Random white areas covering my slides!! Please help!

[Flashburn]

Okay, I've been trying to find a solution to this problem for the last few
weeks with no success. I've Googled like a madman, but found nothing that
even comes close to it.

The issue: I have a PP presentation that is displaying odd, rectangular
white areas all over the slides.

Here's a screenshot of what the white areas look like...
http://www.pbase.com/flashburn/image/98133081.jpg

Here's what the presentation SHOULD look like...
http://www.pbase.com/flashburn/image/98133080.jpg

Something to note... when I select an object that is "behind" the white
area, say like a textbox, then part of the white area will disappear, at
least until I view a different slide, then the white area fills back in again.

Example screenshot here...
http://www.pbase.com/flashburn/image/98133082.jpg

Here's a key thing to note... the problem occurs on SOME computers, but not
others, so I've been looking at possible issues with the video driver.
However, I've opened it on two identical computer models (Dell Precision
390's) with the same video card (Quadro FX 550) and the same driver version
in each. One will display the presentation fine, while the other shows the
white boxes. *pulls hair out*

The white areas do not change location or size from one "bad" computer to
another, however, so it's like there's something embedded in the PPT file
that dictates the shape/location of the white areas.

Here's what I've done to try to remedy the problem so far...

- Updated DirectX
- Turned off all video acceleration (and a few settings in between)
- Disabled DirectDraw
- Removed/reinstalled latest video drivers
- Installed/updated .NET components (1.1, 2.0, 3.0)
- Run in Safe Mode
- Opened presentation on a "good" computer and resaved the PPT file.
- Used the "Repair" function on Office 2003
- Uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2003 from scratch
- Updated Office 2003 to SP3
- ...and probably a couple other things that I can't remember at the moment.

None of those steps has made any difference and this problem is driving me
bonkers!! Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Thanks!!

- FB -

 

[Echo S]

Hardware acceleration would be my guess on this part especially:

Something to note... when I select an object that is "behind" the white
area, say like a textbox, then part of the white area will disappear, at
least until I view a different slide, then the white area fills back in
again.

But you've been down that road, it sounds like.
(http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00129.htm Just in case.)

Tell me, though...you didn't delete placeholders from your slide masters,
did you? If you did, then put them back. I fyou don't want the placeholders
on the slides, then use blank slide layouts or title only layouts or
whatever. Or make the placeholders on the masters really small and
background colored and hide them on a corner of the slide. But don't delete
them. They often turn into big white boxes when you do....

 

[Flashburn]

Thanks for the reply, Echo S.

Yes, I've tried the video acceleration trick. In fact, I've already been to
the page that you linked to, but thanks anyway.

I didn't create the original presentation, but I asked the person who last
made changes to it and he assured me that no placeholders had been deleted.
But, wouldn't that sort of thing show up on every computer? Even if that was
the problem, which I'm sure it's not, why would the deletion of placeholders
have an effect on some machines, but not others?

.... the quest continues.

- FB -

----------

 

[Pia Bork]

Can you upload the presentation to the website or sent me the presentation
(my e-mail-address is working for reply)? I would like to have a look at the
slides and the master(s).

--
Mit vielen Grüßen
Pia Bork

MVP PowerPoint Deutschland
http://www.ppt-faq.de

 

[Echo S]

If you go to View | Master | Slide Master and then Format | Master, you can
add the placeholders back. The problem ones will be the title and body text
placeholders.

I don't know if those would cause problems on all machines or not, but
that's where I'd start looking now, especially since you've already looked
so many other places.

 

[Flashburn]

I looked at the master slides and there are placeholders already there. I
tried resizing them, moving them, even deleting them, just to see what effect
it might have on the slides. Deleting them produced even larger white areas,
which would be indicative of what you said earlier about how missing
placeholders can cause white boxes.

Other than deleting them, manipulating the placeholders on the master slides
seems to have no effect on the oddball white areas that I'm having trouble
with. I tried different fill colors, transparency,.... there's actually not
that much to change that I could see.

This is truly baffling to say the least. Maybe our graphics department
should just remake the whole thing from scratch, but we're on a timeline to
present this slideshow at a meeting coming up this week and a new slideshow
from the beginning is going to take too long.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, guys... your input is appreciated. I
will continue to tinker with it.

- FB -

------

If you go to View | Master | Slide Master and then Format | Master, you can
add the placeholders back. The problem ones will be the title and body text
placeholders.

I don't know if those would cause problems on all machines or not, but
that's where I'd start looking now, especially since you've already looked
so many other places.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Thanks for the reply, Echo S.

Yes, I've tried the video acceleration trick. In fact, I've already been
to
the page that you linked to, but thanks anyway.

I didn't create the original presentation, but I asked the person who last
made changes to it and he assured me that no placeholders had been
deleted.
But, wouldn't that sort of thing show up on every computer? Even if that
was
the problem, which I'm sure it's not, why would the deletion of
placeholders
have an effect on some machines, but not others?

... the quest continues.

- FB -

 

[Sam Rothstein]

Maybe our graphics department

should just remake the whole thing from scratch, but we're on a timeline to
present this slideshow at a meeting coming up this week and a new slideshow
from the beginning is going to take too long.

I know this isn't a Powerpoint solution but if you're up against a deadline
for a one-off presentation why not just use one of the computers where it
displays correctly to perform the presentation and worry about getting it
recreated later?

I looked at the master slides and there are placeholders already there. I
tried resizing them, moving them, even deleting them, just to see what effect
it might have on the slides. Deleting them produced even larger white areas,
which would be indicative of what you said earlier about how missing
placeholders can cause white boxes.

Other than deleting them, manipulating the placeholders on the master slides
seems to have no effect on the oddball white areas that I'm having trouble
with. I tried different fill colors, transparency,.... there's actually not
that much to change that I could see.

This is truly baffling to say the least. Maybe our graphics department
should just remake the whole thing from scratch, but we're on a timeline to
present this slideshow at a meeting coming up this week and a new slideshow
from the beginning is going to take too long.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, guys... your input is appreciated. I
will continue to tinker with it.

- FB -

------

If you go to View | Master | Slide Master and then Format | Master, you can
add the placeholders back. The problem ones will be the title and body text
placeholders.

I don't know if those would cause problems on all machines or not, but
that's where I'd start looking now, especially since you've already looked
so many other places.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Thanks for the reply, Echo S.

Yes, I've tried the video acceleration trick. In fact, I've already been
to
the page that you linked to, but thanks anyway.

I didn't create the original presentation, but I asked the person who last
made changes to it and he assured me that no placeholders had been
deleted.
But, wouldn't that sort of thing show up on every computer? Even if that
was
the problem, which I'm sure it's not, why would the deletion of
placeholders
have an effect on some machines, but not others?

... the quest continues.

- FB -

----------

:

Hardware acceleration would be my guess on this part especially:

Something to note... when I select an object that is "behind" the white
area, say like a textbox, then part of the white area will disappear,
at
least until I view a different slide, then the white area fills back in
again.

But you've been down that road, it sounds like.
(http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00129.htm Just in case.)

Tell me, though...you didn't delete placeholders from your slide masters,
did you? If you did, then put them back. I fyou don't want the
placeholders
on the slides, then use blank slide layouts or title only layouts or
whatever. Or make the placeholders on the masters really small and
background colored and hide them on a corner of the slide. But don't
delete
them. They often turn into big white boxes when you do....

 

[Flashburn]

Sorry, Sam, but I forgot mention that the presentation isn't going to be
taking place here at our offices, otherwise that would be the perfect short
term solution indeed. The presentation is being sent to one of our
customers, and then they will display it to their clients, but we have no way
of knowing if the problem will appear on whichever computer(s) they choose to
show it on.

But, as it turns out, our graphics dept. decided to create a new (and
shorter) version with only a few elements from this current one and they said
they will have it ready on time.

Something I did discover that could be considered a workaround, it seems
that PowerPoint Viewer (http://tinyurl.com/6b6g5) doesn't have a problem
showing the presentation correctly (no white areas), even on one of the
computers that has the problem of displaying the white areas when viewing the
PPT in PowerPoint itself. Not sure what PowerPoint Viewer is doing
differently there... but it works.

I want to publicly thank Pia Bork for personally taking some time to have a
closer look at the PPT file to try and determine the issue. Thanks again
Pia!

At this point, the main reason I would still like to figure out what caused
the issue in the first place is so I will know how to fix it if it ever shows
up in a future PowerPoint project/presentation. Other than that, I've pretty
much given up on this one partcular presentation for the time being. Maybe
it's an isolated case of unexplained file corruption or something and I'll
never see it again. *crosses fingers*

Thanks again to everyone who posted here!

-- FB --

 

[Flashburn]

Hey all... I figured this one out... accidentally. (As many things are
figured out...)

Apparently, it was all due to a missing font. Check out the situation...

Two computers in the graphics department. One of them displays the
presentation with the white areas, and the other doesn't. (Shows the slides
perfectly.)

The user with the "bad" computer needs a font for a project, so he asks the
user of the "good" computer for the font. They compare notes and discover
that there are several fonts that each would like to have from the other.
They decide to combine their respective font collections into a single pool
and then install the total number of fonts on each computer so that they
match.

Then, the user of the "bad" computer opens the problem PPT file... and
BINGO!... all slides look perfectly NORMAL!

I tested this by installing all of his fonts on another test computer that
was having the problem with the white areas on the slides,... lo and behold,
as soon as all the fonts were installed, the presentation looked fine. No
odd white areas could be seen anywhere!

Of course, now I'd like to know WHY a missing font would cause such strange
behavior... but maybe I've already asked too many questions and should just
take it for what it is.

-- FB --

 

[Lucy Thomson]

Hi

Well done for figuring it out!!!! And thanks so much for coming back and
sharing - I'm sure this little nugget will help others in the future
Missing fonts are known to cause display issues, but I've not heard of this
one before. Does the problem occur if the font is embedded and displayed on
a computer without the font? For more info on embedding fonts see here:
Embedding fonts
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00076.htm

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

Hey all... I figured this one out... accidentally. (As many things are
figured out...)

Apparently, it was all due to a missing font. Check out the situation...

Two computers in the graphics department. One of them displays the
presentation with the white areas, and the other doesn't. (Shows the
slides
perfectly.)

The user with the "bad" computer needs a font for a project, so he asks
the
user of the "good" computer for the font. They compare notes and discover
that there are several fonts that each would like to have from the other.
They decide to combine their respective font collections into a single
pool
and then install the total number of fonts on each computer so that they
match.

Then, the user of the "bad" computer opens the problem PPT file... and
BINGO!... all slides look perfectly NORMAL!

I tested this by installing all of his fonts on another test computer that
was having the problem with the white areas on the slides,... lo and
behold,
as soon as all the fonts were installed, the presentation looked fine. No
odd white areas could be seen anywhere!

Of course, now I'd like to know WHY a missing font would cause such
strange
behavior... but maybe I've already asked too many questions and should
just
take it for what it is.

-- FB --

 

[Echo S]

Wow, how bizarre. Were the white areas WordArt?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Hey all... I figured this one out... accidentally. (As many things are
figured out...)

Apparently, it was all due to a missing font. Check out the situation...

Two computers in the graphics department. One of them displays the
presentation with the white areas, and the other doesn't. (Shows the
slides
perfectly.)

The user with the "bad" computer needs a font for a project, so he asks
the
user of the "good" computer for the font. They compare notes and discover
that there are several fonts that each would like to have from the other.
They decide to combine their respective font collections into a single
pool
and then install the total number of fonts on each computer so that they
match.

Then, the user of the "bad" computer opens the problem PPT file... and
BINGO!... all slides look perfectly NORMAL!

I tested this by installing all of his fonts on another test computer that
was having the problem with the white areas on the slides,... lo and
behold,
as soon as all the fonts were installed, the presentation looked fine. No
odd white areas could be seen anywhere!

Of course, now I'd like to know WHY a missing font would cause such
strange
behavior... but maybe I've already asked too many questions and should
just
take it for what it is.

-- FB --

 

[Flashburn]

Thanks for that link, Lucy. I wasn't aware that embedding a font could be
so involved. Definately good to know for the future!

In the presentation, I went to the document properties page and there are
several fonts listed as being used, but does that mean they are embedded?
How can I tell?

One of them is an Asian character font that doesn't actually appear anywhere
in the presentation. (Although it probably did at one time because I found
out that the presentation was originally created by someone at our Shanghai,
China offices.) It would make sense that the Asian font could have been the
culprit because not every computer in our U.S. office has that font
installed, which might explain why the PPT looked okay on some computers, but
not others. Of course, the name of the font itself is actually in Asian
characters, so I don't know what it's called.

As for your question, Echo S., no I don't believe there was any WordArt
involved. But I'm no PowerPoint guru, so who knows.


-- FB --

 

[Flashburn]

Oops, sorry Echo... I replied to the previous post by accident, but no, I
don't think there was any WordArt in the presentation.

-- FB --

Wow, how bizarre. Were the white areas WordArt?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://tinyurl.com/36grcd
PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit http://tinyurl.com/32a7nx

Hey all... I figured this one out... accidentally. (As many things are
figured out...)

Apparently, it was all due to a missing font. Check out the situation...

Two computers in the graphics department. One of them displays the
presentation with the white areas, and the other doesn't. (Shows the
slides
perfectly.)

The user with the "bad" computer needs a font for a project, so he asks
the
user of the "good" computer for the font. They compare notes and discover
that there are several fonts that each would like to have from the other.
They decide to combine their respective font collections into a single
pool
and then install the total number of fonts on each computer so that they
match.

Then, the user of the "bad" computer opens the problem PPT file... and
BINGO!... all slides look perfectly NORMAL!

I tested this by installing all of his fonts on another test computer that
was having the problem with the white areas on the slides,... lo and
behold,
as soon as all the fonts were installed, the presentation looked fine. No
odd white areas could be seen anywhere!

Of course, now I'd like to know WHY a missing font would cause such
strange
behavior... but maybe I've already asked too many questions and should
just
take it for what it is.

-- FB --

 

[Lucy Thomson]

Hi

You're using 2003 right? To see if the fonts are embedded go to Tools ->
options -> save and see if 'embed fonts' is selected. If not, go to
format -> replace fonts and see if any of the fonts have a question mark
next to them - if they do they are fonts that are not on the current
computer (powerpoint will replace them with times new roman or arial
depending on if they are serif or sans serif fonts) but were used in the
creation of the presentation. Replace fonts that are missing with something
else and see what happens - I usually do this on a copy of the presentation
as it can produce some wild results

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

Thanks for that link, Lucy. I wasn't aware that embedding a font could be
so involved. Definately good to know for the future!

In the presentation, I went to the document properties page and there are
several fonts listed as being used, but does that mean they are embedded?
How can I tell?

One of them is an Asian character font that doesn't actually appear
anywhere
in the presentation. (Although it probably did at one time because I
found
out that the presentation was originally created by someone at our
Shanghai,
China offices.) It would make sense that the Asian font could have been
the
culprit because not every computer in our U.S. office has that font
installed, which might explain why the PPT looked okay on some computers,
but
not others. Of course, the name of the font itself is actually in Asian
characters, so I don't know what it's called.

As for your question, Echo S., no I don't believe there was any WordArt
involved. But I'm no PowerPoint guru, so who knows.


-- FB --

 

[Pia Bork]

It would make sense that
the Asian font could have been the culprit because not every computer
in our U.S. office has that font installed, which might explain why
the PPT looked okay on some computers, but not others.

in that case I should have seen a lot of white rectangles... I have no Asian
fonts on my computer and for me the presentation looked fine. I opened the
presentation on several computers and none had a problem with it.

I guess that the Asian font was used in the beginning when creating the
template or the first slides. You can still see the font on the master.

--
Mit vielen Grüßen
Pia Bork

MVP PowerPoint
http://www.ppt-faq.de

 

[Flashburn]

Thanks for the info, Lucy. I followed your instructions and there was one
font that had a question mark next to it... it was the Asian font (Taiwanese,
to be specific) called "PMingLiU". (It's a font collection with the filename
MingLiU.TTF).

When I replaced that font with Arial Unicode MS, all the white boxes
disappeared right before my eyes.

So, I guess that proves it. If ever I see such white areas again in a
future PowerPoint file, I'll know where to look first.

Thank you!!

-- FB --

 

[Flashburn]

Well, that does make sense, Pia, but at Lucy's suggestion (see reply to
previous post) I checked the document for any fonts (Format>Replace Fonts)
that had any question marks next to them, and the only one that did was the
Asian font called MingLiU.TTF, and when I replaced it with Arial Unicode MS,
the white areas disappeared!

I wouldn't know how else to explain that. If you don't have MingLiU.ttf in
your fonts folder, that would be really strange indeed. (May also be listed
as PMingLiU.ttf).


-- FB --

 

[Lucy Thomson]

Yay! Really glad to hear it's all sorted and we got to the bottom of it. And
now we all know

Lucy

 

[Pia Bork]

I wouldn't know how else to explain that. If you don't have
MingLiU.ttf in your fonts folder, that would be really strange
indeed. (May also be listed as PMingLiU.ttf).

None of them. I don't think that I have any Asian font.

--
Mit vielen Grüßen
Pia Bork

MVP PowerPoint
http://www.ppt-faq.de