem appears to be in PPT X.

One workaround is to use a *full* URL that includes the name of the file that the web
server will supply when a user plugs in just the domain name: ie,
http://www.MyDomain.com/index.html

This seems to work.