ppt crashes...should I just get a PC version?

[clairefrances]

I am having a problem where ppt is locking up 9 out of 10 times that I
try to change a background image on a slide. The images are not huge
(e.g., 184k jpg). I've tried trashing the .plist as well as all of the
powerpoint-specific files in preferences/microsoft. That will
sometimes allow me to change one more background, but the next time it
crashes I have to trash the prefs all over again.

I'm using powerpoint x for mac, service release 1, on a macbook pro
running 10.4.11.

I'm also going to be adding a bunch of .avi videos to this, and it's
ultimately going to be run on a PC with Vista running Powerpoint
2007...seriously, folks, should I just run out and by a copy of
Powerpoint 2007 to run either on Parallels or on my tiny netbook, and
forget even trying to get Powerpoint to work on the Mac, much less
export smoothly to a PC? My client has a big presentation coming up
next week and I need this to work!

 

[David Marcovitz]

I am having a problem where ppt is locking up 9 out of 10 times that I
try to change a background image on a slide. The images are not huge
(e.g., 184k jpg). I've tried trashing the .plist as well as all of the
powerpoint-specific files in preferences/microsoft. That will
sometimes allow me to change one more background, but the next time it
crashes I have to trash the prefs all over again.

I'm using powerpoint x for mac, service release 1, on a macbook pro
running 10.4.11.

I'm also going to be adding a bunch of .avi videos to this, and it's
ultimately going to be run on a PC with Vista running Powerpoint
2007...seriously, folks, should I just run out and by a copy of
Powerpoint 2007 to run either on Parallels or on my tiny netbook, and
forget even trying to get Powerpoint to work on the Mac, much less
export smoothly to a PC? My client has a big presentation coming up
next week and I need this to work!

Your crashing problems are separate from your Mac-PC problems. The behavior
you describe is not normal. PowerPoint X is pretty old. You might want to
try a more recent version of PowerPoint for the Mac (2004 or 2008). However,
if the goal is to get these to run on Windows, I would say you would be best
creating them with Windows. This is particularly true because you are going
to be inserting videos, and the Windows and Mac versions treat videos very
differently. As far as I know, the Windows version is not any more or less
stable than the Mac version, but the Windows version is much more compatible
with the Windows version for what you are trying to do

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland

 

[CyberTaz]

Additional to David's comments pertaining to the antiquity of Office v.X
, "SP1" (10.1.0) makes it even further out of date. The latest [and last]
update to be furnished for that version of Mac Office is 10.1.9, so if you
intend to have it perform at all well in a version of OS X which is 4 or
more generations removed from what the software was intended to be used
with, updating is an absolute necessity:

<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=FEA9FD8A-EA16-4B3C
-9381-18A389D5599A&displaylang=en>

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac