Problems opening Power Point Presentations

[John]

I do Power Point presentatins. I usuallky create them on my Mac or
Windows 98 machine and save to a floppy, and then present them on a
Windows 2000 presentation machine at my university. (Unfortunately I do
not have a burner, nor a USB flash drive. But floppies work okay for
text and small graphics, and my presentations are not multimedia
dependent, so floppies work okay on both my machines). I usually test
the presentations on my PC and Mac and they both open up quite fast from
the floppy.

Test results

Mac using Power Point 98- 10 seconds for a 10 page slide using 7 graphics
Windows 98 PC laptop using Power Point 97- A little faster
-------
Windows 2000 presentation machine using PowerPoint XP- Estimated 20
seconds

This is odd since my PC is only a PII 266mhz, and my mac a G3 300mhz,
and they open up the presentations in no time from the floppy.
The presentation machines have much more RAM and are using a much faster
CPU.

Could this be because my PC is using Power Point 97 and I believe the
Windows 2000 machine is using Power Point XP? Perhaps the files are
being converted. Or is it because the floppy that I use on my Mac is 4X
and the one in my PC laptop is about the same speed? Perhaps newer PC's
are not getting the fastest floppy drives.



John

 

[TAJ Simmons]

John,

This is not an answer to your question... just a tip.

Opening a presentation in powerpoint directly from a floppy disk is not advised. It can lead to corruption of your
presentation file.

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com

 

[Echo S]

Unfortunately floppies are my only option. But perhaps I could copy the
presentation to the hard drive of the presentation computers and run it
from there.

Yes, that would be the safest route. Working from removable media is one
sure way to end up with corrupt files.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011168771033.aspx for other
tips to prevent file corruption.

Anmswer this. Why is it that my Mac seems to open the Power Point files
twice as fast when my Mac is only 300 mhz?

Well, that's a tough one. I'd be inclined to suspect your antivirus
software. It might be scanning the file (on the PC) before opening it.

 

[John]

Yes, that would be the safest route. Working from removable media is one
sure way to end up with corrupt files.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011168771033.aspx for other
tips to prevent file corruption.

Many students who do not have burners or USB also are using floppies for
their presentations and teaching duties. With some people the floppies
seem to rock and roll, while others (like mine) it does not. Perhaps
the others are using computers with later versions of Windows and
PowerPoint, or perhaps are using better disks.

Well, that's a tough one. I'd be inclined to suspect your antivirus
software. It might be scanning the file (on the PC) before opening it.

Its doing the same thing on the Mac. NAV is installed on every machine.

 

[Adam Crowley]

Many students who do not have burners or USB also are using floppies for
their presentations and teaching duties. With some people the floppies
seem to rock and roll, while others (like mine) it does not. Perhaps
the others are using computers with later versions of Windows and
PowerPoint, or perhaps are using better disks.

I think what's being suggested is that you copy to hard disk first and run
the show from there, rather than that you avoid floppy disk as a transfer
media if it's the only option. There are many reasons why it's dangerous or
unadvisable to work on a file opened direct from the floppy (and the details
are on that link that Echo supplied although I can't see her message for
some reason...)