PowerPoint won't open files from thumb drives

[gordon142]

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

PowerPoint 2008 absolutely refuses to open or read any files saved on a FAT32 thumb drive. If I try to save a new file there, it simply saves it in my home folder instead, and if I try to open a file, it complains that the file is in the wrong format. The thumb drive works just fine, and every other programme can open files just fine. Any fix for this? I really need to be able to run presentations off a thumb drive.

 

[Jeff Chapman]

I have PPT 2008 running on Mac OS X Tiger, and tried creating a new
PowerPoint file, saving to an external Lexar 1 GB thumb drive that was
formatted in FAT32 format, and then reading it back into PowerPoint. No
problems.

I wonder if this is a Leopard issue?

Have you tried copying all of the thumb drive files onto your hard drive,
reformatting the thumb drive on your Mac, replacing your files and then
doing the above process again?

Jeff Chapman

 

[gordon142]

I have PPT 2008 running on Mac OS X Tiger, and tried creating a new

PowerPoint file, saving to an external Lexar 1 GB thumb drive that was
formatted in FAT32 format, and then reading it back into PowerPoint. No
problems.

I wonder if this is a Leopard issue?

Have you tried copying all of the thumb drive files onto your hard drive,
reformatting the thumb drive on your Mac, replacing your files and then
doing the above process again?

Jeff Chapman

Yeah, I have reformatted the drive. It had no effect.

 

[Jeff Chapman]

Yeah - I tried saving a new .pptx file to two different USB thumb drives,
closing PowerPoint 2008 and then reopening the file. I couldn't reproduce
your problem, unfortunately. One was a FAT16/MS-DOS drive (512MB); the other
was a FAT32/MS-DOS drive (1GB).

You wrote that "If I try to save a new file there, it simply saves it in my
home folder instead" - this seems like an important clue to what's going on.
Do you have any other USB or Firewire devices you can try saving to, to see
if the problem persists?

Aside from the newsgroups and knowledgebase online, this kind of thing makes
me wonder what sort of direct support Microsoft offers for PowerPoint users.
Checking out the support.microsoft.com site, it looks like they will support
you with one free phone request and one free e-mail request. Personally, I
think it's pretty paltry... but if you can't find your answer through
newsgroups, the online knowledgebase or Google, it might be worth it to bug
Microsoft support about it. All I can say is that the problem doesn't occur
on my end - but then again, I'm running Tiger, not Leopard, which may make
some kind of difference.

Jeff

 

[gordon142]

Yeah - I tried saving a new .pptx file to two different USB thumb drives,

closing PowerPoint 2008 and then reopening the file. I couldn't reproduce
your problem, unfortunately. One was a FAT16/MS-DOS drive (512MB); the other
was a FAT32/MS-DOS drive (1GB).

You wrote that "If I try to save a new file there, it simply saves it in my
home folder instead" - this seems like an important clue to what's going on.
Do you have any other USB or Firewire devices you can try saving to, to see
if the problem persists?

Aside from the newsgroups and knowledgebase online, this kind of thing makes
me wonder what sort of direct support Microsoft offers for PowerPoint users.
Checking out the support.microsoft.com site, it looks like they will support
you with one free phone request and one free e-mail request. Personally, I
think it's pretty paltry... but if you can't find your answer through
newsgroups, the online knowledgebase or Google, it might be worth it to bug
Microsoft support about it. All I can say is that the problem doesn't occur
on my end - but then again, I'm running Tiger, not Leopard, which may make
some kind of difference.

I have also tried it on two different thumb drives, with identical results. Works fine with HFS+ (don't know about NTFS), but not FAT32. maybe it is a bug with PowerPoint 08 and Leopard…

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Gordon,

How big is your powerpoint file?

Try creating a new small presentation directly on the drive - does that
work?


see
How to prevent PowerPoint file corruption
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA011168771033.aspx


cheers
TAJ Simmons
Microsoft Powerpoint MVP

http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com
awesome - powerpoint templates,
powerpoint backgrounds, free samples, ppt tutorials...

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Gordon,

How big is your powerpoint file?

Try creating a new small presentation directly on the drive - does that
work?

Also - be aware that file names on FAT32 are restricted. Make sure you
use a short file name with no special characters to be on the safe side.
Don't put the file several folders deep. Keep it at or near the top of
the drive's directory.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[gordon142]

As I mentioned early, I cannot save any PowerPoint files to the drive at all, regardless of their size, complexity, or name. Even if I create a blank presentation in PowerPoint and try to save it to the drive with the name "file.ppt", it will not save there and will instead be saved in my home folder.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Folks -

I wish I had a solution but perhaps some additional results will help narrow
the field of possibilities.

On a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.0, PPT 12.0.1 I had no trouble saving to
or opening from a 2 GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro formatted as FAT 16 - new files
as well as Save As of pre-existing files. This was also regardless of file
format (.ppt/.pptx) although the largest file was only 100K.

Added to the other info gathered it suggests that it isn't an inherent flaw
in PPT 2008 or Leopard 10.5.0 or FAT format in general. Further, even though
Gordon is reporting the problem only with PPT I don't see it as being
attributable to the program - apps simply call the Save services just like
print services & hand the data off to the OS to be written to the media.

I'm wondering if this is yet another broken aspect of 10.5.*2* - if that's
what Gordon's using (if the specific version was indicated in any of his
posts I missed it - only saw 10.5 indicated in the op.) I also don't think
it's been clarified as to whether he has the 12.0.1 update applied to
Office - it may not make a difference but there must be *something* causing
him to have the problem.

Wish I could offer more:-( If anything else occurs to me I'll chime back in.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

As I mentioned early, I cannot save any PowerPoint files to the drive at all, regardless of their size, complexity, or name. Even if I create a blank presentation in PowerPoint and try to save it to the drive with the name "file.ppt", it will not save there and will instead be saved in my home folder.

My first suspicion is that there is a permission locking you out of the
thumb drive.

Why not try this? Copy the existing files to your hard drive, reformat
the thumb drive, and try again.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9